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Full-time RV travels in the United States and Canada
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March 11 - The time changed last night. Doug's time changed along with it. We were up before dawn and he was looking for his bacon and eggs. We only have bacon and eggs on Sunday. By the time the sun decided to wake up, we had eaten our breakfast. It would have been nice to sleep in until 7 a.m. this morning, which would be our usual 6 a.m. on standard time. Not today though. There was lots of coming and going in the park. There were people walking, riding bicycles, golf carts, horses and any other type of transportation you can think of. Many people were enjoying one last ride on their horses, before putting them back in the trailer and taking them home. This is an ideal park for anyone who owns a horse. They have 600 acres of property in this park. It is a horse owners dream. We started preparing for our departure on Wednesday. Doug checked the fluid levels and the fresh water tank. We will put fresh water on before we head north, because we will be staying in Rachael and Jody's driveway for a few days and we don't like putting Tilbury water in our fresh water tank. We will be putting the cover on our bikes also, because we won't be using them again until we get to our summer park. Lots of things to think of and do. We will be home in Ontario in just over four weeks. Where did the winter go? March 10 - We were up at our usual time. Doug is still getting over a stiff neck. We don't know how he did it, but we thing he has pulled a neck muscle. I had put a heat patch on it yesterday and again today, but it is still bothering him. The trusty steed (my bike) was waiting patiently at the door. I pulled on my riding gloves and put on the sunglasses. I was ready to ride. Doug said "see ya'", as I hit the trail. First, I rode up around the inner field where they were having a lawnmower rodeo type event. Lots of people out enjoying the fun. Next I road around to the far side, thinking that I could come into the barn area from that side. I wasn't able to do that, but I did find an pavilion.
there are seats built into the surrounding woods. You can just get a hit of one to the right of the disability sign, between the trees. A bit further down the road, I found a nice little chapel in the woods and a beautiful little lake.
You can see the green roof of the little Chapel in the woods. The wire mess is a swan and her two goslings. I imagine that they light them up at night. Here is another photo of the lake
At this point I had reached the end of the trail. My trusty stead doesn't like loose sand. I learned that lesson well. Now if I had been riding a real horse, the fun would just be beginning. These trails are like a freeway compared to the ones we used to ride at our riding stable - Sportsman's Bay Riding Stable just north of Minden, Ontario. My parents operated the riding stable on 500 acres for close to 30 years. Those were the days. Lots of hard work, but always time for fun also. I miss having my own horse. The bicycle will have to do. We don't have room for a horse or its hay 8(
It was time for me to find a different route to the horse stables. I retraced our path, rode past our coach and waved at Doug, and continued on to the stables. There were lots of horse trailers. Everything from a two horse trailer, like we were used to, right up to big money horsetrailer/RV's. We would have loved to have a unit like this, when we had the horses
They had a bit of a vendors area set up. You could buy western jewelry, leather purses, belts, and saddles. They also had saddle bags, blankets, electric fences and lots of other western stuff. There was a modern day cowboy in a corral showing the young cowgirls and cowboys the proper way to bridle a horse, which included showing them where the horse had no teeth to bite them with. The horse that he was using for the demonstration was very well mannered and patient for his tender years. I wasn't standing directly in front of the horse, so cannot say for sure, but I don't even think the horse had his two year teeth yet. His head looked very young also. He was nice and wide between the eyes and had an honest head. He is going to make someone a very good horse. It was interesting to see the children hanging onto every word the cowboy was saying. He was a good demonstrator. So much so that I forgot to take their picture. Some of the horses were returning from the trail ride and I did get some photos of them.
The woman in the pink shirt had a designer feature on her mule.
Here is a closer look at it. Do you see the heart on the mules hip, under the martingale?
There was every type of horse you could think of, with every type of rider you can think of. This guy will wonder why his horse gets a sore back If he sat in the saddle properly, his horses back wouldn't get sore.
He is to big for the size of horse he is riding. The length of his stirrups are to short, causing him to push back on the saddle, causing unnecessary weight on his horses back. A horse carries most of his load on his front quarters and the back quarters gives him the pushing strength for quick take offs or climbing hills. His horse is beautiful, but won't be for long. If the rider keeps riding like this, the horse will break down, long before he normally would. While we are on the subject, there is a right length of stirrup and a wrong length. To find the correct length of stirrup, a rider should put the stirrup under their arm, resting it in the armpit. The riders fingers should rest on the skirt of the seat. When the stirrup is adjusted to this length, then the rider has the right length of stirrup for himself. While we are at it, here are some more examples.
These stirrups are to short, but he is sitting well down into his saddle. Sorry I cut the horses head off in the photo. It was a pretty paint.
This rider has the stirrups just right and her form is good also.
Everyone was just out enjoying the day and their horses. They were all having a fun time. All of the horses are beautiful. Some more then others. The black was gorgeous. What a performer. His rider handled him real well. She probably shows him in dressage at other events.
This is one event that I really wish that I could have participated in. It would have been so good to be back in the saddle again!! There wasn't much more I could do here, accept go to the stable and rent a horse, so I went back to the coach. It was cooler there and we could see all of the activities through our windshield. That's about it for this day. March 9 - We didn't have many plans for today. We are going for a drive someplace and then will stop for lunch. We drove south on US-129 to US-27 east and then US-41 to I-75. It was an interesting drive, showing many different features of Florida. We even saw many old southern cottages, which are still occupied. They could use a little paint and TLC outside, otherwise they are very charming. I enjoy seeing the different types of architecture as we travel along. We returned to Live Oak and stopped at the Golden Corral for lunch. The rest of the day was just rest and recover from our large lunch. We returned to Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park and watched as more and more horse/RV trailers rolled in for the Best of America by Horseback Trail Ride. Tomorrow I will go and check out all the horses and trailers over at the barn. This is going to be fun. Neither of us felt like eating supper, so we each had a sandwich and shortly after called it a day.
