Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - Second Day with Friends

Spent the day talking, eating, sharing and having another great time with our friends, which has been terrific, but tiring! Too much excitement! We packed up and departed just after 4:00, stopped to pick up a few things, and arrived home by 6:30, had a quick ice cream dinner before settling in for the evening, looking forward to a good night’s sleep!

Monday, January 30, 2012 - Day with Friends

Leaving our critters in the care of my brother, Hubby and I drove up to Melbourne Beach to spend some time with our good friends from Virginia at their second home on the beach here in Florida. After a two hour drive, we arrived at lunchtime and started talking, hardly stopping all day and all night. Joined by another couple (relatives from next door) for dinner, the lively conversation continued nonstop. Didn’t get to bed until almost 11:30! What a great day!

Sunday, January 29, 2012 - Ride in Hungryland WMA

  After breakfast and Sunday shows, we headed out for our ride to the Hungryland Water Management Area just across the canal from my brother’s house. Having made this crossing the other day, Apollo was slightly less reluctant, but I still had to get down and lead him to the bottom of the ravine before I was able to climb back aboard and go up the other side, though this time he did it more readily, as did Clio. We headed west on the Old Indiantown Trail, avoiding a couple of ATV’s, a couple of pickup trucks, and passing two other women on horseback, who told us the trail we were on was four miles to the first highway, so an eight-mile round trip, which suited us just fine. Rather than go off the beaten track, we wanted to scope out the main trail and check out the terrain for future adventures. We did a lot of walking, some trots and a few long canters, as the road was pretty much straight the whole way, mostly a nice grass footing except the last quarter mile or so. Really nice trail, we often had water on both sides in addition to the canal we were paralleling, and we passed lots of birds along the way. We reached Pratt-Whitney Road in a little more than 1 ½ hours because we were taking a slow pace, then turned around and headed back. I thought there might be a perimeter trail from what I had seen on Google Earth, but it turned out to just be the easement along the side of the road, sorry to say. On our return, we passed an area that looked like it had just been dug up by some wild pigs, neither Hubby or I could remember it being that rough when we came through, and there were a few moments when the horses were snorting and had to be urged to go through a few sections, and we heard some rustling in the bushes, we figured probably pigs then, too. The horses made the canal crossing easily the next time across and we arrived back home about 3 hours after we left. I had promised my brother a short ride today, too, so we switched saddles on Clio, and my brother and I headed out around the neighborhood for about an hour. The horses needed some persuading to go back out the driveway, and they had the pokiest walk ever for most of the ride, until something spooked Apollo and he forgot to be pokey for awhile. Then, of course, they got less pokey when we headed in the direction of home : -). We were out about an hour, which was all my brother needed as he’s a bit out of riding shape and didn’t want to overdue it. After getting back we fed them a good and well-deserved bucket of feed, then settled in for the evening.

Saturday, January 28, 2012 - Runaround Day Again

Hubby had another chiropractor appointment, then we stopped at a few places to look at flooring before hitting the grocery store and arriving home. We have a soft spot in our RV floor that needs repairing, and Hubby started to tear the floor up to see what needed to be done, so now we have a hole in the floor that will be there until probably the end of the week. We bought a piece of 2’ X 2’ that’s sitting on top of it now, so we won’t fall into the hole, temporarily until we get it finished. Got back about 4:00, and settled in for the rest of the day.

