After catching up on news and social media Sunday morning, we monitored the Monarch caterpillars in the back “yard” (yard is in parentheses because the back has no grass, just gravel and a few beds planted with pollinators, crepe myrtles, azaleas, trees, etc.). The caterpillar count was 8, two more than yesterday. 

Kay went to church this morning (Sunday), first time since early March, meeting friends Pam and Sue, and all celebrated communion. I played hooky—concerned that it is still not 100% safe—germaphobe that I am! I’m sure they asked for forgiveness knowing that gambling was on their agenda later in the day. Following church the ladies had lunch at Oaklawn Casino, followed by a couple of hours at the slots. It was a good day for Kay and Pam, bringing home more than they took.

I drove to Middle Fork Barrens, but only walked a few minutes before driving to Magellan Beaver Dam Trail in Hot Springs Village. It proved to be a good decision as there were a few butterflies and dragonflies willing to pose for photos. Also, one snake slithered along the open water.

Jenny and her babies were available for FaceTiming, and it was good getting to see them all. Harper is such a grownup to be only 8 years old. She helps her mother with Linc, and talks way too grown up. Linc is a “pretty” boy, and pretty demanding. Jenny says Sutton, not quite a week old, is a good baby, sleeping almost all day (of course, not sleeping all night). The last photo collage shows how much Sutton and Linc—when he was a newborn— look alike. We are blessed to have such a wonderful blended family, and we love them all profoundly.

A stroll in the backyard Friday morning resulted in only 3 butterflies observed: a Hackberry Emperor (which would not pose), a Southern Broken-dash, and an Eastern Comma—a very slow day in the neighborhood. I’m guessing all the rain the last few days has put them down, and it will take a day or two for them to begin nectaring again. 

Kay and I made a trip to the motorhome (in storage) to take some things: clean linens, ladder, old toaster/oven, pizza stone, propane cylinders, etc. After backing out of the storage garage, we loaded the items, and I checked the 5-year old “house” batteries; the hydrometer showed them to be in great shape! There are so many maintenance items needing attention: rebuild bed platform, clean and reorganize storage, repair/rebuild bed frame, make shock corded anchors for awning/sun screen, install Extend a Stay Propane adaptor, make insulated foil shade for front windshield, loosen TV and connect HDMI cables, and install a gutter spout with extension on front passenger side. Maybe it’s time to go camping and do maintenance.

After watering Saturday morning, a walk around the “yard” revealed a few more butterflies than yesterday, though most were Skippers nectaring on the Lantana shrubs. Interestingly, an American Anole was snacking on a moth among the Lantana blooms.

A quick look at the Butterfly Weeds revealed Monarch catepillars munching away on the leaves. We counted 6, total. These are firsts for us in Hot Springs Village, though we had a lot of catepillars one year in Norfork, AR. We have been planting pollinating plants for 5 years now in hopes of attracting butterflies and hummingbirds, and maybe it’s finally paying dividends.

As the morning started cool with a slight breeze, we opted to play golf mid-afternoon. It turned into a rather warm and quite muggy outing; I walked the 9-holes (4-miles), and was pretty wet from perspiration. Neither of us played our best.

Karyn, Ridge, and Aker went home just before noon on Sunday, and the house was once again absence the joyful sounds of grandkids. Kay and I ate a late breakfast, and lounged the rest of the day. We played bridge with Jim and Jackie in the evening, our first bridge game with them since early March! Jackie won, of course.

Monday was a very special day as Sutton, our third granddaughter was born. Jenny now has her hands full with an 8 year old, a 1+ year old, and a newborn, and she’ll be 40 this year.

That makes a total of 7 grandkids: Kaden, Jordan, Ridge, Harper, Aker, Linc, and Sutton. Never would I have imagined having 7 grandkids! 

Ridge and Aker began their 2nd week of school in 3rd grade and kindergarten, respectively. Harper also had her first day of 3rd grade, albeit virtually. It’s a different world in which we live!

Tuesday, September 2, was also a special day. Kay and I celebrated 20 years of marriage, and the vast majority of them have been great, though there were a couple of years when my untreated depression could have been a problem had it not been for her love, care, and patience. We have traveled the world and a good portion of the US, suffered through two of our children divorcing, all of our children (three) getting married, and the birth of five grandkids. We celebrated at Luna Bella restaurant in Hot Springs with Jim, Jackie, and Pam.

Once again, we were besought with rain the last few days, lots of it. And combined with the heat, the humidity was almost unbearable, at least for me. Any outside activities resulted in soaking wet clothes. Photo making was out of the question, particularly butterflies, wildflowers, and dragonflies. Finally on Thursday, a semi-dry day was forecast, and I played golf with my Thursday group, shooting a good game at Balboa Golf Course in the Village. We are so ready for cooler temps and lower humidity.

