Gardening Roots, late July

The garden is winding down for the summer. Most of the tomatoes that I'm going to get have already fruited, ripened, and turned rotten on my counter. The potatoes are harvested--I don't remember what I paid for seed potatoes, but it was certainly not worth it--and the sunflowers are pretty much ready to harvest. I'm just giving the seeds a few extra days to "fatten up."

All the cool weather crops were finished and harvested months ago--beets, very tasty but not half as many as I hoped for; lettuce, radishes, carrots and bok choi. Garlic did very well and I've already got an order in for next year. I'm going to save a few cloves from the harvest to replant, too. My onion crop did not do well and I have no idea why not. Usually onions are pushing up out of the ground when their tops start to die and fall over--mine just died. Weird.

I had some excellent bok choy but no broccoli at all. The Swiss Chard is withering in the Texas heat and I'm not strong-willed enough to sacrifice it. Maybe it will survive the summer and make a fall crop.

My squash (butternut) didn't produce but it's still trying. I have a couple of canteloupe out there which might survive to be eaten. I have to fight the raccoons over those.

As to beans--I had a lovely crop of peas but they weren't in the ground early enough to really produce before the weather turned warm. The green beans were magnificent, but have been finished for a month. I just haven't had the heart to

pull them up and compost them. The black-eyed peas, after being replanted on account of the frost, did excellently well. But they're just about finished too.

History through guidebooks?

The Green Book

by Candacy A Taylor

What an amazing book. A book about a book, or rather a series of books, published from 1936 to 1967, telling the black traveler where it was possible to eat, rent a hotel room, or buy gas. Or get your hair done, or get your car fix, or buy a drink, or see a live performance. It was shocking.

Growing up in the sixties, I knew that theaters used to have colored only seating in the balcony. Although in my days that was just a sign on the wall--I don't remember any enforcement of it. But I wouldn't, you see, being white. Did my friends get rudely re-routed to the stairs in the back?

But I had no idea how very pervasive the restrictions used to be. To think of a black man having to wear a chauffeur's cap and pretend he was "taking his boss'es car to the garage" in order to drive the streets of the US. To think of the majority of restaurants, especially in the south and western states, not even allowing a Negro to sit at a table. To think of black men preferring to drive at night because there were less cops on the roads "moving them along" in those days.

And to be honest true, I'd never heard of "sundown towns". The idea makes me gag.

The author, Ms. Taylor, did a magnificent job of putting all this material together and making a readable, although horrifying, book out of it. Great writing--great choice of topics--great organization.

My only complaint--and warning--is that she takes advantage of her book to mount a pulpit and raise alarm about the current crisis of black male incarceration. It is indeed a shocking, infuriating, miserable issue, and she deserves a chance to remind us of it. But did it belong in the book? Maybe not. But that's okay.

Couple of pleasant but forgettable YAs

 I'll Be the One

by Lyla Lee

Very amusing book about a young woman who has decided not to let her weight get in the way of pursuing her dreams. And the dream she's working at the moment is winning a contest to become the next teen K-Pop idol. Impossible, no?

Her mother thinks so.

So very unlikely and so very enjoyable. But she didn't fudge reality too awful much--I can't tell the ending, but let me just say it was satisfying without being roll-your-eyes impossible.

I think the author has tons of promise. She can create people who are realistic and really likeable all at once. Not perfect, but perfectly endearing. Even the conflicted and confusing mother had a backstory that almost, but not quite, explained her behavior. You kept wishing she'd try just a little harder...but not hating her that she just couldn't.

Forward Me Back to You
by Mitali Perkins

Good and not predictable. Isn't that enough to say?

It's the intertwined story of two kids who become friends when they're both pushed to volunteer as helpers on a mission trip, to a rescue house in India. There they both learn some unlikely lessons from some very strong people. It's not preachy--except about human trafficking--and it's got enough emotional dept to keep a very engaging story moving along...well...engagingly.

As an old reader, I found the "twitter style" composition mildly irritating. It alternated chapters between the two characters and the chapters were usually about two short pages long. It was painful having to switch perspective so frequently. But I survived. And enjoyed.

