Kay and I spent the latter part of winter in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, but there was no need to escape the cold here at home; temperatures were and remain unseasonably warm.  Consequently, trees are already leafing out and wildflowers are blooming almost a month early.  As I walked out the front door to take some photos of the blooms, I noticed that the dogwood tree in the “circle” bed had begun to bloom; it normally blooms about April 15.  Along the road from the highway to our house, there are many wildflowers, and my favorite is the columbine, and it bloomed today—can you believe it!  We constantly monitor the columbines to detect their bloom, and were surprised a few days ago when we noticed buds appearing on the plants.  By tomorrow, they will be bursting with their subtle reds and yellows.

There were also other wildflowers blooming, many dogwood trees are beginning to bloom, and our azaleas will bloom in the next day or two—all several weeks early.  We hope this doesn’t portend a bad freeze, wet spring with flooding, or hot summer.

The birds are also beginning to appear regularly at the feeders.  Our neighbor, Bill, and I noticed a tom turkey strutting yesterday about 75 yards from the house, and a couple of days ago I was able to snap this photograph of a pileated woodpecker picking up pieces of suet dropped by other birds. 

DATE: Monday, March 19, 2012

TIME: 12:30PM TO 3:30 PM

WEATHER: Low 80s, mostly cloudy, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Across from Ol’ Charlie’s and upstream to top of island

FLIES USED: #20 red zebra midge, #16 gray elk hair caddis

ROD USED: Winston 8’ 6” 5-weight WT Joan Wulff Favorite

HATCHES: Midges, caddis

OTHER: I fished with Wayne and Bill.  Water from generation was still dropping when we walked in, and with the crowd already beginning to build downstream at the access, I immediately waded downstream to the riffle across from Ol’ Charlie’s.  Both the discharge and velocity dictated more weight, and I added a split shot above the top fly, an olive scud; I rarely add weight as it is my opinion that it gives the fly an unnatural drift.  After many casts, and a couple of misses, I hooked up and landed a small trout.  As water levels dropped, with a corresponding drop in discharge and velocity, I removed the split shot, and caught three additional fish, including a fat 12-inch cutbow.  As the water settled into “0” generation levels, I switched to the caddis, and was rewarded with three more fish, but had several misses.  Bill left the riffle at the top of the island, and I quickly waded upstream to fish a caddis there.  Despite heavy winds and mostly overcast skies, I managed to catch about 9 fish on the caddis there, and again had at least that many misses.  By this time, fatigue set in, and Bill and I began wading to our walk-out point, noting that water levels had begun to rise, indicating generation.  We notified a solitary fisher above us, and he didn’t have a clue, nor we suspect, did he have any idea about generation and generation forecasts.  He began following us out, but I advised him to hurry downstream because we were departing through private property; I’ve got to believe he didn’t know better. 

DATE: Sunday, March 18, 2012

TIME: 2:30 PM TO 4:30 PM

WEATHER: Low 80s, partly cloudy, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0+ units

LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Rim Shoals

FLIES USED: #16 green caddis

ROD USED: Winston 8’ 6” 5-weight WT Joan Wulff Favorite

HATCHES: Midges, caddis

OTHER: I fished with Wayne and Bill.  Today was one of the rare days when the White River was wadable, and the time of year when caddis are hatching, usually making for some awesome dry fly fishing.  Wayne remained at the top of Rim Shoals and caught more fish than all the other fishers around him put together.  As we were leaving, a fisher came up to him and said he had to know what fly Wayne was using, and Wayne was forthright in telling him what he had been using.  Bill and I walked the trail downstream to the first rock pile, and fished above and below the riffle.  Caddis were coming off in about 15 minute spurts, but the fish were not keying on them.  However, there were plenty of rises to make the afternoon interesting.  I ended up with about a dozen fish, but easily missed that many more.  I had two refusals that were visible.  The sun was coming from the right side of the river looking downstream, and was at such an angle that it made anything in that direction very difficult to see.  Consequently, I focused most of afternoon on the left descending bank.  The most prolific hatch occurred about 4:00 PM, and the fish were most active during that particular hatch.  Shortly afterward, a black-bodied caddis, about a size #18, and some small midges began coming off, but we opted to leave the river.  There were 20 people fishing Rim Shoals when we left a few minutes after 4:30 PM. 

