Hi Sweetie!
I slept great, though I had to put in earplugs. Alligator Alley is only about a mile away, and though it wasn’t too bad, I always like super quiet nights, and that’s what I get with my earplugs! Got up around 8:00, and once I fed the horses, I immediately got busy fulfilling a book order that I forgot yesterday, and Pistol was nice enough to take it into town and mail it, since she wanted to fill up with fuel anyway. She got back and we got out on the trail by about 10:30. I remembered some of these long straight stretches, as well as the more jungle-like areas near the center. There must be some Michiganders nearby, because we spotted some painted, bedazzled seashells stuck in the trees, just like I saw painted rocks and gems up in Michigan this past summer! How cool is that? Nicely done. We reached a small campground with a water trough a few miles out of camp, and Lola had worked up such a sweat she jumped into the trough to cool off. The horses had a drink, too, as it was a pretty warm day, over 80, but not humid, fortunately. I was hoping that the further west we got the more jungle-like it would get, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It really got more barren, with a lot less trees, and a lot of them seemed dead or almost dead. It was supposed to be Cypress swamp, but I guess it’s been so dry a lot of them are stressed. We did see a lot of animal tracks, I need to start learning a bit more so I can identify them better, but I know we saw deer, and something that could have been a small bear, a large canine or feline, not sure which, but this is panther country, as well as bear, so who knows? It was very dry on the trail until we finally hit a few big puddles, and by then the horses and Lola were really thirsty. We went all the way to the far west part of the park, to a day parking area across from a boarding stable. We didn’t run into the puddles until we were on our way back. We stopped at the camping area again and ate a snack, someone was kind enough to leave a container in the water trough to water dogs, and Lola certainly took advantage of that! We finally got back to camp after nineteen plus miles! Got our workout today! Rinsed down the horses, then answered a few emails and got the generator started so I could charge everything up, then it wasn’t long before we were moving hay that Pistol had brought for me, then finally making dinner, and shortly after, calling it a night! Watched an episode of The Expanse, now I’m ready to hit the showers and be in bed very soon! A long, tiring day, but a great ride! And we’ve already got 15 people signed up for the OTL, after only three days since I got the registration link online! Very happy with that! Anyway, calling it a night! Good night, my love!
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