Friday, January 27, 2012 - Canal Day

 Took our second ride today, starting out along the canal behind my brother’s house, to a spot we had picked out on our previous ride that had relatively low banks on both sides of the canal where we could easily cross. After several minutes of persuasion, Apollo slowly managed to cross the shallow canal, stopping at several intervals (down the bank, stop, cross the water, stop, climb the other bank, hurray!) until finally we reached the other side. Of course, once the "colt" was across, Mama had no trouble following along. We traveled east along the canal until we reached a gate, which, alas, was locked, a development we had not counted on. So we headed back along the canal to the point where we crossed, and this time, Apollo had no trouble going back the way we came. We headed east again on the south side of the canal, until we reached the spot where the gate was. The canal at this point had much steeper and deeper walls, and frankly, looked kind of dangerous, but it was obvious other equestrians had come this way, so we decided to make a go of it. I had to dismount and climb down the bank before I could get Apollo convinced it was safe, and after a minute or two (and some serious rein pulling), he followed me down. At the bottom, I climbed back up, then managed to get him across the water (which was only a few inches deep and only a few yards across, if that much), before climbing up the steep wall on the other side. Thank goodness horses come with four-wheel drive! I had to hang on to the saddle horn, but we made it with no problem. Hubby and Clio followed afterward with very little hesitation, good Mama that she is. From there we headed up Old Indiantown Rd., which was the original road built in the early 1900’s, just a nice hard packed sand as far as the eye could see. We went up maybe a half to three-quarters of a mile, cantering most of the way, just to get an idea of what the trail were like here in what is known as the Hungryland Wilderness Management Area. Apparently it’s just recently been added to a Greenway that allows riders to go from almost the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Okeechobee, almost 70 miles, a route that will come in handy after the Apocalypse : - ), whatever that might be. We saw numerous side trails that looked very inviting, but today we just wanted a short ride to keep the horses in shape, we had too much to do back at the RV to spend the whole day out. Got back just after 2:00 after about two hours on the trail, then got to work on some essential chores. Settled down for the evening to our usual routine.

Thursday, January 26, 2012 - Runaround Day

Another day of running around, first to the chiropractor, then to a Western store looking for good riding pants or jeans for riding, but couldn’t find anything, then drove all the way up to Stuart to another Western store, couldn’t find jeans, but did get another pair of Ariat Terrain boots (which I love, this is my second pair, I wore the first pair out!), and Hubby found a great hat. Went to the Wal-mart to see what they had there, couldn’t find anything, but Hubby did talk to someone who recommended Bealls, so we went there and found the perfect jeans for both Hubby and I (Lee Riders Stretch) which have a higher waist than most others we found (I don’t like the mid or low rise, I like when the waist is at the waist!). I also find a nice pair Levis that were incredibly comfortable. Hubby found something he liked, but I persuaded him to try on one of my pair, and he fell in love with those! They have much better stretch and are much more comfortable than the men’s! Why not? I wore men’s jeans for years, because they used to fit better, but styles have changed, so we’ll go wherever the comfort is! Anyway, got home late, got everyone us fed, settled in for the evening.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - First Ride in Jupiter

Decided that the only way we’re really going to keep us and the horses fit is to get up early and ride in the morning, then get our work done the rest of the day, at least on days when we aren’t running around, so today we got up with the alarm, had breakfast (both us and the horses) before saddling up and heading out into the neighborhood. Most of the roads around here are dirt and sand, and usually they are very hard-packed and washboardy, but apparently they’ve got some new maintenance regime because this time driving in last Friday, there was no washboard feeling at all. We headed out to the nearest canal and started weaving around the canals and roads for about a little over two hours. At first the horses, particularly mine, was spooking at everything, obviously too much oats and not enough exercise in the last three days (how little time it takes for them to accumulate excess energy when they’re fit!), but eventually they settled down, and we ended up getting a lot of nice canters in. We figure that on shorter rides we have to work them harder in order to build their stamina, so that’s what we did. Great straightaways along the canals make it easy to go fast! Saw a lot of wildlife, too, birds and a turtle and a glimpse of a racoon. You can see some of them if you look carefully at the pix. After we got back, we had our lunch, then we started on the list of chores again. I washed and conditioned the rubber roof on the RV while Hubby did some work on the stabilizers underneath (dodging over-spray from me, of course). Had a relaxing evening, now off to bed!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - Out and About

Hubby had a chiropractic appointment in the morning, and we went shopping and to the post office afterwards. Got a few things done on the computer when we got back, just a regular day!

Monday, January 23, 2012 - Odds and Ends

Managed to sleep a few hours, then awake a bit, then another good sleep after dawn. After breakfast we started to attack the list we had made of all the things that need doing while we are here in one spot, though we didn’t get as much done as we had hoped. We were also trying to get a short ride around the neighborhood in, but Hubby’s back was bothering him too much, so we decided to wait until he had another chiropractic treatment (which is scheduled for tomorrow) and hope that will help. Watched a beautiful sunset in our new "backyard", then relaxed in the evening just watching TV.

