I decided that I didn't want to leave here without getting at least one ride in, so I decided to saddle up Apollo early today and do a nice 7 miles loop, part of which is on the Sheltowee Trace Trail. Poor Apollo has been so neglected I decided he needed a change of pace, and he seemed absolutely delighted to get back on the trail again! He practically at the bit right out of my hand he was so eager to go! Even though the temps were already over 80 by the time we left, it dropped as soon as we hit the shade of the woods, and dropped some more as we headed up the long gradual climb to the top of the ridge. What a lovely ride! Some of the trail had a bit of gravel, mostly pea-size, but a lot was just dirt and a few areas of mud because of the afternoon thundershowers we've been having this week. Apollo behaved brilliantly! I had put his boots on, and he shook them off a couple of times, until I finally just took them off and hung them from my saddle, as they were surplus to requirement anyway. The Trace went right along the summit ridge line, which was about 10 yards wide most of the time, so the hillside dropped away from the trail on both sides, creating lovely views on both sides of the mountain. It was a long gradual climb and descent, nothing too dramatic, fortunately, and the whole ride was delightful. So glad I decided to take Apollo, he absolutely loved it! Out for a bit more than 2 hours, covering nearly 7 miles, so relaxing on him. I'd almost forgotten how relaxed I am when I ride him, no drama, just a loose rein and off he goes, following the trail without any guidance at all. With Flash, I still have to practically steer him around every turn. He just hasn't quite got the knack of trail riding yet, but I'm sure he will! Got back, got cooled off, had a quick breakfast, then got Hubby ready for another attempt at dialysis today. This one went much better, got better needle insertion and mostly better numbers, though he started feeling poorly toward the end, but managed to hang on until the appointed time. While we were dialyzing, though, I managed to get a good enough signal to watch an old classic on Amazon Prime, where we chose a movie about Daniel Boone, seeing that we're in his neck of the woods, and it was there we learned that Sheltowee was actually the Indian name that Daniel Boone had been given by the Shawnee Chief Blackfish, meaning Big Turtle. The whole trail actually runs 323 miles from Big South Fork in Tennessee up to Rowan County, KY. Well, at least I can say a did a few miles on it! We finally got settled down for the evening, sitting out in the screen room waiting for it to cool down, which it didn't until the middle of the night. Sorry to say that one of our neighbors had a big generator out last night, that they left on all night, and I'm guessing the same thing will happen tonight, darn it. Well, that's the beauty of living on the road, if you don't like what your neighbor is doing, you can either get up and leave or wait for them to do the same! I don't expect this group to stay much longer anyway, so I guess we'll wait them out. Hope it's a bit cooler tomorrow, but not counting on it!
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