Hi Sweetie!
Slept a bit late this morning, after being woke up in the middle of the night by Lola charging out the door after some critter. I guess I didn't close it all the way. She had a nice little walkabout while I waited for her to return and she finally did. She definitely needs some exercise, so after breakfast and some chores, I saddled up Flash and we hit the trails. I planned a route that would let us do almost a full perimeter, except one trail that went right by the road which I decided to avoid for Lola's sake. We had to do one section twice just to get over six miles! I don't know if it was because of all the riding Flash and I have been doing, or if it's because he had a day of rest, or because it was a little cooler (though the humidity is still pretty high), or if it's the fact that I've been transitioning them over to alfalfa, but he was full of P&V today! We walked a little bit at first, but then he asked for permission to go faster (granted) and proceed to start gaiting at quite a nice pace, and he kept at it almost non-stop the rest of the trip. My GPS was recording some of his splits upwards of 7+ miles an hour! Under those conditions, of course, it didn't take us long to cover practically the whole park in no time! Sweetie, this would have been the perfect place for you to ride, mostly level, lots of woods, very easy going, and just the right length of trails for you. Definitely missed you today! Anyway, we got back in short order, sprayed everyone down again (the horseflies are really bad here right now), then started my third load of laundry since I got here, changed clothes, and headed out to do some shopping. South Bend is only about 15 minutes away, so it's very convenient. I went to Kohls to get some new undershorts to replace the old girdles I've pretty much worn out (not surprising, I've had them since the 1970's!), but they're perfect for long distance riding (I discovered the padded bicycle shorts don't work, too much rubbing in all the wrong places! Yeah, I know, TMI!) Then I went to Joann's Fabrics and bought three yards of tan velcro. I've decided rather than trash this mostly good screen room, I'd go ahead and put velcro on the door for now, so I can get a few more seasons out of it. Seems like such a waste to junk it when I can fix it with $12 of velcro and an hour or less of sewing. When it does wear out, I can bring out my other, brand spanking new one in a couple of years as a replacement. That's one of tomorrow's jobs, along with repairing a hose and a few other things. Then I went to Walmart for a little regular shopping, got my hair cut (long overdue!), filled up with diesel at $2.08/gallon and was back in camp in no time. Some potato soup for dinner (in honor of Potato Creek, of course!), and now I'm settling down for the evening. Love you, darling! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
Today was my last chance to finish up all the trails here, and now that Flash was fit, we headed out right after breakfast. There's essentially two main trails here, but they often merge, have connectors, and occasionally have another loop go off them, and I've already covered pretty much all of them except the ones in the very northern part of the park, so that's where we headed. If you like trails that are a combination of woods and fields, you'd like this place. It was a bit too open for my taste, with many trails essentially just skirting fields, and in the case of one loop, around an entire cornfield, and it was quite hot today, so it was a lot of sun. There are a few scenic loops, but we've done all those already, so this was more like just a ride around a farm with an occasional lake view. Flash was good, though, we had a lot of nice canters and fast gaiting, and Lola just loved running along side and behind. We only ran into one large group, and Lola still managed to go way off into the woods to pass them and catch up. She really is a brilliant dog. I also stopped at Bozarth's Camp Store, which is apparently an iconic destination here, just to see what it looked like. They had a lot of fishing and camp supplies and a grill serving classic junk food, so I passed on food. I was saving myself for some incredible cantaloupe I had bought the other day, with some cottage cheese and a few black cherries one of the Rosebud ladies brought me last week, delicious! I also had bought some lovely smoked salmon and noshed on that a bit later. Not surprisingly, the loud generator was going full blast when I got back, and I don't think there was even anyone in their camp! I gave Flash and Lola both a bath, took my shower early, and had to put the generator on for a lot longer today to run the AC, it's a very hot day, and not going to drop much tonight. OMG, they just turned their generator off, and it's only 10:18! Must have had a busy day and they're going to be early. They've had their radio blasting country music for hours, so I haven't been able to spend much time in the screen room, just too noisy. I swear, I hate weekends in parks, give me a nice quiet weekday any day! But I got all the trails GPS'd except one connector trail I just couldn't fit in easily enough at the far north end. It was a nice 4-plus hour ride though, very enjoyable. Hope I can sleep in this heat! At least the next place, Potato Creek, has electric, so I'll be able to run my AC a bit more. I'm holding out on doing any more laundry until I get there, too. Well, I'm going to bed and leaving the little fan on tonight, at least until the batteries give out or it finally cools down enough. Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Another good night sleep, thank goodness! I spent most of the morning working on the computer, submitted my Equity Proposal, though they emailed back that I would have to develop a Covid 19 safety plan before it would be considered. This is getting truly nuts. I'm hoping I can convince them of my plan, but we'll see. I took a short ride on Apollo just to map out a couple of short sections of trail near camp that I'd missed before, but he got gimpy in a hurry, so we came back before we even did three miles, though that did cover all the trails I wanted to cover. Great, now I have two limpy horses! I looked at his feed, but it seems his left hind ankle is a bit swollen, not sure what caused it, but I'll have to let it rest and keep an eye on it. Flash is better, his burn is healing, not sure when he'll be fit enough to ride, but it shouldn't be too long. When we got back from the ride, I fixed the screen door, Miss Lola had scratched a good hole in the last one. I got a different type this time, we'll see if that holds up any better. Grilled a nice little pork chop outside along with some more of that nice summer squash and some apple sauce, and later tried a new flavor if ice cream, pistachio almond. For some reason this Walmart doesn't have any of the nutty flavors I usually like, so the last one was banana pudding, which was okay but not my favorite, and now this new one, which was pretty good. At least it had nuts! Settled down for the evening, but it's hot and humid tonight, there's a front coming through overnight and I guess this is being pushed in front of it. Expecting a lot of rain! Also, a few of the ladies I met down at Loretta Lynn's in June are coming in for the weekend, and I'm hoping we can trailer up to the State Forest on the north side of the lake, I'm pretty bored with the trails down on the south end. Besides, I want to see if the camp is suitable for this rig, because I'm thinking I might stay there on the way back south. Since I had to pay for an annual Indiana State Horse Pass, I figured I might as well get my money's worth and stay at every Indiana camp I can! Once my job is done in Michigan in a few weeks, I still have no idea where I'm headed, I'm thinking I'll let the weather dictate that, but we'll see. Anyway, shower and bed time! Goodnight, babe! Love you!

Hey Sweetheart!
FINALLY had a great night sleep, obviously the cooler weather makes a big difference! Got up around 7:30 because Trish wanted to come up and ride with me today, (which meant I couldn't volunteer, oh well!) so I set the alarm, had breakfast, and was just getting ready to saddle both guys when she arrived. We were out by shortly after 9:00 and had a lovely 12 ½ mile ride. The only problem with this place is there are really only two trails, with a couple of connectors, and part of the time they merge together, so there's not a lot of variation, but they do have some great views of the lake along the way! I have to say, they are really laid-back here, everyone's got up electric fences, and not ONE PERSON has their horses tied to these silly hitching posts. I REST MY CASE!! The campground is just about full, but by the time I got up the rides had already started, so it was pretty empty. Some horses were already finished with their first leg by the time we got on the trail. The first time a couple of riders passed us, Flash went crazy! He was so quiet and subdued until that happened, then he turned into a different horse, prancing and jumping, wanting to go after them. Trish saw a real Jekyll and Hyde episode right there! I decided then and there that I would do the 25 mile ride tomorrow, just because Flash seems so keen on doing it. Gotta keep my horses happy, right? Anyway, we got back to camp at about 1:30, had some lunch, chatted for awhile, and then she left for home. She might decide to come up to Potato Creek to meet me when I'm there as well. You'd like her, she's a nice lady with some brains and education, just like all the rest of the great gals she introduced me to yesterday. Anyway, after she left, I went and registered, got Flash's vet check done, and he even ran along beside me, thank goodness, it was something I thought I was going to have to train him better to do, but he seems to have managed it okay. I only hope he does that after our 15 mile leg tomorrow at the vet check! Fingers crossed! Anyway, I'm settling down early tonight, not really hungry after lunch, I've already fed the horses and put together their breakfast as well so I don't have to worry about doing that in the morning. I talked to one of my neighbors to get advice on the pit stop, since that was my weak link last time, and I think I've got a better handle on it this time, we'll see. So I'm having an early night, won't be long out of bed, so I'll just, I love you! And good night!

