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.

River access

River fishing guide heading back upstream for another floating pass

That is fog on surface of water, cold water plus warm air = fog

A new adventure

Welcoming Sign

We have arrived.  Where do you ask?  Why Toad Suck, Arkansas of course!  But more about that destination in a moment, for there is some unfinished business to report.

The Melissa Cardinals, 11U (the pure 11 year old teams) made their appearance in the World Series.  The first night was a team and individual competitions night to showcase throwing accuracy, hitting strength and team speed.  The Melissa participants had a great showing and came in second in two of the three competitions out of a dozen or more teams in their age bracket.

 

The next day was pool play to determine seeding in the single-elimination bracket the following day.  After two hard fought games, Melissa was seeded to play at 11 AM which all fans thought was advantageous due to the hot weather and time of day.  This game was a see-saw affair with Melissa garnering an early lead and playing a dogged defense to keep the other team from scoring for a couple of innings.  Alas, a big fourth inning for the other team caused Melissa to lose the lead and play catch up.

During the sixth inning Melissa, the visiting team, gained the lead once again.  But as with the poem, Casey at the Bat, a win this day was not to be.  For the home team with last at bat, again managed gain the lead and to score the winning run.  Thus, Melissa lost, 5 to 4.

There was great dismay and disappointment, just like in Mudville, as the Cardinals grand season ended with that one run.  But as it is in life, there are many more opportunities for this young group of men.  They have a lot of baseball ahead of them and not every day will end as this one did.  We are very proud of their accomplishments and especially proud of our grandson.  Even in defeat, life lessons are learned and will make him stronger and stronger.

Proud mama and daddy (Coach)

Not to be outdone, proud Grandfather

But now back to Toad Suck.  We have begun a new on-the-road adventure and the first stop is in Toad Suck, a Corps of Engineer park right outside of Conway, AR on the Arkansas River.  This is a unique place to say the least.  There is a lock to transfer river traffic from one side of the dam to the other on this river due to the difference in elevations.  For anyone that has never seen this operation, it is a peculiarly interesting spectacle.

However, you should not attempt this on an empty stomach.  For you see, the entire process is a lot like watching paint dry.  Very slow and almost imperceptible movement is the order of the day.  But all of a sudden the feat is accomplished and off goes the raised or lowered, (whichever is the case) river craft to its next destination as it responds to the horns blaring and moves out of the lock.  Many times we have enjoyed these small pleasures during our adventures and this case is no exception.

Most of the commercial traffic on the river is contained in huge barges.  Almost as interesting as the lock process, is the ability of the tugs that gently guide and push these barges up and around the river bends, including entering and exiting the locks along the way.  The typical setup is an array of barges, three across and four lengthwise with the tug pushing from behind.  As one of our group commented, ‘that is obviously a job that requires a lot of skill and training.’ 

Tug and barges approach the lock

Tug in lock to begin process of raising to next level

Slowly rising, rising (I think) rising

Yes, higher now, almost ready to go

...and we are off

Those are men (you cannot see) standing between red and green barges

Exiting the lock to proceed down the river

Bibi really enjoyed the river.  Her comment to me one day was, ‘I could be Huck Finn and raft the river everyday.’  I believe her and also believe she could.  She has always shown this affinity for water related activity and I think would be very at home floating along looking at all the sites.  Wait a minute, I think that is what we do in our Adventurer.  The only difference I can perceive is we are rolling along on a highway instead of floating on water.  Hmmmm?

Bibi dreaming about floating down the river

We met a very nice couple and their teenage children at the campground, Tim and Dawn.  They are from Bentonville and were in the area so their boy and girl could each compete in a triathlon event in Conway.  They shared some stories with us and provided us with some directions for local eateries along with some sage advice about fishing.  It was very encouraging to us to hear Tim say they were getting up to go to church on Sunday.  All is not lost in this country as long as there are young families that put God first.  We think Tim and Dawn are heroes and are making God proud by directing their children.

We are off tomorrow to our next destination.  We are headed to Bull Shoals State Park on the White River.  There are three couples in our caravan now.  Us, David and Sophie, Sam and Brenda are headed to the next adventure so stay in touch and we will post again soon.

What kind of pet is this?

A pet raccoon, of course!

Dixie State Tournament Baseball

Here we are at the Dixie State Tournament watching our next to the oldest grandson and his teammates on the Melissa Cardinals team vie for a spot in the World Series.

But before we got here, we had to finish a few projects on the Adventurer.  A traveling companion, David, agreed to help me with some of these before we took off again.  One was to install a tire monitoring system on the motorhome tires which we did and works fabulously.  Now I can check tire pressure and tire temperature right in the living space of the motorhome.  Talk about being spoiled, this is the cat’s meow in convenience.

