Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 - Long, Fabulous Ride Today!

Had a good night's sleep, then saddled up after breakfast to take our final, and hopefully, longest ride. Despite being ridden more in the last week than they have in the last few weeks, the horses were quite happy to get out again after their day off, at least once we got on to a new trail. After taking the usual half mile or so of Blue trail, we took the north Orange loop, doing lots of trotting and cantering (and even a short gallop!) until we came to the primitive camping area, which is pretty much in the middle of the park. There is a pavilion and a hand pump with a trough, plus an extra picnic table or two scattered around. There was also a ranger and his pickup truck there, spraying some unwanted foliage around. Hubby and I munched on a couple of chicken sandwiches I had made, gave the horses a couple of apples, and then two more riders came in. Two women, Pam was one of them, who had started on the west side of the park (we had come from the east), one of them apparently has some land over there, so they can reach the park directly from her stables. We chatted a bit before heading back out on the trail, this time taking the part of the Orange trail we had missed on Saturday, the south route as it were. We got a lot more trotting and cantering in, avoided some black snakes (I've seen a lot of them around here), and arrived back safe and sound around 4:00. Gave the horses a quick bath (their third since we've been here!), spent a little time getting ready to leave tomorrow, then settled in for the evening.

Sunday, February 10, 2013 - Lunch with Friends in Naples

Set the alarm so that we could meet some friends in Naples for brunch at the Dock restaurant. We had decided to take the truck, since it was the vehicle that was disconnected from a trailer, because Hubby had to readjust the height of the trailer hitch the other day. Anyway, jumped in and cranked it up, it started, then died, then wouldn't start again. Since we didn't have time to mess with it, we quickly unhooked the van from the horse trailer and ran out, just making our 10:30 meeting with Jane and Bob. Enjoyed a nice brunch on the waterfront for a few hours of respite before returning back to camp. Fortunately, when we went to seek out the problem with the truck, it only took about a half hour to figure out that it was the bleed valve on the fuel filter. Hubby had changed the fuel filter just before we left to come here, and the wrench he used to tighten it had too many slots in it, so it started rounding the plastic vent valve and not tightening it enough. After finding a more hexagonal wrench, he was able to tighten it a bit more, and that solved the problem. Now all we need to do is to get a replacement valve, which is only about $2.50 at an auto parts store, and that will give us a permanent fix to the problem, though all seems to be working now. While sitting in the truck when Hubby was working, I took the opportunity to read the owner's manual about how to work the radio, and learned a whole bunch of fascinating things about what my radio could do that I never knew, even though we've had the truck over two years. Can't wait to give it a try on our next trip! Anyway, had a relaxing afternoon, caught up on a few more series episodes of Vegas and some others during the evening, before getting to bed at a reasonable time, and under more quieter circumstance. We had had a neighbor the last two nights who had run their very loud generator most of the evening, but they left this afternoon, so we had a very quiet evening. One bit of good news, we've discovered that it takes only about 2 hours of running the generator to completely recharge the batteries, enough to last the entire evening and the following morning, which should end up saving us a bunch on gas, not to mention providing us with a lot more quiet hours! Some things are working out well with the RV, thank goodness. One of these days I'm going to write a pros and cons list about our new RV, "Things I Love and Things I Hate about it our Open Range Journeyer." Should make some interesting reading for anyone looking for a new trailer! Anyway, off to bed, planning on a nice long ride tomorrow!

Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 - Great Ride Day at Picayune, But Not the One We Planned