Hey Sweetie!
Flash and I finally got our first ride in today here, a bit more than 12 miles, and we only got lost two or three times. In fairness, I somehow lost my trail map, so I was only going by the GPS trail I had set for myself, which of course, doesn't show me the alternatives, but we made it back. The trails here aren't terribly interesting, with some that go through woods, others that skirt around the edges of fields, very few hills, and most are marked "steep" which must be for the benefit of the snowmobilers that share the trails in winter, because they certainly weren't all that steep for a horse. Flash had a lot more energy today than he's had in awhile, I guess a few days off have made a difference, or maybe he was just glad to be on trails that only had a few patches of gravel. We had a couple of lovely long canters, and our average speed was better than it has been. After we got back to camp and I rinsed him down and put him and Apollo on their anchors, I did a load of laundry and hung it out to dry. A few trailers came in, and from a girl across the way, I learned there's an endurance ride here this weekend, would you believe! I'm wondering if that's a sign that I should participate. It certainly explains why there were only four sites to choose from when I was booking my reservation last month! I'd never seen a horse camp that busy, glad to know there is a reason. The start time is 6:30 in the morning, so that alone my deter me! We'll see how I feel. Anyway, settled down for the evening, very hot today, still waiting for it to cool down inside the trailer, though outside is getting better. It's like this every night here, because I get the last rays of the sun, it takes longer to cool down inside. I ran the AC for awhile, but unless I run it for a long time, it doesn't help that much. I almost bought a filter for the AC the other day, but I hadn't measured for it, so I didn't bother. Today I took down that wood box, which I thought was where the filter would go, and made a fascinating discovery: underneath it was an ordinary AC vent just like in our previous Rvs! And to make matters worse, the vent was actually closed! I took it all apart, cleaned out the little washable filter, put it all back together again and left the vent open before putting the wooden box back on, and it blew out great! I still didn't leave it on long enough to blow out the hot air (well, maybe I did but it was still hot out when I turned it off), so I spent the evening with a small fan blowing on me, which helps a lot. Anyway, time for a cold shower and off to bed. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart!
Had another good night sleep, another hot day coming up, so I had decided to make it a long ride day so I could spend most of it out in the woods where it's a bit cooler. Got Flash saddled up and left camp right around 11:00, with the intent of finishing off nearly all of the trails I haven't done yet, since tomorrow will be housekeeping and breakdown before our departure on Monday. So we headed out the main B trail until we hit 16, which was a pretty nice single track trail that doesn't get too much use, then straight up a section of B trail I hadn't done before, until we hit the C trail, which quickly became one of my favorites here. It follows a long a ridge line, and has the most gradual descent off it than any other trail I can remember seeing here, was wide and grassy like a nice bridle path, with no gravel hardly at all. Flash really liked it, too, he sped up a lot once we got there. Then we got a little lost trying to find the entrance to trail 15, missed it, went back and finally found it, then was kinda sorry when we did, because it's the worst trail I remember ever being on. Trees down everywhere, saplings crowding long stretches, it even went straight through a bunch of blackberry bushes, absolutely terrible! Not sure why they don't maintain it, or close it until they give it a little TLC, but it was horrible. When it got to the B trail, we didn't even try to find the continuation of 15, though it was supposed to be around there somewhere, we just started heading back to camp on the B trail. Now that should have been easy, but somehow I got turned around again, and we ended up on trail 14, which is a couple mile loop that goes north from the B trail. I don't know how we ended up on it, honestly, we were on the B trail and suddenly we were on 14! I backtracked for more than a quarter mile and never found a marker, and naturally my GPS couldn't find me because it was in a valley full of trees, so I didn't know how far along 14 we had gone. I knew 14 looped so we ended up following it the entire length, which added another 2 or 3 miles to a trip that was already way beyond what I had planned. I thought it would be about 17-18, which was plenty long enough, it ended up being nearly 25! Poor Flash, he was sweating up a storm. I made him stop at several creeks and got him in deeper water just to cool him off. Lola's tongue was hanging out, of course, but she jumped into every body of water we came across, so she was fine. We didn't get back until 6:20! As I was unsaddling him, I saw tons of ticks on him. I can't remember ever seeing more than