Happy 1st birthday, Harper Ann Riley Painter, and get well soon.  DD and KK love you.

We were up early, checked email and other social media, and had a light breakfast. It didn’t take long to ready the motorhome for travel, as we only had to withdraw the slides, destabilize, and unplug.

The Illinois/Wisconsin state line was only a few minutes north, and provided a fuel stop, our second of the trip. Thus far, we’re averaging 7+ miles per gallons. Wisconsin joins the ranks of states with disintegrating roads, resulting in a very rough ride. At Oshkosh, we expected horrendous traffic as the annual EAA air show is underway—attended by some 500,000 aviation enthusiasts—but driving through the small city was relatively easy with seemingly no unusual traffic. We did see thousands upon thousands of cars and RVs parked alongside the runway(s), and planes were flying everywhere.

From there north, the roads improved considerably. Green Bay, with a population of just over 100,000, proved to be an easy city to drive through, and from there, we entered Door County. We arrived at Egg Harbor RV Park and Campground shorty after 1:00 PM, checked in, and were escorted to our well-groomed, gravel site. We did a complete set-up, with electricity, water and water softener, and satellite—life is good, very good!

After a quick lunch, we were off to explore upper Door County. The narrow peninsula has coastlines of the bay of Green Bay on it west side and Lake Michigan on its east.  Door County is mostly clean and neat row-cropped farmland, interspersed with cherry orchards and and vineyards.  Along both the west and east coasts, several quaint villages lie along bays. Many old lighthouses remain active to help guide ships and recreational boat traffic.  

At Fish Creek, we stopped at an orchard and Kay bought Rainier cherries among the many different varieties being sold. Door County is home to many orchards, wineries, and small farms. Further up the road, we entered Peninsula State Park, unloaded the bicycles, and rode a 10-mile circuit, of which about half was along the bay coastline and the other half through old growth forest. The park was quite crowded with bicyclists, joggers, and lots of people enjoying the beaches. After the seemingly long ride, we drove further up the peninsula through several more small villages, and were amazed at how crowded and how clean they were.

On the return, we stopped at Pelletier’s Restaurant for a traditional Door County fish boil. t’s similar to a crawfish boil, shrimp boil, or Low Country boil, except not as much seasoning and only white fish, potatoes, and onions. It was served with your choice of non-alcoholic beverage, bread, and fresh cherry pie. It was quite good, but not something I would want every night! Sated from the large meal, we drove to the RV park, and sort of fell into reclining positions. Kay turned the lights off at 9:40 PM and was asleep at 9:41 PM!

After a couple of photos of the Arch just across the river, we readied the RV for travel and departed the Casino Queen RV Park at 8:30 AM. While the RV park was not great, it is an easy on and off, and has excellent security in an otherwise bad part of town.

Back on I-55, we drove north to Bloomington, Illinois, and there switched to I-39 north. Along the way, another motorhome passed us, towing a car via a tow dolly, and we heard a pop. The right tire on the tow dolly began deflating, and the big diesel pusher had no idea. And then, the tire began smoking, and very shortly afterwards, parts of tires began flying everywhere. They will likely have to replace the wheel as well as the tire. We were surprised by only a few fuel stops and the lack of rest areas along I-39, though we finally found one about an hour south of our destination, Loves Park, Illinois. We had lunch at the rest area’s picnic area, and enjoyed the break. At Rockford, Illinois, I-39 became a toll road to our destination exit. Both I-55 and I-39 were among the smoothest highways we’ve driven, but both still had their share of bumps, potholes, and rough patches; and we can feel and hear them all as we shake, rattle, and roll down the road with hard tires and stiff suspension.

We registered at Rock Cut State Park, northern Illinois’ largest, and set up on an “electric only” site. After 40 minutes on the phone with DishTV, we decided our “southern window” was insufficient for a satellite signal, and gave up; we’ll watch “air” TV from Chicago as we’re only a few miles away. Instead of watching television, Kay unloaded the bicycles and we went on a great, 10-mile ride around and through the state park. It was refreshing after riding in the RV for 2 days without much of a break. A quiet evening followed Healthy Choice dinners.

