Adventures in our Adventurer: A Day in the Neighborhood

Before we leave Toad Suck completely, I am reminded of a humorous incident while camped there. Sam and Brenda decided to join us there earlier than planned. On the day of their anticipated arrival, we go to the office to make a reservation for them. This was necessary because the Corps of Engineer parks do not allow online reservations unless made at least 48 or 72 hours in advance.

So our party marched (more like trudged) the half mile or so to the office to visit with the local camp host volunteer about making a reservation. A very nice lady but definitely one that ‘follows’ all the rules to the letter of the law. She informed us that we could make the reservation for them, after we had put up a tent or something on the site. In other words, it had to be occupied. We could not reserve the site, even if Sam and Brenda were showing up in about 3 hours unless there was a tent or other structure on the site.

So we trudged off (retracing our half mile or so trek) after she refused our money to reserve the site to contemplate our next course of action. Not wanting to break any rules or regulations, we pondered and pondered the possibilities. It was after we walked up to the empty site we wanted to reserve that David remembered he had a ‘blue’ tent with him. So we gathered up the appropriate materials and moved our car to the site as we ‘erected’ the tent. After inspecting our handiwork, we all trudged the half mile or so back to the office and announced we have a tent on the site, will she now accept our money for a reservation.

Erecting the tent

This is more work than I remembered

Almost there with the finished product-a 'blue' tent

Much to the amazement of all, she not only accepted our word about the tent; she took the money and gave us the reservation receipt. Of course we are talking about a $10 one night stay here. So we happily went off (by way of trudging our half mile or so) back to the campsite to await the arrival of our friends. Here you see a picture of Sam and Brenda arriving over the bridge preceded by a couple of pictures documenting the setting up of the ‘blue’ tent. We were a little disappointed the nice rules driven lady never came to inspect our tent to make sure we followed the rules. Oh well, just another day in the neighborhood.

Don't look down -- too late -- they see the blue tent!

We set out on our way to our next destination, Bull Shoals State Park. Several mapping programs wanted us to use extremely mountainous routes but we put our heads together after reviewing the available routes using Google Earth and decided on the least curvy road route. Fortunately, this agreed upon route took us right by Fergusons in St. Jo, AR at lunchtime. If you have never been to Fergusons, please make a point to stop by and enjoy their home cooking. Do not miss out on the Cinnamon rolls either. As Grandpa Jones (on Hee Haw) would say, “yum, yum!”

Upon our arrival at Bull Shoals State Park, we were greeted with hot, smelly brakes. The latter part of our trip was definitely in the mountains with 20 MPH curves up and down. We saw several of the warning signs about using lower gears on the steeper hills. Anyway, it was a relief to get out of the rigs and off the road. Well………, after we checked in.

For you see, we ran into ‘Sunshine’ (he says facetiously) at the next check-in office. She was not a happy person and seemed to be generally irritated by the presence of new campers. She was efficient, if not pleasant, as she checked in two of our party of three as her cohort (who was not only pleasant but seemed glad to see us and talk to us) managed to check in the third party in our group. Again, it is just another day in the neighborhood.

We made our way to our campsites and are very happy to be greeted by wild deer crossing the road directly in front of us as we are heading to the campground. Our initial inspection shows this to be one of the nicest state park campgrounds we have seen. It is very clean, nicely manicured and large spacious campsites. There are plenty of trees, access to the river is close and there are a ton of songbirds. We even have visitors (see pictures below) of squirrels and deer. The deer regularly show up in the morning and afternoon. There are even Pileated Woodpeckers in the area. A Pileated Woodpecker is like Woody Woodpecker of cartoon fame. It is a large bird (about the size of a crow) with a distinctive sound. We will try to get a picture of one to post.

Here are some of our neighbors from the neighborhood...

Got something you want to give me?

Please let me eat in peace

Oh boy, more human stuff to pick through

Red, red robin goes a bob, bob bobbing along...

Listen closely to my song, it is really relaxing says the dove

Mr. Redbird checking us out

U may think I'm upside down, but I think it is U

Red Headed Woodpecker, not Mr. Pileated

Mr. Cardinal taking a closer look

Mr. Pileated from a side view and a long way off with sun in wrong position

This week promises to be fun and relaxing. David and I have already procured the necessary fishing license and trout permit. We have checked out the river and are making preparations for fishing. Water is released into this river from the adjacent lake to generate electricity. The more electricity needed, the more water released. When there are a lot of generators being used, the river levels are very high and the current is very fast. Overnight the levels go down but not as far down as in the past. It seems there is a new agreement in place to protect the trout population in the river. This agreement requires the release of water so the level does not drop too low.

This creates a small problem for us. The main river channel is on the far side and this is where the fish hang out. In order to reach it, you need waders or a boat. We think boat because even the folks we see wading cannot quite reach the honey holes with their casts which is beside the problems of standing in such strong current and cold temperature creating other issues. We have fished on the bank a couple of mornings without much success. I did manage to catch a small fish (about the size of the palm of my hand) that was immediately released and that is the extent of our efforts thus far.

We may have to make plans to move to another spot further downriver after we leave here to keep the fish from costing $5,000 per pound. We are still investigating and will let you know what we determine. Until next time and more adventures, be safe.