Our temperatures here in northern Arkansas are about 20 degrees above normal; yesterday, the high was 83 degrees, and about the same today.  We’ve had more birds at our place this year than at any time since 2005, the year after we relocated here, including more tufted titmice.  Today, we’ve observed cardinals, gold finches, Carolina chickadees, blue jays, tufted titmice, red-bellied woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, and purple finches.


Our visit to the National Butterfly Center the Rio Grande Valley of Texas a couple of weeks ago has heightened our interest in and awareness of butterflies, and we’ve seen several species the last couple of days.  Regrettably, they are flitting around so fast it’s impossible to study them, let alone photograph them.
We are so excited about seeing all the birds that Kay put our a hummingbird feeder, hoping to see our first hummingbird of the year in the next few days.
We have a group of 11 deer that visit the deer/turkey feeders and about a dozen turkeys, though as many as a couple of dozen have visited infrequently; the toms will be strutting before long, if not already.  Also, the wildflowers are beginning to bloom, and our next blog entry will have some photographs of wildflowers.

DATE: Wednesday, March 7, 2012

TIME: 10:45 AM TO 12:30 PM

WEATHER: High 60s, mostly cloudy, strong breeze

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, upstream of Ol’ Charlie’s

FLIES USED: #18 olive Norfork River scud, #20 red/silver zebra midge, #16 green caddis

ROD USED: Winston 8’ 6” 5-weight WT Joan Wulff Favorite

HATCHES: Midges, caddis

OTHER: I fished solo. After moderate success a couple of days ago, tried the small scud and red/silver zebra midge combination, and had immediate success, though I again missed fish, but not as many as on Monday.  I fished my way downstream, then switched to the right channel and caught a couple of small fish in the skinny water near Ol’ Charlie’s.  Switching channels again, I fished across from Ol’ Charlie’s, saw a few caddis coming off, and immediately tied on a #16 green-bodied caddis.  Only one fish hit the dry fly, but it was indeed exciting to catch a fish on top.  Working upstream with the caddis, the fish showed little interest.  Almost back to where I started, I notices a pair of bald eagles flying down the river, in a near mating pattern.  They flew low and close, past me, and on downstream.  It’s always exciting to see our national symbol in their natural setting; it’s such a shame that most fishers missed seeing them.

DATE: Monday, March 5, 2012

TIME: 2:15 PM TO 4:30 PM

WEATHER: Low to mid-50s, mostly sunny, strong breeze

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, upstream of Ol’ Charlie’s

FLIES USED: #18 olive Norfork River scud, #14 gray Norfork River scud, #20 red/silver zebra midge, #20 olive cockleburr

ROD USED: Winston 8’ 6” 5-weight WT Joan Wulff Favorite

HATCHES: Midges, caddis

OTHER: I fished solo.  This was my first time on the water since January 4; Kay and I spent the winter in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, enjoying the warm weather, and just returned yesterday.  Waiting for wadable water, I monitored the US Army Corps of Engineers telephone message center to know when to “suit up”, and the recording kept indicating that the Norfork River had two generators on.  We opted to go into town for lunch, groceries, and deer and bird feed.  As we drove by the access, we noted that the river was low, so once again, the Corps voice message center was wrong again as generation ceased at 10 AM.  There is no excuse for this, but we’ve found an alternate method of checking water levels, knowing we can no longer depend on the reliability of the Corps!

Upon our return home from town, I finally made it into the water at 2 PM, and began getting hits immediately.  I missed the first couple of fish, then hooked up and landed a couple.  And then, I missed several more, including a couple of nice fish.  Fish were rising to midge hatch despite the wind, so I switched to a cockleburr and caught a few fish.  About 3 PM, a good caddis hatch began, and fish were keying on the caddis. I had taken the caddis box out of the vest for winter, and had not replaced it, so the cockleburr remained the fly of choice.  I did see one trout chase a skating caddis several feet before nailing it—a joy to see.  I ended the day with about a dozen fish, including this nicely colored 14-inch cutthroat.  I should have caught more, but missed at least a dozen and a half more.  

It was cold this morning, at least for us.  Leaving the Rio Grande Valley with 90 degree temperatures , and then getting up a couple of days later with 37 degrees is a bit of a contrast.  We departed about 8 AM, and were immensely disappointed in US Highway 67, north of Jacksonville, Arkansas.  The surface has deteriorated significantly, and beat the heck out of us most of the way to our turn-off at Bald Knob.  We experienced similar conditions on I-30 yesterday north of Malvern.  We had heard other RVers talk about the poor quality of Arkansas roads, and had to agree that they are among the worst we have ever traveled, including Alaska.  It’s both embarrassing and an outrage, considering the taxes we pay.  If I were king, there would be absolutely no new construction until existing roads were brought up to decent standards.