With no more commitments this summer and all our projects completed, we are heading north to Door County, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

It took longer than usual to get things ready to travel given 4 days of rain this past week; satellite and electrical cables were dirty as were the hose and water softener, and all needed to be cleaned before stowing. A few sprinkles fell this morning as I loaded the bicycles.

We departed Quarry Park at 9:05 AM, drove to Mountain Home, then north a short distance on Arkansas State Highway 101; it was hilly and crooked, slowing our speed considerably. At West Plains, Missouri, we continued north on US Highway 63 towards Rolla, Missouri, stopping only briefly when the auxiliary brake in the towed Honda, the Brake Buddy, failed. It worked flawlessly for 4 years, but I did not unhook it a couple of times when we stopped overnight, running the battery down in the Honda, and it hasn’t worked since. It’s been back to the factory, I ran a separate line from the car battery to the Brake Buddy, and friend Wayne ran a separate line from the motorhome to the battery. I’m not giving up quite yet, but getting close! After the brief stop, we continued through Rolla, and then Interstate 44 east to St. Louis. We saw a small bobcat crossing the interstate just east of Rolla, a real treat. The traffic was horrendous, with vacationers and weekenders heading home to the metro area. And, we were surprised at the poor quality of the roads in Missouri. Crossing the Mississippi River on Interstate 55 in St. Louis into East St. Louis, Illinois, we found the roads to be the worst we have ever driven on, with the only exception being the Top of the World Highway in Canada and Alaska. We arrived at our destination, the Casino Queen RV Park about 3:15 PM, set up on a narrow site with low-limbed trees.  The RV park is situated immediately adjacent to the Metro, and we could hear it passing by about every 5 minutes. After a late lunch, Kay deposited her weekly allowance in the casino’s one-armed bandits, while I remained in the motorhome editing photos.

We both caught up on news and email, and I published the blog for last week before calling it an early night. Tomorrow, we drive to Loves Park, Illinois.

Sunday was my sister’s birthday, and we called to wish her a happy one—my, but she is getting old!  After church and Sunday school, we enjoyed the peace and quiet of “camping” at Quarry Park.  It rained a good portion of the day, our 2nd day in row of much needed rain.

It rained again on Monday, keeping us inside most of the day.  We had two different sets of workers scheduled to begin work today on staining and sealing the deck and landscaping, respectively, but the rain kept them both away.  We really wanted to get these projects finished this week.  Tuesday was wet as well, but we dared not complain because we really needed the precipitation.  Kay took delivery on the last piece of furniture ordered in early spring, and I was able to sneak in a few photos of a Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio troilus) and Common Buckeye Butterfly (Junonia coenia), the latter shown in the photo here.

It began to dry out on Wednesday, but we were still homebound.  The landscaper did come and begin the “stepping stones” and “shade garden irrigation” projects.  We’re adding large stepping stones from the upper garage parking pad to the patio and an irrigation zone to Kay’s shade garden under the large cedar tree in the back.  (A third landscaping project is to rehabilitate the retaining wall under the steps on the front deck.)  We’ve obviously spent too much time at home the last two summers since we’re still adding to and/or modifying our place.  While the guys were working, I noticed Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) Butterfly, and photographed it using a too short lens.  Getting a good photo of this elusive butterfly is proving to be a major challenge.