Sunday, January 22, 2012 - Complete Day Off

Had a good night sleep for a change, yeah! Not sure which change made it happen, but it happened and I am grateful. Slept late, watched movies and football all day, had dinner with my brother and his girlfriend, hoping for another good night sleep tonight.

Saturday, January 21, 2012 - Runaround Day

Woke up early to the alarm so that Hubby could make an early chiropractic appointment. Afterward did some shopping and running around before coming back for an early evening. Neighbor was having a party so we go to listen to loud music and crowd noises all evening, plus fireworks and gunfire all day, not quite sure what that was all about, but c’est la vie, we’re in the country, sort of. A relatively relaxing day, nevertheless, had a good dinner with a bit of a change in diet today, hoping to start a downward trend, I’ve been stuck at the same weight for a while now, ready to do whatever’s necessary to loss that next ten pounds, plus I haven’t been sleeping well and I’m hoping a change will help that. We’ll see!

Friday, January 20, 2012 - Travel Day

Woke up to the alarm this morning, packed up and left by 11:00, then had to line up at the dump station for over 40 minutes before we could get in. Stopped in Okeechobee for hay, then headed over to brother Jeff’s, arriving about 3:00. No one home yet, so we got everything set up pretty quick. He arrived home about 4:30, met his girlfriend Tracy and her two sons a bit later, then they went off to the races and we settled down for the evening. Planning on taking the weekend off, though we do have some running around to do tomorrow. Looking forward to getting some rest before we get busy with a long honeydo list that's likely to keep us going for weeks!

Thursday, January 19, 2012 - Rest Day

Hubby and I both woke up feeling a bit achy, and after awhile we decided we were better off resting today rather than riding, even though we both wanted to. We just couldn’t get ourselves going enough to do it, so I spent the day catching up on with work on the computer, and Hubby spent the day reading a new book on his Kindle. Brother in the hospital is off the ventilator, sitting up and eating solid food, so progress is made on that front. Watched TV for the evening, including the latest CNN GOP Presidential Debate (now down to four candidates), amused at how trivial the media keeps wanting to make this race by asking ridiculous and irrelevant questions. Travel day tomorrow, picking up hay in Okeechobee before heading to my other brother’s, where we’ll be spending the next couple of months. Lots of local riding there, though, so stay tuned!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - Second Ride Day at Highlands Hammock

Headed out a bit earlier today after getting a bunch of work and phone calls done. Brother in ICU is doing better, still on a ventilator, but that’s supposed to be coming later off today. On the trail by 11:15, taking some secondary trails that aren’t marked on the map, beginning with leaving the horse camp to the north, then west, which was essentially a perimeter trail and a firebreak. It was a wide swath of grass that was pretty badly torn up by the wild pigs in a lot of places. We headed south on the first main trail, which soon ran us right into the main trail again. We took that west some more, then north again at an intersection that had a big X marking the spot, as if it had been a makeshift helipad of sorts. It’s also where the bike trail joins the horse trail. Took that back to the firebreak, headed west again until we came across another trail heading south, but this one was SO much better. It headed into what is truly the first tropical forest we’ve seen yet. Lots of palm trees among some scattered old live oak and magnolia, along with lots of scrub palms on the ground. It felt really magical there, like an enchanted forest, and it obviously hadn’t been traveled anywhere near as much as the rest of the trails we had seen, though there were some signs of a few horse passings. That meandered around a bit, which was a nice change from all the straight lines we’d been doing, until it finally met up with the main trail again. We turned around at that point, though, because we had seen another trail head off to the northeast, so we backtracked to there. Along the way, we not only came across lots of pig sign, we came across lots of pigs as well. Though the horses did a lot of snorting and whirling and sometimes just froze in place, they were a bit less reluctant to move forward when asked, as if they were starting to get used to the pigs. At one point, I swear, Apollo was actually strutting at the fact he managed to get the pigs to run away from him, as if to say, "I’m the Man!" At any rate, we made progress getting over the pig phobia they’ve had, which will be helpful as time goes on, since there’s obviously a major pig infestation going on in south Florida these days. We also saw a couple of white tail deer, and they, too, caused only a small start from the horses before they moved on. Good to see them getting used to wildlife around them! Got back early, as we want them to get used to being ridden every day, but not for hours and hours every day, at least until they’re better conditioned. Rinsed them off, which was pretty pointless as they both rolled in the sand within a few minutes of that exercise. Fortunately it rained later on in the evening, and that rinsed them off again. Had a quiet evening, then heard that my brother was off the ventilator and doing better shortly before heading off to bed.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 - First Ride at Highlands Hammock

