Monday, Dec. 9, 2019 – Marking More Trails With Jo, Women’s Christmas Party

After getting up early and trying to get the ball rolling on getting Hubby into an Interventional Radiology unit to get his fistula unplugged, Jo arrived right on schedule at 9:30 with her ATV, and we proceeded to start marking up the trails, as well as doing a little bit of clearing up on a few sections. She had hoped to finish up by noon, but it was about 3:30 when we got back to camp, a very tiring but production day. At least we finally found the Orange Traily Bypass! She invited me to the local horsewomen’s Christmas Party at Willards, a local pub we had visited once before last time we were here (though we rode here on horseback last time, as they have tie-ups in the back of the restaurant), so I rushed around to finish making phone calls about Hubby’s admittance, which had gotten stuck on trying to get into U of F Shands, so I finally talked to someone at a local Fresenius clinic who advised us to go to the ER at Northern Florida Med Center. The nurse practitioner wanted us to go tonight, but considering how late it was, we knew nothing would happen before morning, so we decided we’d go first thing in the morning. I fed the horses, took half a barely lukewarm shower before running out of water, then having to run out in a towel to get more water in the tank via a hose so I could finish rinsing off. I just managed to get dressed and out, arriving just 15 minutes late, but before a lot of other people who came more fashionably late. The first person I saw was my friend Julie, who we first met at Sugar Hill near Watkins Glen, NY almost a decade ago. She used to live right across the street, but had since moved over to live on the water, but she happened to be visiting, so she came to the party. She and her husband had planned on visiting us tomorrow (she knew we were camping at Black Prong), but I explained that we would be in the hospital all day, so she needn’t bother stopping by. Anyway, we chatted a long while, and I made a few other friends as well, and Jo finally made it, too. We had a huge pot luck buffet (I took my signature curry deviled eggs, which were gone before I even got to them!), and then there was a gift exchange (I ended up getting a very plush hand towel which was perfect for me, something practical and that didn’t add hardly any weight to my already overloaded trailer), and I wrapped up a copy of my book, which was popular enough to be traded around at the end of the night. There were about 60 women there, some of whom I had seen coming and going at the trailhead during the past week, and it was quite a cacophony of voices throughout the evening! It lasted longer than I had expected, but I made it back to the camp around 8:45, and Hubby and I settled down with some tea and TV for the rest of the evening. So tired from all the work outside today, lots of walking, sure hoping for a good night sleep!