Hiya Sweetie,
Riding with a group is always a double-edged sword, as you know, but today the little voice in my head said I should try it. There are several trailers in a group on the other side of the road from me that arrived on Friday. I assumed they were only here for the weekend, but it turns out they're staying through this coming Saturday. Another couple showed up, apparently friends of theirs, and one woman introduced herself, Mary, and asked if I wanted to join their ride. They looked like they were leaving pretty quick, so I told them not to wait for me, but as it turned out, they waited quite awhile for the other ladies, and were just leaving the campground when I finished everything I had to do, so I saddled up Flash as fast as I could, and followed them up the trail I saw them leave on. I had a hard time persuading Lola to come along, evidently three days on the trail is too much for her, but she finally followed. I was only a few minutes before I caught up with them, you know how quick Flash can be when I ask him. We startled the drag horse who had a little fit for a few minutes but eventually settled down. I would have preferred to stay in the back with Lola following, but instead got put in the middle. We kind of stayed in two groups, and for awhile I was at the back of the first group with Lola right behind me, but she got skittish with so many horses, and tired I think, and disappeared, though I knew she'd go back to camp. Anyway, the trails were poorly marked (or not marked at all except a few survey tapes hanging from the occasional limb,) and once again, much of it was straight up and down hills, but at least we never had to go along any roads, which was good because I was in such a hurry I didn't put Flash's boots on. We rode for less than two miles before the group stopped at a downed tree for lunch (yeah, I know, I know), and we were there for half an hour before heading off again, circling back on a mostly different series of trails as we headed back to camp. Some of them looked familiar, and sure enough, when I lined them up with previous rides, there was a lot of duplication. Meanwhile, we got back to camp, and Lola was not in the screen room sleeping, where I had expected to find her. Of course, I soon found her up near the playground, playing fetch with part of the landscape crew that was out mowing lawns today. I had to go and bring her back, and that didn't last long, she ran off to play with some kids on the playground shortly afterward. She's been wandering off farther and farther, which is not good. She finally completely lost her privileges when I let her out about 9:30 for the final time, and ended up getting a phone call from a ranger, she had wandered all the way up the road to the restaurant. He was nice enough to bring her back (he was worried about her being on the road), but that's it. She stays on a cable or a leash from now on. Anyway, at least Flash got some exercise, and this is the last sunny day forecast until Thursday, which I'll probably spend most of packing up anyway, so I'm glad we got one more ride in. Less than five miles, but it's better than nothing. Settled in for the evening, did a couple of loads of laundry, had my shower, so now I'm off to bed. Good night, baby! Love you!
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