Another project is to switch out all the existing light bulbs for LED bulbs.  In order to do this, a polarity check of each fixture is required to make sure the 12V system is wired with the correct polarity for the LED bulbs to work correctly.  (I learned this today and did not already know it.)  We used a LED bulb David had as an extra to do the testing and sure enough found about 1 of every 3 fixtures tested needed the polarity reversed.  Now it is a pretty easy procedure, although somewhat time consuming to make this change.  But I need to back up a bit to give a little background so you can appreciate what I am about to relate to you.

You see, the wives have gone this day to a Sunday School luncheon for women only.  I thought this is a great day for us (David and me) to tackle some of these piddly little items with just us guys around to give us something to do to pass the day.  Bibi left us baked potatoes cooking for lunch with some chopped beef BBQ from Bodacious for one of our favorite meals.  After we had worked most of the morning, the stomachs started calling for food so we took a break right after the testing of the fixtures for polarity to have lunch.  This is where the story gets a bit interesting.

We have prepared our baked potatoes and are enjoying them while discussing the plans for the afternoon.  Part of the afternoon would be spent switching the polarity on the fixtures.  Now to do this you merely reverse the current wired connections by swapping the wires on each fixture that needed to have the proper polarity.  We discussed this along with a few other things.  During a pause in the conversation as we are eating David asked me if I knew about butt splices.

I am going to let that soak into your thinking for just a moment as it had to in mine.  You see, this question was not asked with any context whatsoever connected with it so I had to search my memory like a computer would have to do a quick search of a hard drive to see if there was anything recorded about butt splices.  Nope, nothing.  Hence, my response was ‘not really’ thinking I would get some sort of explanation at this point.  Nope, nothing.  Except David did say, I will run over to the house for some butt splices after we finish eating and dropped the conversation at this point.

Well, I can tell you my brain is going 1,000 MPH at this point trying to figure out what is he talking about and what is this thing butt splices.  Evidently I was able to hide my astonishment and internal questioning because he never said another word about butt splices until he returned.  I will not list or regale you with all the possibilities my clueless brain came up with that day.  Suffice it to say, I was very relieved to find out there is nothing physical (think colonoscopy) involved with a butt splice.
 

You may have already jumped ahead of me here but this is what a butt splice is and when it is useful.  You see, he was talking about cutting the wires on the fixtures and using a ‘butt splice’ to reattach the wires with the correct polarity.  The butt splice allows two wires to be connected butt end to butt end for a continuous flow of current in the repaired connection.  Again, I have learned something new from David.  Now all fixtures have the correct polarity, inventory taken of the type of lights required and they are on order to replace existing bulbs when they arrive.

Yes Virginia, there really are butt splices!

So we are at the tournament enjoying the baseball activities.  The weather is cooperating with us and we had some marvelous temperatures to watch baseball considering it is the middle of July in Southeast Texas.  With the exception of a few hot afternoons with some higher humidity, we and the teams are comfortable enough, especially compared to what it could have been.

Kaden is an amazing ball player.  During the tournament he played catcher, pitcher, third base, shortstop, second base and first base.  He throws right handed and bats left handed.  He had some excellent defensive plays and great at bats.  He has just turned 12 (the week before) so he is the ‘oldest’ on this team of pure 11 year olds playing their hearts out every game.  One of his plays as catcher stands out for me.  In one of the closer games, he is catching in the sixth inning (last inning of play if no tie) with bases loaded and only one out.  There is only a one run lead for the Melissa Cardinals and the other team is home team so this is their final at bat unless they tie (score one run) or win the game (score two runs).

Here is our #1 (that's his uniform number too) catcher

If you are a baseball fan, you realize the predicament here for Melissa.  Just about any fly ball to the outfield will score the runner on third after he tags up which will tie the score since there is only one out so far in the inning.   A hard hit ground ball into the outfield could potentially score the winning run.  One of the stronger hitters is at the plate so the tension and nervousness abounds amongst both sets of spectators as this mini drama plays out.  After several pitches, you hear the distinctive sound of a great contact of bat and ball.  You watch as the fly ball floats toward right field and begins its downward trajectory.  The right fielder begins to position his body under the ball in order to attempt a catch.  His glove comes up and plop, he catches it for the second out.

At the same time, you glimpse in your peripheral vision the runner standing on third base as he takes off towards home plate to attempt to score the tying run of the ball game and send it into extra innings.  You also notice Kaden is standing at home plate looking towards right field with a quick glance towards third base.  What is he looking at in right field?  It is the ball headed towards him.  The right fielder has the presence of mind to actually pull the ball out of the glove and fire the ball towards home.  He has delivered a great throw that reaches the catcher in the air and Kaden whirls with both hands covering the ball in order to keep it in the glove; tagging the runner before he reaches the plate for the second out of the double play and the third out of the inning.  Thus ending the game with a Melissa win and continuing their march toward the World Series.

