Hey Sweetie,
Woke up pretty early, but since I wasn't in a real hurry today, I took my time getting up. Had breakfast first, then worked on the final packing and moving out. Ran over my mounting block again, did a little damage to the edges of the trailer. It amazes me how a plastic set of steps can actually cause damage to an aluminum and steel frame! Anyway, I got everybody loaded up and headed to the dump around 10:30, then had a dickens of a time getting around the corner and through the gate. There just wasn't enough room to straighten out before reach the gate. I had to take three tries at it before I finally was able to swing wide enough to just make it. Not sure why they have to make gates so narrow! Anyway, we were on the road, but for some reason, Google didn't take me on the roads that I told it to go on (a U.S. Hwy) and ended up taking me down a bunch of narrow, twisty, windy road until I finally ran into that highway and took it despite it telling me not to go there. Anyway, the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, though I did have a flashback to the last time we were here. I remember staying at the top of the hill by a gravel road that was called "Campground Rd." at the last turnoff while you went down with the van and the little horse trailer to make sure it actually led to the right campground. You ended up just about out of walkie talkie range and told me to come on, and I did with much trepidation. Turned out it was okay, but I remember a lot of non-horse people in horse camping sites, so I don't think we found a site with corrals and had to highline the horses. Not sure, I'll have to look that up. I reached the campground and stopped to reconnoiter, found my site and then proceed to maneuver into it. For me to be facing the right direction, I had to back into another site and turn around, and ended up scraping into a ditch before I got the right angle. Must be my day to bend the trailer! I lost the door panel to the sewer outlet, which was already hanging on by a thread because the lock didn't work anymore and the tape I put on it didn't hold, so I'll need to replace that whole framework. Not an urgent job, but on the list. I finally got situated, though I'm a little low on the front from the grade, I'm going to have to get some thicker blocks so I can raise it higher. One very happy note was that there is a threaded water spigot right next to me, so I was able to hook up a hose with a splitter and reach both the corrals and the trailer. Happy days! I took the opportunity to get out Lola's swimming pool, since the forecast was calling for some pretty hot temperatures later this week, and since we're so far out in the boonies here, she's in heaven because she can wander and take a swim! Well, get wet, anyway. I also rinsed off the water buckets and the wheelbarrow, they were covered in mud from the last place. Took me about 90 minutes to get mostly set up, including the solar panel, and now that we're settled in, I'm looking forward to my time here. I hope the trails are better than Canebrake! And it's very quiet, I don't hear any cicadas! I even have two bars on my phone, so streaming Prime is easy! Looking forward to a nice ten days here. Settled in for a nice stir fry and a movie, so good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hi Darlin',
Took a long time to get to sleep last night, then Lola woke me up at 6:00, having gotten herself tangled up on the lantern post outside. She's been having a lot of fun with the cicadas that have been out in full force while we were here. They're just big enough for her to be able to see and play with, though they're pretty slow so she gets bored quickly. But evidently they're crunchy enough to keep here interested! Glad they're nontoxic! Took a long time to get back to sleep, and didn't get much because it was nearly time to get up anyway. Spent the day doing voluminous loads of laundry while I have electricity, had to fill up the truck water tank once, almost got stuck on the slippery grass on the site I'm on, barely made it out! Tore up the grass a bit, though. Hoping I don't have any trouble tomorrow, at least I'm on some gravel there, so I hope not! Spent time trying to figure out my post-Red Rock Ride travel schedule, which is proving to be challenging, but I think I've come up with a decent plan, subject to change, of course! I did that in between my usual packing, which I like to spread out during the day so as not to get overtaxed. I moved the five bales of hay I had left into the side stall, disappointed that some of it got wet. I had hoped I had it arranged to avoid that, but we had so much rain, and I'm on such a slope, it seemed unavoidable. What I need is a palette, but don't have room to carry one. Don't expect I'll be staying anyplace long enough to need to store hay anyway, at least not until I get back to Florida in the fall, then maybe I will pick up a palette. Settled down for the evening, watched a movie that I didn't particularly like, and am off to shower and bed shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Another good night sleep, another mostly lazy day. The only difference today was that I walked the horses down to a large paddock about the size and shape of a small arena, about half of which was grass, and left them in there for most of the afternoon. They did all the usual horsey stuff, rolling in the sand and grass and running around to stretch their legs for a bit, then munched on the grass. I went back to the trailer and mostly read, so a lazy day. Just resting up for the next couple of days, which will be a little busier, getting packed up tomorrow and moving on Monday. Nice to take a couple of days off! Enjoyed a nice dinner and a Brendan Fraser movie, will be off to bed soon! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a great night sleep, did my chores, then saw I had a book order so I put that together and put it in the mailbox here that I noticed the other day. Filled up all the water tanks, mended my saddlebags, tried to straighten out the extension ladder a bit before putting it away, and mostly just whiled the day away with reading and doing some planning on the computer. I've been making a list of things I want to take on the trip out West, and also starting to plan where I'm going after I get back. If I want to be in Watkins Glen for the 4th of July, I'm going to have to hustle up there, but I still haven't decided my route yet. I'm trying to avoid as many mountains as I can, but it's hard to get from North Carolina to NYS without hitting mountains! Plus having to find a stop or two along the way is making it challenging, but I'll keep working on it. After 5:00 I checked the tracking on my package and it hadn't been picked up yet, so I went back out to the mailbox and picked it up again, I'll have to drive it to the post office in the morning. Settled down for the evening to a fun Simon Pegg movie and dinner, once again planning an early night. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Fell asleep late, slept late, got up late, but once I saw the rain coming in I finally crawled out of bed and took care of the horses before the rain got here. Spent most of the day just hanging out, working and playing on the computer and reading. Then spent almost an hour on the phone with the Quicken folks again, as one of my accounts isn't updating properly, finally managed to find a fix, and this time I took notes so if it happens again, maybe I won't have to call and spend an hour on the phone! By the time I was finished, I had an email from Amazon that my packages had been delivered, so I took a drive over to the Troy Post Office and picked those up, then drove over to Briscoe to get a few things at the Walmart, get fuel and pick up some bourbon at the ABC store before heading back. There was a serious storm just south of us, but we managed to miss it. Got back to camp thinking the storm would be here any minute, got the horses fed and the truck unloaded, but the rain never showed. Had dinner, watched a Northern Exposure and a rom-com, ready for bed soon! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up to the sound of pouring rain as promised. Laid in bed till it let up a bit, then got up and did my chores. Had a very leisurely day, spent some time on my "new" computer, which I'm loving, and ordered a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to get. When we were out on the trail yesterday, I brushed against a tree with a limb sticking out and tore a nice big hole in my yoga riding pants, and I've been patching up most of my others as well, so I finally bought a five-pak of new yoga pants. Also some much needed tools, including a good heavy duty battery impact wrench and a hammer stapler. I won't use them often, but when I need them, I'll be glad I have them! No more sitting by the road waiting for road service when I have a flat tire for me! I also bought an adapter so the impact wrench can also be a screwdriver and drill bit. My old one is so worn out it barely works anymore, but I've had it a very long time, so it served its purpose. Another three-pak of socks and I feel like I'm just about ready for my trip to the Red Rock Ride in a few weeks! I checked their list and I have everything else I need, though I will have to get my sleeping bag down and give that a wash. Watched a couple of movies and a Northern Exposure, played a lot of games on the computer, and otherwise had a very relaxing day while it rained all day. Finally cleared up a bit in the evening, but it's supposed to rain a lot tomorrow, too, which is fine by me. I'm not thrilled about going out for another ride, especially if it's muddy, which it will most certainly be after all this rain! Heading to bed shortly! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Had a great night sleep after going to bed pretty early, got more chores done, then finally dared to turn on my computer to see if it was fixed, but alas, no luck. Not that it wasn't working, just that none of my navigational tools would get me anywhere. A few of the buttons on the keyboard worked, but not enough to be functional. So, on my phone, I started looking around at all my options, and in the end, settled on a local computer repair shop where I headed out to around 12:30. After speaking with him, one alternative was to find a similar computer where we could just change out the hard drive, which was my favorite option. But I wanted him to check it out to see if we could just switch out the keyboard and/or mousepad. I had found that there was quite a few online, but most would require shipping, but a couple were actually local in Charlotte, which is only about an hour away. One was at the local Goodwill for about $20, but it looked pretty rough, and when I spoke to the guy, he was alone and couldn't confirm it was still available. Then I found another one in downtown Charlotte, so I ended up driving downtown and meeting up with a guy who sold me one for $80, which I still thought was a pretty good deal. Turns out it was in great shape. Barely made it back to the computer shop before he closed at 6:00, arrived at 5:57 and together we switched out the hard drive and the RAM and were back out the door by 6:03, so I didn't keep him long. I paid him $20, so I know have a practically brand new computer for $100, which seems like a bargain to me! Frankly, my old computer was in pretty bad shape, with broken corners where I had dropped it, and the monitor had a bug in it (a literal bug!) that had crawled up under the glass somehow and got stuck and died there, so I always had a little speck on my screen. This new computer feels perfect! With the old solid state, one terabit hard drive, I'm back in business! I made a quick stop at Food Lion next door before heading home, I had forgotten to get lemon-lime the other day when shopping, and also bought a few frozen dinners on sale just for a change of pace. Got back to camp, fed the horses, popped in a personal pizza and settled down for the night. One thing the guy at the computer shop told me was that the Aurora Borealis was actually being seen here in North Carolina this weekend! I found that hard to believe, but apparently there's