More and more RVs are arriving, and the sites along the river and on the opposite side of the road are almost all occupied though there are still some 30-amp sites near the highway.  We really don’t like it this crowded as campground traffic increases, noise increases, people tend to get in each other’s way, visitors pack the parking lots and roadsides, making driving a bit hazardous, etc.
We enjoyed a last walk around the park, and a couple of bicycle rides.  Fishers are packing the river, lined up almost as far as the eye can see, and I finally got a photo. 
Our last full day is today, as we have an appointment tomorrow with Mountain Home Glass to repair the leaking windshield they replaced a few weeks ago. Consequently, we spent some of the day packing up things for home, and getting the motorhome ready to travel.  Because we’re so close to the house, camping at Quarry Park lends itself to returning home often to do normal maintenance, keeping our usual routine in terms of schedules and appointments, and otherwise doing what we would do if staying at the house.  It really makes camping less fun as most of our time is already committed.  Another lesson learned; we’ll have to go further to get our camping fix!
As is becoming the case, we returned to the house for the rest of the evening, but will come back to the campground tomorrow morning to pick up the motorhome for delivery to Mountain Home Glass. 

Quarry Park is beginning to fill, as many folks who plan to attend the Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council Fly Fishing Fair in Mountain Home plan to camp at the park—some bring tents, most use pop-up tent campers, others pull their travel trailer, a few haul 5th wheel trailers, and some bring motorhomes—pretty typical of the camping population in general.  Typically, about a 1,000 fly fishers and tyers register for the event, though only a small number of those camp.  However, as one of only two public accesses on the Norfork River, it means that the river is packed each day leading up to the fair, through the fair itself, and then a few days afterwards.  Consequently, I try not to fish among the crowd.

Kay and I love dogs and cats, thought we are now pet less with the passing of Jelly Bean a few years ago (the picture is going to make us cry).  As many of you know, she and Trouble, my Brittany, were important members of my family, and came with me when Kay and I married.  Anyway, I digress. It seems a large number of RVers have pets, and most are well-behaved (pets, that is).  However, there are always a few in every park that believe the rules to keep dogs leashed apply only to the neighbors, and not themselves.  A 5th wheel pulled in right next, and the folks were quite noisy setting up.  And then, I saw the lady and she was a spitting image of one of my dad’s many caretakers—the one who, with her daughter, stole unmercifully from him; she had done “time” previously, and that’s another story.  The fact to use with a yapping dog.  They would tie the dog to the picnic table and every time we went outside, the dog would start yapping.  After they got set up, the dog moved to inside the trailer and every time the door would open the dog was gone, dashing from one camp site to another, sniffing BBQ grills, peeing on everything sitting around, etc.  Most of our other neighbors complained, but to no avail.  Oh well, just another pitfall of staying in a public campground.

Kay was out of pocket most of the morning, visiting the beauty shop.  I hung around the RV, trying to catch up on things. We (mostly me) were suffering from lack of high speed internet access and wanted to watch some recorded television shows.  We spent the evening at our house, driving back to the campground for sleeping. Yeah, it’s getting time to pack up and head for home.

Our time here at Quarry Park is coming to a close, and it’s time—we have a LOT of other obligations this month: a meeting with our financial advisor, 4 birthdays, one 50th wedding anniversary celebration, a motorhome windshield leak repair, 4 Crossroads Praise Team practices, 4 4 + 1 Quartet practices, one RV rally, and 4 Sunday’s of Sunday school (Kay is facilitating a series on “Boundaries”); other than these few things we have pretty much a free month.  We always seem to allow our calendar to get too full!  The silver lining is that we get to see our kids and grandkids at some of these events.
ASs Kay and I were walking this morning, we saw Dr. Sam Bailey and Duane Hada driving to the Quarry Park access to fly fish the Norfork River.  Sam is our former pastor and Duane is one of the best fly fishing guides in the business as well as a great artist.  We visited briefly, and Duane asked if I could shuttle him to the confluence, and of course I did.
After returning we had breakfast, caught up on a few things in the motorhome, and left for a meeting in town.  We returned to the motorhome, then drove back into town for Crossroads Praise Team practice, and back to Quarry Park to end the day.  Whew…  See what I mean?  Time to quit camping.

Well, this marks the end of another month; seemingly, time goes by more and more quickly.

We were up early this morning in order to get to church early and test out the computer/television monitor combination for Kay’s Sunday school lesson.  We arrived early enough, and the room was unlocked, but there was no monitor; at least our intention was good, but my mom used to say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Randy preached a great sermon—actually he told the story of Joseph and the interaction between his brothers and him in Egypt; this is one of my favorite stories from the Bible.

After church and Sunday school, we ate at Chen’s, our usual Sunday lunch haunt, drove by the house and picked up the Sunday paper, and lounged for the rest of the day.  Is this a great life or what?