First things first today, I had to run down and drop off an envelope for the outgoing mail at the ranger station, running the gauntlet through the sugar sand again, slipping and sliding in several spots, but it was to pay our taxes, so I couldn’t let it go another day. Got back and had a leisurely breakfast, and did some work on the computer. Just as we were getting ready to go, I got a call from my brother here in Florida (the one we’re on our way to visit), to tell me that one of our other brothers (who was supposed to be flying from Texas to Florida today for a week of rest and to visit the same brother) was in the hospital undergoing some sort of heart surgery. Not a heart attack, apparently, but a torn aorta. Kept the phone with me for updates, and fortunately, the surgery went well and he’s going to be under careful observation for a few days, but don’t know yet about the recovery involved. Easy to deduce he won’t be flying to Florida any time soon! Well, Hubby had already saddled up his horse, so I saddled mine and away we went! It was an absolutely perfect day weather-wise, one of the best we’ve had in awhile, so nice I only had to have a tank top on. It’s great to get some sun. We did the full official trail today, which is about 10 miles, but we saw lots of side trails we’ll explore later in the week. It began with a very long, very straight stretch with old growth and palm trees along a little river which is shared with the bikers (we passed several along the way), crossed a good sized wooden bridge over the river, then eventually worked our way out to the country road. The trees thinned out until we were essentially in almost open fields with just a few pines and lots of squash palms. After that we crossed the county road, did some pretty straight runs along the boundary, came across a lot of pig sign that got the horses snorting and whirling around a bit. We crossed the road again and came across some actual pigs crossing the trail, a couple of mamas and some babies, and the horses were like statues at first. Once they caught sight of us, they ran off, which seemed to give Apollo some confidence, so he strutted past the area with a bit more panache and a lot less fuss. I guess he finally figured out that the pigs were more afraid that we were pig-eating monsters than he was that they were horse-eating pigs. We had some fantastic canters and lovely long trots, as everyone is getting more and more fit. We even trotted across the bridge on the way back, about 10-15 yards of planking that made a wonderful clippety-clop sound as we went over it. A great ride! We arrived back at camp about 4:00, just as one of my brothers texted me to let me know that my other brother was out of surgery and seemed to be doing okay, though we’ll know better in a few days in the ICU. Settled in for a relaxing evening, enjoying the quiet solitude of this place.

Monday, January 16, 2012 - Travel to Highlands Hammock near Sebring, FL

 Woke up to the alarm, had a nice breakfast, packed everything up, spent a few challenging moments getting out of our camping space, stopped and the RV and then went on our way! Stopped at Wauchula to shop a the Wal-mart and the Tractor Supply (for horse treats, of course!) Before arriving at Highlands Hammock State Park, apparently the oldest State Park in Florida. Technically, their horse camp is closed, because they’ve build a new one, but the new one isn’t open yet because the county won’t let them open it until they put in a new, second RV dump (they already have on the the main campground). Despite that, a friendly ranger named Steve agreed to let us come into the old horse camp for a few days. After checking in at the ranger station, we were directed through the main campground, north of the maintenance buildings. There was one rather scary stretch of road that we stopped to examine before venturing in, because it was pretty deep soft sand, and the last thing we wanted to do was get stuck. The ranger station’s advice was "don’t stop," sage advice for anyone who’s ever dealt with suggar sand! Anyway, we made it through, though there were a couple of harrowing spots when the wheels started juddering, but we just kept moving and managed to make it okay There’s one fresh water spigot and a trough here, along with a number of high line posts in position. There was a day trailer here when we arrived, and we chatted with them a minute before they left. Didn’t take long to get everything set up and ready, so much earlier than usual we didn’t know what to do with ourselves! Happy to say I have a great cell phone signal here, so I did some work on the internet, then we settled down for the evening, using our generator for the first time in quite a while.