some kind of electro-magnetic anomaly happening, so I headed out to check that out, only to be met with raindrops instead. No clear skies tonight! Guess I missed it, but maybe it will still be here tomorrow. Still on my bucket list, to see the northern lights! One of the few items I haven't yet accomplished!. A busy runaround day, but well worth the effort to have a really good, working computer again! Good night, darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a hard time getting to sleep last night, went to be about 11:00 but it was well after 2:00, or probably later, when I finally fell asleep. I drank two cans of cream soda, so I thought maybe there was caffeine in it and that was the culprit, but not according to the research I didn, so I have no idea why I couldn't sleep. So naturally, I woke up tired. Got the horses fed and chores done, and after breakfast I did some repairs that have piled up. There was a pin on one of the awning arms that needed fixing, that took some ingenuity to get it done, but I managed it. I had to fix the trailer door, that was mostly hammering and a little finesse. When I unhooked the truck the other day, I started dropping the front end down and didn't realize the door was open and resting on my mounting block stairs, so the door got bent under all the weight. I managed to get that in pretty good shape as well, though I need to do a little sanding to smooth out the aluminum frame. Next, I climbed up on the roof and got my pressure washer out of the attic and spent quite a bit of time washing out the truck's water tank. I had to do a lot of hand scrubbing, but I finally got it done and refilled. all that took until after 2:00, and was physically tiring, especially after so little sleep, and I ended up dozing in my recliner for a little nap while I was reading. Finally settled down for the evening, dinner and a couple of Northern Exposures. Ready for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Darlin',
There's a heat wave going on, and I am SO GLAD I'm in a place with electricity so I can run my AC, otherwise it would be miserable! Mid-80's with humidity is making it feel like 90, and I'm so not ready for that! I laid in for a long time this morning, working with my massager on my shoulder and the calf of my leg, which has been weirdly stiff, finally got up for chores and then spent the rest of the day either reading or watching movies. I just needed a day of rest, and this is the perfect place to do that, now that everything seems to be sorted out with my site. It's been a lovely, quiet day, just what I needed, with a couple of short storms which cooled it off and shut the cicadas up for awhile. They are so noisy, they sound just like the alien ships from the original War of the Worlds movie, all screechy and noisy. Anyway, won't be out of bed for long, supposed to rain overnight and tomorrow afternoon, with a break in the morning when I plan to do some minor repairs on the trailer. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Despite a few bouts of rain, I got a good night sleep last night, with visions of doing very little today and catching up on my rest. Well, that didn't work out as planned. I realized I probably didn't have enough hay to last until Wednesday, at least not enough to make the switch over, since I like to mix it half and half for a few days so it's not too sudden a change. Since haying season has started here, I was able to find some brand new fescue locally for $7 a bale, so I decided to make this my hay and shopping day. I got online last night and was delighted to find the local Tractor Supply had some Empower Balance in stock, so I ordered five bags of various feed to pick up today. But just as I was feeding the horses this morning, the recreation ranger came by and informed me that despite promising to get my name on this site immediately, the woman I spoke to yesterday didn't follow through, and someone had reserved this site out from under me for the weekend, and would I mind moving up to the camp host spot? Obviously, I was not thrilled at the idea. I know I live a charmed life by most standards, so I'm generally willing to make sacrifices for other people, and at first, I kind of agreed, but then when I went up to look at the site, I decided I just couldn't go along with that. It was all gravel, had a tiny house up on stilts where the trailer should go, which means I would be stuffed in at a bad angle, barely fitting. They had covered corrals, no highline, and I just didn't like the site, so I called them back and left a message that I wasn't going to move, that I was sorry, but they told me this site was available, so the problem was one for them to solve, not me. I mean, it was only for the weekend, two nights, so why should I suffer for two weeks because of their mistake? Anyway, I headed out to pick up the hay, which was really nice and I know the horses will love it, then stopped at a trailer place to see if I could find a replacement brake adjuster plug for the one I lost yesterday, then to Tractor Supply to pick up my order, then to Walmart for some shopping, then to Food Lion for the stuff I couldn't get at Walmart, and finally back to camp. I noticed they had cordoned off one of the First Come, First Served sites, so I'm guessing that's how they decided to solve their problem, so now I guess I can relax. I didn't need that stress!! I arrived back at camp at 3:00, but by the time I put away the groceries, stored the hay under the gooseneck and put up the skirting, hauled the feed bags to the back of the trailer, gave the horses a new bag of mixed and poured some Rain-X into the windshield washer into my truck, it was nearly 4:30, and I was sweating like a pig in the heat and humidity. Thank goodness I have electricity, and had left the AC on this morning, the trailer was nice and cool! Glad to see a cold front moving in before the weekend, it's already getting too hot for me here in the South! Cracked open a beer and am settling down for an evening of dinner and a movie and the usual Spanish lesson, shower and bed! Love you, sweetie! Good night!