The guys came to seal and stain the deck early Thursday morning, and all but finished, and the landscapers worked late, essentially completing all the projects we had hired them to do.  As an aside, I remember my dad sitting and watching his hired help and offering instructions to make sure they did the job correctly (or at least to his satisfaction.)  I committed to never doing that, but we’ve observed that regardless of how good a contractor is, they do a much better job and meet our needs if we provide “feedback” to them; we’ve done it both ways, and except for a couple of contractors (Dennis Charbonneau and Jeff Dunn), we’ve been dissatisfied when we’ve not provided a modicum of supervision.
Friday, both contractors came back to finish, and we were very satisfied with their work.  We took advantage of a couple of young helpers and ask them to load some furniture into the Expedition to take to Jenny in Memphis, saving our backs!  We completed packing for our Wisconsin and Michigan trip, washed dirty clothes, and drove into Mountain Home for lunch and Kay’s medical appointment.  It took over two hours in the doctor’s office, and almost another hour at the pharmacy to pick up meds.

Saturday was the highlight of our week.  We drove to Memphis, departing about 4:45 AM, and dropped of the furniture at Jenny’s.  And then, we spent an hour or so at Costco’s stocking up on items not easily found in Baxter County.  Jenny texted and asked us to come to her mom’s and help with HARP while they completed preparations for her 1st birthday party.  Of course, we love to spend time with our grandchildren, and gladly agreed. It’s always a bit uncomfortable being around one’s (for all concerned), but we made the best of it.

Jenny, Brian, Vickie, and Roy did a great job getting ready for the party, and Jenny spent lots of hours making and decorating a “unicorn” cake; it looked fabulous.  At 12 noon, we began HARP’s birthday celebration with other family and friends.  She did great, and was very well behaved.  The most humorous thing that occurred during the party was HARP’s eating a piece of the unicorn cake, her first ever taste of sugar.  She made suck a mess that they took her outside and hosed her clean!

We arrived back home about 6:15 PM, unloaded the Expedition, switched cars, and drove back to Quarry Park where we visited with neighbors Wayne and Loretta who had just returned from a long RV trip to Colorado.  We got the low down on their trip, shared our itinerary, and enjoyed each other’s company.  So, considering Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were somewhat wasted days as far as our R&R, we did end up with a good week and our final project of the year at Dunnhill were completed.

Sunday was the first in a while that we did not have to say goodbye to kids and grandkids as we had no visits this week.  So, we were off to church and Sunday school.  We are really enjoying our senior pastor’s sermon series, “Making Love Last a Lifetime”, based on work by Adam Hamilton.  It is one of our favorite series of all times!  And we returned to our Sunday school class after an almost year absence, and had forgotten what an excellent teacher Dr. Paul Wilbur is, and how much discussion occurs.  The subject of study is church history, and one of the books being used is Church History in Plain Language.

This summer has been among our worst for wasps.  Consequently, we’ve had lots of wasps and nests.  In knocking one down, I was on a 6-foot ladder using an 8-foot rod.  Assuming the wasps would not fly down to my level, I knocked a huge nest down, and spiraling in formation a group of wasps flew down in my direction.  I dodged the first one, but the second got me on the top of the hand, and it immediately began to swell.  Nothing we had would relieve the pain and swelling, and the Epi-pen was out-of-date and had been trashed.  I used topical Caladryl, took Benedryl, and went to bed, sleeping a good portion of the afternoon and evening; it remained swollen for three days, then itched like crazy for a couple more.

Keeping Dunnhill in working order requires a lot of attention, and we had visits from a landscaper to add stepping stones and an additional irrigation line to Kay’s “shade” garden, and a handyman to replace some boards on the deck, power wash it, and then stain it.  The landscaper showed up, but just to review the work order (he was supposed to have done the work a month ago), and the handyman’s “helper” damaged the deck steps.  It is really difficult to get work done in our area and for the most part, the workers are expensive and unreliable.

Despite the problems encountered earlier in the week, we had several high points. We hosted my cousin and his family for a Wednesday afternoon on Norfork Lake.  What a hoot!  Daughter and son, Phoenix and William, respectively, are such good kids, and grandchild Addy is a work in progress.  Phoenix is a very bright, cute, self-assured, and precocious 12-year old young lady; she is such a joy to be around.  William has the most infectious belly laugh for an 8-year old, and he and I played together for a good portion of the afternoon; one can hardly help laughing when he laughs.  And wondering why all the Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies were around, the Chief pointed out a spice bush and we saw the beautiful blooms.

