Saturday, December 24, 2011 - Short Ride with Billy

Had a better night sleep than I’ve had in a long time, but still tired deep down, hoping to make a dent in that soon. We decided to take a short ride today, but our little dog Billy slipped out the door and refused to come back in, so we decided to let him tag along (careful what you wish for Billy). We followed some unmarked trails that weren’t actually part of the forest, because we didn’t want to cross the rather busy road to get to the trailhead with Billy. We passed a gorgeous equestrian center and the backs of a few houses, but were in wooded areas most of the time. Didn’t take long for Billy to tire out, and once he did, we headed across the road to the trailhead just to see what the campground was like. The Black Prong Campground is the farthest north of the horse campgrounds in Goethe, and where we would have stayed if our friends hadn’t invited us to stay with them instead. Other than being right next to a busy road, it’s a rather nice little campground. Several small sites are there, plus a large clearing where a bigger rig could go. There are a couple of central water spigots, and very nice tiled bathrooms with running cold water, so it would have been a good place to stay. Picked up a map at the kiosk, then decided to take the short blue loop just to check out the trails. We had learned that the trails were not in perfect shape for two reasons. One, they’ve been having a terrible drought for months, so there’s no water on the trails and the sand had grown quite soft, and two, they had just had an endurance race through the forest with over 120 horses, and they had really chewed up the trail. The result was some areas of pretty deep sand on some long stretches of trail, some of which we encountered on the short blue loop. Nothing impassable, just slowed us down a bit. A nice area, though, and we’re looking forward to doing more exploring. One more thing we learned was that the trails are only marked going in one direction! You either have to follow the trail in the direction they want, or you have to constantly be turning your head around looking for markers, at least until you get to know the trails. We’ve only encountered this phenomenon once before, and it’s beyond understanding, but c’est la vie! We’ll just have to get to know the trails!

Friday, December 23, 2011 - Moved the Friends House near Goethe State Forest

 Headed south looking for warmer climes, arriving at Gregg and Julie’s house around 3:00. We met them at Sugar Hill in New York during the summer, and met up with them again at Otter Creek over Labor Day weekend. We parked in their pasture, and let the horses run around in the pasture next door. They have a great location, right next to the Goethe State Forest, and the entire neighborhood is horse-oriented. Had a very enjoyable cocktail hour (which lasted 3 hours), meeting another couple, Judy and Ken, before turning in for the night.

Thursday, December 22, 2011 - Trail Ride at Hidden River

Finally managed to get a trail ride in here. Trails were mostly narrow hiking trails, which we liked, but there was only a mile or two, so we had to repeat a few loops, going around backwards and generally just riding for time rather than destination. We finally did find a really nice loop that was a bit longer, and that filled up the 90 minute or so ride nicely. Spent a little time getting ready for our departure, actually can’t wait to leave here. There is a negativity about the environment that’s hard to describe or define, just a feeling that there are bad spirits around. Looking forward to our next stop.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 - Workday

Spent the day working on my information database, managed to finish it by 5:00, and got out a Christmas e-card to everyone just in time. Forecast is for a warmer day tomorrow, we’re hoping to get a ride in (our first here) before we head out on Friday.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 - Meeting in Jacksonville

Drove downtown today to meet with a client this morning, then did some shopping in the afternoon, including returning an outfit that had different size pants than jacket to Burlington, but it was an incredible struggle to get that done. Apparently because I’m five days beyond the return date, they wanted to only give me about half what I spent back. After 30 minutes of discussion, they finally managed to work something out with the regional office to get the refund in a couple of weeks. We’ll see. Meantime, headed back to Hidden River for a couple more days. Weather’s been too cold to do much of anything but work inside, so at least I’ve been getting caught up.

Friday, December 16, 2011 - Move to Hidden River

Slept in late, then headed out after noon, stopping at Wal-mart, then finally arrived at Hidden River, which isn’t technically a horse camp, just a specialty campground that happens to have room for horses. The horses had a nice little pasture to graze around in, and we parked where we could see them clearly. Not a very interesting or well-maintained campground, lots of repairs in plain view, which makes it hard for us to relax. Pool wasn’t heated, too cold to use. The hot tub wasn’t working properly, so we couldn’t use it. The large pasture had a broken fence and the solar electric power source wasn’t working, so we could only put the horses in the small paddock, and the list went on. Very few people came and went while we were there, not surprisingly. Plus, the cost was much higher than we usually pay. All in all, the only good things about the place is that the horses will be safe when we go to our meeting in Jacksonville next week, there’s a good cell phone signal, and there’s an open wi-fi signal I’m able to use. At least I’ll be able to get caught up on some work over the next few days.

Thursday, December 15, 2011 - Fly back to Jacksonville, FL

Despite my apparent exhaustion, I just could not get to sleep! I had drank a lot of cold tea during the evening, and I didn’t pay attention to the caffeine level in it, so I’m thinking that’s what might have caused it. Literally tossed and turned so long I thought I would still be awake when the alarm went off. Last time I remember seeing the clock it was almost 3:00, and finally fell asleep until the alarm went off on schedule at 4:45 am. Snooze-alarmed only once, too much to do. Leapt out of bed into the shower, with Hubby following shortly, finished packing, poured a cup of coffee to go, and headed out to the airport with a stop at the gas station. In the car rental lot by 6:30. As always the Orange County TSA had to confiscate something from us (this time is was a plastic lettuce knife), which they always seem to do no matter how carefully we pack, grabbed a croissant at the restaurant to tide us over to our First Class meal on the plane : -). Terrible service there at the airport restaurant. Wheels up a bit late because people just couldn’t find a place for their carry-ons, and off we go!