Mammoth Goes to Eite Site...and Returns

 Tuesday 5/17

More of the same, except my morning jog was interrupted by a sprinkle of rain. I gave up too easily and went up the hill to play on the Internet. Planning more trips.....

In the late afternoon we went to town to eat with Bill and Pam at Longhorn Steakhouse. The food was probably pretty good, but pretty dismal for a vegetarian trying to watch their consumption. I forgot to ask for my salad dressing on the side, so I had a bowl of romaine lettuce and red cabbage drenched in viniagrette. Soppingly, soddenly drenched. On top they'd sprinkled exactly two slivers of mandarin orange, four grapes, a tablespoon of feta cheese (which I don't even like), a teaspoon of pecans, and two sliced strawberries. All this cost $10. But I wasn't paying.

For a side I had roasted brussels sprouts, which were yummy....for the first two bites. After that they just tasted sweet and fattening.  I guess I'm impossible to please these days.

And that's pretty much all for the day. But tomorrow we go home!

Birds for Arkansas: summer tanager again, pee-wee, fish crow, robin, indigo bunting, some annoying warbler like bird I couldn't get a good look at, and nuthatch.


Wednesday 5/18

We left late and it was 5:21 before I sat down to write the ending to this story. It wasn't our fault we left late--we were just finished with breakfast and making motions to go when the fifth member of our company, the chef de' cuisine extraodinaire, finished with her crisis management phone call and joined us.  So we were stuck for another twenty minutes.

We had to do two gas stops, too. I mean, we didn't have to do two, but we preferred to arrive at home with a full tank and ready to go. It made more sense then getting out a few days later to fill up and wasting the extra gas to go the 16 miles roundtrip to the Love's Travel Stop in Anna, when we were coming right by it on the way home.

The entire trip took 6 hours and 23 minutes, which was too dang long.

Note for the notes: figure out a route that avoids Sherman for the next year or so. Especially if going northbound. Going southbound like we were, there were no backups to speak of but the road construction was horrifying and the potholes, ditches, bumps and boulders were impossible to avoid. So, in future, just no. Not that route.

We'll go through Paris if we must, but I think there's a route on 121 through Bonham that won't be too far out of our way. And no matter how bad it is, it won't be worse.

Mammoth at Eite Site, Day 6

Monday 5/16

No plans for the day, just visiting and a long dog jog. I got in over an hour by jogging up and down the highway in front of the church. And Molly didn't get to eat too much junk on the road. And we didn't get run over. Hurray.

I got a good look at a male summer tanager--I'm finally beginning to learn its peculiar call. It's rather distinctive. There were quite a few other bird songs in the trees, but none I could really get a look at. Except the red-eyed vireo--I finally got a good look at the red-eyed vireo!  I knew what it was from the song, but seeing it for myself was cool.

So here we have American Crow, Fish Crow, red-eyed vireo, white-breasted nuthatch, white-eyed vireo, Peewee, Indigo Bunting, American Robin and summer tanager. And a whole lot more, but nothing I could get a good look at.

And lots of ox-eye daisies

Mammoth Goes to Petit Jean..and Eite Site, Day 5

 Sunday 5/15

Driving time! Not that I was particularly eager to go to EiteSite--been there, done that, and the only redeeming virtue is that it allows us to easily visit Ed's mother--but I was eager to go. If I could have a do-over, I'd have only scheduled three days at Petit Jean. I'm beginning to learn that four days is too much for a typical state park or corp park...there are too many people and dogs around for us to truly relax and enjoy the ambience. Some of the things I'd prefer in a park are the ability to bird watch right from the site, no cars continually driving around, animals and plants to see instead of other people, and a scenic view. Petit Jean had only the first criteria (bird watching) and even that wasn't all that great.

So we headed out as early as possible, planning to get there by one-thirty. Supposedly lunch would be on the table when we arrived. But I'd looked at the google maps time incorrectly, seeing a two-hour drive instead of the three-hour drive that was our reality. The two-hour route involved going up "the pig trail" (highway 23) from the interstate. We don't take that route in Mammoth, so we had to pass it up and go on to I-49 north almost to Fayetteville, then highway 16 over to the house.

