Hi Babe!
Had a great night sleep though I woke up early, read for awhile before getting up for chores. After breakfast I went over to fill up my truck tank to make sure I had enough for laundry on Sunday, only to find the garage where the hose it was still locked, but fortunately a ranger was there and he opened it for me. Got that job done, then got the horses saddled up. I had offered to let my young neighbor Brandon ride Apollo, so both horses (and Lola!) would get some exercise. It's always nice when both horses can go out together. My planned 3.5 mile route ended up being just over five miles, and there was some good climbing, but everyone did fantastic! I think we're all getting back into shape now that we're on the road again. This is the second time in as many weeks that Apollo has been ridden with Flash, and I think they both enjoy going out together. I was especially delighted that Lola stayed with us, and was even leading most of the way! I think the cooler temps make a big difference with her, she even tried to get us to play fetch with a ball when we got back to camp! She hasn't done that in awhile! And Apollo didn't seem at all worse for the wear, despite the climbing. So happy! Once we got back to camp and got them put away, we sat under the awning and had a lot conversation, mostly about spirituality and religion, comparing notes on our differing beliefs, very entertaining. Finally quit long enough to have dinner, then finished a book just at sunset, so I climbed up the 92 steps of the firetower and saw the remnants of a gorgeous sunset, and stayed to watch the numerous fireworks that dot the landscape around this incredible 360 view. I didn't expect to be back here this year, but it has been nice being back in NY with the cooler temps, though it is supposed to get hot over the weekend, briefly.Anyway, a gorgeous day, a beautiful ride, a fantastic fireworks display, and now, tea, shower and bed! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hey Sweetie!
A decent night sleep, though once again I woke up to a generator being turned on right at 7:00. Did chores and breakfast, then saddled up Flash for my intended ride over to the Templar Falls. A Facebook memory came up of you recently standing at the top of those falls, and I thought it might be nice to revisit them, but we never made it. The trail was so overgrown and untended that it became impossible. At one point, we went through a shrub so thick I just put my head down and let him lead the way, but then a thick branch caught me anyway and almost swept me out of the saddle. Thank goodness Flash is just as good at Whoa as he is at Go, and he gave me a chance to untangle myself before moving on. We finally reach a spot where the trail was so washed out that it would have required a very steep crossing down and up again, and I decided it just wasn't worth it. Nothing to prove here, and as much as Iike a challenge, when it gets to the point of just being stupid, I'll pass. We turned around until we found another trail that my past GPS history had indicated we had taken, but didn't get 50 yards before it became impassable. So we went back the way we came until we hit the road, then I rode him north to where there was a trail that looped east, and was part of the more maintained horse trails.That brought us to Tower Hill Road, which we took back to camp. We ended up doing just over seven and a half miles, so not a long ride, but enough to get us out of camp for awhile. Put Flash away, then made some calls about hay, and headed out to a haymaker about 15 miles south. It was their first time using FB marketplace, and they had just posted it the other day, so I was lucky to find it. They managed to get about 90 bales of hay so far this year, which is amazing since it seems almost no one else has been able to do that with all the wet weather. Since I decided to stay another week, I bought 16 bales at just $4 a bale, though the bales were fairly small. I like that, though, it makes them much easier to handle. Got back to camp and Brandon offered to help me unload, so we got that job done in no time. Then we sat around and chatted for a long while, eventually being joined by our other neighbor John, and had a lovely afternoon. Eventually it was time for feeding everyone, and I resumed my normal evening schedule, though no TV tonight, it was too late. Heading to shower and bed shortly! Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Woke up pretty early again, got up and started some laundry, then went over to the pavilion to get some more water, since I knew I didn't have enough for all the laundry I had. Met up with Nancy Y again, she decided to not only buy a copy of my horse camping book yesterday, but our public speaking book today! We chatted for awhile again, and I invited her to take a short ride with me, since it's been such a long time since Flash and Apollo have been able to go out together. After breakfast, she came by and we saddled them up. I had previously found a two-mile loop that I thought would be good, not as much grade as in some areas, but when we got to it, they had apparently closed it off to horses (which didn't stop us :-). There were a couple of trees we had to maneuver around, but nothing serious. Apollo was doing so well, even with some climbing, which he trotted up, so we went just a little farther to get him some exercise. Of course, Lola came along, so it was all a very nice little ride! Once we got back, I suggested Nancy try riding Flash around the yard just to get a feel for a Paso, which she had apparently never ridden before, and she gaited him around a bit. He does look mighty fine gaiting around! I took him and cantered him a bit just so she could see what that looked like, too. After seeing the crash yesterday, she was rethinking a Paso, but seriously, it's like any other horse, you just have to put in the time to train them right. We ended up sitting outside under the awning and chatting for quite awhile, and the horses came over and visited with us as well. We're re-bonding now that we're on the road again. Meanwhile, the decision has been made to go to Sugar Hill again for the 4th of July weekend, so that's where we're heading out tomorrow. Haven't quite figured out the rest of the schedule, just making it up as we so along! Once Nancy left, I started to slowly pack up the rest of the stuff throughout the day, which was mercifully very dry, so hopefully I'll be able to get out tomorrow. I've put my tarp over the ground where my tires will go when I hook up tomorrow in an effort to keep the dew off, and I just checked the forecast and they've now advanced their call for rain to much earlier, so I'm going to have to get moving early tomorrow to hopefully avoid any of that! Fingers crossed! Anyway, the sun has set, I'm going to look out for the fireflies, Nancy said they're amazing when they come out of the ground. I'd only noticed them a bit later when they were lighting up the forest like a hundred Christmas trees with twinkling lights, which was incredible enough! I still really hate Daylight Savings time, the dang days stay way too light, way too late! Hard to get to bed early like this! Anyway, good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hi Babe!
