Seven blessed hours of sleep!!! Yeah!!! What a difference a good night sleep makes! Though Hubby's still a bit short of breath, we're both feeling much better, even with the alarm set at 4:50 this morning. We had cold cereal for breakfast in order to shorten our morning prep time, and try as we did, we still didn't make muster until 8:20. When we got there, however, our circle boss informed us that the muster time had changed to 9:00, so all our rushing around was for naught. Gotta love the communication! We haven't been properly informed of anything since we've been here, there seems to be very little interest in creating any bond within our group whatsoever. A bit disappointing, we thought we'd have a tight-knit group in a short time, but so far, no effort has been made. I don't even know anyone's name yet! Anyway, we sat around until 9:00, then until 9:40, before we finally started out on the trail. Having run with the cows yesterday, today we were at the back of the pack, at a leisurely pace, for the approximately 9 miles we covered today, through a lot of water and scrub and mud. It began with a large circle apparently designed to be a photo op down to Lake Kissimmee, then along some more wet trails until we stopped for lunch about 1:00, this time a ham sandwich and chips, which was frankly the best meal we've had so far, albeit slim. At least it was MEANT to be cold : -). A short afternoon of riding brought us into camp around 4:00, where we once again pitched our tent next to the corrals where we found a spot for the horses, along a ditch near the back of a field, next to a couple in a percheron-driven wagon. Actually, they had been parked next to us last night, too, and we got to chatting. We eventually discovered he had the means to recharge my phone, right there in his wagon! Wonderful! We finally went off to dinner, and Roy was asked to perform (an arrangement I have made earlier with Larry, but didn't expect this early in the week. So Hubby performed his Shakespeare monolog "All the World's a Stage" followed by "The Man From Snowy River" which he had just learned last week. While his Shakespeare was brilliant, as always, Snowy River was a bit rough, but he managed to make it through, and the audience that could hear him (which was only a few table at the front because the caterer's generator was so loud at the back) seemed appreciative. Headed to bed shortly afterward, with temps a bit warmer tonight, and cloudier so the moon won't be so bright, we're hoping for another good night's sleep. With a prediction of rain overnight and for the next two days, it should make it interesting!

Well, I set the alarm for 5:20, thinking we would have plenty of time to pack up, get to breakfast after 6:00 and be ready for the ride by 7:30-8:00, but things didn't turn out as planned. We both had a fitful night, very cold again, very bright with a full moon that made it seem like daylight, only getting a few hours off and on at best. The inside of the tent got wet from the condensation of our breathing, and dripped down the sides, making the whole side I was on wet. The air mattress didn't have enough air in it to stay full when the temps dropped. Outside the tent, frost had settled onto all our gear, which we had put into large garbage bags for protection. Brrr! Suffice to say, it was another bad night, and the cold got into Hubby's lungs even more, so now he is really short of breath, struggling to do the most basic things, like get dressed. It took us a very long time to get up and out of the tent, get breakfast (which didn't start until 6:20, further compounding our tardiness, and consisted of cold, hard-scrambled eggs, burnt bacon, and super-salty sausage-the last thing Hubby needs right now), feed the horses, and get broken down. We finally loaded our packed bags onto the horses and led them down to the circle boss's area, managed to find an overflow trailer where we could put our bags, and headed out amongst a group that was way behind our own at 8:20, twenty minutes past our muster time, so of course, they were gone already. Despite watching all the activity for the last two days, riding in such a large group was still brand new to our horses, and my comedian Apollo decided to have some fun almost immediately, so he bucked and snorted until I came off into the soft and muddy ground. I pulled off to one side and ran him around on my McCarty line for a while. At one point he slipped on the mud, and that seemed to wake him up a bit, but I continued circling him in both directions until he finally gave up, resigned to be a good horse despite himself. I climbed back up, and now, since we were so far behind, we started to jog them, and jog them, and jog them. We tried to stay off to the side of the groups as best we could, and we managed to do that everywhere except certain bottlenecks, like the tunnels under the turnpike, but they behaved themselves for the most part. Nearly two hours of jogging later, we finally caught up to our group, and the cows. By now, Apollo's head was down and he wasn't interested in being silly, and he only took one quick look at the cows when we reached them before putting his head back down. We continued to stay off to one side, but by now the horses were started to get used to the other horses, though Clio started to kick at anyone coming close to us, particularly if they came up fast, so we knew a red ribbon would have to be put on her tail at lunch. One time, though we had warned her, a girl crossed right behind us, and Clio landed one on her thigh. She kind of panicked a bit, but eventually settled down, and later had it looked at by the paramedics, it just broke the skin a bit and I'm sure there will be a big bruise. Such is life around horses, black and blue are the operative colors! We stopped for lunch in a field where the caterers had set up, and Hubby stood in line for lunch while I put a great big red bow on Clio's tail. After getting lunch, (another cold hamburger with chips) we sat around on the tarp that we had brought with us, with Hubby almost taking a nap in the nice warm sun! Eventually, lunch was over, and we headed out again, sometimes getting quite close to the cows as we got more and more comfortable in the crowd. We arrived near the next camp just after 4:00, but had to take a long loop around to put the cows away, so it was 5:00 by the time we arrived in camp, having completed what we learned would be the longest day of them all. Rumors were we had traversed 16 miles, a longer day than we had expected, and one guy even said 20 miles (GPS later confirms 16 is about right). That was definitely a longer day than we expected, and after two nights of non-sleep, we were exhausted. We managed to get our tent up next to the corrals where we put the horses, just made it in time to stand in another long line for dinner, which was again cold by the time we reached a table. Dinner was beef brisket, beans, cabbage and corn, but the portions seemed a lot smaller than yesterday, afraid this might be a trend... Decided their claims of decaf coffee were false, so we skipped the coffee altogether. I asked for hot water so I could make some Sleepytime tea, but there was none to be had! By now we were more exhausted than we can describe, running on pure adrenaline, so we headed straight for bed. Unfortunately, when we headed back to camp, there a girl was just bringing in a large black Percheron and putting him in the stall next to ours. Apparently a wagon had gotten stuck, and the Percheron was brought in while the wagon's owner tried to make arrangements to get the wagon moved. Well for some reason, this horse was not a happy camper, and he kicked and bucked and threw himself at the corral until he literally bent it!! The panel actually buckled into my horses' space, and my guys were not happy about it. I finally had no choice but to report the incident to my circle boss, and the woman in charge of the corrals. The immediate solution, unfortunately, was for me to move my horses to another row of corrals on the opposite side of the camp, so off I went with horses in hand, so tired I could barely walk. After another 30 minutes or so, they moved the Percheron to the cow pens so he could be on his own, but by then, we were in bed, so I left ours where they were, I was flat out too tired to move. Some of the other campers applauded when they took that horse away, apparently he had been restless on previous nights while in the wagon group, and had kept many campers awake. Finally back to bed, where Hubby stayed fully clothed in an effort to stay warm, the chill has really had an effect on him, making him short of breath, but so far, still functioning. Some clouds came over, so at least it wasn't quite as bright as before, we're both hoping for a better night sleep tonight, though the forecast has changed again. It was supposed to only get down to 40 degrees tonight, but it's back to low 30's again, darn it. We've rearranged the bags inside the tent so there's a bit more of a space between me and the wet walls of the tent, I'm hoping that will help as well. Good night!