On Thursday morning, a Giant Swallowtail was sipping nectar from the butterfly bush in Kay’s east garden, and stayed still long enough to be photographed.  And as fate would have it, the camera had been accidentally turned to the wrong mode, and all the photos were grossly under exposed.  However, thanks to Lightroom 4, a few were salvaged.  There were also a plethora of Tiger Swallowtails, Pipe Vine Swallowtails, and Spice Bush Swallowtails.  evening, we had dinner with Dick and Carolyn Todd to celebrate his 70th birthday.  Dick and Carolyn have been good friends since we moved to Baxter County.  On Saturday we made the short trip to Quarry Park for a week’s worth of camping and through Kay’s perseverance, we got the best site in the campground.

We leave you with this passage from Gail Godwin’s novel The Finishing School brought to our attention in an article by Connie Schulz:

There are two kinds of people…One kind, you can tell just by looking at them at what point they congealed into their final selves.  It might be a very nice self, but you know you can expect no more surprises from it.  Whereas, the other kind keeps moving, changing.  With these people, you can never say, “X stops here,” or “now I know all there is to know about Y.”  That doesn’t mean they’re unstable.  Ah, no, far from it.  They are fluid.  They keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young.  In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive.

We saw the kids off early Sunday morning but opted to skip church and Sunday school.  Fortunately, we’ll be able to view the sermon later in the week as it will be posted to the internet.  After the kids departed, we cleaned house, washed clothes, and collapsed…but it was sure great getting to visit with them.

On Monday, Kay began experiencing the full affects of the crud, and is stuffy and coughing like crazy, with a little bit of fever; she rarely gets sick, and hopefully this is not a repeat of what she had in late March.  While she was in bed, I continued finalizing plans for our trip to Door County, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We agreed on a route, schedule, and RV parks and campsites, and we’ll complete making reservations this week.

While Kay continued to convalesce, I fished a couple of hours near Ol’ Charlie’s on Tuesday morning and had a super time catching fish on dry flies using the little 2 wt. rod.  Here’s the report:

TIME: 8:25 AM TO 10:35 AM

WEATHER: Low 80s, partly cloudy, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Across from Ol’ Charlie’s and Riffle at top of Island

FLIES USED: #20 Kay’s Gray, #14 Furnace Cockleburr, #14 Pink Cockleburr

ROD USED: 7′ 9″ 2-wt Winston WT

HATCHES: Midges, occasional sulphur, occasional caddis

OTHER: I fished solo. A single fisher was fishing near the stocking chute, and had a fish on as I waded across; the area was stocked last week. Otherwise, no one else was in sight, even across from Ol’ Charlie’s and it has always been a good place to fish dries, midges, and emerges. There was a heavy mist over the water, but fish were still sipping midge emergers. I tied on a #20 Kay’s Gray, and took an occasional fish until the mist burned off. And then, fishing picked up. A sulphur would hatch here and there, so out came the pink cocklebur. Sure enough, the first cast produced a fish, and they continued taking the fly until I moved upstream at about 9:45 AM. Fish in the upstream riffle also liked the pink cockleburr, and were a bit larger and heavier than those in the downstream riffle. Some put a significant bend in the 2-weight Winston. With generation forecast to begin at 11:00 AM, I left the water early, having caught about two and a half dozen fish, all on dry flies. It’s so fun to cast to a rising fish, and catch it, or even to get a brief hook-up. It doesn’t get much better!