one or two ticks on any horse after a ride, but his legs were covered, likely from that jungle on 15 that we traversed. After I rinsed him down, I took some tweezers and spent 20 minutes pulling as many ticks off as I could find, but I'll check again later. Then I got out my tube and put it in my little watering hole and had a beer, all of which cooled me down nicely. Just had a sandwich for dinner to keep things simple, and settled down just after 8:00 with my nightly dish of ice cream. Right now it's about 10:00, and I can hear lots of fireworks off in the distance (it is the 4th of July, after all!) But I can's see anything. For a moment I thought I could see something, then I realized it was the full moon coming up behind the trees, but it was so red I thought it was fireworks! Apparently there's a lunar eclipse tonight starting just after 11:00, so I'll probably stay up and watch it for a while, I'm not sure if it's a total eclipse or not, since I have no internet I can't check on things like that. But the way I'm facing, I could see it from my bedroom window if I want. Anyway, it was a terrific ride today, and since Flash needs to be ready for an endurance race at any time, it won't hurt him to do 25 miles. Of course, he'll need to do better than 7 hours at one of those! The one endurance ride we've run so far, he did 25 miles in 3:51, so next time he'll have to improve on that! Of course 25 miles on flat sand is a lot different than 25 miles on hilly, forested terrain like this, but I think this is good for him, he's getting his mountain stamina. Anyway, I've already showered so I'm just waiting for the eclipse and for it to be cool enough to go to bed. Oh, and I learned a valuable lesson this morning. I forgot to turn my solar panel east last night, and as a result, I had no power in the batteries this morning, so I had to use the BeatIt jumper, undoubtedly one of the best $100 investments we ever made! No problem starting the generator with that, and it took no time at all to charge the batteries. I'm getting the hang of the more primitive camping! I just have to balance the benefit of being more in the shade against being close enough to an open area to catch enough sunlight. It's been good here because the trees are to my west and so I get shade early in the evening, and get lots of sun in the morning so the batteries are pretty well-charged by the time I get out of bed in the morning. Anyway, this is getting way too long-winded, so I'll say good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin’!
Lola had a quiet night, thus I had a quiet night, too! Slept a little late, and after chores and a load of laundry that I hung out to dry, I decided to go to a Tractor Supply and refill two propane tanks. I believe I have plenty to get me through the weekend, but I didn’t want to take any chances, and I don’t know how far away the nearest TSC is to the next campground, so I figured I better get it done. Unfortunately, because there is such lousy cell phone service (but the robocalls don’t seem to have any trouble getting through!), and I wasn’t able to research it properly, I probably went to one that wasn’t exactly closest, but it didn’t matter, I got it done, plus a little shopping at Walmart (I was out of ice cream!) so I wouldn’t have to stop on the way to the next place. Then I got stuck in traffic on the way back, so it was almost 3:00 by the time I got back. I decided to go ahead with my plan even though it was later starting than I figured, so I saddled up Apollo and took a ride down to this little town called Story, which has a small lodge with a patio grill and a basement bar that seems to be a favorite with the bikers. The girls I met last weekend said they got a really good Bloody Mary there, and since I hadn’t had one of those is ages, I ordered on. Well, other than the two olives, the pickle, the lemon wedge and the celery stalk, there wasn’t a lot else in it, at least not by my finicky standards, all served in a plastic cup. Well, they didn’t serve food in the bar, only on the patio, so I took my drink out there and ordered a burger (a very limited menu, a burger, a hot dog, pulled pork, that was just about it). There was a solo act setting up for music, and I heard a little of him before we left, but I spent most of my time sharing Lola, everyone wanted to pet her and asked what breed she was, etc. You know, the usual. But at least I wasn’t by myself the whole time, not that it mattered, I was reading a book off my phone anyway. There were a couple of other horses tied to the plethora of hitching posts at the back, and evidently they left, because I could hear Apollo whinnying, he obviously wanted to go with the herd, but by the time I got to him, they were long gone. We had another nice ride back to camp, using the same route, and Apollo made all the turns without any help from me. It’s amazing with all the trails out here he knew exactly where to go after just one go. Got back to camp just after 8:00, got everyone settled in, turned the AC and fans on just to cool down the place. I’ll have crisp, sun-dried sheets for the bed tonight, so a nice long, cool shower is just ahead of me, then off to bed. Love you, sweetheart! Good night!

