Second day in the rain

I hadn't expected to sleep well but was pleasantly surprised. The parking pad was so unlevel, both front to back and left to right, that the leveling stands couldn't get us right. The back ones were fully extended and we were still tilted to the right at a noticeable angle; the front ones didn't come out at all. I suppose they realized they didn't have a job to do.





So I expected to be uncomfortable in bed (the angle was possibly about five degrees) but I wasn't.  And Zack--out of the cage and curled up on the floor at the foot of the bed--let me sleep!

We woke to calm winds, clear water, and misty clouds.  It had rained in the night a little, so the ground was wetter than before but not sodden mud, even in the heavily-traveled areas.  Dogs got a nice little walk and Ed and I both got hooks in the water for a couple of hours. Then my brother called to announce "storms were on the way." We ignored him, of course, but made plans to meet him for lunch at one-ish.

I got breakfast; Ed skipped in favor of a big lunch; and we managed to go on fishing until time to check on possibly moving to the spot we'd reserved for the next two nights . When I'd set this trip up, I originally thought I could only get a spot for Sunday through Tuesday. But I later had a thought--if we could get a one-night spot for Saturday, even if it was a "bad" spot, wouldn't that be better than making the drive for only two nights?

Yes, of course. So I grabbed one and set up a second reservation.

Then the weather forecast--and weather reality--changed. When we set out on Saturday a line of heavy thunderstorms had just moved through McKinney and were rapidly moving south and east. They'd left our house but not cleared out of Dallas or Kaufman county by the time we departed.

We arrived to find three very bored park employees sitting in the entrance station. There had been a lot of cancellations--smart people, not?  And there were several great camping spots available, right on the lake.

So yesterday I described the site we lucked into; today I will describe the one we moved to. Not far from the fishing pier--just a five minute walk--very private, very lush and wooded and beautiful. But no view at all. Looking at the online map I picked this site as being right next to a "day use area", which it was, just like the site at Inks Lake. But I failed to take into account East Texas. In East Texas, trees happen.

Plus vines and undergrowth and these cool things:



It's still a nice spot and we'd be fishing right now, but it hasn't stopped raining all afternoon. At first intermittent sprinkles, off again on again, while Ed hooked up the tow dolly, moved Mammoth to the new spot and hooked up the utilities again. Then we drove to Athens to dine at Jalapeno Tree and pick up some minnows. That proved to be challenging--of the two bait shops that were open in East Texas on Sundays, both closed at 3pm. We arrived at the Athens Marina at 3:05 or so and the nice girls cleaning up went ahead and sold them to us.

The drive back involved windshield wipers on intermittent fast speed and the dogs got a quick walk in the drip, but I'd had enough "life in the slow rain" for a while. My feet were cold, too. Me and the dogs dried off and climbed into Mammoth's warm belly.

Mind you, it's not cold at all. We haven't had the heat on yet and don't expect to need to. But you know how it is when you're damp.