Sunday, January 15, 2012 - Rest Day

And a rest day it was! Slept until almost 11:00! Then watched the old 3 hour movie "The Longest Day" for most of the afternoon, before settling down to an evening of football and network shows we had on the PVR. Setting the alarm for early though, we have to move on tomorrow.

Saturday, January 14, 2012 - Second Ride Day at Little Manatee River

 Another quiet night for everyone, the horses seemed much more relaxed last night and this morning. Either the pigs went elsewhere or the horses are starting to get used to the smell! Either way they seemed more rested. After a leisurely breakfast and a few chores, we headed out on the trail around 1:00. Today, we just meandered a bit. We did a little exploring around the southwest part of the park, an area they call the Sundance Trails. As expected, the trail map wasn’t as accurate as I would like, so we just wandered somewhat, a bit on the blue trail, a bit on the white trail, a bit on one of the many silver trails, crossed the road to do part of the red mustang trail backwards from yesterday, then back to the southwest corner to go on what we missed. There a lots of long straight grassy trails so we did a lot of cantering today, as we continue to condition the horses and ourselves for longer and longer rides. We got back a little after three, and I spent the rest of the day playing around with Google Earth. I discovered I could overlay the map the ranger gave me on top of the Google Earth satellite map of the area and then roughly trace out the trails with actual lines the color of the depicted trail. Then I can readjust the trail from the rough map to the actual trail as I can see it on Google Earth. Pretty cool! Thinking about doing this for a bunch of maps I already have downloaded or scanned. I’ve been collecting quite a library over the years, and I may just add those to the new website I’m designing, which I’m going to put up as Equicamping.com in a few weeks. Stay tuned for more as we get closer to our launch date! Watched some football and TV for the rest of the evening, intermittently working on my maps. Rest day tomorrow!

Friday, January 13, 2012 - First Ride Day at Little Manatee River State Park

While the night was restful for us, it wasn’t quite so restful for the horses. We noticed some signs of wild hogs or pigs along the side of the road coming in yesterday, and that was borne out by the fact that the horses seemed to be at attention when we went to bed last night, and were still hyper-alert this morning, though nowhere near as agitated as when we had hogs in the campground in Texas last winter. That, combined with two days off, and the fact that it was a lot cooler this morning meant the horses were quite frisky when we set out just after noon. The trail map we got from the ranger station yesterday is pathetic, though the trails are actually marked a bit better, they just don’t jibe with the map very well. Lots of intersections have numbered markers, but the numbers aren’t on the map, so that doesn’t help. The trails are marked by colored arrows, but the map is in black and white, so you have to decipher the gray dots on the map are the green trail, little diamonds on the map are the red trail, and so on. The first part of the trail was essentially open areas with lots of little palmetto palms, as if it had been cleared and never recovered. Eventually we went through a few areas of older growth forest. After several missteps, we finally found the crosswalk over the road to get to the Mustang Trail, which turned out to be very nice, with some of the best old growth forest we’d seen in a long time, but even that side had a few areas of "management," code for clearing out the old growth trees and replacing it with pines, likely for eventual harvest.  We even crossed a water hazard, our first in weeks! Okay, so it was just a trickle of a creek, but at least it was running water!  Did the entire Green Trail (parts of it twice) and the Red Trail in just under three hours, and found lots of places to trot and canter, in fact did some of the longest canters we’ve ever done. It’s a pretty small park, so it was hard to get too lost. The horses started out jittery, but finally settled down after a few of the canters, though they got a little on edge on the final leg back to the camping area, where the telltale signs of wild pigs grew more noticeable. They’re absolutely getting in better shape though, as are we. It feels so good to be getting back to riding more regularly, we’ve been so busy since the summer it feels like we’ve gotten off track! Got back to the campground and discovered that all four of our neighbors had moved out, but knew they’d be filled in again by the evening, though whether any of the were bringing horses was unknown. Got the horses settled in just about the time people started showing up. We discovered that we could easily reach the electrical outlet of the site next to us, so we decided to plug in, then ask later when someone arrived if they’d mind. Eventually they showed up, and after a nice chat, they said they didn’t mind, so we’re set with electric for the weekend (albeit by a bit of pirating.) Call it being resourceful...: -) Anyway, we had a quiet evening and we’re looking forward to good sleeping weather, temps down to 40 tonight!