Had a good night sleep after the rain last night cooled it down a bit, woke up refreshed and ready to go! Just as I was saddling up Flash, the infamous Luke, the main ranger here, came by, finally got to put a face to the name. We chatted briefly, then he headed out and I finished saddling Flash and we headed out. Other than being a little more rocky than I like, the trails here are truly gorgeous! I didn't put Flash's boots on at first, and for the most part, it wasn't too bad. Most of the rocks here have been rounded out by the glaciers from the last ice age, so nothing too sharp, and we did the first 12 miles without boots. Once we got to the regular campground loop, though, it got a lot worse (likely from trail "repairs"), so I stopped and put them on him. I got really turned around at one point, because what's on the map and what's out there are two completely different things! I even had an Avenza geo-tagged map, but it was wrong, and I kept going back thinking I must be missing something, but never did manage it. I compared it later to a more recent paper map and could see a few changes, but that map is too big to scan, and, of course, it's not geo-tagged. Anyway, we finally made it back to camp. We were only about a mile out when we heard some thunder and felt a little overspray, but fortunately we got back to camp and untacked before it started any significant rain, which was welcome! Cooled it off a little, but then the sun came out and it was steaming for a bit. When I left this morning, there were several reservation tags on other horse sites, but when I came back, they were all gone, so I guess whatever company I was going to have decided not to take chances on the weather, which is for more rain tomorrow. Fine by me, I'm going shopping and picking up fuel tomorrow. Sorry to say that diesel prices are over $4.00 a gallon here, a lot higher than what I've been paying, but I expected that once I moved northward and into the blue states. The data stream signal still hasn't improved, though I've still got full bars on my phone, crazy. Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, my darlin'! Love you!

Hiya Darlin',
Nice and quiet here last night, no one else in camp, and there used to be an observatory here, so nice and dark, the way I like it! Seems like the length of the day just goes on forever! Wide open here, so it gets really hot in the afternoon, thank goodness for my AC! Decided it was way past time to take Apollo out for a ride, so I saddled him up, put on Lola's orange vest, and away we went! We didn't get very far on the main trail before we ran into a blockage and had to turn around. If I had been on Flash, I would have gone around it, but it was steep up and steep down, and I didn't want to risk it on the old guy, he was dragging his feet as it was! We went back and turned down another trail until it, too, started a pretty steep descent, and knowing that what goes up must come down, I decided not to push it. So we headed back toward camp on a wide easement, then Apollo made the choice to turn up a trail to the left, which, of course, was the most direct way back to camp, sneaky guy! He's always had a great sense of direction. Anywayw, the whole ride was less than an hour and less than two miles, but it was still pretty hot out, and Lola was panting, so I figured it was enough for a start. I'd like to build them both up to be able to go a bit farther, but that might be a bridge too far for these old critters. Got back to camp, let them graze in the big field most of the afternoon while I once again tried to solve my lack of data problem. Crazy that I have full bars of cell service and barely any data service! I reported it to Verizon, which, of course, meant being on the phone for nearly an hour going through all their hoops, but I guess it's been reported to the right tech people now, maybe they'll find a simple switch to fix it or something. So I spent the day mostly reading. Then I discovered water dripping out of one of my light fixtures, a sure sign that I have a leak up there somewhere. I climbed up on the roof and put a couple of towels around the base of the AC to stop the flow, and tried to find where the problem was. I didn't see anything obvious, but I'm thinking it might be the one section of sealant I didn't replace, around the refrigerator. It's on my list of repairs, but I have to get more lap sealant to do it, as well as a couple of days of dry weather. Meanwhile, I'll just keep stemming the tide with towels, since I have a way to spin and dry them! Once the sun was almost down and I had put the horses away, I noticed a screw sticking out of the exterior panel, so I got out my square driver and screwed it back in, and decided it was good maintenance to check them all, which I have to do periodically, so I did that today. Not much else going on today, again, too hot to do much outside! Shower and bed soon! Good night, sweetie! Love you!