Hiya Babe,
It stays so dark here in the shadow of trees until well after 9:00, so I’ve been getting up later and later these days! Was delighted to learn that the local Tractor Supply recently started refilling propane tanks, even though when I checked the website, it said they didn’t. Happy to pay just $3.09 a gallon, too! Way less than in Michigan! Filled three tanks, so I’m caught up for awhile, especially since I’ll be on electric for a few days next week, and once I get down to Sheila’s in Florida. Weather is absolutely perfect here right now, so I’m not in a big hurry! Went to Walmart and did a little shopping, I didn’t need much, but I had decided today would be the day when I would organize my “office” storage. When I took out the second recliner and built in a storage/dog bed area and moved all my stuff out of the drawer under the bench seat, it’s been gradually getting more and more messy under there, and my stackable trays have all broken, so I bought a couple of file crates and some hanging folders and completely rearranged it. Now everything has a place, and everything is immobile, so nothing can slide around, and I still have room for some of the dog stuff. Much better! I’ll get it all together one of these days, slow but sure! I let the horses graze again today, they’re really enjoying the nice lawn here, and having a day off probably didn’t hurt either. They seem perfectly content, and keep coming to the trailer door and staring in, as if they want to come it, or at least be with the rest of “the herd.” Fun to see them standing right outside the door, though I’ve had to clean up some manure on the porch carpet, not surprisingly. Had a nice dinner, finally managed to watch almost a whole episode of Jack Ryan without buffering, though I did stop it on purpose a couple of times, just to be safe, and now, of course, it’s almost bedtime. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
Slept late, even after going to bed early, so I guess I was more tired than I thought! Woke up to the sound of a bit of rain on the roof, and that put me back to sleep. Finally got up after the rain stopped, had a pretty lazy day today, though, mostly working on the computer, finishing the MTRA article, and just generally hanging out. Nice to have days like this, such a luxury! I let the horses graze in the yard most of the day, so they’re happy. I plan to ride tomorrow, want to see what kind of trails they have, albeit only about 12 miles. A couple from the neighborhood came by in their side-by-side and chatted for a bit, and I spoke to a couple of people about the spigot situation, not sure if they’ll do anything about it. Seems that they had trouble with people stealing water from their cistern (they don’t have a well, so they have to have water brought in), and that’s why they took the threads off, but the guy I spoke to admitted it was like that when he got here 16 years ago, so maybe it’s not that much of a problem anymore. Of course, he also said the most determined ones have created ways to steal it anyway, so once again, those of us that don’t abuse the system have to suffer because of those that do. Oh, well, the way of the world! Mostly just killing time here anyway, don’t want to get to Florida too early, it’s still plenty hot down there, and the weather here is absolutely perfect right now! Not the mention the price is right (free!), so I’m happy to just chill here for a bit. Plus I’m back in Indiana, so I’ll be able to get my preferred beer at last! They don’t sell it in Michigan, so I’ve hoarding the few bottles I had left, though I did drink two yesterday after a hot day of setting up. Anyway, a quiet day, not much happening, but enjoying every lazy minute of it! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie!
For once I actually got to bed nice and early, like around 9:00, read for a bit then dropped off to a sound sleep. Woke up about 5:45, read for a bit more, then got up with the alarm before 7:00, fully rested, yay! Got up and had breakfast, finished packing, and headed to the dump to top off my truck tank. The Youngs Creek website has this ambivalent message on it, saying they have non-potable water, but advise you to bring your own. Weird. Anyway, we were on the road around 8:40, and had an uneventful trip. I feel a lot more comfortable now that the power steering is fixed and I have front tires on the truck and everything else seems to be working well. After two stops, we arrived at Youngs Creek, a free, primitive camp just south of Paoli, IN. It says on the website there’s room for 40 rigs, but I have no idea where or how. The actual campsites are tiny and around an impossibly small loop, at least for me, but there was a fairly open area just as you come into camp, though I’m thinking 6 to 8 rigs of any size at best up here. I found there was two spigots, and after a bit of reconnoitering, decided a spot essentially in the middle would work. It was fairly close to a spigot, so I backed in and started to get set up. Then I discovered the water problem. Though they have frost-free spigots, they’ve filed down the threads, so I can’t put a hose on it. How stupid. Not the first time we’ve seen this, but it definitely makes things more complicated. I had to use some of my potable water for the horses when they got out of the trailer, then I just let them wander in the nice grassy lawn that’s here. Eventually I jury-rigged the pump with a water bottle that had a hose attached, it took a long time but I eventually was able to fill up a big tub by the highlines. That’s going to be a pain, because I don’t think I’ll have enough pressure to fill the truck tank or the trailer, but since the highlines are slightly lower, that worked. Sigh. Guess I’ll just have to fill up in town somewhere later this week. Meanwhile, I got settled in, had dinner, tried to watch a little TV, though I’m disheartened to say that even though I have a good signal, I’m still having huge buffering problems. I’m think I have to take the phone into Verizon and figure out why this suddenly started happening. Oh, well. It was pretty warm today, but there’s a front coming in tomorrow, supposedly, that’s going to bring rain and cooler temps for the next few days. Probably won’t ride tomorrow, I have stuff to do, so it won’t matter. Anyway, time for shower and bed! Good night, honey! Love you!