A grandfather could not be prouder at this moment of his grandson and pleased with the calm, almost as if this is a daily occurrence, demeanor exhibited by Kaden.  Yes, he is quite the ball player, just sayin’.  What particularly struck me about this team this weekend is the lack of superstars on the team.  Yes, I just described an outstanding play by two young players.  But there were many, many more and it seemed to be spread around the players.  There was not one single person doing it all by themselves but it was a team effort.  When one person had a bad outing, another would pick up the slack.  Each player contributed at some time or another during the weekend.

Now playing first base...

Now third base...

Pitching---- He's everywhere, he's everywhere

a little grandfatherly advice - - hit it hard and run fast!

The team won four of five games putting them in position to play in the championship game.  It was at this point there were three teams tied with only one loss all vying for the championship in the tournament.  Only the top two teams would be sent to the World Series.  There was a tie breaker procedure in place to determine which two teams would play first and then the winner of that would play the third team.  Since Melissa and another team had played more games than the third team, the third team had to play the loser of a coin toss between Melissa and the other team.  Melissa won the coin toss which guaranteed at least second place in the tournament and a trip to the World Series.

Talk about an emotional moment for the team when they all finally realized what the coin toss represented.  Needless to say there was great celebration that evening for Melissa players and fans.  The next day they would meet the winner of the game about to be played but for now, that seemed too distant to concern themselves with when they are going to the World Series.  Similar to the Casey at Bat poem, the next day the team reflected what spent emotion does to an athlete.

Try as they might, they could not get the bats going, the gloves did not work quite as well and yes you guessed it, they came in second place.  They fought hard but the long, hard fought games, heat and spent emotion took all the umph out of them for this one final game and they had to settle for the trip to the World Series without winning the Championship for the State Tournament.  We still could not be prouder of our grandson and his teammates for a wonderful showing and accomplishment.

Squared around to bunt

Hitting away - run Kaden, run

After one of the wins, coaches seem to be as excited or more so than players

Each game begins with prayer for the teams and officials at the pitcher's mound - a really good practice

This next tournament is held on the same weekend as a family reunion that has been scheduled for a year.  My sister’s family has agreed to move the reunion, in support of Kaden, to Longview where the tournament will be played this year.  What a great thing for us, we get to see everyone and continue watching the once in a lifetime season our grandson is having.  Just to have the opportunity to see and be a part of the fan base is important to us.  More important, I hope he realizes how proud we are of him and his accomplishments and that we were there to share these times together with him.

To make it even more special for us, we got to share some time with the 5 year old grandsons.  They made the trip with mom and the three of them stayed with us during the tournament.  It was a little crowded but everyone managed fine and we had a grand old time.  Swimming in the park’s swimming pool was especially entertaining and inviting.  Kenzie even joined us for a swim session.

We are going on a big trip after the World Series Tournament, so stay tuned for more baseball updates and as we take the Adventurer out on the highway for some more adventures.

A happy, tired and victorious Melissa Cardinals team and coaches

Our personal MVP - could not be prouder of him!

The Clean Up

After our recent grandchildren trip, we returned to home base and had the opportunity to catch up with our other grandchildren (the twin boys) this summer.  Mama attended a funeral service for a friend’s grandfather about an hour away and enlisted our help since the five year old boys are not known for their ability to quietly sit for this length of time, especially after being confined for an hour in a car.

Since it is summer and the days are very warm, we decided a water activity was called for and set about developing a plan to keep everyone cool and entertained.  After the last trip, the motorhome was in dire need of washing since we were parked next to major highway construction with hot, dusty, windy conditions present during our stay. 

The logical thing to do was to enlist the two guys help in giving the motorhome a bath.  However, most logically thinking people would say this was a crazy idea because they are barely tall enough to reach the bottom rail on the coach.  The other part of the argument would be the attention span could not possibly last to finish the assignment.  Typically I would agree with both these statements and even speculated as to how long this activity would capture their attention.

In a discussion with Bibi, I told her I thought one of them would last between 5 and 10 swipes of a rag against the side of the coach.  The other one would last longer (not sure how much longer) until he was distracted by the first one’s newer activity that beckoned him away from the “fun” of cleaning the motorhome with Gran.  Realistically I did not expect more than 30 minutes total, if that, of participation.