We made good time and had a phenomenally fast stop at a Love's on I-49 shortly before starting up the Boston Mountains. So when we arrived, lunch/dinner was not yet ready but at least we didn't keep them waiting. Plenty of time for hooking up and visiting before the clouds opened up and it started pouring down rain.

We both got soaked. But the dogs got a walk and most of the hookups were done before the rains came--the soaking occurred as we were heading up the hill for lunch.

Summer Tanagers are here, too:

 

 

 

After lunch/dinner, Molly got a long walk down the road.

And that's it for Sunday. On to better days.

Mammoth Goes to Petit Jean, Day 4

 Saturday 5/14

Our new site

Today was pancake day! Always a good day. That got us off to a slow start. We took a drive over to see the Hola Bend National Wildlife Refuge. Great place, with an eight mile auto tour loop, a little walk called the "levee trail" although I didn't see much of a levee. Possibly there was more of one back in the day.

The refuge encompasses a bend in the Arkansas River which was once farmland and rich bottomland. There are huge swaths that are now under  cultivation for the wildlife, but were no doubt once planted to cotton or corn or whatever it was they grew back in those days. In the 1900s, 67 families farmed there. But, according to the sign, a huge flood came down in 1927 and dumped deep layers of sand all over the farms, driving out most of the farmers. In 1957, the river was rerouted and the bend cut off, leaving a big circle of land surrounded (mostly) by backwater from the river.

 Supposedly this is the northern boundary of the American alligator and a few of them nest here. but we didn't see any. All we saw was a deer. Plus six Mississippi Kites, a red-tail hawk, two Canada geese, indigo buntings galore. And we heard dickcissel, white-eyed vireo and a few other common birds. I hear quite a few bird calls that I didn't recognize at all, but no luck with them.

Great place all the same. I would have loved to hike the whole 8-mile loop. 

 

                                            Mississippi Kite

 

 

 

But on we went to Lake Dardanelle State park. It was alleged to have a large aquatic exhibit in the Visitor Center. And it did...but I've seen larger. This one was nothing to sneer at, but not especially big. I didn't see where they had any of the fish in the large tanks identified with a plaque or any labels or such, but in Arkansas I guess that's not needed. Since everyone fishes, I'm sure most visitors could identify the catfish, carp and other species in the tanks.

 
It was a nice place, but rather small. In fact, the entire park seemed rather small. But the workers were enthusiastic and very friendly, so we can't fault them for size.

We checked out the campsites for future reference. Not favorable. It's very clean, clear, and well situated, but the sites are way too close together for a state park. Not like a private park, but not the spacious setting we've come to expect from state-operated facilities.

When we returned to camp there were still many hours of daylight in the sky (and hours before suppertime, which is more important), so I decided to take the bike trail as far as it would go.   This is an freshly paved asphalt trail that runs alongside the highway to the west-ish direction. Not directly alongside the highway--there's a strip of trees that separate them and make it lovely, quiet and private. The only problem was the fresh asphalt--it stunk!  But it wasn't sticky, so we put up with the stink and hiked along.

Before long I really wished I'd worn jogging shoes instead of sandals. It would have been even better for a jog. But on and on we went, over hill and over dale, seeing almost no people at all. It was about five in the evening by then and we did eventually see a single bicyclist, a lone man who looked like he was exhausted and regretting his ambition.

The hills were easy for walking but I could see them being challenging for a cyclist. After what seemed like a very long while--my plan was to walk for an hour and thirty minutes--I began mentioning to Molly that it might be time to turn back. But suddenly I saw a sign--junction with Cedar Falls Overlook 300 yards. I know how far that is intellectually, but how far would it seem on an unknown side trail? I had to find out.

Plus, when Ed and I had driven to the Cedar Falls Overlook the second day, it had seemed very high up in the hills. I'd been going uphill, gradually, but was I really at the correct elevation or would the trail go straight upwards? Plus, was this side trail going to take me to the actual overlook, or just to a trail that went to the overlook? I had to know, so we took it.

The answers to my questions were easy--300 yards is indeed very short, just about three times the length of my driveway. The trail was almost perfectly level, so we were already at the correct elevation. And the trail really did end up at the overlook, right at the parking lot. We were there.