YA Fantasy, good but not good, followed by a great YA coming of age novel

Stepsister
by Jennifer Donnelly

A little ways into this I was hooked, and on the way to pronouncing it the best teen fantasy ever. That was a little over the top for me, since i don't read all that much teen fantasy, but that's how I was feeling. But I soon lost my enthusiasm. It wasn't that it got bad, or boring, or anything particularly annoying to turn me off. It just went on.

So all in all, very enjoyable. Or as Nero Wolfe would say, satisfactory. And it would make a pretty good movie, too.

One thing to quibble on--the editor needed to remind the author about the need to show don't tell. Especially toward the end. She went off into irritating editorial comments to make the point about female empowerment. And again. And again. Ick.

Artichoke's Heart

by Suzanne Supplee

Like wow. Smashing little story of a teenager who managed a good bit of weight loss and at the same time, a whole lot of confidence building. Not to mention friendship skills and worth ethic. But in spite of all that, it's a great book.

Gardening Roots, harvest season

 

 

Part of a very small tomato harvest, all coming at once, unfortunately.

 

 

And an assortment of peppers and peas. And okra, which is funny because I didn't plant any okra.

Great audiobook, listened to parts of it twice

Leave Only Footprints
My Acadia to Zion Journey Through Every National Park

by Conor Knighton

Great! With a disclaimer--it may not be for everyone. Especially at the beginning, he dramatizes himself and his own life story and drags the "me, me, me!" on a little too long. But I didn't mind--I read a quote once, probably in Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, that before perusing a book the reader wants to know what sort of man is the author, whether he be of calm demeanor or choleric, whether he be tall or short, etc. Okay, I mangled that quote all to pieces. But Steinbeck said it well--in my case at least, I want to know who it is I'm about to devote hours of my listening life to.

And so I actually cared about his engagement and his breakup and the pain he endured. Since that was the reason for the journey to begin with, I wanted to hear it.

And then the journey began! He groups the parks by subject and doesn't even cover very many of them in this book. But each group of parks is organized under a general topic, and they are as far-ranging and intriguing as the parks themselves. He asks more questions than he answers--lots more--and fills your head with informed speculation as well as interviews with park rangers, tour operators, people he meets on the way and much, much more.

The topics? So many, I will only mention a few:  Sound ( Great Sand Dunes, Katmai); People (Arches, Bryce Canyon); Diversity (Mount Ranier, Shenadoah); Light (Great Basin, Saguaro), Travelers (Theodore Roosevelt, Voyageurs, Denali); Borders (Big Bend, American Samoa). All are explored against a backdrop of majesty. Sometimes I wished he'd spent a little more time on the things he was seeing and hearing and feeling and a little less time in his own head, but the world around was never far from his thoughts.

Pfishing, Fishing, Pishing and Punning

Art of Pishing: How to Attract Birds by Mimicking Their Calls [with Audio CD]
by Pete Dunne

I should not venture to review this book until I've successfully lured a bird or two with pishing. I can tell you this, after listening to the start of the CD--

I've been doing it all wrong.

I saw a little video years ago on allaboutbirds.org, the best web site ever created except possibly ebird.org, and it had a couple of people attracting warblers in the north-eastern woods by pishing. But the video disappeared and I've never been able to recover it.

So all I had to go on was verbal descriptions that involved "kissing the fingers with the lips and adding an 'eee' at the end." It never worked. I've tried attracting birds by imitating their calls, but the birds just chuckle at the noise and ignore me.

So my Who Cooks For You? sounds too human to  be believable; I've never heard an eastern screech owl; and my scoldy noise seems to repeal more wildlife than it attracts.

So if this book does the trick, I'll give it a hundred stars. We will see.

Meanwhile just let me mention that it's as informative, chatty, and funny as all of Pete Dunne's books. Love them all!

Doing our parental duties

 Tuesday 6/29

In the morning we went to all kind of places looking for valve extenders so Ed could air up an RV inner tire, which had gone flat at some point during the last week (We think that most likely it happened when he checked and aired the tires a few days before the trip.) The set we ended up with cost ninety-one dollars. I hope it's worth it--but, if it works, it is.