Good friend and photo buddy, Dan Olson, texted this morning that he was going out on a photo shoot for a couple of hours. He had a total knee replacement on his right knee about 4 weeks ago, and is slowly recovering despite the pain. We first visited Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area, our all time favorite place to photograph butterflies. It was still a bit early and heavy dew was on the plants; at first, the butterflies were far and few between.

Our first find was a robber fly, also known as an assassin fly. They are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx.  Robber fly insects are a mixed blessing to gardeners; if they’re seriously perturbed, they can inflict a painful bite, but they also help rid the garden of harmful pests like grasshoppers, other flies, wasps, leafhoppers, white grubs and pupating beetles. Both Dan and I have become enamored with them, and most of the time we see them, they are eating prey.

Next, an Asiatic Dayflower presented itself adjacent to the road pathway.  Commelina communis, commonly known as the Asiatic dayflower, is an herbaceous annual plant in the dayflower family. It gets its name because the blooms last for only one day. It is native throughout much of East Asia and northern parts of Southeast Asia. Across the path was a Cardinal Flower, perhaps the first I’ve seen.

After an hour of wandering, the butterflies and dragonflies began go appear. We saw an isolated Dun Skipper and Southern Broken-dash Skipper here and there, and lots of Carolina Satyrs. Also, a few dragonflies kept still enough to photograph.

From Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area, Dan drove abound places where we had observed blooms and butterflies this time last year. The thistle was a few days from reaching peak bloom, thus the absence of nectaring butterflies. As a final stop, we walked the fence line at McClellan Beaver Dam Trail in Hot Springs Village. There we saw wildflowers, dragonflies, and butterflies, including the rare to us, Zabulon Skipper. (L to R: Guara, Horace’s Duskywing, Southern Brokenn-dash, Guara, Southern Broken-dash and Thistle, Guara, Common Whitetail Dragonfly, Dainty Sulphur, Red-banded Hairstreak, Southern Broken-dash, Zabulon Skipper, Zabulon Skipper and Southern Broken-dash on Thistle.

I arrived home just after 12 noon, and Karyn and the grandkids were there, all hyped up to go swimming. They returned from swimming a little more sedate, and played with their tablets and watched Netflix and YouTube. We all went to bed really early.

Tropical Storm Laura passed through quickly, followed by sunshine and high humidity today. After several inches of rain yesterday, none of the potted plants needed watering, but nevertheless, a walk around the yard to check on butterflies was a good way to begin the day.

Neither of us had anything scheduled, and it was too wet to play pickleball or golf, so we just hung out. Kay continued reading Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, a tell-all book written by Mary L. Trump, a niece of Donald Trump. I worked on long overdue blog posts and photo edits in Lightroom. Our lives seem so dull compared to others we read about in their blog and watch on vlogs!!

We each enjoyed a catfish dinner from Mulligan’s, here in Hot Springs Village; it’s the best fried catfish in the area!

Our “camping” style gradually changed from relatively short trips to that of extended stays for escaping the heat and humidity in the summer and the cold and dampness in the winter.

And then after 10 years, we sort of burned out! We began taking more international trips, fly and drive domestic trips, and car treks. But after a year or so, we both missed the glory days of RVing, and spent this past January and February in Arizona, and parts of July and August in North Carolina.

And now, COVID-19 has changed our world again such that neither of us feels safe eating out or overnighting in a hotel room when car trekking and many of the wild places offering photo opportunities are remote, and actually beyond the motorhome’s capability. Besides, I just plain miss primitive camping and being off the grid, at least occasionally. As a result, a few months ago, I rekindled a longtime interest in vans and began watching vlogs related to van life; I was so envious, having always had a nomadic tendency. It was out of the question to have both a motorhome and a van, and the motorhome is very comfortable for staying a month or longer! And then, a vlog called Dome Life showed up on YouTube featuring a young couple from central Arkansas camping weekends and vacations in wild and scenic places in a tent. Wow, did this bring back memories, and yearnings. I decided to give it another whirl—a few more years of tent/car camping is still left in this old fella. After inventorying camping gear, we had most of the required items (though Kay’s days of tent camping are over) and the foul weather brought on by Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Laura provided an opportunity to assemble and consolidate all this gear. A sleeping bag and tent were missing, but soon ordered—the sleeping bag has arrived—and now all that remains to be acquired is an auxiliary, portable power source for the CPAP.  So, that is largely how we/I spent Wednesday and today.

To end the day, Thursday, August 27, Kay made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and bought Yarnell’s plain vanilla ice cream to celebrate my 71st birthday. Pat and Dan Olson hosted us for dinner, and despite Tropical Storm Laura dumping lots of rain and wind, we had a great evening and a super birthday, marking an end to bad weather for a few days.

