Friday at White Oak Lake

I forgot to mention this, but our campsite was backward. It took me a while to realize this...but once I did, it became glaringly obvious and obviously annoying. When Mammoth was backed into the campsite, the hookups were on the lake side and our canopy/front door were on the side away from the water. Normally, with a back-in site, the scenic view (lakeside) is on the right side of the RV and the hookups on the left, away from the water.

Arkansas chose to reverse this natural order of things. So after boating yesterday, Ed reversed the RV. He'd the good sense to buy an extra long electrical cord and water hose, so after a brief moment of difficulty--backing up the wrong way down the one-way drive--parking was a easy maneuver and hookups only took a little longer than usual. And then, the door and canopy were where they belonged to be.

It seemed much cooler that morning with a gorgeous red sky just before dawn. But I had remembered--
Red skies at morning, sailor take warning.
And there was a high spattering of cirrus and nimbus clouds. Since the "cold" front just went through on Wednesday morning, I suspected it was a warm front coming back. But I could dream, couldn't I?

That morning we had the smarts to get out early with the rental boat, but without a fish finder we were skunked. One small smallmouth bass for Ed; nothing for me.

Before fishing I absolutely positively identified a spotted sandpiper. It was hanging out on the little isthmus? peninsula? of mowed grass that extends part way out into the water to make a sheltered space for the boat dock.  The markings were right on, and the teetering motion of the rump clinched it.

When we were done "not-fishing" there was a bit of a breeze stirring, just enough to let me eat out lunch outside and re-rig my fishing poles. After a delicious shower in the clean-as-a-pin bathhouse.  (I'm in love with that bathhouse.) Lunch was salad and a small serving of pinto beans. (planning to pig out at suppertime.)

The only birds to watch were bluebirds and a far off cormorant, moving rapidly. Not a duck nor a goose.

Zack the turdlet caught me with my back turned and got into the water to get his feet and underneath all muddied. Normally I wouldn't mind, but my brother had scared me by sending reports of dogs dying from drinking water with a blue-green algae bloom. There were several reports of this in the Eastern United States this year. I knew how to tell normal green algae from blue-green algae, but rather than aggressively test every algae bloom I see, I decided to just keep the dogs out of the water.

There was a lonesome crow who lived near our campsite. I'd seen him both days, all by himself, never saying a word.  So---against all park rules--I put out a little plate of bread, dog food and grapes for him. He walked around and ignored it, of course, so finally I moved it up to our concrete pad so a ranger wouldn't drive through and see me "feeding the animals". Later a squirrel came by and chowed down on the bread; ants enjoyed the dog food and the grapes just sat there, spoiling.

After all that activity I retired inside to wait until the sun started to droop, when it would be dog walk time again.  First it was dishwashing and floor sweeping time.

For dinner  had Neogiri ramen which nearly wiped out every taste bud in my tongue. Someone sure overspiced the flavoring packet on that one. Next time I need to either adulterate it with some of the frozen shrimp or vegetables we stock for the purpose, or else skip a quarter of the flavoring packet.  But as usual, by the end of the bowl my sinuses were clear and the noodles were tasting mighty good.

After that I snacked a little and found myself so sleepy I couldn't get up the energy to go find a book to read. Early bed for me.