We arrived home about 11:30 AM, once again to find our place big and open, particularly after 7 1/2 weeks in the motorhome; we are so blessed to have the best of both worlds!  We made quick work of unhooking the Honda, unloading it, dumping the tanks in the motorhome, and parking it back in its place.  We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking; Kay may have taken too many clothes, as evidenced by these HUGE bags, about 2 cubic feet each, of drawer stuff alone, not including the closet.

It’s really good to be home, but we’re both sad as we had a really great trip, and met lots of really nice people.  We’ll have to settle back into a more quiet pace here at home, and a more hectic routine with church, quartet, and other activities.

Anxious to get to central Arkansas to see new grandson, Ridge, we tried to depart early, but it was 8 AM before we actually got away.  There was a yapping dog next to us, about 75 yards away, that started yapping at 6 AM, and didn’t shut up until about 7 AM.  Don’t get me wrong, we love dogs, but this was ridiculous.  Even with my hearing loss, it was pretty bad!

We arrived at Maumelle Campground, a US Army Corps of Engineers facility, got a site (sloping downhill), set up, and had lunch.

Our site at Maumelle Park, Little Rock, AR

An then, the time we had been waiting for; we were off to see Ridge.  He had grown a bunch in the 6 weeks since we last saw him, getting taller and seemingly thinner.  He could hold his head up, and grinned a lot.  He’s a fine young man.  I took a brief leave of absence to shop at Sam’s Club for some food necessities at home, and it was a mad house.  All the checkout lines were 4 or five deep, and they had even opened the jewelry counter cash register for those with under 10 items.  A fill up of gasoline in the Honda was followed by a much needed car wash, then it was back to the motorhome for some minor repairs; the mirror on the bedroom door closet had come off the track.  I drove back to Kay’s daughter’s house and spent the rest of the evening playing with Ridge, enticing a few giggles out of him,  He is such a pleasant baby.

Tomorrow, we head for home.

We had another long driving day, 332 miles from La Grange, Texas, to Rocky Point Campground at Wright-Patman Lake near Atlanta, Texas.  It was uneventful and pleasant driving for the most part.  We did find heavily concentrated traffic signals in four cities, including Palestine, Jacksonville, Henderson, and Marshall.  Not only were there plenty of signals, but their cycling time was short, and there was not very much time from the yellow to the red light.  We’ll look for an alternate route next time, and will spend our money elsewhere.

At Rocky Point Campground, we were able to get a 50-amp site overlooking the lake.  With a slight breeze, we could hear the water lapping at the shoreline.  Kay loves sunsets, and enjoyed a great one on the shore of Wright-Patman Lake.  What a way to end the day.

Readying for our return trip north was a simple matter—morning coffee, a lite breakfast, unhooking the water and electricity, bringing in the slides, retracting the jacks, and hooking up the Honda.

Everything was going just great, that is, until the auxiliary brake in the Honda locked up, and the Honda began skidding as we towed it behind us.  This happened just a half mile before the border check station. We quickly stopped, surveyed the damage—all four tires had flat spots from the skid and were ruined for practical purposes, unhooked the auxiliary brake, and took off towards Victoria, Texas, the nearest town with a tire store.  At Victoria, we checked Sam’s Club, but they did not have the right size, but a tire store across the highway did.  We debated whether we could limp to Little Rock or not, and decided to buy new tires there in Victoria.  What had happened was that the auxiliary brake works on a pendulum and when it detects a significant change in forward motion, the pendulum reacts to cause a piston attached to the brake pedal to push in.  The Honda is peculiar in that the engine must be completely shut down to remove the vacuum in the brake line, and the anti-skid feature does not work when the car is in “Accessory” position—a double whammy.  I had installed the BrakeBuddy while the car was running—another requirement is that the Honda has to be shifted through its gears and then allowed to idle for 3 minutes—there is nothing in the owner’s manuals that say to make sure the engine is complete shut down before installing the auxiliary brake.  Another lesson learned the hard way.

With new tires we continued north to Colorado Landing RV and Trailer Park in La Grange, Texas, where we stayed on our 2nd night on the trip down to the Valley.  The trees had budded since we last stayed there, but otherwise, not much had changed.  We ate dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant and it was very good.  We watched television to end the day.