As we are in a 2nd marriage, Kay escaped backpacking and the early days of tent camping and camping in the pop-up camper. However, near the time we got married almost 20 years ago, she spent her first night ever in a tent. She tolerated it. And then, Dad “gave” us the 5th wheel trailer he and mom used the last few years of her life, and we spent a few weekends enjoying it before he retracted and sold it. All of our camping photos from this time period were lost several years ago when a lightning strike took out our hard drive, and, of course, we had no backup.

That was not the end of of our camping, however. After a couple years of marriage, we began what was to become an annual canoeing, tent camping, and fishing trip to Quetico Wilderness in Ontario, Canada, with Harry and Mary Lambirth, a superb husband/wife guide team, finally ending the 10-year tradition in 2010.

Though we had decided not to RV again and took a 5-year hiatus, we purchased a travel trailer in 2007—big mistake! This is captured in the blog, late summer 2007.

Upon our return from Glacier NP, after only having the travel trailer for a few months, we traded it for a 29′ Jayco Melbourne B+, a great motorhome. In the four years we had it, we traveled extensively, including short trips in Arkansas, one to Arizona, a couple to south Texas, one to New Mexico, and an extended trip to Henry’s Lake, Idaho. We also took it on a fabulous, unforgettable 81-day journey to Alaska! Actually, they are all unforgettable. Those were our most fun years of camping/RVing.

Apologies in advance; this post has been broken into three parts. This is Part 1.

Not sure what to expect from Hurricane Laura, we patiently awaited its arrival and northward track towards us. On Wednesday, pre-hurricane winds and light rain prevented picture making as the butterflies and dragonflies laid low, out of harm’s way. Kay’s old iPhone 6+ lacked enough memory to support its apps and the photos she wanted to retain. So, it was off to the Verizon store to shop, and purchase a new phone for her. Wow, they are expensive! She ended up with an iPhone 11 Pro with 128 gigs; that should last a couple of years.

The last few weeks of rain, etc. have provided plenty of time to reminisce about former camping trips. I have always enjoyed camping, and have evolved through most of the stages: backpacking, tent, pop-up camper, travel trailer, 5th wheel, Class C motorhome, and now Class A motorhome.

At 71 years of age, I have only a few years left to enjoy physical activities I really like—including primitive camping. Thus, after purchasing Kay’s iPhone, we returned home and I began amassing and inventorying old camping gear to ascertain the feasibility and viability to camp a few times in wild places.

Motorhome lag did not seem to affect us. The “gain” of one hour time had minimal repercussions since we are both retired and do not have full day schedules. Consequently, we woke up at about the same body time (6:30 AM), had coffee, and caught up on news and social media.

The heat, combined with the lack of rain, necessitates watering the outside potted plants every day. While watering, I check for butterflies and dragonflies, and today found a few Skippers, a returning Monarch, and a couple dragonflies, one of which may be the smallest I’ve ever seen; maybe an Eastern Amber Wing.

Kay had a couple of appointments, while I “piddled“ in the garage working on getting an old battery out of a flashlight. I finally succeeded after several hours of trying, but in doing so, lost the spring which is one of the anode contact points. I spent about an hour looking for it on the cluttered workshop bench with no luck. Shortly after lunch, Dan, a good friend and photography co-conspirator, and I drove around the Village looking for blooms and butterflies. The most productive area we saw was along the storage area fence adjacent to the Magellan Beaver Dam Trail.

Kay made and delivered dinner for Ron and Bev formerly of Conway who have just recently moved to the Village; we met them in Casa Grande, AZ, this past winter. Extras were made for us! What a great life!

After catching up on news, email, and Facebook, I enjoyed the almost cool air outside, having forgotten how much contentment one derives from watering plants and taking butterfly photos in the mornings. Heat has returned to the Village, but the humidity is a bit lower than in North Carolina, making it tolerable.

Kay shopped this afternoon, restocking the cupboards and refrigerator, while I played golf; a “91” at Isabella Pinta/Santa Maria was not too bad considering I had not picked up a club since mid-July.

After a dinner of pork/chicken stir-fried rice, we watched the Season 7 finale of Endeavour and Episode 3 Season 10 of MI5, likely the last season for both shows—all good things must come to an end.

We’re almost back to normal—i.e. “being home at home” mode—and filling our social calendars with golf, pickleball, haircut and nail salon appointments, etc. I still have a lot of unpacking, mostly toys like float tubes and fly fishing equipment, clothes, and flies; they were never unpacked and used, mostly because of rain!

And charging cords galore, one for each electronic device! I admit, 3 iPads, 3 golf GPSs, 2 computers, and 2 monitors might be a bit excessive.