Hi Sweetie!
I'm happy to report that Lola was quiet all night! Yay! I woke up once early, then fell back to sleep, not getting up till later than usual. After breakfast and chores I saddled up Flash, and planned a route that would essentially knock off the nearer trails I haven't done yet. There are still a couple of long trails yet to be done, which I may do on Saturday, but for now, we had a nice ride, almost 8 miles, and Flash was a lot more energetic today, so I guess he must be getting his mountain legs, and getting fit! We even got a few canters in. Other than the few with gravel, they really have some nice trails here, a nice variety, lots of loops of all shapes and sizes, nothing too steep, a lot that just run along the edge of the creek, just really nice riding. We got back around 3:00, so I put the horses on anchors, and I did a quick load of wash, but decided to save on propane and do drying "old school" by hanging them out on a line, something I haven't done in a long time! Nice for a change. Although the humidity was a bit lower today, it was still really hot, so I decided to do something a little weird. Right behind my site there is a creek, but it didn't have much water in it, so it was more a series of puddles along a gravel bed. Then we had a lot of rain, and there was a lot more water, but still not enough to flow, just bigger puddles. When Flash and I crossed it I noticed that some of those areas are pretty deep and interestingly, Flash headed for the deeper water! I think since he went swimming at Loretta Lynn's ranch he's gotten over any fear of water, and he was intentionally trying to get in deep enough to swim! Fancy that! Anyway, it wasn't deep enough to swim, but it was deep enough that when it splashed on me I felt how cool the water was, so I got an idea. After hanging out the laundry, I got out the inflatable tube I bought a few weeks ago and blew it up with my high velocity foot pump in short order, then I took it down to the creek right behind me where there's a pretty big puddle, and launched it. It has a mesh bottom and an inflatable head rest and two drink holders, so I took a drink down and climbed into it. It was so nice and cool! I sat there for a good half an hour just relaxing and cooling down, a much needed respite on this hot day. It's amazing how a little water will make all the difference! A nice break. Settled down for the rest of the day with a book and some TV, grilled a nice steak outside, and generally relaxed for the rest of the day. Other than slightly cooler weather, one couldn't ask for a nicer day! Time for shower and bed! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Sweetheart!
Well, Lola was a bit restless last night, but I just put my earplugs in and ignored her and she eventually went off to bed. It was a bit cooler, thank goodness, and a bit cooler this morning when I got up, too, even though there was lots of sunshine. When I went to bed my battery voltage was reading 11.7 but it was up to 12.2 by the time I got up, so I had no trouble starting the generator this morning. After breakfast I saddled up Flash and we headed out. The sky looked pretty good, so I was hoping for another day without rain until evening, but we didn't quite make it. I decided I wanted to take the widest perimeter of the park, which included Trail D, which would make it close to 18-20 miles of riding. We started off about 11:00, and the first part of the trail was familiar, we've done it a few times already, but we soon got to parts unknown. It was a beautiful ride for the most part, not quite as hilly as some of the trails closer to camp, and there was a lovely section that followed a creek that was just spectacular. Then we hit a section of gravel road, unfortunately, but I had packed Flash's boots just in case (and glad I did, too!), and stopped to put them on. It only lasted about half a mile or so, and once we hit the trail again, I took them off. Further on there was another section of gravel, so they went back on again, and that was quite a bit longer. Finally we were back on dirt, though, and heading back in the direction of camp. Around 3:00 (two hours from home) we had a bit of a rain shower, but it was warm so it didn't bother us much. I threw my slicker over my saddle to keep it dry, and we waited it out a bit, as we needed a rest anyway. There are a lot of picnic areas all along the trail, so we just stopped at one. Once the rain slowed down (and it was never really too heavy) we set off again. Arrived in camp just before 5:00, dog-tired (speaking of, I'm pretty sure Lola will sleep through the night tonight!), but that didn't stop her from picking up a frisbee and throwing it at me, silly girl. I rinsed Flash down and put both horses on their anchors and let them graze until 8:30, then got everyone fed and put away, including me! Heading for the shower now, got the AC running just to blow out the warm air inside the trailer, then I'm off the bed! A wonderful day! Good night, darlin'! Love you!