Hey Darlin’,
I made arrangements to record a PSA over at Tim’s in-house studio this morning, so I was up early enough to leave by about 10:00, riding Flash down to his house, which is a straight shot down the canal to the first crossover and just a few houses in. Flash stood quietly nuzzling Tim’s horses while I went in and knocked out the :30 PSA, which I now need to figure out how to distribute to local radio stations. After that, I headed toward Riverbend. I wanted to get accurate GPS readings on the incoming and outgoing trails so my final maps would be accurate. I’m going to send downloadable files to one of the OTL guys who is going to put it on the website so others can have them. I wasn’t going to mark the trails today, but I noticed they’d already done some marking, so I decided to finish it off anyway. We may lose a few markers over the next couple of weeks, but I’ll be able to replace them on the day of the ride anyway. Once Flash figured out we were heading home after we crossed under the Indiantown Rd. Bridge, of course, he decided to speed up, and we ended up gaiting fast for the next 5 or 6 miles! I slowed him down the last mile just to cool him off, but he would have been happy to keep going. Anyway, it was a long ride, almost 18.5 miles, so he was good and sweaty. I rinsed him down and let him loose. I made myself a meal and fell asleep watching TV right afterwards, I was so tired, plus I didn’t get a great night sleep last night for some reason. Did some computer work, but now I’m still hot and sweaty (it got to over 85 degrees today, but there’s a cold front moving in overnight), so I’m heading off the shower and bed. Love you, babe. Good night!
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020 – Long Trail Day
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 – Euchre and OTL Meeting
Hey Babe,
Another day keeping busy, doing some OTL paperwork this morning, writing a press release and a script for a 30 second PSA I’m going to try to distribute, and creating a certificate for a bunch of awards I thought up. Put the rest of the camping gear away, too, though I haven’t put it in the attic/hay loft yet. Went to euchre, of course, being that it’s Wednesday, then played with Lola for a bit and had dinner before going to the OTL meeting at 7:00, which was a long one because it’s probably the last one before the actual event, and there was a lot of things to iron out. It seems to be coming together. Most of the trails that are left to be marked can’t be marked until the week of the event so as not to interfere with other weekend events beforehand, primarily Riverbend and Jonathan Dickinson, but neither of those will take very long. Didn’t get back till 9:30, so I just watched a little TV to wind down before my shower and bed. So I’m off to do that now. Good night, babe, love you!
Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 – OTL Reconnoiter and Trail Marking Day
Hey Sweetie,
Had another good night sleep, then did a bunch of stuff online before feeding the horses, then getting Flash in the trailer and heading down to the Cypress Creek parking lot across from the Publix. I had a bag of markers I got from Anita, and headed due north up the OTL from there. I thought Anita had told me that another group had marked that part of the trail, but all I ever saw was a couple of markers WAY down near the Hobe Ditch, and they were way apart from each other on the linear trail, nothing at the intersections. Amazing. Anyway, Flash did a great job as we headed all the way through the cow pasture (and the herd was there, with lots of young ones kicking around), under the freeways, and finally through the Ditch. I kept going, too, because there had been reports that a certain section of the trail was going to be hard for horses to get through, where they put a bunch of concrete bags across it for drainage, but frankly, I don’t see why, it looks the same as it did last year. Plenty of room to get around if someone wants. Once we hit that spot we turned around, and that’s when Flash really wanted to kick it up a notch. We cantered and largoed all the way back to the Ditch, and in quite a few other places as well, until we reached the parking lot. Of course, the thought we were done, but not yet! I headed him east toward Riverbend, and marked all of that section, right to the south side of the critter crossing under Indiantown Rd. I must say, it will be hard to get lost this year! Hopefully, no one will mess with the markers, but even if they do, I’ll be out there on the day of to add more if necessary. It took us about 3 hours or so before we drove back. Flash was really dirty so I started giving him a bath, and a few minute later, Jeff came home, with his white van up on a tow truck. He thinks he might have thrown a rod, so you know that’s a major project. I was hoping his only major project for the next few weeks was going to be to move his junky camper over to the fence and out of the front yard, not sure if that’s going to happen now. Sigh… Finished bathing Flash, and hosing down Apollo who was standing there asking for it, then went in to fix some other problems. You know I bought a replacement GPS, but I haven’t been able to get it to work yet. It wouldn’t lock on to any satellites. I was afraid it was broken, but I finally trying reloading the updated software again, and that solved the problem. I think I might have turned it off while it was uploading before and that’s why it didn’t work. So now I do have a satellite-based GPS again, so hopefully that will help decrease my chances of getting lost, and allow me to map my routes beforehand so I can just follow the GPS. Settled down to a mini pizza and some more episodes of Suits for the evening. Took my shower earlier, so now I’m heading to bed. Love you, babe, good night!