But so were about fifty other people. There were eight or twelve cars in the parking lot and people all over. Taking Molly on the little boardwalk out to see the falls again when I'd already seen it once was pointless. So we returned to the crossover trail and then to the stinky trail.

By then it was forty-five minutes out. We'd been walking briskly almost the entire time, with only a brief stop so Molly could bark her fool head off at the statue of the CCC worker in the park. She did not like that guy.  So we headed back, and soon we were passed by quite a few bicyclists, fast and slow and in between. After seeing only one guy other than all the fatties in automobiles, it was nice to see people enjoying the recreation opportunities!

I have no idea how far the trail continued. Maybe to the end of the park or at least to the very high overlook that we'd driven to after the falls.  I should check....
I couldn't find a trail map, but it runs on the left (south & east) side of the road from upper right to lower left.

Mammoth Goes to Petit Jean, Day 3

 Friday 5/13

Today's event was the maiden voyage of our new Sea Eagle inflatable kayak. My rather inappropriate Mother's Day present. (I'd have been happy with roses)

I've wanted one ever since we started this endeavor, but it was only after I got Ed interested in the idea took root. It didn't hurt that a couple of people camping next to us at Cedar Ridge had one and spoke highly to him about its ease of use and durability. He'd thought of inflatable boats like cheap air mattresses, prone to leaks after a use or two. But the newer generation are tough and durable, and that's what got him thinking it wasn't such a ridiculous idea I had.

The little Bailey Lake here was perfect for the trial, too. Not large enough to have waves, no sharp rocks, no motorized boats allowed, and easy to access. The boat ramp was only a three minute walk from our campsite, although of course we chose to drive it over there. The boat only weighs about 50 or so pound, but it's still a lot more than we want to carry any farther than we need to.

So we set it out, pumped it up--taking turns at the hand pump because it's a little tiring--and set it gently on the water. That easy. And using kayak paddles, which I've never done, turned out to be surprisingly easy, too. We poodled down the lake, up the lake and all around and were back in under two hours. The only wildlife we saw--in the middle of the day--was a Canada Goose sitting on a nest on a little island.

Now if I can just get another trip set up to Florida in the winter!  I've seen manatees--that's whht we went for--but more manatees!

After our watery adventure, all we had to do was wait around until our second campsite opened up. When I booked this place, way back in February, I could only get week days at campground "A". That's where the full hookup (water, sewer, 50-amp electric) sites were. And also the lake view.  So what I did, because I was scheduling to avoid being in Arkansas on Sunday morning, was book Wednesday and Thursday at the good site but Friday and Saturday at the crappy campground across the street. And I do mean literally across the street. You could see the new camp site from the old one.

So we dumped our sewer tank, did a mini break down of the setup, and moved sites. The new one has no sewer, no lake view, ancient asphalt for the parking pad, and 30-amp electricity. Incidentally the water hookup is all the way at the front of the site, but Ed was ready for that. He always has extra hose for the drinking water.

Another reason for venturing to book this was to test how well our air conditioners performed on 30-amp. With the original air conditioners, we were told at the shop, you had to have 50-amp hookups to run both of the two units at the same time. One or the other would run on 30-amp, but not both. We've found that to be true and survived that way in the past.

But since then Ed replaced the air conditioner units with new, super energy efficient ones. And we've been wondering if just possibly we can get along on 30-amp that way.

Verdict: it certainly seems so. When we get ready to use the microwave oven later, we will be expecting a circuit breaker to flip. But that's okay.

There seemed a constant stream of cars coming into the camping area, pretty much all evening. They only stopped when I went inside and quit seeing them. I walked the dogs from about eight until eight-thirty or so, so that's how late people were coming in. I don't see how that's possible, because it's not all that big a camping loop.

People seemed to be quiet down at our end, thank heavens. Our next-door neighbors played the radio and were noisy when they were setting up, but after dark I didn't hear a peep out of them. And the ones across the drive were extremely quiet, too. They appeared to be an older couple. (Although not as old as us)

My chosen site was all the way at the end of the loop, next to a driveway and across from "Area B", which is under construction. The construction trucks cleared out at the end of the day and we saw no more of them. So it wasn't an impossibly bad camping spot, just not a great one.

