Hey Babe!
Up with the alarm, packed up and ready to leave by just after 8:00, with a little help from Mike who generously offered to do my site cleanup, which saved me a good ten minutes. Took a wrong turn out of camp, though, and ended up in a parking lot where I had to turn around. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but I think I over-torqued one of the tires in the process, because just north of Ft. Wayne, I had a major blowout. I heard it go just as I was approaching an exit, so I pulled off and stopped asap, because I knew the weight was too much for a single tire, and I didn’t want to blow a second one! I tried to loosen the lug nuts, but it was too tight and the tire was so shredded that it would spin around when I put force on it, so I called Progressive and they got me road service within half an hour. Meanwhile, I took out the spare and lined up the Jiffy Jack, so we were able to make short work of it once he got there. Of course, the spare only had about 70 psi in it because it’s such a tight fit on the rack, but he pulled out a little Milwaukee inflator that actually got it almost all the way up to 125 before the battery ran out. I had one other tire that was a little low, I was hoping to get that filled, but there was a Pilot at that exit, so after we finished the job (no charge to me, yay Progressive!), I pulled into Pilot looking for air, couldn’t find it, but managed to sweet talk a passing Goodyear tire repair truck into topping it off for me. I got the impression he just hangs around at the truck stop to pick up work there, it was VERY busy there! Anyway, I was on the road again with only about an hour delay, and the rest of the trip was uneventful. Unfortunately, when the tire blew, it took out a big chunk of the wheel well, which also serves as the bottom of my storage compartments, so I’m going to have to find a welder or repairman to fix it. It also blew out the wiring that works the trailer brakes, so they didn’t work either! I’m hoping I can fix that myself. After paying $1100 to get them fixed a few weeks ago, I’m ticked that I had to drive all day with no brakes! Fortunately, it was pretty flat driving all the way, and I only had one “bucking” problem when there was a sudden traffic jam at some construction near Grand Rapids. Arrived safely at Hungerford, was a bit surprised at how many sites were taken on a Monday! And unfortunately the site I was planning on taking, which is the easiest for me to get into, was closed for “safety” reasons, so I had to find another one. Tried one, couldn’t make it, but did finally find one I could get into easy enough. The challenge is all the trees that are close to the road, my rig just doesn’t have enough room to avoid them, so I need to find one with lots of open space on both sides of the road. Anyway, I got the highlines up, though I let the horses graze for awhile, there was some nice fresh grass scattered around. Got set up, went down and got some water in the truck tank and got the horses water filled up. Heated up leftovers for dinner, put the horses to bed (naturally, they wanted to keep grazing. They really don’t like the hay I got for them in TN), and settled down for the evening, with a long list of things to do tomorrow, none of which include riding, but they probably need to rest anyway, after so many hours of bumpy roads. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Darlin’!
Very quiet here but still didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked! After chores and breakfast, I hooked the horses onto the hitching rail (much as I hated to do that!) and was just about to head out to town (Wabash) to do some shopping when the ranger (Amanda) came by. Not surprising, I was told, in a nice way, that my portable fence was too expansive and I would have to reduce it. Not unexpected, but disappointing. She was very nice about it though. Also asked about the big divots my trailer made in the soft ground, told here I would be fixing it. After she left, I headed out to town, first to find a notary (a nice guy named Terry at the local Merchants Bank), then Tractor Supply for horse feed and propane, then Walmart for basics, though I’m sorry to say they sold liquor inside the store and I splurged on a bottle bourbon, then back to the park with a stop at the office to buy an Indiana Horse Pass, a necessity here, though only $20 for an annual pass. Got back to camp, put all the groceries away, moved the fence around (though I let the horses loose with Apollo on an anchor, so they got to graze all afternoon), chatted with a local rider who stopped by for awhile, then finally settled in for the evening, with plans to ride tomorrow. It started out raining this morning but cleared up this afternoon, supposed to be cooler tomorrow, but lots of sun! Another beautiful day of living! Love you and miss you, my darlin’! Good night!

