Message from your President:

As I write this newsletter, I am, as are most folks, staying mostly at home going crazy. It’s not that I don’t have a lot of work to do around the place, it’s that I don’t want to do it and would rather be riding and camping. Oh, well, let’s pray this virus starts going into remission as most viruses do, and lets us get back to whatever our new normal will be. I am sad that our end of March plans and all of April plans were cancelled. We will still have a Bud Jenkins / Judy Goodroe memorial ride at some point, just not sure when. Oh, well, that gives us time to get a mounting block out to Ocklawaha Prairie. 

We did have a fun meeting in March. Jerry Harrington, Jeff Gregory and Ron Smith informed and entertained us with their knowledge of bees and other stinging things, trailer maintenance and repair, and electrical hook-ups at campsites. We appreciate their info and thank them for sharing with us. 

Then we had our annual yard sale on March 7. Thanks to Michelle McWilliams for all her collecting, storing, sorting and organizing of items. And she frequently sells items ahead of the yard sale itself. She takes pics and posts on-line. She works so hard at this event and I can’t thank her enough. I also thank Mark who handles all the money and helps Michelle. And thanks to John and Paige Chassie for setting up tables for us and working hard all day long. We had a bunch of other members who came throughout the day to help as well. So, thanks to all of you, the sale brought us $1,350 !!! This is our best year yet and each year I am surprised by how much we make. Woo Hoo!

We had a fun campout at Fechtel with 7 rigs camping and a bunch coming out for a day ride on Sat. We had 22 riding on Sat. AM. We ended up eating out both nights which was somewhat unplanned, but still lots of fun. Restaurants were still open at that time. The wild iris flowers were out and were just beautiful on the trails. As I write this, the pavilion is going up at Fechtel so the next time we get to ride out there it will be complete. Thanks to all who donated to the project. 

We have no calendar to report until we are allowed to go out into the world again. Most trail heads are closed. All state parks are closed. State forests are still open as I understand it. Lots of us have places we can ride out from on our properties so we are getting in some day rides with a few people. I am slowly planning our banquet. I don’t know where or when it will be, but we will have one none-the-less. It may be October before we can get out, but we WILL have a banquet!

In the meantime, go shopping! I am doing more (gulp) on-line shopping which is probably a bad thing. But as I see it, I am doing my part to keep the economy going (which is a good thing). And I did order a shirt from our visitor last month, Horse Girl USA. It is very comfortable and washes well. So, if you are looking for a good long-sleeve cool riding shirt, check them out.