Molly and I had a nice late afternoon walk--we went to the historic CCC bridge. I might have seen an interesting flycatcher...but it might have been a phoebe. Thought I saw an eye ring, though.

 On our way back we saw only this:

Mammoth Goes to Petit Jean, Day 2

 Thursday 12 May 2022

Sunlight (and my phone alarm) got me up by seven-fifteen in the morning. We must have been considerably farther east for sunrise to be so much earlier than home. Breakfast was over by nine-ish, and it was off to see the park attractions.

We pretty much hit them all. The only thing that would have been extra special would  been Cedar Falls from the bottom, but that was a two mile walk. And the map is not clear if that's one-way or round-trip, either.

So we drove out and did three little quarter mile hikes, plus stopped at all the overlooks on the way. We saw:
Turtle Rocks

 



Rock House Cave--It's not a real underground cave, but a place where the rocks are eroded making an enormous shelter.  (Which was full of schoolchildren for the five minutes we spent there. Empty, it would have been pretty cool to explore)
Richter memorial overlook

CCC Overlook
Cedar Falls overlook

Bear Cave area which was cool to the max. Huge boulders all over the place, with natural opening between and amid them. Loved it

 

Palisades overlook. It's on the other side of Cedar Creek from the CCC overlook, so you can almost see the other one in the picture

As to birds, I kept seening Summer Tanagers but  could never get one to sit still long enough for a picture. I saw a wren hopping around, again no pictuers. Robins galore; blue-jays, chipping sparrows, pine warblers, wood thrush (heard it only) although I saw a thrush that ocould have been an immature robin. He posed for me but I was too slow on the shutter. And white-breasted nuthatch.

We went for a walk in the evening...and Molly went for a swim. She stepped in, then realized it was over her head and the rocks were slippery.  I let her swim for a minute, then hoisted her out by the handle on her harness.

Mammoth Goes to Petit Jean (and the Eite Site)

Wednesday 5/11/2022

Planned Time: 5:26
Actual time: 6:10

It felt different, driving up I-30 through Texarkana. The drive is boring and blah since we've done it so many times. But usually--except for a camping trip at White Oak Lake State Park--we were going on to Kentucky. Before I even met Ed I was taking that trip and going on to Kentucky. So this one, only halfway, seemed short--

Until it didn't. Google Maps' route involved leaving the Interstate at Benton or thereabouts and heading due north on tiny roads along squiggly lines on the map; through mountains, rivers and small towns to get to Petit Jean. But by forcing a route only ten minutes slower, we could stay on Interstate Highways almost all of the way. So we did.

 

What made it seem long were the stops, although they were short in duration and well-timed to hit at the points before we needed them. We had a quick pee stop at a rest area near Sulfur Springs, a fill-up at Love's near Prescott, Arkansas, and another fill-up at Morristown or some such place just past where we needed to get off the Interstate to come here. We stayed on I-30 to I-430, the north loop around Little Rock, then got on 40 going westbound to the park. And with medium, not heavy, traffic, going ten minute out of the way was certainly faster than taking the RV up a glorified pig trail.

After getting off the highway to go to the park, we had to go up an immense slope that paused a couple of times but never seemed to stop. I'm not looking forward to going back down it! But Mammoth did excellently well, huffing and puffing and chugging along up the slope. She's done worse hills, in New Mexico and Colorado--these piddling little Arkansas hills are nothing to her.

An on to the park. The visitor center was huge and empty of other checker-in-ers at threee o'clock in the afternoon. It was easy eanough. And the campground loop, which we'd passed on the way, easy to navigate. But I must admit I am disappointed in the site. I knew it was one of the last ones available in the premium camping loop, when I booked it way back in February or so. Now that I've seen the place, I can see why the lakeside sites are so popular...but not all that much. It's a pretty place, sure, but the lakeside site aren't supremely attractive.

The park itself has lots to do and see--if you like trees, rocks and ticks. But more on that later.

For now, we ended up with a site near the road--no road noise, though, other than the people going to or fro in the campground. It's a "through" road, but there doesn't appear to be a lot of thru traffic on it. Most likely the 30 mph speed limit discourages locals from cutting through. We can see the lake from the site, but it's not lake side. The utilities are on the lake side, so we're pulled into it so that our door faces the picnic table. Which is fine, but that means a big old Mammoth Motorhome blocks most of our view. Which wouldn't be so much "scenic lake"--not all that scenic--but motorhomes widely spaced around a small lake.