We're getting to know the whole of Temple and Belton really well--we've driven all the back roads and major roads so many times in search of so much junk. Time before last, it was sleeping mats for the kids. After that it was used furniture. And other stuff. And now this.

After the shopping and much later--it was well after noon--I got in a long and very slow jog with Molly. We went to the boat ramp on the other side of the park. She got a quick swim and I got sprinkled with the aftershake, then we jogged back. But the stopwatch only had 50 minutes on it, so I dropped her off and squeezed out the additional ten.

Then showers and a bit of lunch and we finally arrived at the house at 4:30-ish. Edward didn't return from work until nearly six, so we didn't take the dressers upstairs or do any of the bed assembly. The kids needed to eat and he chose Texas Roadhouse.

The wait wasn't long, for them, but the weekday crowd was beginning ot thin out by the time we were seated. Since we had the dogs along (the sun was going down and all of the rain--forgot to mention that--had cooled down the outdoors), I was able to avoid most of the pre-meal waiting aroundby going out to walk the dogs. By the time I circled the parking lots a few times, the sun was well down and the main course had arrived.

Good planning for someone who needed to cut down on eating. I had a salad and some steamed brocolli and carrots, plus one of the three catfish fillets in my order. It was good and I came away feeling not too stuffed. Plus I'd completely cancelled out the overindulgence of the day before, leaving my calorie counter flat for the week so far. But, of course, the week's not over yet.

Wednesday

Slow day. The tire appears to be holding air--so far, so good. Molly and I took a short jog, just fifty minutes, with binoculars. Orchard oriole singing his heart out in a tree. So the bird list for the trip (not that I'm counting) is:

Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Mockingbird, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Titmouse, Canyon Wren, Orchard Oriole, House Sparrow, Barn Swallow, Purple Martin, Swallows of unknown species, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Some small herons this morning, probably Blue Heron. Great-tailed Grackle.

I farted around until three o'clock, then we headed over to finish moving Edward's furniture. I mostly sat outside and babysat the dogs which Ed took down the stair gate, moved the mattresses and small dresser upstairs, and hooked up the mirrors. As expected Edward didn't return until after five-thirty, so they finished the job together. And then we ate.

And then--somehow--we didn't return home until ten o'clock. Sucked.


Thursday 7/1/2021

It's over; we've accomplished our mission; done out dutifuls. Time to go home. I'd be in more of a hurry if it wasn't so godawful pretty here. But it's also turning off hot, so it's time we skedaddled to a place where the air conditioner actually works.

Occurred to me during the drive--this is the first anniversary of my last working day. So tomorrow is the first anniversary of my retirement. Cool!

Mammoth hauls junk

Monday June 28 - Thursday July 1
Cedar Ridge site 31

On Monday we headed to Cedar Ridge at Lake Belton, to deliver Edward and May their junky old furniture I'd acquired at Estate Sales and via Next Door Lowry Crossing for sale ads. The trip was pretty easy, with one rest stop to pee. We tried to fill up with gas at Buc'ees in Temple, but it was around one p.m. and all the pumps were full. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Ed circled the Mammoth around once and gave up, but as he headed toward the exit I spied a free pair of pumps and darted in to hold them for him. But he'd already set his sights on the exit and didn't notice me.

So instead we stopped at a Stripes or Citgo or some such place on the way to the campground. It was pretty convenient and will probably be our designated fill-up spot in future.
 
The weather was cloudy, so we didn't die of heat exhaustion. We had all the furniture unloaded by five-thirty and if we'd gotten on the ball we could have dropped off the trailer before the U-Haul site closed. But we didn't and they charged us an extra day. Jerks. I will strongly avoid U-Haul in future--no where on their web  site did it say that the "day" ended at six p.m.

Edward had pulled an unexpected field duty and wasn't due back until late that evening, so Ed and I just went home. We had some of the crawfish etauffee and I had some frozen noodles. And that was that.