Thursday, January 12, 2012 - Move to Little Manatee River State Park

Didn’t bother with the alarm this morning since we had such a short trip today, got out about noon after using the dump here at Alafia. After stops at the Post Office and Wal-mart on the way, we arrived at Little Manatee River State Park, less than 25 miles away from where we started. The ranger at the entrance seemed rather surprised that we were even aware that they had four extra primitive horse camp sites, apparently they’re brand new and haven’t even been put on their computer yet. Nevertheless, she made a call and managed to make the arrangements after I explained that I had called and spoke to someone who told me they had these spots. Before long we were on our way to the equestrian camp. They have four sites that are reservable through ReserveAmerica, but they were all booked for the weekend, so we opted for the first-come, first-served sites, figuring coming in on a Thursday would improve our chances. We arrived to discover that all four "reserved" campsites were full, but not one of them had a horse. Apparently they use this area for overflow when the regular campground is full. Fair enough, except that the four new spots were really crude and incomplete. They had put big gravel down, and hadn’t really cleared anyplace for the horses to go, although they do have covered stalls behind the reservable sites, not within view of the primitive sites, though. We did find a grassy area between the reservable sites and the trailhead, however, that had tall pines in the right position to highline, and enough room for us to park both vehicles and create a nice little alcove for ourselves. There is also a very convenient spigot right here as well. We were set up, satellite dish and all, well before 4:00, so we had a relaxing evening. Funny, we had stayed here once before years ago at the regular campground, and when we drove in, I saw the sign for horse camping. I actually think that we saw that same sign back then, and that was when we first became aware that people actually camped with their horses, planting a seed that would eventually grow into what we are doing today! Sort of feels like we’ve gone full circle on that one! Looking forward to our first ride tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - Work/Rest/Rain Day

Spent the day working on the computer, resting, Hubby was reading, while it was a cloudy, windy and occasionally rainy day outside. Perfect timing, we needed the rest and if it had been sunny we probably would have made ourselves go riding again. This is a nice park, but it’s quite small and there wouldn’t have been anything new to see, so we were better off resting our bones for the day, and getting caught up on a lot of paperwork that’s been piling up. Moving on again tomorrow, though we’re only going to Little Manatee State Park, which is less than an hour away. Couldn’t get a reservation for the weekend, so we’re taking our chances on the overflow first-come, first-served horse camping area. I think we’ve camped there before a few years back, sans horses, but I’m not sure. Supposed to be about 12 miles of trails, so again, a small park, but that’s okay, I still have some paperwork I need to do preparing for taxes and other end of the year stuff, so we don’t need to ride every day.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - Ride Day at Alafia State Park

After a leisurely morning, we saddled up and headed out on the trail just after noon, starting out counterclockwise on the Blue Perimeter trail. The ranger had told me it was about 7 miles around this rather small park, but there were numerous other trails crisscrossing it as well, so we had options. Leaving the campground out the southeast corner, we started down a lovely wide trail with a row of trees reminiscent of a country lane. That quickly turned into a section of old growth forest, and some lakes and ponds, including a couple of spots of water crossing the trail, that was the first water we’ve seen in ages! Before long we came upon some wide open fields, but the footing was mostly a grass swath, so it was perfect for trotting and cantering. Despite the long ride on Saturday, the horses seem quite up to it, and we did a lot of trotting and cantering! Eventually we arrived at the day parking trailhead, and judging from the kiosk map and the terrain, we decided that staying on the perimeter trail, which basically just followed the road, would be too boring, so we cut across the park on the green trail, then headed south on the white trail to the picnic area, then cut across the green trail back to the perimeter trail that headed us back into camp. It was a lovely ride, and except for a couple of run-ins with a couple of sets of bikers on the equestrian trails (one couple was apologetic, the other two girls were rather indignant that I made them stop and walk past us, rather than blow past us as they were intending to do... One even got snippety when I pointed out that there were many bike trails in the park and they didn’t need to be on the equestrian trail, though I got the feeling that they were so busy chatting that they didn’t even notice they were on the wrong trail... We had heard their voices for quite a while before they ran into us.) Other than that, we had a great time, out till about 3:00, rinsed the sweat off the horses, walked the dogs, had our ice cream lunch, confirmed a job in May in western New York, and settled down for the night.