 

It's fine, though. We came for the park, not the particulars of the spot. We have to move to a really crappy spot on Friday. Then I'll complain.

 

 

 

We were entertained by robins and chipping sparrows. And summer tanagers. Lots of all of them. 

Since I can't tell male robins from female, I don't know if these two were fighting or courting. But they were graceful about it.

Edward called while I was out walking Molly around the day use area. He wished me a Happy Mother's Day (late, of course) and warned us of his upcoming deployment. Not sure when, but probably the end of August and lasting the whole month of September. He was able to give me exact dates of his trailing class, Sep 26 - Nov 11, and location, Fort Knox. It turns out that's near Louisville, so the camping trip I was planning to Iowa has been canceled. I'll plan one to Fort Knox instead.

While we were talking--for hours!--at least six loud, low-flying military helicopters came over. Loud.

By the end of the day, I'd found and removed about four ticks from my exterior.

Evening at the boat ramp:

Back to the beginning (of the series)

 Brownies and Broomsticks

Other than the title, which is silly and has nothing to do with the plot, this turned out to be a pretty good introduction to the series. Interesting and gutsy heroine who loves to bake more than the law allows--how does she keep from weighing 400 pounds?--involved in an unexplained death with her uncle as the prime suspect. If you're into baking rich and indulgent deserts, you'll find her description of peanut butter swirl brownies even more involving than the mystery of murder.

I did not, but I still enjoyed reading about it. Even more did I enjoy her interactions with a dog who appeared on her doorstep and attached himself to her; with the women of the reading circle who were all more than they seemed; the two mysterious men in her new life; the aggravated police detective who just wishes she would butt out of his business; and the slow discovery of her own "powers" at hedge-witchery.

Fun stuff, throughout.

Broken and no bones about it

 Broken
In the Best Possible Way
by Jenny Lawson


She's hilarious! But if you're the sort of person who finds David Sedaris hilarious, you probably won't think so. I think Sedaris is insipid. But this is hilarious.

Yeah, she makes a lot of off-color jokes. I wouldn't want to listen to this on my car speaker while stopping at a drive-through, for example. But they're funny!

And more than that, there's a serious smidgen of serious in here. One whole chapter talks about her experiences with the health insurance system, trying to get treatments for her rheumatoid arthritis and depression covered. And there was some sad parts, very sad if you've ever suffered from depression. But those were lightened by her writing and her unquenchable skill at finding humor in the saddest of things.

But almost all the other chapters are funny, so if you choose to skim the "open letter to my health insurance company" chapter, I'll forgive you. Unless you work in the health insurance industry. In that case, you should remain unforgiven.

Really good memoir--with birds!

 Field Notes From An Unintentional Birder
by Julia Zarankin

The reviews weren't great on this, but it was at the library and I decided to take a chance. I'm glad--mostly--I did. I was not expecting it to be a real book about birding, but rather a memoir about a person who got into birding. And I got exactly what I expected.

There was less humor and more depth than I expected. She used her birding endeavor as a way to grow out of herself and learn many life lessons--relying on one's own judgement; overcoming self-doubt; plus, one that I took very well to heart: seeing and hearing and enjoying what's in front of you, right now!  Not what you wanted to see or expected to see, but what you really end up seeing.

And that's a lesson every birder has to learn early, or else they'll miss a lot of birds. You might go out to see a puffin, but that doesn't mean gulls, terns or even a random albatross won't thrill you with delight. And if you return home puffin-less, well, that's leaves some mystery for another day.

But as I said, it's more memoir than field notes. As she wrote, after ignoring a Merlin who was posing right in front of her face, because it wasn't the bird she wanted to see:

I didn't learn the lesson that day, because I was so focused on my reward--finally seeing a red-headed woodpecker--but I learned it later: focus on what's in front of you, on what you're looking at rather than what you want to see. I try to apply that to my marriage. Focus on what's there right now.
It turned out that when I didn't look into the future, when I stopped practicing the art of augery, when I didn't try to obsessively plan out our life, the present was actually exactly what I wanted.