Hi Babe,
Up good and early, as planned, though I had trouble getting to sleep last night, so not as many hours as I like to get, but c’est la vie! Managed to get to get everything packed, finished the dump and get the horses loaded, pulling out just before 8:00 Central. Just barely got around the barn (by inches!), but was on my way right on schedule. One stop south of Indianapolis to get fuel (the price jumped to nearly $4/gallon for some inexplicable reason), but the rest was all uneventful. Arrived right on schedule at 3:00 Eastern, had a little trouble finding a spot long enough (what else is new!), but finally got in one, though I created some fairly deep tire tracks on the corner that I’ll have to try to repair (once my foot gets better.) I forgot that the “horse containment” here is metal hitching posts (my LEAST favorite system), but I ready all the rules and they didn’t say no portable fences, so I put up mine. Unfortunately my solar charger doesn’t seem to have any juice in it, so hopefully they don’t escape tonight, though there isn’t really any reason for them to go very far, there’s a lot of lovely grass and clover around the campground. Fingers crossed it gets enough sun to get charged up a bit tomorrow, though the forecast is cloudy skies. Finally finished up getting set up around 5:30, did a little Facebooking, had some soup for dinner, watched a rom/com movie, heading for my shower and bed and an early night, much cooler, but should be great sleeping weather! Looking forward to a fairly peaceful week there, though I have several friends who might join me for riding one day. Should be fun! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Well, after two days of hard riding, I was looking forward to a more relaxing day today. I still got up fairly early, since I’m trying to stay on Eastern time (it’s central here, but I’ll be back in Eastern tomorrow), had breakfast, started some laundry, and finally decided on which Mammoth Cave tour I was going to take. I really wanted to go on the self-guided walking tour, because I’m still limping and I didn’t want to slow the group down, but they weren’t doing it, so I had to go on the guided tour that followed the same route. I was limited to how far I could walk and how many stairs I could climb as well, so I was trying to not do anything too strenuous. If I had known how ridiculous the “Passage Tour” was, I wouldn’t have bothered! Their 1:15, .75 mile tour was a joke! There was literally nothing to see. Two large open caverns that were reached by, I kid you not, patio pave stones. There was absolutely nothing of interest to see along the way. The ranger was a tall, long-legged young man who walked so fast even the healthy folks had trouble keeping up with him (I had been assured the tour would be slower, but that was not the case), then we’d arrive at a spot (which didn’t seem to have any real focal point of interest) where he’ talk too long about the general history, but mostly make really pathetic jokes, poorly delivered. The .75 is round trip, so the actual walk is nothing. I’ve never been on a tour of any kind that was that boring. No colored rocks, no stalagmites or stalactites, no dripping water, nothing. One tiny bat that looked like a black spot on the wall, and only because someone asked about them and the ranger managed to find one on the way back. Nothing enlightening whatsoever. In fact, the highlight of my trip over was taking the Green River ferry back and forth, and diverting over to the Maple Springs trailhead and Group Camp, just to see what they looked like. I was surprised to find that the group camp actually had electricity at every site! No one was there, though, not surprisingly. Got back to camp about 1:00, and was atypically hungry for some reason, so I made my “dinner” early, then took a nap for an hour, before getting busy doing a little housework and packing up as much as I could. Need a pretty early start tomorrow, it’s 300+ miles (mostly freeway, though, fortunately), plus I lose an hour changing time zones. I’ve managed to line up the truck tonight, Kristen the owner said it would be fine to block that part of the driveway, everyone can get around. We moved a picnic table and a swing, just to make sure I had good clearance. The dump is on the wrong side of the road, so I’ll have to pull out then back up to it, then swing all the way around the barn to exit. No biggie, plenty of room and gravel so I shouldn’t have a problem, just have to consider all that as I’m leaving in the morning. It was a great stay here, these folks are so much friendlier than either of the other two horse camps here, and I’m so glad I had a chance to stay with them. That’s it for today, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’,
Got up just before the alarm and got busy. Everything took long because I was still hobbling around, though I started using the beautiful walking stick of yours, and that helped a lot. Had just about everything packed up, horses in, all set except for hooking up, and I had already pretty much lined it up last night. When I started to drop it, though, I found I had to move the truck forward a bit, which I did, and then I started dropping it onto the ball. Just as it got on the ball, my finger slipped off the switch, and suddenly, it wouldn’t work again, no power. I figured the voltage was low, so I had to start up the generator (which meant getting out the jump starter from inside the trailer) and turning on the charger. Usually that works right away, but this time it didn’t. I expect that was because I left the inverter on last night and the batteries got really low, so I had to let it sit for awhile to charge enough. I was beginning to think there was a more serious problem, and was getting discouraged, when it finally kicked in and I was able to finish connecting. I would have really been in a pickle if I had a worse problem, since I couldn’t get the jacks up or down, and I was halfway on the hitched… what a mess! Thank goodness it sorted itself out. Anyway, instead of getting out at 8:30, I was leaving right at 9:00, which was fine, at least I missed all the Chattanooga rush hour traffic. The rest of the trip was uneventful, thank goodness, and my brakes are working better than I think they ever have, so I was gaining a lot of confidence. I