Hey Babe!
Another good night sleep, then got busy today, had a lot to do. Did two loads of laundry and my housekeeping, then started putting some stuff away, and did some computer work. The parking lot was busy all day today, must have been a dozen trailers or more coming and going all day. Popular place! Chatted with some folks, sold a book to a woman who I met at Hungerford who said she wanted one, did some more packing. I took Lola for a walk on the final trail I hadn’t GPSed here, which was about half a mile loop north of the camp. Wasn’t worth the effort to saddle a horse, so we just took a nice easy walk, took less than 15 minutes, so at least that’s done. Settled down for dinner and another Jack Ryan episode, still taking forever to load up. I sure hope the next place has a better signal, though I had a good signal at the last place and it didn’t help. I’m thinking that whenever Verizon updates they download a bunch of crap I don’t need or use, and it’s taking up so much space that it won’t run efficiently. We’ll see! Anyway, getting to bed early, since I’ll be getting up early. We have a long drive tomorrow, I’m going to Youngs Creek in Southern, IN, about 350 miles, but it’s almost all freeway so it shouldn’t be to bad. Off to my shower! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Well it was pretty hot last night, and I slept better, but still not as well as I would like. I may have put a little too much air in the bed, but I let it go another night and see how it goes. It was cloudy when I got up, and rain came in around 9:30, which put me in a lazy mood. I started writing an article for the MTRA, read some, then binge-watched some Jack Ryan episodes in the afternoon. Had a couple of different blasts of rain, heavy downpours, and one storm had rumbling thunder for more than 20 minutes before it hit me. It was so strange to listen to, it wasn’t just an occasional round of thunder, it was a constant, never quiting, just rolling along. Lola is either losing her hearing or she’s finally getting used to thunderstorms, because the last few that we’ve been through, she’s hardly reacted to, not trying to crawl under the back of my chair like she used to. She still seems to hear me okay, so I’m hoping it’s the latter. Anyway, a very uneventful day, and I was glad the horses were under cover during the storms. Found some hay about 20 minutes away, so I’m going to pick up ten bales tomorrow, then ride in the afternoon. It seems there are more trails open to horses than I thought out here, so I’m going to have to get busy riding the next few days in order to cover them all! Temps are a bit cooler tonight, so I’m hoping for a good night sleep. Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Didn’t bother to set the alarm, but was still awake by 7:00, up and move about 45 minutes later. Didn’t feel hungry so I skipped breakfast and started packing up. Even though I hadn’t packed much ahead of time, I was still out of the horse camp before 9:00. The drive to Fort Custer was along a lot of country roads and lake sides, but it was only about 30 miles by road, and I took my time. Arrived before 10:00, then spent about an hour at the dump rinsing out my black water tank and filling up all my fresh water tanks. Once again, this is a camp with 1st century AD technology, just a hand pump, unfortunately, but it’s not too far to the people camp where I can fill up again later in the week when I need. to. Arrived at the horse camp before noon, and discovered they had some pens with ShelterLogic roofs on them, so at least there was a little shade. The rest of the campground is wide open, so naturally I got out my solar panel as soon as I could. Got set up pretty quickly, then stopped to cool off for awhile. Really hot today, in the 90’s, and worst because there’s no shade for me and Lola, so I just sat and read for awhile, too hot to do anything else. Then I checked on my packages and found that my bed had arrived at the post office, which was only about a mile from the entrance to the camp, so I ran in and picked it up. Got back to camp and started putting the adapters in that I needed. The mattress is the perfect fit! Then I discovered that the adapter for hooking it to the pump wasn’t going to work, that I would need some kind of tube to connect the two things together, so I ran back into town to the only store there, which wasn’t the general store that was advertised on the outside, but rather a discount palette store. Just as I arrived, though, an Amazon truck showed up at the post office with my second package, which was a remote for the TV. Two nights ago it wouldn’t work, so I ordered a new one (it had inadvertenly gone through the wash, but seemed okay afterward, at first), then last night it worked just fine! Go figure! I think the stupid smart TV was updating and that’s why it wasn’t responding, so now I have a spare remote. The palette store didn’t have what I needed, but I did buy a pair of sunglasses for five bucks, my other ones have been getting pretty scratched. So I drove east to a hardware store a few miles away, but they didn’t have what I needed either, and they sent me a few more miles down the road to a full fledged Do-It-Best store that had exactly the tubing I needed. Stopped for fuel (diesel has gone up a bunch in the last few weeks for some reason), got back to camp a started putting the rest of the adapters together. Had a little problem and had to call Airbeds Unlimited, (Michael has been fantastic with support!), and we got it worked out, and before long, I had a full air mattress! Yay! This one has a 25 year warranty, so hopefully this will be the last bed I’ll ever need. Can’t wait to try it out! Of course, by the time I got finished putting it all back together, I was sweating like a pig, and the night isn’t going to cool down much, so I may not sleep as well as I would like. Anyway, time for a cold shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Slept late this morning and missed saying goodbye to the Gypsy Girls, they got out really early. By mid-day most of the campers were gone anyway, so I ended up putting Apollo on his long line and let Flash wander, they enjoyed grazing. I did a load of laundry and did my housekeeping, then spent the afternoon either reading or on the computer, mostly downloading pix that Leah had taken (the signal is still so slow here, I was hoping when folks left the bandwidth would open up, and finally did around 7:00, so I got to watch a little TV at last) and finishing my bookkeeping exercise from the other day. Put a few things away, but not much, as this next trip has to truly be the shortest one ever, just 25 miles, about 45 minutes supposedly. The next spot has no shade and apparently no grass, so tomorrow is going to be a hot one for everybody! Back in the low 90’s here! But there’s a cold front coming in Wednesday night, so the rest of the week looks nice. Like I said, a quiet day! Not much else tell! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Woke up before 4:00 this morning for some reason, only got a little bit of sleep after that, so I was feeling a bit tired today. That was fine, since I wasn’t going to ride today, and didn’t have much else planned, except to fill up the truck water tank, which I did in the afternoon. Then I nodded off my chair before dinner! The Gypsy Girls asked me over for dinner, and I made some Spanish rice to go along with their stackable dinner, which was layers of Fritos, beans, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. and had a very enjoyable meal with them and their friend Alaina, who’s in the process of gentling a BLM mustang she adopted less than two years ago. Had a nice chat, then headed back to the trailer to settle in for the evening. A nice quiet day, though camp was very full, and busy, but no drama in the least! Looking forward to a nice ride tomorrow. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
While I had all good intentions to take Apollo for a ride today, in the end, that didn’t happen. Instead I did a few repairs, including JBWelding the knob on the generator door and doing some refrigerator cleanup, but most of the day I spent trying to order a new air mattress for my bed. I once again woke up with a flat mattress, and couldn’t find the leak, though frankly, I’m tired of looking, and since the baffling is starting to pop on my side, it’s time to just replace the two chamber system with a single one. Since they don’t make this size very much anymore, at least in vinyl, I spent the day trying to work out how to make the one mattress I could find that fit work with the pump I already have. It required a lot of conversation with several different people, and in the end, it seems like I’ve found the solution, but we didn’t quite get far enough to actually order it today. Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll be able to do that. The problem, of course, is the delivery time and where to ship it, which is always the challenge, though the advantage is that I’ll be at a state park for the next ten plus days, and since they have a manned entrance (as opposed to most places that don’t), I should be able to arrange for them to accept the package for me, providing they can get it to me in time. That’s where we ended up leaving it by the end of day. I did let Apollo and Flash graze for awhile, so at least they got out of their pens. I also pulled out that old drill pump that we bought so many years ago (back in 2010, so my diary says!), because the front end of the trailer is so much higher than the truck tank that gravity isn’t working very well to transfer water, I thought that might be an option. The battery drill didn’t work, but I got out the power drill and that did work, with the trick being the drill had to be below the waterline, and it would shove that up to the tank inlet. I didn’t fill it completely, but I did enough so I can take showers and do a load of laundry tomorrow. I have to take the truck in for an alignment tomorrow, so I’ll fill it with water again on my way back in, and I should be set for the rest of the week, hopefully. Anyway, it wasn’t the day I planned, but hopefully it will all work out. Settled down for the evening to dinner and a Hallmark movie, headed to shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
I let myself sleep in a little, but it didn’t take too long to get packed up and moving by just after 10:00. I made a stop at Tractor Supply just south of Grand Rapids for Flash’s horse feed, (they apparently don’t carry Perform at the Big Rapids TC anymore!), and picked up some longer bolts for the awning, though I’m not sure they’ll fit. Arrived at camp before noon, though I missed the turn to the dump, so that will have to wait until the next camp. I was a bit concerned about having enough room in here, because on their reservation website they limit the trailer size to 40′ (I’m 47′), but when I got it there were cleary plenty of places long enough for me, and fortunately, the spot I chose was one of them. It also has a corral, so I’m sure the horses will be glad to not have to wear halters for awhile. Didn’t take me too long to set up, then I went over to my nearest neighbors, Amanda and Cameron, and they filled me in on some of the details. The only have a hand pump here in camp, but they have fresh water over at the people camp’s dump station, and they were just on their way over there anyway, so they led me there. I also checked in on the way back, so I’m all taken care of! They ended up buying a book, which was nice, and said they might come back in the next few days to ride and chat again. Then I got online to make an appointment for an alignment, it’s been pushed back to Thursday, which was fine, except I was about out of dry dog food, plus I had a book order online, so I packed that up and ran to the nearest post office, which is only about 10 minutes away, and took care of that. Family Dollar had the dog food as well as some LA’s Awesome Cleaner, which I’ve been wanting to get to clean my now working awning. Got back just as they were leaving, then I settled down to dinner and a Big Valley. It’s a beautiful evening, perfect temps, mid 70’s to mid 50’s at night, low humidity, no rain, absolutely stunning! I’ve been so fortunate to have such good weather this whole summer, it’s been fabulous. Anyway, movie, shower, bed, loving life! Love you, sweetheart! Good night!