There is nothing on our calendar today; amazing!  We might have to go back to work to find something to keep us busy!

Our daily walk took us down by the river, and it was amazing to see the line-up.  There were 10 fishers in a line about 30 yards long—almost within arm’s reach of one another.  Regretfully, we did not have a camera, and when we returned they had almost all disappeared.

We’ve met lots of the campground “neighbors”, and most are seniors from within a few hours who visit and stay here often.  After one has camped around the area a few times, a lot of the same faces begin to show up; it’s a small world.

After a leisurely morning, we drove back to the house for lunch and some “serious” computer work requiring WiFi.  I balanced the checkbook, got the blog up to date, sent a few emails, and surfed the net.  Since we were in no hurry, we spent the entire afternoon there.  It was kind of like a short visit, and quite pleasant.

From some reason,our high definition (HD) televisions were cutting of the picture on each side, and it had become frustrating.  Finally, after calling DISHTV, the fix was simply pushing the “*” button on the DISHTV remote control, which is also the “Format” button.  I had pushed it previously, without any results, but one must push it several times to reach the HD format.  By putting this in the blog, hopefully, we’ll remember next time.  Anyway, we watched television recorded from Friday night, wrapping up the evening.

We arose early to the sound of rain thumping on the motorhome roof, and thunder and lightning too close for comfort.  It rained on and off for a couple of hours, and we were not able to discern a leak in the newly installed front windshield, though there is evidence that one has occurred in the past few weeks.

Despite “camping”, our clothes still need laundering.  After breakfast, we drove the short distance home, and washed, dried, and folded 3 loads of clothes.  In addition, while at the house and with WiFi, I caught up on our household bookkeeping and balanced the checkbook, making sure all our bills were paid.  Sometimes, we get so busy “on the road” that one will slip through if we don’t constantly check.  Fortunately, most have automatic payments drafted from our account, but we still have one or two laggards.

By the time we returned, everything had dried out allowing the motorhome windows to be cleaned.  It’s amazing how much road grime, dust, and gunk can build up on the front windshield and side windows. Our view out sure seems better than before.

Several RVers left the park today, but others have come in, many for the Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council Conclave.  It is a good time to avoid the rivers with some 1,000 fly fishers visiting the area.

We visited with our neighbors who are from Mountain View.  My sister met them at Devil’s Fork Campground on Greers Ferry Lake a few days ago and told me they were coming to Quarry Park.  You should have seen the look on their face when I asked them if they had been at Devil’s Fork, and if they rode bicycles!  After talking a bit, they were both retired from the US Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg.  Though we did not know each other, we did know a lot of the same people.

After a rushed dinner, Kay and I drove to the Geery’s to play cards with our old TLBC friends.  I came in next to last giving us a good reason to make a hasty retreat back to the campground!

and caught osoAfter all the busyness of the last few weeks, we have finally relaxed

What a beautiful day; a bit overcast, but cool and otherwise just a perfect day the Lord has given us to enjoy.

We walked around the campground a couple of times, about 3 miles, Wayne dropped by to visit, and we had breakfast.

Our schedule for October is shaping up to be quite busy, with one 50th anniversary celebration, 4 birthdays, 3 quartet concerts, 4 Sunday School lessons to prepare for and teach (Kay), and one RV rally.  Plus, the Honda CR-V has been idle awaiting for a much needed oil and filter change and other scheduled maintenance which we had on the calendar for October 6.  We both had wanted to go shopping in Springfield, MO, so on the spur of the moment, decided to drive there today, get our Honda service done, and shop. We drove by the house, took showers, and drove to Springfield.

After arriving in the city, I dropped Kay off at Battlefield Mall, and took the car to Wessel Honda.  It was a really good experience.  They have an Express Service area, and I just drove in, told them we wanted an oil and filter change, air filters changed, and transmission fluid changed. They took my name and address and 30 minutes later the car was ready, and not terribly expensive either!  They definitely have the key to success as far as we’re concerned and we’ll continue to do business with them under these circumstances.

It is customary for us to have lunch at Olive Garden when in Springfield, and we have the same thing each time:  calamari, salad, soup, and breadsticks.  After a late lunch, we were off to Sam’s Club; Sam’s Club in Springfield is clean and neat, and the staff is friendly. After almost $500 worth of groceries and merchandise, we made the 2 1/2 hour drive home, unloaded the car, and returned to the motorhome for the night.  It had been a good day, and best of all, we can drive the Honda again!

The air conditioning finally cooled the inside of motorhome last night, and we slept great. Tuesday’s high temperature was 94 degrees.