Monday, January 9, 2012 - Travel Day to Alafia State Park

Had a good night sleep, woke up with the alarm, and several snooze buttons later, finally crawled out of bed. Had breakfast here since it’s only about a two hour drive. Packed up and moving by 11:00, a straightforward drive down I-75 with just a couple of misdirections, thanks to my Verizon GPS, which hasn’t been working very well since their workers went on strike a few months ago, though I’m sure there’s no linkage there... Received a hearty welcome from the ranger at the main gate, and was all settled in, including satellite signal, by just after 3:00. Here there are two campgrounds next to each other, a regular one and the horse camp next to it, with 11 sites designed for horses. There are posts for highlines scattered around, and they’re in the process of building a barn nearby, so obviously they have an active horse community here. Looking forward to seeing what the trails look like. Went out to dinner at the Outback in nearby Lithia with an old high school friend and his wife, had a great conversation until 9:00, before heading back to camp. Looking forward to our first ride here tomorrow, feel they must be pretty good to be such an attraction! Fingers crossed!

Sunday, January 8, 2012 - Horse Wash and Rest Day

After a late morning and a leisurely breakfast, Hubby did a nice job of washing out the back of the horse trailer, a long overdue job, and I washed the horses thoroughly, another long overdue job. Of course, the minute she was back on the highline, Clio dropped down and rolled in the sand (washing a horse, the single most futile job in the world), but fortunately Apollo didn’t, so he’s still a nice shiny horse for the time being. I even trimmed their tails a bit to make them even at the bottom, something I’ve never done (we like the natural look), but they were getting so long they could practically step on them, so it seemed the right thing to do. Spent the rest of the day watching football, doing laundry and relaxing, as we get ready to leave again tomorrow, heading out to Alafia State Forest east of Tampa. This turned out to be one of our favorite trails, and even though the campground is a bit pedestrian and perfunctory, at least it was convenient and had all the facilities we needed. Being so close to I-75 will make it a great overnight stop whenever we’re traveling the western side of Florida.