Good lesson--but all I can think is darn you idiot you had a Merlin right in front of you and didn't pay attention to it? I've only ever seen a merlin once and I'm not all that sure about it.

Just a memoir...nothing special

 Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good

by Kathleen Flinn

This is sort of an autobiographical memoir with recipes. Very much like what I'd like to write someday, although I suspect mine wouldn't be as varied and amusing. Her family did a lot of fun stuff, moving across the country in search of livelihood and then moving back; working at a restaurant; eating wild-harvested foods and a lot of dried beans for a while and having a lot of fun doing it.

I enjoyed the memoir very much. Nothing really dark happened and a lot of fun and funny things occurred, but for reasons I didn't exactly grasp it got boring about two-thirds along. I stuck it out and am glad I did, but I'm not sure what was missing--I think it was a certain lack of dramatic tension to pull me along. It was just...life.

But the recipes look great. Mostly plain home cooking, like cinnamon rolls--which I'm going to try.

Did not finish series is finished

 Did Not Happen

by George Mahood


Not nearly as fun as the others. I think he fell into a bit of a slump during the pandemic and didn't work as hard on making his life, and writing, amusing. But still I'm disappointed that this is the last for now and I have to find something else funny to read. Maybe I'll read his first book, about a bicycle trip through England!

Mammoth Goes to a Birthday Party, Park 2

Sunday 5/1

Again, slow day with the kids. Forgot to mention that on the day before a noise of crows alerted us to something interesting hiding out in the little cave in the bluff across the river. I put the spotting scope on and discovered it was an owl. Or two. Funny that I've never heard an owl here, so possible they decided to move later. All I know is that in the morning I saw an owl stretching out its wings and it looked like a light-colored barred owl, but all afternoon an owl snoozed there and it looked like a great-horned owl. So I dunno.

Random shot of cliffs

Bird list for the trip: Mississippi Kites, Cliff Swallows, vultures, chickadees, titmice, blue-gray gnatcatcher, painted bunting, Bewick's wren, Canyon Wren. There were probably warblers passing through, but I never saw them.

Monday 5/2

Nothing to report; not a great day. But we did the birthday thing and that was what we came for.

Bees really liked this flower

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 5/3

One thing of note for our future drives. I-35 East isn't all that bad these days. Going through West was really bad; then Waxahatchie wasn't all that great. But the great big huge mess at the south end of Dallas was pretty much cleaned up--the road was rough, but we said through pretty well. The whole trip only took about three hours.

We didn't stop for gas, which would have skewed our time a little.  The only thing to watch out for, and avoid during rush hours at all costs, is the point where you merge into the tollway/35E road from the right and then have to get across three lanes of traffic to exit on the left to 75 North Central Expressway.  Or maybe that's left/right--I don't remember.  I just know that in past endeavors when I was coming back from downtown hotels, I was completely unable to make the exit. We did it okay. This time.

Mammoth Goes to a Birthday Party

 Friday 4/29/2020

I can put this as camping, because we are taking the RV and we are staying at a campground. A very full campground, on the weekend. So...not my kind of camping, but camping it be.

We arrived pretty early after a drive that turned out to be almost exactly 4 hours. It should have been faster, but there was a stoppage and severe slowdown in Waco followed by an extremely slow fill-up at Love's in Belton. Add in our quick pee break at the rest area in Hillsboro, and I'd estimate that the amount of time we were actually moving was about three hours fifteen minutes.

 

The place was as lovely as ever, with Painted Buntings and Bewick's Wrens singing from every tree and a Canyon Wren or two singing on the cliffs by the lake. There were a lot of swallows nesting across the water, too--I wasn't sure if they we're Cliff Swallows or Bank Swallows but decided I'd get the spotting scope out later and try to figure them out.

Despite the loveliness of the place--and by the way, it's a lot less trashy than usual. Someone must have done some serious trash pick-up this spring. But despite that, it's just too crowded to really enjoy ourselves. Luckily there's no country music next door to us, but there's plenty of it over in the other side of the campground.

