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!

Hiya Sweetie,
Had a good night sleep, did my chores, then got busy with all the packing and extra little jobs that always accumulate when I stay in one place for a while. Did a load of laundry, did some housekeeping while the generator was on, moved the books from the truck to the back of the trailer, cleaned out the back of the trailer since it’s been over three months since I’ve had to carry two horses, sewed up Apollo’s feed bag, which he’s already managed to chew a hole in big enough to start losing feed, filled up his feed container, restrung the chair with baling twine since the stuff I used before broke already, and generally just put stuff away throughout the day. I waved at everyone leaving, Jody came by and chatted for awhile (and bought a book!), then Chris and Mervin came by and visited for awhile. After they left, I lined up the truck, did a little more packing, had dinner, and settled down for the evening. It’s a short drive tomorrow, so I’m not too worried about leaving early, so I left a few things to be done tomorrow. Watched a movie, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
A restful night, the usual chores, then I got busy getting the new motor into the awning. I managed to do it on my own, wasn’t sure I’d be able to, but didn’t really have a problem. I did pop a screw that connects the awning to the RV, and the other one was evidently missing, so I’ll need to get a couple bigger and/or longer ones to replace them. Debated whether to do that today or tomorrow, but I was in a lazy mood and the day slipped by. I did manage to update my website for book orders, now that I have new books, and that took awhile. After that, I just ended up watching a couple of movies, having a chicken burrito and relaxing the whole day. Didn’t even feel much like riding today, it was pretty hot and humid, so just a day off! I’ll get busy the rest of the weekend, a lot of folks coming out again, apparently, some that want to ride with me, so I’ll have company. Anyway, enough said, heading for shower and bed. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Slept late this morning, after not getting to sleep until very late last night, so my internal clock is getting a little screwed up. Happy to report that my air mattress stayed up, yay! I’ve been waking up on the bottom of the floor, but it seems to be fixed for now. I killed some time until 1:00, then went into town to pick up some things, stopping at the post office because I had an Amazon package being delivered there, General Delivery, like I’ve done many times before at many post office, but for some reason, the clerk there gave me a hard time. She claimed they NEVER accept packages for delivery services, despite it being addressed to General Delivery. I explained that I’ve done it many times before, and couldn’t see the problem. She said they hadn’t received any packages for me anyway, so I left. I finished my errands, then went over to my friend’s Chris and Mervin, who looked after Apollo while I was gone all summer. When I got there, I checked with Amazon and found that my package had since been delivered, so Merv and I went into town to go retrieve it, and something at the pharmacy for Chris. When I walked in and asked about my package, the clerk told me that yes, they had received it, but the Postmaster had instructed her to mark the package Return to Sender! WHAT??? She said that they don’t accept deliveries because, according to the postmaster, they can’t track whether the recipient has actually received the package, because they don’t have a USPS tracking number. What BS!! If someone sent me a first class letter to General Delivery, they wouldn’t be able to guarantee that either, so what’s the difference?? I couldn’t believe my ears!! I told her I’ve done this many times all across the country, and no post office has every questioned me about it, and she might want to straighten her Postmaster out. I mean, I’d already stopped by there, they knew I was expecting a package, and they STILL think they have to be able to guarantee delivery? How ridiculous! I finally just put my hand out and said, “Just give me the package,” and she finally went and got it. Thank goodness I didn’t wait until tomorrow to go back and pick it up (I was considering it!), or it would probably be gone already. I’ve had problems with this post office before, but I never imagined they would be this stupid about this. Anyway, it was my awning motor, so that will be my job in the morning. We went back to their house and had a nice dinner (breakfast for dinner!), I picked up my order of books, which I had wisely had sent to their house, so now I’m flush with books again, and got back to camp before 7:00, fed the horses and settled down for the evening. Very warm today, not cooling off too fast, so I ran the AC for a bit, taking a cool shower tonight! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
Started slow this morning, and after chores and breakfast I tackled what turned out to be the only job I ended up doing today, finding the leak in the air mattress. It was right next to where the last leak was, along the seam, so I glued it all up with my old reliable Air Stop, two thick layers throughout the day. Once I got that done (you know what a pain it is to get down to the mattress with all the layers on top!), I realized I was in just a plain lazy mood. It was cloudy, and supposed to rain a couple of times during the day (it didn’t), so I just decided to make it a movie day. Watched a couple of movies, had some popcorn, and generally just took a day off. After dinner, I finally put the bed back together again, a hot and tiring exercise, but managed to get it done. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the baffling is going on my side of the bed at the feet end (it’s already done that on your side of the bed), so this mattress is truly on it’s way out. I did some research on it, and absolutely no one makes an air mattress that will fit in the space as it is now, and I’m not really interested in a memory foam mattress, too many bad reviews and not enough flexibility. I’m thinking I can get a twin air mattress, which I can fit in if I move the existing foam side frames around a bit. That may be my only alternative, unless things change by the time I need it. Anyway, that was the extent of my day! Good news, my next batch of books has been shipped and is arriving tomorrow, yay! Was worried they wouldn’t come in time, but they’ll be, unless Fedex screws up again, like they usually do. At least they’re being delivered to a house, so they better get it right! Also, my new motor for the awning should arrive at the post office tomorrow as well, so I’ll have my work cut out for me once I pick up my deliveries. Well, enough talk, I’m ready for my shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
Got up early with the alarm, did chores quickly and went up to pavilion to help do a few preparations for the Poker Run. Once I finished that, I headed into the hardware store to get a screw on this awning motor tapped out, and Ernie did a great job in just a few minutes. He didn’t have a replacement screw, so I headed down to the Ace Hardware and managed to find some long threaded screws that fit. Got back and went to work. After numerous attempts throughout the afternoon to fix it, and after stripping out a few more screws, I decided the best thing was to just buy a new motor. Hate to do it, but hey, it’s 12 years old, so I can’t expect it to last forever, especially considering how often I use it! Anyway, at 2:00 I went back to the pavilion for the the final awards, seems they did pretty well this year! “Eagle Eyes” Sam from the Shore to Shore was here, nice to see her again! Spent some time down at Sheila’s fire, now I’m ready for bed and shower. Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hiya Baby,
Woke up to the sound of thunder around 7:30, rain came in quickly and stuck around for quite awhile. Good news, I took my truck down to Ken’s, who’s only about a mile down the road, and dropped it off, and by 2:00, it was done! New steering box, and he only charged me $100 in labor, and the parts were just over $300, so a far cry from what those ripoff artists at Quality wanted. Yay! I did more research on tires and finally decided on a brand called Falken, which is better known in motorsports circles, but is getting a good reputation with the average consumer now. They scored better than most other brands, and they’re a heckuva lot cheaper than the Michelins, which have aged out before they’ve worn out, so I didn’t figure I needed to spend that much again. I’m not really doing the miles that we used to do, basically just from Florida to up north and back once a year, not a lot in between, and these are supposed to be nice and quiet on the highway, but built tough enough for gravel roads as well. High marks for towing, too. We’ll see! Also did some research on the awning motor. I’ve decided to take it out and tear it apart to see if I can see what’s wrong with it, I’ve read it could be as simple as a stripped screw or gear, figured I’d check that first. I can get a whole motor assembly in just a couple of days, so it’s worth it to check it out. Hung out with Sheila and her growing gang at the campfire for a bit, but I have a busy day tomorrow so I came back early, having my Sleepytime tea, soon to take my shower and go to bed early! Good night, sweetie! Love you!