More teen reads, sorry. I'm reading adult stuff too--it just takes longer

 Foolish Hearts
by Emma Mills

I admit it was light. Fluffy--but not without substance. The conflicts were mostly about friendships--how to be a friend, how to keep a friend when life's events are changing you both faster than you can keep track of, how to speak out when a friend really needs you.

I liked it a lot. If I'd been target audience, I'd venture to guess I would have loved.

Great book but I am sick of the stupid half-face covers

Skinny
by Donna Cooner

I was really impressed with this story of a girl who undergoes bariatric surgery to come down from 300 pounds and get a chance to star in the high school musical. An interesting thing is, at the end she still weighs a lot more than most girls her age (I hope that's not a spoiler), but is able to run three miles, wear normal clothes, and be treated like a normal, attractive teenager. And there was the unsaid implication that, even if she stayed at that weight, things would be okay.

I find that a little remarkable. And just a bit of wishful thinking on the part of the author. It's very possible that her family and friends might accept her new weight, since they know where she came from, but very impossible that the rest of the world would.

But whatever. It was all good, with a complicated, intriguing family dynamic; a tricky, twisty interplay of friends and frenemies; and most realistic of all, a hyper-critical inner voice named "Skinny" that kept knocking her down when she was struggling the hardest just to stand up.

However...despite all my liking for the story, I'm not sure 15 is an appropriate age to make a decision about a life-altering surgery, and I'm not sure the book should have presented it so rosily. Yes, the after effects were described well enough and she did experience some of the problems that might happen when you have a drastically reduced stomach size. (If you're curious, WebMD.com has a long list of potential side effects.) But I the can't help wondering if a better use of her medical plan benefits might have been cognitive therapy to squelch her evil inner demon and learn positive coping strategies. I can't help wondering how she is going to cope with the next set of painful life events that come down the line. You know there will be some--a death, a loss of a job, a failed relationship. How will she cope then?

Not part of the story, though. And it's only a light-hearted, fun story even though it touches on very serious topics. Enjoyed; enough.

Memoir to savoir

The Beauty in Breaking
by Michele Harper

Wow, what to say. The narratives of her shifts at the hospitals are fascinating. Especially the ones near the end. She chose certain patients and certain experiences, described them in frightening and loving detail, and then afterward, linked them into her own life journey. She seems to be a person who uses the worst parts of life to instigate growth in self-understanding. And that is cool.

But overall, the book is a highly introspective, almost grueling interior journey through her own mind. I found it pretty interesting and only just a tiny bit tedious when she describes each step of a yoga session with scientific attention to detail.

The blurbs I'd read had made me think that a major portion of the book would be about her battles with racism and hospital administration, but that's not true. There is a section where she's unable to advance in her chosen position for no other reason--we guess--than the obstinacy of a white, male hospital administration which is not wanting to advance a highly qualified black female. But that's a minor episode in the book, and she doesn't dwell on the anger it must have generated.  She' had a lifetime of dealing with cruel and unfair treatment, not by changing the system but by changing herself. Yet...I think that just by existing--and excelling--she's changed the system just a little bit.

It's a beautiful book. But only read this if you're expecting a memoir-style, introspective journey. If you're looking for on-the-floor emergency room drama, not this one.

Disappointment on discovering...

it was organized by city! Ugh! Within area of the state at least, but then alphabetically by city name.

Roadside History of Texas
by Leon Claire Metz

The introduction is really good, and some of the introductions to each of the different areas of Texas are, too. I'd suggest skimming the rest, or just skipping around and reading the bits that appeal to you--trying to read it like a history is not going to work. In truth, it's just a bigger, thicker and more comprehensive version of the little travel pamphlets you pick up for free at Interstate Highway Welcome Stations.

Might be worth consulting before you start out on a trip, just to get some familiarity with the little towns you're going through.

Traveling vicariously again

 On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey
by Paul Theroux

I'd tried to read Paul Theroux before and failed to get him. It bugged me--how could I,  an avid devourer of travelogues and travel journals, not enjoy America's premier travel writer?