March 8 - We had a very cool night here. Cooler then we expected. The electricity went out about 11:00 P.M. It is really dark here with no street lights. I was born in the country and enjoy having no artificial lights at night. Doug, on the other hand, can't see in the dark. He cannot navigate around the coach in the dark. I didn't want him to fall over something if he had to visit the bathroom, so I went and found the flashlight for him. He could have turned a light on, because they are all operated from our house batteries, but I didn't think he would, so this was a solution. When the electricity went out I turned the furnaces off. We had an experience a few years ago, when I left the furnace running. House batteries do not last long when operating the fans on the furnaces. We were nice and warm as long as we didn't get up. The electricity came back on about 2:00 a.m. I woke up and came out to check for street lights. They were on, so I knew the electricity was back on. I went back to the bedroom, fired both furnaces and covered up my head. Soon it was back to a more acceptable temperature. Morning rolled around quickly, after the electricity came back on. It is a beautiful, warm, sunny day here now. It is 74 F right now. A good temperature to enjoy, without it being to hot and needing the air-conditioner. On a sad note we learned last night, that our brother-in-law Steve is very ill. He is still a young man and it saddened us to hear that he was now in the hospital awaiting a MIR. We hope that the Doctors can find out what is wrong with him and that they are able to help him. Steve is in our thoughts and prayers. Get well soon Steve! We as an affiliate of Wal*Mart received news of a new feature Wal*Mart is adding. They call it Site to Store. This is a very exciting new feature. We will be able to order online and pick up at the nearest American Wal*Mart. Wal*Mart always has a larger selection of merchandise at their online store with great prices. Many items are not available in their stores. There are no crowds, when we shop online. We plan on making good use of this new feature. It is not available in all areas yet, but will be by the end of July, this year (2007). We, as Canadian Snowbirds can purchase a gift card at Wal*Mart, or use an American Credit Card, to order online and pick-up at the nearest store, while we are in the States. . We love that idea. We will keep you posted. March 7 - We were up at our usual time. We had our breakfast and coffee, watched the morning news and then finished preparations to move. We were finally able to configure the Delorme Earthmate GPS to work with the Microsoft Streets and Trips. Today will be our first experience using Streets and Trips with the gps. We hooked up the car and said good-bye to 3 Flags RV Resort and Wildwood, FL for this year. The Delorme Earthmate GPS worked well with Microsoft Streets and Trips. We found it very user friendly. We are happy to be able to use it with Microsoft Streets and Trips because I have our whole route entered in Streets and Trips already. It will save entering all our stops and stays again. We really liked how it worked today and look forward to using it in our travels. We were registering at Spirit of the Suwannee before lunch time. We were pulled in, hooked up, both satellites locked on and eating our lunch by 1 p.m. We have a great site on the main road to the river. We are just a couple of sites up from were we were last fall. There is a Tsunami motor coach in 228A where we were last fall. We are looking forward to another enjoyable week here. March 6- This morning was very cold and we even had frost on the windshield. This isn't supposed to happen in Florida, in March. We had a an experience last night. Doug and I both woke up to our bedroom being filled with a red glow. We very quickly scrambled out of bed to find out what the cause of this light was. When we first woke we didn't know if it was a fire or something else. We soon found out that it was not a fire, but an Emergency Response vehicle with the red lights flashing. The EMS was at the fifth wheel right across from our site. We were very concerned, but had not met the residence, in our stay here. Soon an ambulance pulled up and the EMS people walked a woman out to the ambulance. Her husband followed and when they left, he followed in his pick-up truck. The EMS had turned off their red lights, so we hope she was okay. We learned in the morning that many had not even realized the emergency had taken place. We hope that her problem was not serious and that she gets well soon. The thermometer quickly pushed itself up into the 70's. We had decided to go and have lunch at Beef O'Bradys in Wildwood. We drove into Wildwood, turned north on US-301 and after a short drive, turned right into the restaurant parking lot. Oh, O! The restaurant is so new, it isn't even open yet. Does anyone want a job?? They are looking for help? We weren't going home for lunch. I was driving and that was not going to be an option. We drove back onto US-301 and continued north, just up the street there was a Hardy. It would have to do today. Doug likes there burgers and I like there salad. We returned to 3 Flags RV Resort after lunch. After a quick change of clothes, Doug started getting ready to wash the coach and I went to purchase the voucher to be able to wash it. The temperature was in the 70's, just right for washing. The two of us made quick work of a dirty coach and car. We are now all clean and shiny for our trip home. Doug emptied the tanks and disconnected the water and sewer hook-ups. Tomorrow morning we just have to disconnect the water, lower the TV satellite dish, and stow away my internet satellite dish. The whole process tomorrow morning will take about 10 minutes. We will also hook-up the car tomorrow morning. That will take another 10 minutes. We have this moving thing down to a fine art now. Practice does make perfect sometimes 8). March 5 - We are on the count-down to move day and our last stop in Florida this year. Doesn't seem possible, but that's the way it is. Today we started putting items in their travel position. We haven't washed our coach yet and want to do that before we leave here. I will go to the office tomorrow and purchase a voucher for $5.00 to wash the coach and car. It is to cold to wash them today. We are hoping that it will be warmer tomorrow.
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The stirrup
is to long, the rider is reaching for his stirrup. The rider is a good
size for the horse and other then the stirrup being to long, the rider has
fairly good form.