Well, contrary to our best laid plans, it turned out that sleeping (or not sleeping, as the case may be) in the van was a disaster! The wind whipped around us all night, and we soon realized that this was the equivalent to the "bridge ices first" scenario. The wind under the van made the air mattress ice cold, we were never able to get warm enough, we were freezing and wide awake all night (thanks in part to the coffee, no doubt, which I'm sure wasn't really decaf), and no matter what we did (short of running the van all night, which we didn't do), we had what was probably the worst night of our lives. I finally had Hubby pull a parka off the clothing rack in the van, and that helped me on one side, but the bottom side just never warmed up. We did our best to laugh at ourselves, but by morning, we were pretty uncomfortable, and the chill had started to seep into Hubby's lungs, which is never a good thing. He got a little sleep, but I'm not sure I got any, certainly no more than an hour off and on at best. We turned the van on at last, which helped a lot, then got dressed. Once the sun came up and started to warm things up, it improved, but it took a long time to feel warm again. After locating our group leader's camp, we found out that they wouldn't be moving trailers over until at least afternoon, so we decided to stay on our original plan and head to St. Cloud for breakfast. We unhooked the van and drove to IHOP, where we finally got fully warm, and had a nice big breakfast designed to get us through until dinner. We went to Walmart in the hopes of getting a couple of emergency thermal blankets, but, of course, they were out. We got a few other sundries before heading back to camp. We then learned that the line of corrals were, indeed, the ones that we had rented (and could have put the horses in last night, had someone mentioned that to us), so we moved over to the corral, driving across the field where others hadn't been yet, which was a lot less slippery. We learned several other people had gotten stuck in the mud in the same area as we had yesterday as well. We put the horses together in one corral, and put up the tent. We started with a tarp on the ground, then the tent, then our slickers in an effort to keep the cold away from us, then the air mattress, sleeping bags and quilt. Although the air mattress just fit into the tent, it didn't leave much room for anything else, though we managed to put our two bags along one edge, but it shoved me pretty much into the back side of the tent. The temps were supposed to be marginally higher overnight (37 as opposed to 33), so we kept our fingers crossed that being on the ground would help keep us warmer. Once that was done, I returned to the group leader's trailer to find out when we were supposed to be leaving (which I had understood we would do in groups at a designated time), only to learn that people were just going over when they were ready! I'm getting a bit concerned about the lack of communication, nobody seems to be communicating anything to anyone. I saw a long line of trailers departing the camp, so I decided to join them, having been told that there was a shuttle to bring us back. I headed down to the arena where the cattle drive will end, and managed to persuade them to let me stay near the front, as I would be selling books at the arena on the last day and needed to be close. Farther back it was so wet that trailers were getting stuck just trying to park, they had a tractor there pulling people around. I managed to get into a spot next to a Forest Service semi just off the gravel, so I'm hoping I won't have any trouble getting out later. After making a final check that I had everything we needed, I was directed to the "shuttle" that turned out to be a livestock trailer! Thank goodness Hubby insisted I take my coat with me, I would have been frozen again without it! Twenty minutes later I was back at camp, trying, along with Hubby, to get warm in our tent. Eventually we headed out to the dinner tent, looking forward to getting a bit more information than what we had been able to acquire thus far. Dinner was a couple of beef ribs, a quarter of a chicken, potato salad, corn, beans, and lemon meringue pie, all of which was cold by the time we reached a table. After dinner, the meeting started, and we were basically told our circle boss would fill us in on everything, so we broke down into smaller groups and waited... And waited... And waited. Our circle boss was nowhere to be found. The generator for the caterer was so loud, I don't think anyone could hear anything, so we eventually moved to the other side of the tent and waited some more. Finally, we headed over to the circle boss' trailer, where we finally found her, and she gave us a few facts. It seems another group was supposed to herd the cows in the morning, but that had changed to our group, so we would be heading out by 8:00, though she wanted us there by 7:30. That was it. We had to ask "Where" were we heading out from, and never got a decent answer. So we headed back to our tent in the dark, hoping it would all become clearer in the morning. The wind had diminished somewhat during the day, but it was still quite cold and breezy when we went to bed, hoping for a better night sleep than last night!

