Close to Home

With my new, much, much lower budget, I will have to pick and choose my camping opportunities and have opted to ride close to home most of the time.

My daughter Jenny, my good friends Cathy and Shelly and I went on a ride two weekends ago that was a lot of fun.  We parked at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center, but instead of riding the trails there (they were having an ACTHA event) we crossed SR 228 and rode around on the old Cecil Field Naval Base.  It's now called Cecil Commerce Center and boasts a runway that the Space Shuttles could land on as a backup.  Since there weren't any signs that said "no horses", we took a tour of the perimeter of the golf course, down thru the main street, and ended up at a lake and picnic area.  That was after cruising by the Golf Course Club House where they were having a "Redneck Golf Tournament".  We asked if we could buy a beer, and a couple of good ole boys handed us some cold ones out of their coolers.  :-)

Shelly with a concoction that Cathy made for us with the golf course behind

Cruising down one of the main drags

Number 2

I got to camp again this month....2 in 1 month is stretching my financial plan, but this trip was pretty inexpensive.  I am debt free other than my home, and am in the phase of saving enough cash to cover me for 3 to 6 months.  When I reach that number, then it's to pay off my home and be ready to semi retire in 2014.  Anyway, a few of us decided to camp at McCulley Farms the weekend AFTER their big fall ride.  Good decision!  We had a blast....there were only about 5 other trailers besides our group.  It was like the farm and trails along the Withlacoochie River  and Twin Rivers State Forest belonged to us.  :-)

We got to ride when we wanted, for as long as we wanted, slept in as long as we wanted and ate want we wanted.  We had fun around the campfire.... we played headbands, but ran out of headbands so I put my card in my glasses.

Stylin was still a little off from the previous camping trip so I rode my other mare Dixie.  She is such a a good old gal.  She is still going strong.  We do not have the same easy connection that Stylin and I have, but it was fun to ride her this weekend.

Cathy's horse Busta was still lame as well, so she rode my daughter's mare, Maybe.  She always enjoys little Maybe....she'll go anywhere and do almost anything  you ask of her.

From Friday thru Sunday afternoon....I relaxed and had an awesome time with my friends and horses.

Here are links to all the rest of the photos I took and that Mustang took.  Group 1   Group 2

And a parting video......  you can't see me, but you can hear my southern twang and see my mare's ears.