was still being extra careful, of course, but it felt a lot more secure. Stopped once for fuel at Exit 6 in KY, found a truck stop that had diesel for just $3.29 a gallon, where the other chain truck stops were all at $3.95! Pays to shop around with that much of a difference. Made it to the new camp at 2:15 Central time, but it took awhile to get set up, because of my hobbling. No one was here, but Kristen had already told me which site to take. I’m a bit too long for it, so I had to unhook the truck, and the jacks worked fine this time, happily. Maybe I do get a bit of power from the truck, I didn’t think I did. Anyway, I got the horses settled into their stalls, played with Lola a bit, got in touch with Trish and her friends about when and where we’re meeting tomorrow, and settled down for the evening doing a couple of loads of laundry. Forecast says rain tomorrow, so we’ll likely get wet, but at least I’ll finally get to ride the trails at Mammoth Cave! Another one off my bucket list, if all goes well tomorrow! My foot feels better this evening, and when I unwrapped it, I noticed that the bruising had started, but only up around my toes, I’ve managed to compress the rest of my foot enough, so far, to avoid that. I’ll wrap it again and try to get it closer to my toes. I hadn’t realized that’s where it was centered, it felt more like on the top of my foot. Anyway, time for my Sleepytime tea, shower and bed! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
I had every intention of going riding today, but when I started moving around today, my back was in serious pain. Even taking three Tylenols didn’t touch it. I must have twisted it somehow in the last couple of days. It’s the kind of pain that isn’t too bad unless you sneeze or twist just the wrong way, then it completely spasms. Since I couldn’t ride, I decided to try to clean out the water tank in the truck, it had a lot of algae in it and considering I’ve been using that for the horses, and once for me, I decided it needed to be done. I don’t have a working pressure washer anymore, so I had to do the best I could with just a regular hose nozzle. I moved down to a spigot that didn’t leak so I could get maximum pressure, and rinsed it out as best I could before filling it up again. Moving as slow as I was, it took me till past noon before I finished that, plus putting a bit more in the trailer to get me through my departure on Thursday morning. Spent the rest of the afternoon in my outdoor gravity chair, which is the most comfortable for that kind of back pain, and read practically an entire book, though I did doze off occasionally. I got a call from a gal named Julie who heard I was looking for someone to ride with, she’s going to pick Flash and me up in the morning and take me to some of the trail over on Starr Mountain. Looking forward to that! Hoping all this rest today has done me some good, but I’ll definitely be taking some Tylenol in the morning, just as a precaution. Started on my next series binge, the old Big Valley series, which I remember I always liked as a kid, and of course, it’s got lots of horses in it, so there’s that! Done with my day! Shower and bed next! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a lot of rain overnight and into the morning, and a lot in the afternoon, too, until it finally cleared up and I was able to get my solar panel in the sun for a couple of hours. Spend most of the morning just working on applying for my union pension, managed to get most of it done, though it seems one page has to be notarized, so now I’ll have to find someplace local where I can do that. So a relaxing day, didn’t do much. Had a little ache in my hip, maybe from some sleeping position or something, so it felt good to rest it. Watched a good movie, and finished off the final few episodes of Remington Steele, going to be looking for a new series now. So, a relatively lazy day! I put Apollo out on an anchor for a bit, had to go looking for a lost anchor that came off his rope, but it was pretty easy to follow the drag marks in the dirt and grass until I found it. Nice change for him. That’s about all there was today, pretty quiet! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hiya Sweetie!
I made plans to me our old friend Michele today, she’s driving up from Atlanta back to Monteagle and we decided to meet for brunch, though that turned out to be lunch as she was late getting started. Her aunt Joyce, who you worked with in Cincinnati all those years ago, passed away unexpectedly a few days ago, and they had the memorial today down there. After breakfast and chores, though, I decided to try to solve a water leak issue. Whenever I’ve got the pump on the fresh water tank, it’s been running every few minutes, which, of course, told me there was a leak somewhere, and I search for it a couple of times, looking for puddles under every plumbing joint in the trailer, but couldn’t find anything. Then the other day I finally pinpointed it to the outside spigot, which was good news inasmuch as I didn’t have to worry about floors or walls rotting through, which was my biggest concern. I decided to spend a little time seeing if I could fix it, so that’s exactly what I did. Didn’t take long, just had to cut a rough edge of the end and replace the clamp with a newer, smaller one, and the pump hasn’t run all day, so I guess it worked! I headed over to the restaurant, which was just five minutes away, just after 1:00, wasn’t sure exactly what time Michele would be there, and she arrived awhile later. Then we chatted and ate (Shepherd’s pie) and chatted some more, then came over to camp and chatted some more while Lola entertained us with her usual fetching game. It was 6:30 by the time she left, and right afterward, I looked up and the sky to the east was pitch black. I pulled the truck over to the water spigot to put some water in the tank, as it was almost empty, but it was running very slowly (this pump has a big leak at the bottom), so I just let it run and came back to the trailer just before the rain started really coming down. By the time the rain was over, the tank was nearly full, so it worked out perfectly. Watched a fun little rom/com shot in Vietnam, now I’m ready for shower and bed! A very pleasant day! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Baby!