We were pleasantly surprised as to the interest shown and the endurance to stay on task by both boys.  Of course, the actual washing did not commence immediately.  When presented with two water hoses to begin the rinsing and wetting process on the motorhome, each hose manned by one of the boys, it did not take long for this to degrade into a full-fledged soaking and water fight.  It was like giving each of them a “water blaster cannon” with an unending supply of ammunition.  In fact, the supply was unending as will be evidenced by the water bill later this month.

Did not take long for the water fight to start!

One of them was getting the better of the other, so I had to step in and ‘even up’ the playing field by using my chosen combatant as a shield as I helped direct the spray directly at our antagonist’s face.  The technique worked rather well until they decided to team up against me.  I had not thought of that possibility before coming to the aid of the wetter of the two.  Note to self, leave future water fights to the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest, and you will be much drier.

Take that Shawn boy!!!

After getting past the obligatory water fight with hoses, we commenced to washing said motorhome.  A bucket of suds was prepared for their use and a separate bucket for my use.  I did learn from earlier experience, their bucket of soapy solution would be a lot dirtier than mine.  This is due to the incessant dropping of the cleaning rags onto the ground picking up all matter of dirt, grass and rocks.  So the first rule is to use your bucket and not mine.

Fill em up, boys.

We set about scrubbing the front first as this is where all kinds of interesting things (i.e. bugs) end up against the body of the motor home and stuck in the grill.  What better way than this to keep a five year old boy's attention than to present him with dead bugs to identify and retrieve.  Of course, they did not see my obvious ruse to get the maximum scrubbing power from them with the ongoing chant of ‘get off of there you dead bug’ and the accompanying reward chant of ‘take that you dirty old bug.’  The enthusiasm exhibited during this process was astounding.  If I could bottle that and sell it, there would be no material want not met in our lifetime.

Look at them go.

......and go

and go some more!

Being the conscientious supervisor, I recognized the importance of taking a break to ensure a happy and eager workforce that could go the distance.  As the boys stretched out in the sun to let their wet clothing dry, they began to down a Sunkist orange drink.  Carbonation and young boys inevitably lead to a belch.  With Shawn it is most loud and intentional with the main purpose to entertain the ladies present.  Try as we could, Konnor and Gran could not outdo Shawn and I declared him the winner in the belching contest.  His response, "yeah, I know.  I win at everything."  So we further declared him., 'King of the World.'  This is a moniker he gladly accepted and thought it mighty fine to be the King of the World.

Break time.

Champion belcher in action, a/k/a King of the World and still undefeated champion!

All good things must come to an end, but I was the one left speechless by the length of time devoted to this cleaning adventure by the boys.  All told, they spent about 3 hours working with me on cleaning the coach.  Now this did include some distractions such as Shawn would find a dead bug and proceed to use the water hose to ‘wash’ it down some drains I have installed in the driveway.

When the bug would drop into the drain (either by force of water or if that was not quick enough he would manually pick it up and drop it in) he would exclaim his parting words, “Goodbye dead bug.”  Konnor was our stay on task guy, even if it meant washing the same tire 20 times.  There was even a small interlude to get Bibi involved in an Easter egg hide and seek game ( a year round activity around here using plastic eggs).  But eventually they returned to complete the task with me.

When we finished the motorhome, they had not had enough cleaning so I suggested they clean up the John Deere 4x4 (a miniature version they are fond of riding) since it was dirty.  They were determined to clean every square inch of the JD.  Interestingly enough, they were much more focused and planned their cleaning more strategically than when cleaning the motorhome.  I suppose size is the plus factor, since they are on a scale with the JD and actually tower over the height of the car.  As you can see from the pictures, they did a bang up, super cleaning job.

Cleaning is so much fun!

Especially when you are having fun with each other.

We had some good one-on-one times with them telling me all about their July 4 trip to watch fireworks with the additional fun activity of visiting the Build-a-Bear workshop.  Their vocabulary is expanding rapidly but not as fast as needed to fully express their feelings and sentiment.  An example of this was their response to what did the fireworks look like and how did they sound.  After a few minutes of excited and animated gestures by both of them, it was obvious they had run out of words and sounds to fully describe the events.  That is when Shawn abruptly stopped and said, “You need to go with us to see what we see” followed by Konnor’s full agreement statement when he said, “Yeah.”

What a great day.  I only hope they remember and treasure the day as much as I will.  Bibi was manning the camera so she has her own special memories created as she snapped pictures.  It is the little things in life that add special spice.

Not all Adventures in our Adventurer happen on the road.  Sometimes they happen right in the driveway.  We are off soon to see the next step in our middle grandson’s baseball season as they participate in the Dixie State Tournament attempting to win it and secure a spot in the World Series Tournament that takes place later in the month.  We will give a report on this activity later. Until then, adventure on!