Saturday, January 7, 2012 - LONG Ride to Land Bridge over I-75

     Set the alarm to get up a bit earlier, had breakfast and then finally headed out about 11:15 toward the Land Bridge over I-75. Cornelius our campground host had said it was about five hours, so we figured we were in good shape. We took the buggy route because we thought it would be more direct, but missed a turn somewhere and ended up on a dirt road that was obviously on the Ross Prairie Wilderness, which was south of the Greenway. Since it was heading east, in the direction we wanted anyway, we stuck with it for awhile, until we found an unmarked trail heading due north. That soon took us back to the buggy trail, which we followed to the road crossing at Route 484, doing a lot of trotting along this section to condition both ourselves and the horses. From there we stayed on Yellow Trail number 1 across the entire next section of the Greenway, from 484 to 49th Street. It was a nice trail, though the scenery wasn’t nearly as nice as the first section, it was still pretty good. It took us longer to cross than we thought, and we got behind schedule. We eventually got to an underpass at 49th, and kept going, still following the Yellow trail, mostly walking now, as the horses had gotten more tired than we had anticipated, guess we pushed them too hard too early. We finally reached the Land Bridge, where, thank goodness, they had a couple of hitching posts and a trough of water for the horses. We crossed over to the other side, just so we could say we did, and then came right back again, stopping at the trough to rest and have some lunch. Gave the horses some oats and feed, which helped their energy a bit, and headed out again about 25 minutes later. They were still reluctant to do more than a walk, however, so it was a long ride home. We took the main Greenway Road because we figured it would be the most direct route, plus the footing was a bit firmer, mostly old asphalt with a few patches of gravel, not our favorite, but the trails here are pretty deep sand, particularly in the second and third sections of the trail, and the buggy section of the first section, which is one of the reasons the horses got worn out so early. We managed to get to the road crossing at 484 just before the sun went down, but the rest of the trip was in the gradually darkening skies of civil twilight, which was really lovely going through our favorite part of the forest, though as it was getting dark it was a bit spooky at time, though the horse were too tired to care. Fortunately, the skies were clear and there was an almost full moon brightly lighting the sky. I just put Apollo on auto pilot and let him take us the rest of the way, almost. I made him turn in one spot to stay out in the open rather go into the now quite dark forest, and that messed us up a bit, but soon we crossed the right field, and from there, Apollo led us straight to the gate at the campground, though honestly, I was having a hard time seeing it until we were practically on top of it. Good horse! He got us home safe and sound. We quickly stripped off their gear, checked them out to make sure everyone was okay after their exertions, gave them extra rations of feed before hanging them back up on the highline, took the dogs for a walk and collapsed into our recliners with a bowl of ice cream after having spent almost SEVEN HOURS in the saddle! What an adventure! Before going to bed I looked out at the door, and Apollo was laying on the ground sound asleep with mama Clio watching over him, just like she always does for her sweet colt. Tomorrow no alarms, we sleep as late as we want and do our best to rest as much as we can, though there are some chores that just have to be done. What a memorable ride!

Friday, January 6, 2012 - Surprise Spectacular Ride at Ross Prairie

   Wow! What a surprise! From the maps I had downloaded about Ross Prairie Forest, it just looked like a grid of dirt forest roads, so we weren’t expecting much. When we got here yesterday, I noticed we were on the edge of a Greenway as well as the Forest, so I quickly located a map online of that, and it seemed like a simple enough loop just north of the forest. We headed out the back of the campground, and almost immediately came across trail markings that didn’t seem to correspond with anything on the Ross Prairie map, so we just started following them. We headed out, appropriately, on Trail #1, also marked as the Yellow Trail. It wound us through one of the nicest pieces of old growth forest we had been on in a LONG time. Huge live oaks and magnolia trees, sometimes intermingling with native pines (not the rows and rows of managed forest we’ve been riding in the last week, thank goodness). The trail was mostly single file, the footing was mostly good except the occasional patch of soft sand, and it was so well-marked we were astonished! The markers even told you whether you were heading east or west on a trail! As we traveled on #1, we crisscrossed several other trails which also seemed to meander through this luscious piece of forest. We got a little off track at one intersection, because the trail led up a sandy hill that seemed to have tracks everywhere, so we backtracked to a wider trail that we soon discovered was designed as a buggy trail. That quickly led us to a sweet little spot of a primitive camping area, including a picnic table, a hand pump and small trough and a fire ring. We also discovered that the #1 trail also led there, so we were able to pick it up again and proceed from there. We followed it all the way the Route 484 (only about 2+ miles, but it seemed longer because it was so beautiful), where we turned around and headed back, this time on Trail #2, which occasionally merged with Trail #3. Whenever it did, we got in a nice trot or canter, and in one spot the horses even decided to gallop! We were out less than three hours, but it was such a surprise we kept exclaiming how incredible it was, and that made it so enjoyable! When we got back, I did some more research on the Greenway, its history as a former Cross-Florida Canal acquisition (that never got built all the way), and found trail maps for each section along the way. Our host Cornelius had mentioned about being able to ride all the way to I-75, which didn’t exactly seem like a "destination" ride to us, until I discovered that there is actually a "land bridge" that crosses that Interstate. It’s a wide overpass that apparently has it’s own landscaping, like a little island across, so we’ve decided we need to make that trip tomorrow. It will be a long day, about 16 miles or so, so we’ll have to get an early start. That said, it’s time for bed!