It was nice and cool this morning, allowing us to walk and be comfortable.  Twice around the park is about 3 miles, and quite enjoyable as we visit with other campers and walkers, see lots of birds, and this morning we saw a fox run alo0ng the woods beside us.  Wayne came by and visited, and it was great “catching up” even though we’re only a couple of miles from home. Kay called Verizon and activated a “personal hotspot” using her Apple IPhone 4.  This costs $20 per month for 2 GB.  Up to 5 devices (computers, IPads, IPhones, Kindle Fires, etc.) can hook-up simultaneously, but one can very quickly consume 2 GB, particularly streaming video, and uploading and downloading photos.  Consequently, I don’t establish a connection with “Kay’s IPhone”.  When we’re on the road, we sparingly use her hotspot, and I generally “save” all my internet work until we get to our nightly destination RV park with WIFI, or go into McDonalds or Starbucks. We also set all of our computer updates to manual to avoid a huge sink of data transfer beyond our control—lesson learned by Kay—as the cost of using over your 2 GB is VERY expensive! Fortunately, she has not gone over the allocation, yet.

We rode our bikes today as well, again enjoying seeing and visiting with other campers.

Wayne and Loretta stopped by for a visit and Loretta brought a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers she had picked along the river near their campsite.  There were 7 species in all.  Isn’t this awesome?

Kay prepared chicken parmesan for dinner and we all enjoyed a great meal.  For us, it seems like we have more time to visit and just enjoy living when we camp without all the mundane chores at home!

We forgot to record any television programs for the RV, so we did the next best thing (or perhaps the best thing), and watched 3 episodes of Downton Abbey on the IPad.  What a life!

This past weekend, Kay celebrated a major birthday, and we were privileged to have Ron, Cheryl, Karyn, Matt, and Ridge visit and join in the celebration—what a marvelous time!

We’ve been quite “busy” the last few weeks with a 10 day trip to the Maritime Provinces in Canada, pre- and post-trip preparations, and celebrating Kay’s BIG birthday.  RVing gives us a break from the everyday world—we don’t quite know why, but it probably has to do with an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality—even though we have the landline transferred to Kay’s cell phone, go to the house everyday when we’re close by to shower, pick up mail and packages, restock with groceries and supplies, etc.  It also lets us exercise the motor home, keeping all its systems on go.

We drove to Quarry Park, just up the road and river from the house; it was surprisingly full, but we found a good site and established our “residence” for a few days.  It only took a few minutes to level, hook-up electricity, water, and satellite, and extend the slides. We returned to the house to pickup a second car and bicycles, and now we’re all set. I have not felt great the last week or 10 days, and still not feeling 100%, I hung around inside the motorhome, and did very little.  After we got all settled, we both let our a collective big breath and RELAXED.

Later in the day, our neighbor and very good friends, Wayne and Loretta, drove their “new to them” motorhome up to Quarry Park, and quickly set up on a great site on the river.

We spent a quite evening, enjoying the sights and sounds of the campground.

As an aside, local wildflowers have apparently been laying dormant because of the severe drought.  As a result of recent rains, they seem to be blooming everywhere, and particularly along the river.  What a beautiful sight!

TIME: 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM

WEATHER: Low 60s to mid-70s, sunny, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 1 unit increasing to 2 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle above Island below McClellan’s

FLIES USED: #14 olive Norfork River scud, #20 red/silver zebra midge

ROD USED: 7’ 9” 2-wt Winston WT

HATCHES: Midges, Crane flies

OTHER: I fished with Ed, Bill, and John. We walked in at Mill Dam Eddy to what we thought was falling water. Bill and John remained downstream while Ed and I waded upstream. We crossed from the island to the left descending side of the river, and fished our way upstream towards the riffle, but I only took one fish on the scud/zebra midge combination.  The water did not recede as projected, but remained at what appeared to be around 1/4 unit.  I waded upstream to the left descending side of the plunge pool and noted rising water.  Ed and I waded to the bank, and realized that water was rising too fast for our return to our walk-in—WE WERE STRANDED.  SWPA had projected 0 generation after 6:00 AM, but instead ramped up to 2 generators at 8 AM, with a swift rise in water levels.  Why they could not or did not project this is beyond me.  This is the only region of the country in which we have NO RELIABLE GENERATION PROJECTIONS.  Please write your US Senators and Congressmen and complain about this; we don’t have to tolerate this kind of arrogance.  If this happens with minimum flow, it will only be a matter of time until someone is seriously injured or dies from unexpected high water conditions.

Meanwhile, Ed and I waited on the bank for any passing boat, but none were seen.  We walked through the woods to the road near McClellan’s entrance, knowing that Kay would pick us up if she was aware of our situation; sure enough, she came to our rescue.

I am so incensed at SWPA; I sure hope someone gets the political entities involved, with the threat of cutting Federal funding unless they provide accurate, reliable projections similar to that provided by Tennessee Valley Authority, Bonneville Power Administration, and other quasi-governmental power agencies in the rest of the US!