Thursday, February 28, 2013
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013 - Rest and Shopping Day in Vegas
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 - Meeting and Travel Day to Vegas
Slept as late as possible, still leaving enough time for a free breakfast, then had a meeting with a new partner/friend, then a drive back to DC, sat around a LONG time at Sam and Harry's waiting for our departing flight. Finally caught it, non-stop to Vegas, arriving after 11:00. Picked up our rental car, a nice little Mazda, arriving at the Hilton Garden Inn after midnight. Took more than an hour to wind down enough to sleep, even then it was unsettled. Long day!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013 - Day Two of Training Camp
Finished up our training today, then headed back to the hotel. Walked around the corner to one of our favorite all time restaurants, Lehja, because we both LOVE Indian food, and they do it really nice here. A great training camp, though exhausting as always. Not much time to recover this time, flying straight from here to Las Vegas for another job! Busy, busy!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 - Rest and Minor Shopping Day
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013 - Fly from PBI to DCA, Drive to Richmond
Another business trip scheduled, flew from Palm Beach to Reagan National in DC, rented a car and headed down to Richmond, VA for a job down there. Did a little shopping, grabbed a meal, then relaxed for the remainder of the day.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 - Ride Day w/Hubby at Dupuis
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013 - Runaround Day in Okeechobee

Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - Dish Day
Spent the whole darn day sorting out the connections between the TV, the new satellite dish, the audio tuner, and an extra DVD recorder, not to mention a connection for the old DVR so we can continue to clear it off. Hubby woke up feeling terrible today, dizzy and nauseous, could barely walk without looking like a drunk. Sat him down in his recliner, then to bed for a nap, to try to get his head back on straight. Finally finished the wiring around 6:00. He managed to feed the horses, though I put them away, had soup for dinner before settling down to an evening of recordings. Boring but necessary day.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013 - Travel Day Back to Brother Jeff's
Set the alarm early as we had a lot to do today. Arranged to pick up an new Dish antenna and receiver (free upgrade to HD, can't pass that up now that we have an HDTV in the new RV), plus stops for breakfast at Burger King, fuel, Walmart, NAPA auto for a new part for the truck, and the RV Home Depot for odds and ends. Strange, after we left the BK, both Hubby and I started not feeling too well, and one of the dogs got a bit sick in the van after Hubby fed her some hash browns. Not saying there was a connection, but later in the day I felt a sore throat coming on, and Hubby said he wasn't feeling too well either. May be just a bug, may be something else, no sense worrying about it now. Anyway, we got back to Jeff's a little after 1:00, got settled in, tried to get the satellite dish set up but it was too late and we were too tired, so we abandoned it until tomorrow. Spend the evening watching stuff on the old DVR, something we've been doing for a couple of weeks now, to clear off all the recordings we've accumulated. Only about 35 hours left on it, but I suspect some of it will just be erased, not that exciting anyway. Bedtime came early after an early morning.
Monday, February 11, 2013
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
Sunday, February 10, 2013 - Lunch with Friends in Naples

Saturday, February 9, 2013
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, February 8, 2013
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, February 7, 2013
Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 - Travel Day to Picayune Strand State Forest
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013 - Ride Day with Hubby At Last!!!
Friday, February 1, 2013
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!
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!
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