Birding moment of excitement:
Saw a Lark Sparrow!  Right there on the low grass near the boat ramp and swimming area.  I saw it very clearly...and decided to run back and get the camera. That's when Molly got attacked by a dog--it snapped its tether and took right off after her at about 90 miles an hour.

No harm was done other than to my pride. No picture of the lark sparrow either.

Saturday 4/30

Just hanging with the kids. Molly and I tried to take a jog and found beaucoups of blackberries down by the west end boat ramp. But it was just too hot to keep moving--my jog became a fast walk. Mind you, by hot I simply mean low 80s. Last year--and all the recent past ones--I considered that temperature cool and comfortable. But I'm not acclimated to it yet, so I found it unbearable.

Later we played on the playground--again unbearable. I even had to sit down a couple of times. Maybe I'm not drinking enough water; maybe it's the diet; maybe it's old age. But I didn't tolerate it very well at all.

Then we ate supper at a very slow American restaurant in Temple. I just hate American food these day. My salad had so much cheese on it that I might as well have been eating a cheeseburger. So I didn't. My fault for not asking them to hold the cheese. Sorry to be so gripey, but eating a bowl of iceberg lettuce when I have all kind of fancy lettuces and spinach going to seed in the garden...well, it sucks. I have salad in the fridge, too--why didn't I just take my own?

A good, solid middle to a series

 Witches and Wedding Cake

by Bailey Cates

I started the series right in the middle with this one. It was the one which happened to be available at the library. But I sort-of liked it...maybe not loved, but I liked it enough to want to try another one.

Her magic is low-key and mostly herbal, which is appropriate from someone who's told she's a "kitchen witch". But there are hints and portents of a lot deeper, stronger magic to come. In the future. Which I won't see, because I'm going to go back and read the opener of the series.

Stay tuned for further updates. Oh yeah, and as to the book review: her writing is perfectly adequate, by which I mean that I didn't notice it at all, either good or bad. So that means she can convey the story well and also that the story was absorbing enough that I didn't get time to notice the mechanics of how it was told. For example, I couldn't tell you if it was first person or third.

There's an awful lot of food in here--it's the "Magical Baking" series, after all, but I didn't find it annoying.  She doesn't use a lot of flowery adjectives or go off on rhapsodies of verbal food porn.

And her characters, while there may be a few too many of them to keep straight, are fairly interesting. I suspect if I read the series from the beginning they will all fall into place.

So, we'll see. I give this a good, solid 4-and-one-quarter stars.

Four in a series = one

Did Not Try,
Did Not Sink,
Did Not Start,
Did Not Enter,
(All subtitled: Misadventures in Running, Cycling and Swimming)
George Mahood
 

Yeah, I'm still working on the George Mahood "mini-books". They're not really long enough to be a real book, so I suspect they don't have print versions. Just digital. But that's okay, because they're cheaper than a real book. And it's not okay, becau
se I want them to be longer!

As the series progresses, they often deal with  his attempts to keep up with his wife as she stretches out from running to biking and even swimming. And it's funny as heck. She's a little "outspoken", as the British say, and often loath to try new things. But once she's gotten her feet wet, she's all about the game.

Nice little book but nothing to rave about

 Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek
by Maya Van Wagenan

Lovely little YA book. Growing up, of course, is the topic. But it's set in Brownsville, Texas, the armpit of America. And it features a slightly (1/4) Hispanic girl who is reading and following the advice of a 1950's "popularity guide". She reminds me of that guy I used to read--A J Jacobs--in the way she takes it literally and actually does every thing the writer tells her to. Like wearing pearls--all the time. Wearing gloves and a hat to church. Vaseline instead of eye shadow. A different weird hairdo every week.

It's silly, of course, but the book has a lot of NOT silly in it. She's got some cool family dynamics going on, a strong friendship, and a dying mentor/teacher at school. It's a solid, recommended, and very lovely book.

Mammoth Goes After Spring Migration, return

Friday 15 April 2022

Sandy Creek Campground to home
Planned time i4:30
Actual 5:13
Stops: quick gas stop and very quick pee stop

Return trip.  We got an early start, but hooking up and dumping time with cleaning out the tank took upward of 30 minutes. So we hauled out at 9:48 for a google maps time of 4:30

Unfortunately, our failure to fill up the gas tank on the drive to Sandy Creek meant that we were too low on gas to make it to the Love's Travel Stop on I-45. So we went to Lufkin, where there was a stop only 61 miles away. It wasn't really "off" our route--google maps said the I-45 route was only three minutes slower than the US-69 route. But we knew that taking US-69 meant a lot of painful driving through a multitude of small towns, each with a stoplight or two and a 30 mph speed limit.