What an incredible adventure today! You would have SO LOVED this trip today! Just five minutes from the Lost Corral campground is the starting point of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Hiwassee line, which goes from Delano to a place called Copper Hill, which is right on the Georgia/Tennessee border. The first half is mostly passing through the gorgeous Cherokee National Forest along the Hiwassee River, pass dams and finally through a few small towns before arriving at Copper Hill. It includes a rare loop around the top of a mountain, the only railroad loop east of the Mississippi, and only one of four in the country. Apparently they originally built it with switchbacks, but that was unworkable, and they went bankrupt. Then it was bought out and they brought in an engineer who figured out how to loop around the mountain so the tracks actually cross over each other on a trestle. Amazing! The whole thing was narrated with the fascinating history of the area, the ride back included some bluegrass banjo, Copper Hill had an abundance of restaurants for the two hour layover, and plenty of gift shops for those prone to shopping. I had lunch at a ritzy joint called the Waterside, which had a beautiful patio overlooking the river, which changes names at that aforementioned border. In fact, the town is divided in half between TN and GA, there’s an actual blue line crossing the main street, and it goes right through a couple of restaurants and the IGA. Whose sales tax you pay depends on which side of the line the cash register sits. No kidding! Government at it’s worst, wouldn’t you say? Anyway, it was an incredible trip, definitely one for the memory book! I was in one of the first class dome cars, so I got a good view of everything, plus free snacks and beverages, and the whole experience was fantastic. Plus I met a bunch of interesting people as well. It was 6:00 by the time I got back to camp, the horses were fine, I had left them with plenty of hay, but I gave them a couple more flakes, did some cleanup, and am settling down for the evening. Great day! Love you, darlin’! Good night!

Hiya Darlin’!
What a great night of sleep! Was in bed before 10:00, didn’t take long to fall asleep, and woke up around 6:00, so I got my full 8 hours! The intense quiet here was certainly a factor! I’ll be happy to get back in the circadian rhythm of the day and night, rising and setting with the sun. Laid in and read for a bit to give it a little chance to warm up (thermometer in the back of the trailer said 41 degree), but I just put on some layers and it was all good! After breakfast, I arranged to return the brake parts, so I got those all packed up, then headed out. First stop was to drop off the packages, second stop was Tractor Supply for propane and horse feed (they actually carry the hard to find Balance!), then Walmart for a few essentials, then off to a haymaker named Tim Adams, where I bought 13 bales of hay. First time I’ve ever paid $10 for TN hay, but that’s what I’ve been paying in Florida, and the horses gotta have it, so that’s all there is to it! Got back and discovered no one had been around to fix the spigot, so that gave me more to do in the afternoon. After putting away the groceries, I then had to pull the slide in so I could back the truck up, off-loaded 8 bales into the front stall, leaving four in the truck and one I mixed with some of the old stuff and gave to the horses. Then I had to gather up some hoses and got to another spigot so I could fill up the tank. The first spigot I went to leaked like a sieve, so I ended up going to another one. Even though that one didn’t leak, it still took a long time to fill up the tank. Didn’t have enough pressure to clean the tank, and it is kind of nasty, so I made sure to put a bleach tab in my fresh water tank when I was filling it up. Good thing I don’t drink that stuff! But at least I have enough left for the horses for a few days. That all took until nearly 5:00. Cut a few stems off my mosquito plant and stuck them in a pot. I’m trying to keep it more like a bush, but it keeps wanting to grow tall like a tomato plant. Not that I’m worried about mosquitoes in these temps! Cold forecast again tonight, and even colder tomorrow night! Horses are back in their winter blankest, of course. Watched a good Helen Mirren movie, just have tea and Spanish lesson left, and it’s shower and bedtime for me! Good night, sweetie! Love you!