I met John and Ed near Rim Shoals on the White River Wednesday morning.  I wanted to run the motor and they reluctantly agreed.  Both caught fish.  Here’s the report:

TIME: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
WEATHER: Low to mid-90s, mostly sunny, wind
WATER CONDITIONS: 2 units and dropping to 0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Jenkins Creek to Lower Rim Shoals
FLIES USED: Cerise San Juan Worm, #14 Super Fly, Brown Wayne’s Fly, #14 Furnace Cockleburr
ROD USED: N/A
HATCHES: Midges, sulphurs

OTHER: I asked to be the “Boat Boy” for long-time fishing friends, Ed and John. After launching at Rim Shoals Access, we motored upstream to Jenkins Creek, and then drifted down; both Ed and John caught fish. We continued this drift for another hour and a half, with Ed and John catching fish on most drifts. As the water dropped, however, the fish quit biting. We motored downstream and drifted from Upper Rim Shoals to Lower Rim Shoals, and again Ed and John caught fish on each drift. At about 11:00 AM, the fish quit biting and we toyed around with a furnace cocklebur. John had 4 fish on his first drift fishing the cockleburr, catching a couple on top and a couple stripping the fly. I left them at 12:00 noon to take care of some chores at home, but as always, we had a blast.

Along with Kay and Sandy, we all had a great dinner at Whispering Woods near the Norfork Dam.  Their apricot-glazed pork chop is to die for!

The rest of the week was quiet, except for Kay’s incessant coughing.  With hot weather, the butterflies are really flying, and I photographed these butterflies sipping on the lantana and marigolds.

Another week has rolled around in our second summer at home (since we said we’d not spend another summer here because of the heat), and we’re making it a “family” summer.  We’ve actually been able to spend more time with family than any time since we’ve been married!

Ridge became sick last week, and his parents each missed work taking care of him.  They called and asked if we could meet them, and bring him home with us for a few days after which they would come up and enjoy the Independence Day holiday and weekend.

We picked him up mid-afternoon on Sunday at Heber Springs, and all of us were off on another adventure.  We played, explored the yard, and walked.  Each morning we would drive to Quarry Park and stroll/walk around the campground road, and then play at the playground, climbing and sliding, etc.  He wore us out!  It was great, however, watching him “grow” in his walking and maneuvering around steps, rocks, etc., and in his talking and eating.  He totally did away with the booster seat and began sitting in a regular chair, and using his spoon occasionally.

WEDNESDAY:  I began smoking a Boston butt and cooking a big pot of “cowboy” beans Wednesday morning.  First to arrive Wednesday afternoon were Ron and Kaden and their dog, Beau.  Soon following were Karyn and Matt—Ridge was so glad to see his mommy and daddy.  After all had settled in, we had a great barbecue dinner, and the “cowboy” beans, modified from the Pioneer Woman recipe, were maybe the best beans I’ve eaten.

Karyn, Matt, and Kaden took the river boat to the Norfork River where Matt caught several trout, grossly overshadowing Karyn, and poor Kaden who struck out.

THURSDAY:  We celebrated Independence Day by spending a few hours on Norfork Reservoir.  We first anchored at Sand Island, but found the bottom mud to be sticky and messy, and the water a bit dirty by Norfork Reservoir standards.  We moved to a cove east of the dam, and enjoyed a couple of hours of swimming, diving, and floating in the cool clear water.  Our mid-afternoon meal consisted of a hamburger/brats cookout with all the fixin’s and leftovers from the barbecue yesterday.  Kaden proved true to his word by eating 2 hamburgers and 3 brats, all with buns, and a bowl of beans—he’s a growing 17-year old.  As evening approached, we borrowed a kayak from neighbors and Karyn, Kaden, and Matt kayaked the Norfork River, somehow ending up all wet, claiming each threw water on the other with their paddles.  Anyway, they had fun, completing another  full day of non-stop activities. 