So that is the route we chose, and we suffered for it. We also made it more painful by getting off US-69 accidentally in some small town near Lake Fork. I was dozing off and the GPS navigation was disabled--we were on 69 and all we had to do was stay on 69, right?

Not right. Somewhere in the town when three highways intersected, 69 took a left turn and the Mammoth Mobile kept going straight. When Ed finally woke me up by observing, "This doesn't look right," we were eight miles off the road.  

Luckily we didn't have to try to make a U-turn (almost impossible in a motorhome towing a vehicle), but were able to take a couple of little county roads over to US-69.

And that was all for the trip. It's a beautiful, beautiful drive through east Texas in the springtime. Grass has grown up tall enough on the roadsides to hide the ubiquitous litter and flowers have grown taller, to adorn them with yellow, red, and lavender bouquets in patches and spreads. When we got to Greenville, bluebonnets covered the ground. It was like a photo spread in National Geographic magazine.

We arrived at about 3:00.  Not a bad trip.

Notes
1. Sandy Creek park is nice. Come again, bring the boat, and get the same spot we were at this time or either of the two next to us. The one at the end of this piece of road is superb.
2. But DON'T come on a holiday weekend. How was I supposed to know that Good Friday was a holiday weekend?
3. Bring travel snacks of an assortment of fake hot dogs, fake cheese cubes, pickles, giardini.

Mammoth Goes After Spring Migration, Day 8

Thursday 14 April 2020

I'd spoken to Edward the previous day, and he said that he got off at noon on Thursday and had planned to head straight for our house. No go--we had another day of camping planned. In retrospect, it might have made more sense to cancel it and head straight home from Sea Rim, but we decided not to. So today, we went with the original plan--a 2-hour drive to Sandy Creek Park at Steinhagen Reservour.

Bye ocean! You were awfully pretty today...at last!

It's a pretty place. A typical corp. park--lots of space, lake-side sites, and truly horrible roads coming in and out.  The reason that I say it would have made more sense to go straight home, is the driving. Going straight home from Sea Rim would have taken us right up I-45 to home in six-and one-half hours. Stopping at Steinhagen meant we had to take small roads up from Sea Rim almost to Jasper, and then next day, take small roads to get to 69, then go to Greenville and take 380 west to home. That route avoids taking 45 and 75 smack through downtown Dallas, but the drive through downtown isn't as bad as it used to be.  Highway 69 to Greenville goes through a lot of piddly llittle towns with slow speed limits and stop lights. The total time on the map is only 10 mintues farther to stop at Steinhagen, but our drive time will be much worse,

Now to speak of a somewhat indelicate matter, but a matter which must be dealt with if one is going to RV. After four nights of camping in a single spot, we had the issue which is the subject of many a humorous key chain and bumper sticker warning:
Shitters full!

Yes, for the first time in our RVing career, we'd filled up the black water tank. To the point where a few little wees might be able sneak into the corners, but a major  bathroom blowout would have resulted in an overflow. Most likely the reason for this happening now--after all, we've stayed in a spot for 4 nights before--was two-fold--one, I'd gotten careless with my flushes owing to our last few longer stops being at places where we had sewer hookups, and two, Ed having put a little too much water in the tank when we first arrived. He's learned that if he puts a few gallons in the toilet to start off with, it helps with the odor and keeps things flushed down a bit better.

So we had the choice of unhooking and taking the shitter to the dump on Wednesday afternoon, or just bearing with the annoyance for one last day. Which wasn't that bad--the campground pit toilet was only a little walk away. About the length of a football field, I'd estimate. So we "pottied out" for the rest of the day, and next day, started off with a nice, satisfying dump.

Driving through Port Arthur

The drive seemed longer than expected, but that's because it took 30 minutes to dump. It took about two hours and five minutes for a good map time of 1:58. So that wasn't really all that bad.