Had a busy and productive day today, doing the majority of our packing and preparation for the upcoming cattle drive. We also spent a couple of hours working on the performance that Hubby is planning to give the cattle drive, we finally received part of the shipment for our promo materials for the book, and even managed to get a ride in, running out to the gazebo in Hungryland, doing lots of jogging, trotting, and cantering along the way. We actually ran into more horses this trip than ever, with two women meeting up with us very near the beginning and catching up to us at the gazebo, and another woman heading out of the park as we were heading in. We got back just before 5:00, just in time for a meet and greet with a pet-sitter, and hired her to come in and play with Lola for 30-60 minutes every day, a small price to pay to save the interior of the RV, which I'm afraid Lola will tear apart if she's left alone without getting a lot more exercise than my brother has time to provide. Finally settled down for the evening, confident we're well on our way to being fully prepared for the week, though we have taken a pause about arriving early on Saturday, as the forecast is in the 30's overnight! Brrr! But Hubby says he's prepared to be adventurous, we'll just have to cuddle and keep warm!

The storms continued through the night, I had to get up and bring the awning in, the wind gusts got so bad. The yard is a swamp again! Watched the playoffs and some other shows in between getting out the tack and attire we'll be taking with us on the cattle drive. Getting everything spit polished! Then towards late afternoon, my brother, who had been working on a cleaning project all weekend, decided he still had enough energy for a ride, his first since we've arrived in December, so we saddled up the horses and headed out the driveway, taking our usual nice 90 minute ride back into the picnic gazebo under the banyan tree in Hungryland. Being so late in the day, there was a lot more bird activity, we saw a couple of storks, a young hawk, and lots of other birds hunting dinner. Being the Sunday before a Monday holiday, there was a lot more human activity as well, we had two vehicles pass us on the access road back to the gazebo, which was unusual. I always thought that gate was locked, but brother seems to think they unlock it during hunting season, and indeed, one of the vehicles that passed us held a couple that promptly started putting camouflage gear on when they parked. Later we heard rifle fire coming from that direction, so obviously, something's in season in January here! Got back just as the sun was setting, and it didn't take long to get the horses, and us, settled in for the night.

Since the forecast was predicting rain coming in this afternoon, Hubby and I got up a little earlier and were out on the trails by 11:00 (okay, that may not be early for some, but we want to make as many deposits in our sleep bank as possible, since we'll be getting up around 5 a.m. during the Cattle Drive!) This time we took a slightly different route, heading east on the canal that heads to Mack Dairy Road before going out to the gazebo, adding some extra mileage, though not extra time because we spent a lot more time jogging and cantering along the way. Dogs enjoyed it as well, and we managed to get back by about 1:00, the time when rain was supposed to be moving in. Of course, it didn't, but it was getting cloudier. Hubby and I had some shopping to do, for clothes for the cattle drive and a few other odds and ends, so we headed out after putting the horses away, getting back just before the rain finally DID arrive. There's a major front coming through that looks like it will sock us in all day tomorrow, which is fine, because I'm due to receive my new new computer (I sent my old new computer back earlier this week, too unreliable), and that will be a few days to get that up and running and everything moved over. Settled down for a pleasant evening of dinner and movies!