Had a reasonably good night sleep, though not quite as good as yesterday. Got up around 9:00, did chores and had breakfast, got on the trail by about noon, later than we hoped but still not too bad. The horses seemed eager, which was a good sign we didn't overwork them yesterday (could hardly do that only being out an hour!), and we headed out with a plan to do most of the Orange Trail, about 8 miles worth. Headed out the Blue Trail to get there, and the first part of that is mostly an old tarmac road, then eventually turned into some really nice Florida-style trails, with pines intermingled with short palms. Lost our way once, when we headed up a trail that turned into a dead end at some private property, so we doubled back and saw that the "official" trail had signage of being a "designated" trail, and we got back on track. Went a bit further, and came across another split in the road, and took the one that seemed to have the "designated" sign, but that actually took us off the path we had originally planned, but it didn't really make any difference, as long as we were riding! We soon came to an intersection, and ran across two women who had lost their horses. They were on the ground at the time, and something spooked the animals and they took off, running (the women hoped) all the way back to camp. We gave them a bottle of G2 and told them if we round their horses we'd pony them back to them, or if we got all the way back to camp we'd send out the troops to pick them up. Then we abandoned our plans of the Orange trail and headed straight back to camp on the blue trail, which was almost four miles back to camp anyway. We did a lot of trotting and cantering, which was wonderful, our horses were simply brilliant the entire way (although my Apollo was a bit spooky most of the day, so we did a lot of sudden side-stepping), until we finally reached camp. There we discovered that two Rangers and a sheriff's deputy were already on the case. Apparently a driver along I-75 had spotted a rider-less horse running along the easement and called it in, so by the time we arrived back in camp, one horse had already been caught. The other was caught moments later, and someone had been sent out to retrieve the two women who had been left behind. So our trip wasn't for nothing, but it didn't change our plans considerable. We'll just have to pick up the trails we missed on Monday, for tomorrow we have plans to meet some friends for brunch in Naples. Truly enjoyed the trails, though, they were a very nice mix of palms and pines, sand and grass and occasional tarmac, with lots of opportunities for trotting and cantering. Though it was a shorter ride than we had anticipate, the fact that so much of it was at a faster pace than usual meant everyone got a much needed workout! Got back by 2:30, gave the horses another bath (having finished trimming Apollo's feet this morning), got them settled in, and had an early, relaxing evening, catching up on our PVR's episodes of Vegas, before finally retiring about 11:00.

Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 - Short Exploratory Ride in Picayune

After one of the best night's sleeps I've had in a LONG time, got up around 9:00 and started taking care of some office work. One of the reasons we picked Picayune over some other places was the fact that it seemed like there was a good cell phone signal here, and in fact, there is, good enough for a very effective hotspot on my phone, so I got a lot of work done. We finally finished up and started saddling up the horses in the afternoon, getting out of camp around 1:15, planning just a short 3 mile loop to get back into sync with the horses. My understanding of Picayune is that it's where the expression "buy some swampland in Florida" came from. During the dry season it looks quite nice, but during the rainy season? Not so much. Anyway, a lot of this area has a grid pattern of trails, like you would expect in a Florida development, and we took the first and shortest grid out of the camp. The surface started out as sand, then turned to a shell-like tarmac, then eventually grass and sand among scrub pines and pine trees. One stretch took us on a parallel course with I-75 as it crosses west to east across the state, in what we used to call Alligator Alley before it became an interstate. Fortunately, the campground is far enough from the freeway to not hear any traffic noise! Anyway, we were gone just over an hour, which is all we wanted to do today. Afterward, I gave the horses a bath, and trimmed Apollo's two back feet, as they were really getting long, and I can only handle two feet at a time. I figure if I do two a day, at least they'll both be trimmed by the time we leave on Tuesday. Hubby worked on leveling the trailer hitch, we were riding a bit high in the front, another adjustment we couldn't really make until we were in a real life situation. Enjoyed a nice dinner, then settled down for the evening watching TV and enjoying a snifter of brandy.

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 - Travel Day to Picayune Strand State Forest

Finally, after what seems like FOREVER, we've gotten back on the road, albeit temporarily. We headed out early, opting for the southern route around Lake Okeechobee, with quick stops at Tractor Supply for supplies for the horses, lunch and fuel along the way. We arrived just after 1:00, quickly finding a nice spot to set up. This campground is essentially a field around a number of buildings and a parking lot, so aesthetically it's far from the prettiest place we've ever been, but it has a long row of corrals along each side, and a number of highline posts along the back. We opted for a corral large enough for both our horses to share, and parked under a couple of trees, hoping the shade would keep things from getting to hot, as the forecast is calling for warmer than normal temps here (while there's a massive blizzard heading toward New England, tee hee). We spent the afternoon working on various projects before settling in for the evening. Our new trailer has a much larger inverter system, so that we only need to run the generator for a couple of hours in order for it to charge the battery enough to last us all night, at leas that's what we hope. The purpose of the trip is to be a shakedown cruise, to make sure everything works properly, as we have a mechanic from the RV place coming to us next week to make some warranty repairs, and we needed to make sure we'd found everything that needed fixing. More things than I want to admit, but we're going to make sure they're taken care of before we start having to repair things on our own! We were both tired from our early morning, and were in bed by 10:00, first time that early in a very long time!

Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 - Ride Day with Hubby At Last!!!

 After months of work, work, work, we finally managed to take a day for ourselves, and trailered the horses over the Riverbend for a fantastic two-hour ride. I spent the morning making changes to my new work website, a work in progress, but finally we broke away after noon. What a great ride! The horses were perfect, a bit sluggish at first, not surprising they've gotten lazy after such a long layup, but they truly were brilliant today. I even managed to do one of the longest gallops ever! It was great! We can't wait to get back on the road, but so much work still remains. We only just got the old RV on the market this past week or two, we still have warranty issues on the new RV, but they've been waiting for parts, and can't come out for another two weeks, and we're still waiting for a shipment of blinds for the bedroom that I ordered back in November, but because the company changed hands, we fell through the cracks, and now they're trying to catch up. We're going stir-crazy here, and can't wait to move on, but it looks like we may just take a short venture out just to get a change of scene, then come back for some of the other essential work. We've got more jobs coming up in late Feb/early March, so we'll likely still be here, though it's WAY overstaying our welcome here (but as it's my brother, he can't complain too much... : -). Can't wait to get back on the ROAD!!!!

Apologies!!!

Okay, okay, I've been completely neglecting my blog lately.  This is partly because we've been so darned busy, and partly because most of what we've been doing has been pretty mundane from our perspective, because it hasn't included much HORSE time!  Here's a quick recap of what I wrote during this time, at least until I started getting somewhat serious again in mid-February:

Friday, Nov. 16, 2012 - Furniture Hunting, Online and Off

Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 - Furniture Buying and Another Look at the RV at the Dealer

Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012 - Ride Day in Jupiter - A short ride around the neighborhood with my brother.

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012 - Pickup of New Trailer, Didn’t Happen
Wasted most of the day hanging around the dealer trying to get things done.  Workers kept screwing up, the worse being tearing the kitchen floor up while removing the couch we didn't want.  Never going to look right again, but not much we can do about it.  Several other items still need to be completed, pickup postponed until tomorrow

Wednesday Nov. 21, 2012 - Finally, pickup of New Trailer!! And Brother from Austin Arrives.

Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012 - Thanksgiving-Way too much food, as expected!

Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 - Start Cleanup of the old RV

Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 - More Cleanup of the old RV

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012 - Some Rest, Some Online Computer Decor Planning

Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 - Austin Brother Departs, More Cleanup and Transfer of stuff to new RV, including the air mattress that my brother had been sleeping on.  The one in the new RV is hard as a rock, and we haven't slept well at all.  Can't wait to sleep on our own bed tonight!

Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012 - More Cleanup, etc., etc., etc.

　
Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012 - Fly to Vegas from PBI (change of flight due to weather, 2 stops instead of one, aaargh!)

Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012 - Rest Day

Monday-Thurs, Dec. 10-14 - Two Speaker Training Camps (Basic and Advanced)

Friday, Dec. 15 - Rest Day

Saturday, Dec. 16 - Fly Back to PBI, One stop at BWI, so second flight almost as long as first.

Holidays spent doing more cleanup and moving and dealing with storage problems.

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 - Fly to Vegas from Ft. Lauderdale

Thursday, January 17, 2013 - Rest Day

Friday & Sat., January 18-19, 2013 - Private Two-Day Corporate Training Camp

Sunday, January 20, 2013 - Fly Back from Vegas

Monday, January 21, 2013 - Buy new sink and faucet for bathroom

Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2013 - Worked On Computer All Day

Wed., Jan. 21, 2013 - New Corian Counters
Removed Corian from the top of the moveable kitchen island and replaced it with one with an overhang sufficient to put stools up to it, making it a breakfast bar.  We already sold the dining room set, with plans to replace it with more storage and a dog bed on top.  Had the Corian guys cut the old top down to size to fit in the bathroom, to replace the really chintzy plastic sink and laminate counter that was already in there.  I don't understand why they would put nice Corian in the kitchen, with stainless steel sinks, then put such cheap stuff in the bathroom.  Good job done, though, things are starting to look almost finished in the new RV!