Monday, Feb. 3, 2020 – Busy Day
Hiya Darlin’,
Slept like a log most of the night, not surprisingly! Spent the day cleaning out and putting away camp gear, doing laundry, catching up on email, designing awards for the OTL, finishing off the maps for Day One and Two and other business matters, and generally getting things back where they belonged. I took a quick trip over to Anita’s to pick up some more trail markers, as there are still some sections that need doing, and I thought I would take the day tomorrow and do as much of it as I can. It poured with rain here over the weekend, so I imagine Corbett is swamped again, I hope it’s not too bad on the other sections. I’m going to check Cypress Creek and the section that leads out to the old cow pastures and the critter crossing under the freeways, there’s been a report of some new gates with barbed wire, that needs to be checked out in case something has to be done about it. So it should be busy again tomorrow. There’s still some question about what route we’ll be taking once we get across the Ditch into Jonathan Dickinson State Park, hopefully that will be resolved by the time we have our next meeting on Wednesday evening. Finally relaxed with a glass of wine or two, some TV, and now off to bed. Good night, babe, I love you!
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020 – Camping Prep
Hiya Sweetie,
First order of the day was to deliver the lift chair to it’s new owner down in Boca, right on the intracoastal, not far from where we got married, kind of full circle again. Glad it went to someone who needed it, and it works fine now with the new controller. It’s strange, though, even though we only lived here in Florida together for a couple of years, and stayed away for so many years afterward, you were right when you said it felt like we were coming home this time. Despite all the places we’ve been, all the traveling we did, there seem to be more memories here than just about any place else, except possibly the house in Tennessee. It makes me miss you even more, if that’s possible. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent packing stuff for the camping trip this weekend. It should be interesting, camping with my brother, something we’ve never done together in our lives, so we’ll see how it goes. The weather isn’t going to be the best, but it’s hard to predict at this time of year. I trust I’ve remembered everything we need, but if not, no problem, we’ll make do or go out and get it. Heading off for my last shower, then heading off to bed. Love you, darling, good night!
Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020 – Euchre, Packing and GPS
Hi Babe,
Spent some time on the phone with Social Security trying to figure out what happens with your pension, among other things, pulled out the camping gear to make sure it was all there, sprayed some camp dry spray on the tent to make sure it stays dry (hopefully better than it did on the cattle drive when it poured for three days!), drove up to the senior center and played euchre, though we didn’t do very well today, and finally met a young couple up in Port St. Lucie to buy a new personal GPS tracker. It’s pretty much the same as the last one I liked so much, and I really miss not being able to download a trail that I can actually follow (which I could probably do on my phone app, but have never been able to figure out) but I got a good deal on it through Facebook Marketplace. I managed to just get to Ranch Feed before they closed to pick up the three bales of hay I need for the weekend, and got home just as the sun was setting, so it was mosquito hour by the time Jeff was ready to swap out the horses, but we got it done. Later it started raining really hard, with lightning and thunder, and Lola kept trying to crawl into my lap. I was up in the bed on a phone call (about the only place inside the trailer where the signal is good enough) and she climbed up and started sprawling all over the bed, so I had to get her down, then she went outside and disappeared. I eventually found her in the house, I guess Jeff let her in when she came scratching at the door. I put her in the truck, in her nice comfy bed, where she feels the safest. Finally finished off the binge of Cheers, was pretty disappointed because I thought I remembered the Diane and Sam got together and stayed together, but that’s not what happened. Sam went back to an empty bar, which was really depressing in the end. Oh, well, no accounting for Hollywood writers, they haven’t been able to write a happy ending in decades, have they? Anyway, it rained most of the evening, though it sounds like it’s just about done, and now it’s time for a shower and bed again. Good night, darlin’. Love you!
Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020 – Worked on Tractor and Dinner with Friends
Hey Darlin’,
Did a little work on the computer this morning, then finally went out to work on the tractor. I drained some oil out of it because I overfilled it yesterday, but still couldn’t find the reason why it didn’t start, but Jeff did some testing and figures it’s the starter, so I’m having to look to see if I can get a new one, or have that one rebuilt (he knows a guy, no surprise!). Met Jayne and Irene for dinner at Duffy’s down in West Palm, sat on the patio so Lola could be there, too. Got back late, but Jeff had already fed the horses for me, so I just settled down for the night. Was surprised that Tom Berenger played a bit part on one of the Cheers episodes I watched, didn’t realize he’d done that. Anyway, settled down for the evening, though I’m getting to bed a bit late. Good night, my love!