After a rainy day yesterday, it was back on the trails again today, once again weaving through the neighborhood, down to Hungryland. This time, instead of going to the gazebo, we had noticed they had opened up a pass-through gate along the canal on the southernmost edge of the WMA, which had previously been blocked off. We didn't know how far we could go, so we went exploring. It was a good mile from the gate to the corner of the section where the canal turned south, and we followed that nearly another mile, almost to Route 706. Down and back fit the allotted time frame we had set aside, and we did a huge amount of jogging and some cantering as well, to up the condition of the horses and us. Hubby's back is still doing fine, the dogs had a great time, and the horses, of course, we once again brilliant! Another gorgeous day in Florida!

After a week of recuperating from completing the book, plus doing a bunch of other mundane stuff, the weather has finally turned perfect and Hubby and I have, at last, been able to take a ride! With the Cattle Drive looming, we simply have to get ourselves and the horses fit before we head up to St. Cloud. Hubby's acupuncture has been doing wonders for him, he's feeling much better, and we have high hopes that this will solve his back problem, if not permanently, at least for a long time. So under gorgeous skies, we saddled up the frisky horses and headed down the driveway. We decided this time to take the dogs, as we'll only be going past a few houses before reaching the canal, then heading back out to the Hungryland WMA. It's not a thrilling ride by any means, but it's nice, and it gets everybody back into the swing of things. Apollo was brilliant, he was so frisky yesterday when I trimmed his feet I was afraid he would be hard to handle at the beginning today, but he seemed so grateful to have something else to do, he was fabulous. The last few days, the horses have been hanging out at the gate, looking longingly down the driveway, so I know they were ready for a change of venue! We did a bit more jogging than we've done in a while, for conditioning as well as to check out Hubby's back, and he was fine when we got back. He's feeling so much stronger, and he's able to sit his horse so much better now that he has improved his posture considerably. Acupuncture seems to be doing the trick! Anyway, another very nice 2 hour ride to start our conditioning, we have plans to do at least 2 more rides this week. We'd love to ride every day, but there's some nasty weather in the forecast, and until it's absolutely necessary, we're still fair weather riders for the most part! And the dogs finally got some exercise, too, Lola's been going crazy with only tennis balls and frisbees to catch!

Well, today will be the test for Hubby's new acupuncture treatment. He has his second appointment this afternoon, so we decided to take a two-hour ride this morning beforehand, to see how he holds out. Two hours is about the max he can do these days without his back really starting to bother him, and that's if we don't do too much jogging. Well, we headed out the driveway and up the road to the first canal, then turned east to the next canal, then north. Previously, to get to the Hungryland WMA across the canal, you had to ride down and up a steep incline, usually through a few inches of water, but my brother had told me they had put in a bridge. I was expecting an actual bridge, but instead, they had put in a metal culvert and completely filled it in, making an actual road with a gate across it, with a horse pass next to it. Wonderful! We decided to ride into the WMA to a pavilion that's about ¾ of a mile into the area, took a short break, then came back out again. On the way back, we carried on along the canal all the way to Indiantown Road before making our way around the neighborhood back to the house, finishing at just the two hour length we wanted. Hubby said he was just starting to get a twinge in his back, but nothing like the way it used to be, so progress is made! Afterward, we headed back to the doctor's office for another treatment, which helped even more, before settling down for the evening.

Though the trail map indicates a good choice of loops, they are almost all at least 10 miles long, but Hubby said he was up for that, so I planned out a route that would take us west on the main road (no motor vehicles) until we met up with a left turn that would take us to a primitive camping area, then pick up the Grasshopper Sparrow Trail west, then loop back around on the main road. We headed out walking and jogging on the straight as an arrow road until we reached our turn, only running across a few patches of standing water on the road. That changed a bit after the turn, the water became deeper and more often. By the time we went through the camping area, the water was everywhere. We changed our plan, deciding to take a shorter loop south on the Ozmore Trail to the Boundary Trail, then back north on the Kilpatrick Prairie Trail. Problem was, the water was between ankle and knee deep on the horses almost all the way, and after about ¾ of a mile, we agreed that it was likely not to improve, and that no one was having much fun (except Lola, who was right in her element, leaping and jumping around the sawgrass), so we turned back and retraced our route back to the campground, getting a few canters in once we got back on the high ground of the main road. No doubt, if it were drier here, the trails would be fantastic, albeit kind of boring with all the flatness, but they've had so much rain here in the past few weeks, it's just too wet. We got back to camp, got the horses away, and settled down for the evening, as usual.