Hey Sweetie,
Up a little bit earlier, though not much, finish my packing and was on the road by just after 10:00. Arrived at the commercial horse camp, Come Again Horse Camp, between Leavenworth and Corydon, IN near the O’Bannon State Park around 11:30. No one in the office but they had a whiteboard up with everyone’s name on their respective sites, so I headed on down and got myself settled in. Wasn’t there long before the owners showed up to greet me and take care of business, seemed very nice. They have hitching posts here, but I asked if I could put up a highline between two big trees on my site and they said that was fine. Got everyone settled, then headed out to do some necessary shopping. Was disappointed when the local Tractor Supply had NO Nutrena senior feed, I ended up having to get a bag of Purina, though I hate to change them that suddenly, since I’m almost completely out of other feed. Did some grocery shopping at Walmart, then headed down to a farm to pick up some hay that I found through Facebook Marketplace, which is my go-to way of finding hay on the road these days. Annette had some nice bales of mixed grass and clover, $6 for small bales, but it smells good and I know the horses will like it. Got back to camp by 5:00 to find Trish and her friends Doug and Chris had arrived and set up in my absence. Once I got the groceries put away I mixed myself a wine cooler and joined them. Doug is a great camp cook, and he fed me fabulously, glad I didn’t have to make my own dinner or clean up, either! It’s Chris’ birthday, so we had spice cupcakes for dessert, so decadent! Two more trailers full of Trish’s friends showed up around sunset, so we’ll have a full house on the trail tomorrow. Should be interesting! Left the group around 8:30, heading to my shower and bed early, we have an early start tomorrow, a planned 20 mile ride, so the alarm is going on tonight! Good night, Babe! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
A better night sleep, having had Sleepytime tea and a couple of ibuprofen to soften the throbbing in my thumb, though I was woken up after 2:00 by some whinnying. At first I thought it was Flash, and he only whinnies when Apollo escapes, but it sounded like it wasn’t near the highline, and I could just see Flash standing there. Then I caught sight of another white horse, and remembered the neighbors here telling me they had a white horse that escapes once in a while, so I figured it had to be her. She went right up to Flash and squealed a few times. Evidently she spent most of the night here, because when I spoke to the neighbors later in the day, they said he came and got her around 6:00 this morning. They were quiet after their initial meeting, so I gratefully went back to sleep for the duration. Later in the morning, I got a phone call from an old friend I hadn’t seen in nearly 40 years, John, a guy that I worked with at the radio station in West Palm Beach way back when you and I first met. I don’t know if you ever met him, he was half of a morning comedy team, and they were hired away to a station in Birmingham while I was there. The other half was a friend of Richie’s (my former boyfriend before you!), and that’s how I got hired there in the first place. Anyway, we had a long talk, getting caught up. So strange to talk to someone you met at the beginning of your career, then hook up again after that career is all but over! Life is too darned short! Why he decided to look me up I have no idea, but it was an interesting conversation. He lives in Michigan and winters in Florida, so maybe we’ll get together in person when I get down there. Anyway, spent most of the rest of the day sitting in my chair outside and working on turning my Shore to Shore pix into little movies. I have the hang of the program now, so it’s been pretty easy, it just takes time to find the right music and put the pieces together. My current plan is to get my Equicamping YouTube channel up and running again, and try to get enough subscribers to get a few sponsors. It’s been awhile since I’ve done anything creative, and I’ve been enjoying the process. I let the horses graze most of the day, after a day rider came and went, then I took Apollo for a walk around the campground so he could stretch his legs a little. Didn’t get around to riding him today, hoping to do that tomorrow for a bit. Of course, Flash followed us around like a puppy off-leash, and we found some nice long grass so I let them munch for awhile. Settled down for the evening to dinner and a little TV, now it’s time for shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie,
Well, forget what I said yesterday about sleeping well, I couldn’t get to sleep last for the longest time! Woke up tired this morning. Managed to get two loads of laundry done, and a tiny bit of housework, but unfortunately, I hurt myself when I was putting up the clothesline. Somehow, I managed to jam two long splinters right under the nail of my right thumb, so deep they were within a quarter of an inch of the bottom of the nail. Needless to say, it was extremely painful! I had to cut my nail down at the top so that I could reach the splinters with tweezers, which was hard to do with my left hand, and it still took me awhile to be able to grab it and pull them out, one at a time, and it hurt like crazy. I was happy to get them out, even though it took some time and patience. Well, almost all of it came out, there’s still a tiny piece at the bottom that didn’t, but there’s no way to get it out without taking my whole nail off, so I’m just going to keep an eye on it and hope it doesn’t get infected, I figure it will work itself out eventually, though it may take a couple of months. I soaked it in alcohol, and I’ll take some painkillers before bed, but every time I use my right thumb (which is for almost everything!), it hurts. Anyway, while the laundry was drying, I worked on taking all my Shore to Shore pictures and turning them into a video with a nice music background, day by day. I managed to get five done today, it took me awhile to learn the editing program, but it’s pretty straightforward now. Well, that was my day, ready for shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a pretty lazy day in camp today. Looked at the power mirror switch on the truck, trying to figure out if it’s a bad switch or a bad motor. I’m pretty sure it’s the switch, but I need someone to listen to the mirror on the far side to see if it’s trying to engage, I can’t hear it over the motor on my side. But several things don’t work on the switch correctly, like the actual adjuster, works on the far side, not the near side. The extender motor works on the near side and not the far side. Problem is that switch is hard to find for some reason. Up until 2002, the switch is about 11 bucks. In 2003, all I can find is the entire door power control system, which is upwards of $150! I’m still looking, though, hoping to find something. So I spent a lot of time on the computer today. Gorgeous day, though, perfect weather! Though we did have a little unforecasted rain a few minutes ago. Finally, some other horse campers showed up, a couple and their young daughter, and they just got a new horse trailer and are not very experienced, so I gave them some pointers about their highline and a few other things. They bought a book, figuring it would help them out as well. Managed to watch a few more Jack Ryan episodes (almost done!) miraculously with no interruptions. Not sure what I did on my phone, but something has suddenly improved, and happy for it! There was another family here, looked like a family reunion, and Lola ended up going over there and keeping a bunch of kids entertained, wore her out, fortunately! Ready for shower and bed and another good night sleep! Love you, sweetheart! Good night!

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!