FRIDAY:  Friday morning saw Karyn, Kaden, Matt, and me suiting up for a fly fishing foray on the White River.  Here’s the entry from Donald’s Fishin’ Journal:

TIME: 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM
WEATHER: Mid 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS: 2 Units falling
LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Rim Shoals
FLIES USED: #14 BHFB Pheasant tail
ROD USED: N/A
HATCH: A few midges
OTHER: Guided Karyn, Matt, and Kaden. The trail that I normally take to access downstream was overgrown, and I could not find it. Consequently, we bushwacked through the overgrown riparian habitat, until I found some semblance of trail. After a short hike, we waded into the still high water. Each of the fishers started with different combinations of flies. Karyn started off like gangbusters, catching two fish on a zebra midge. Kayden followed with a fish on a sowbug. And then Matt began what would prove to be a very successful day, catching fish on a BHFB PT. He is a fearless wader, and fished the entire area of the river. And he did it with only one fly, and no accessories or other flies. Karyn was outfitted with Kay’s vest and wading staff, but found the deep water in combination with the multitude of rocks strewn along the bottom to be treacherous, getting wet a couple of times, but seemingly covering the whole river. Nevertheless, she’s a good sport and still caught fish. Kayden remained near our access, and caught 4 fish. He continues to improve as a fly fisher.

As we returned home, we saw that the Norfork River was down.  We quickly ate a taco lunch, and Ron, Matt, and I headed to the Norfork River.  Here’s the entry from Donald’s Fishin’ Journal:

TIME: 4:15 PM TO 6:30 PM
WEATHER: Low 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek and Plunge Pool below Ace in the Hole
FLIES USED: #14 Pink Cockleburr
ROD USED: 9’ 3-wt custom built G Loomis
HATCHES: Sulphurs
OTHER: I “guided” Ron and Matt. On our return from the White River a couple of hours earlier, we noted that the Norfork River was unexpectedly down. After gulping down a late lunch of tacos, Ron and Matt suited up in their waders, and we drove to a neighbors for private access. Another neighbor was fishing Mill Dam Eddy, so we walked upstream and noted fish taking bugs on top like crazy. Armed with Pink Cockleburrs, the guys took one fish after another, and most were 14 to 15 inches and “hot” as firecrackers, not having had a lot of fishing pressure for two weeks. I waded upstream to the plunge pool and had some ferocious hook-ups; I called for Ron to come up and he, too, had some ferocious hits. Regrettably, his leader was too short and dragging his fly under. After rebuilding his leader, he began to see the hook-ups and took several fish. Both guys had a great late afternoon, and I was glad to that Ron was able to fly fish this trip.

SATURDAY:  After an early breakfast, Ron, Kaden, and Beau packed and departed for central Arkansas to ready Kaden for a week at band camp.  Karyn and Matt opted to fly fish, and we were on the water early.  Here’s the entry from Donald’s Fishin’ Journal:

TIME: 8:30 AM TO 11:15 PM
WEATHER: Low 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek
FLIES USED: #14 Gray Norfork River Scud, #20 black/copper Zebra Midge, #14 Pink Cockleburr
ROD USED: 9’ 3-wt custom built G Loomis
HATCHES: Midges, a few Sulphurs
OTHER: I “guided” Karyn and Matt. Hoping for a repeat of late yesterday afternoon, we waded upstream expecting the fish to be rising like crazy, but instead found several dead fish in the pool below the riffle. (I suspect poachers had been in the area during the evening.) I tied on a scud and zebra midge dropper combination on both Karyn and Matt’s lines, but hook-ups proved to be evasive, with only a few fish caught. Switching to a pink cockleburr proved to be no better, and in fact resulted in less hook-ups. Matt fished the plunge pool above the riffle but didn’t have any success. It was a slow fishing day.

Ridge had a 3-hour nap mid-day, and appeared to not be feeling well.  He went down for another nap in the late afternoon.  And, despite the already busy day, Karyn and Matt went for a late kayak run on the Norfork River; generation had pulsed so there was only moderately enough water for moving through the riffles.  Upon returning to the house, they “cleaned up” and headed out for a party while Ridge slept, again, and Kay and I rested, wrapping up a very, very busy week.