Don't know. But I sure enjoyed this one. He must have a magic gift for getting people to talk, because he managed to overcome language and reticence to get
some amazing stories out of people. I was amazed to find out that Mexican/Spanish is not the native language of a large number of people in the backcountry of Mexico. They pretty much all speak it, to a certain extent, but "at home" they speak Nahuatl, Chol, Totonaco, Mazateco, Mixteco, Zapoteco, Otomi, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, and Maya. There were people he couldn't communicate with very well, despite his immersion in a Spanish language class during the course of the book.

It's a great book and I can't begin to explain the many things that make me recommend it to anyone who is willing to set prejudices aside and explore.  But one thing that nagged at me--since I wasn't familiar with the author's history or personality, and since he seemed to try to keep his personality out of the narrative as much as possible, sometimes his reactions to things bugged me.

For example, when he was taking a Spanish language course, the instructor would quiz the students with questions like what they did that day, what is their favorite meal, who is their favorite author. It was simply a way to learn conversation and explore the different tenses of Spanish verbs.  But after a while, Mr. Theroux started feeling defensive, uneasy. Like he was being violated. Like his answers were precious beans, not to be shared carelessly with other students who were half his age and couldn't possibly understand his secrets.

What the heck? If he found it so hard to answer the question, "What's your favorite book?" accurately, why not just make up something? It was only a training class, for heavens sakes, not the Spanish Inquisition. His reaction to this situation made me think of Colin Fletcher, another writer who was equally defensive and prickly about his personal life. Why do they react that way? Do I do it, too?

Maybe I do--in certain circumstances with certain people, I have. And so that's the rub, isn't it?  If you're going to travel and write about the people you meet, how do you get their stories out of them without acting like an inquisitor? Do you have to hang out and get drunk together, or join in the making of empanadas for a party? Do you just keep asking questions until you luck onto a person who is full of grievances he needs to share?

Mr. Theroux seems to have mastered all of these strategies. Makes me want to read another of his books...and I will.

Audio Book of the Decade

A Promised land

 by Barack O'Bama

A breath of hope in confusing and frustrating times. A reminder that maybe, so long as there are people out there who really care about others, we still have hope.

A quote, somewhat unrelated to the subject of the book, but one that intrigued me.
"The thing about getting old, Bear," Toot had told me. "Is that you're the same person inside. [...] "You're trapped in this dog-gone contraption that's falling apart. But it's still you."

Yeah. I get that.

Mental illness from the inside out

Wintergirls
Laurie Halse Anderson

Awesome work went into this book. I applaud Ms. Anderson, her research, her imagination, her devotion to telling the truth in fiction.

I didn't cry at the end, or at any point in the middle, but that doesn't mean I didn't feel the heartbreak. Oddly--or not so oddly--I identified more with the pain the starving girl's parents and stepmother were feeling than I did with the girl herself. But I still felt it.

In reading something like this you start to understand how impossible it is for family members to effectively intervene in a mental illness. Sometimes I wonder if the best approach is simply to say, often and demonstrably, I love you; I'm here for you; but you're going to need to get yourself through this yourself.  But maybe I'm wrong--maybe there are some magic pills. Maybe someday psychology will learn enough to effectively help young people in trouble. I sure hope so.

Not the running inspiration I was looking for

 Confessions of an Unlikely Runner: A Guide to Racing and Obstacle Courses for the Averagely Fit and Halfway Dedicated

by Dana L Ayers

Before you read my comments below, make note that I enjoyed the book a good bit and would recommend it for people who already run or jog a bit and enjoy reading about other people's adventures and mis-adventures on the road. So if the comments sound negative, consider them a sort of trigger warning--if the things that bugged me will also bug you, you may want to skip it.

The subtitle is completely inaccurate and misleading. It's not a "guide" at all, or a how-to, or even a book of tips other than the most obvious and unhelpful sort of tips, like, "just do anything that sounds interesting; you'll enjoy looking back at the suffering you endured."

Despite the title, it's really a book of episodes from her running history organized around the theme "How to motivate yourself to get fit." Her method, according to her humorous way of describing it, is to sign up for races she's not trained for. That motivates her to either get trained or else just go do the race anyway and hope for the best.

Like a lot of "runners", she considers walk/run intervals to be running--for example, running two minutes and then walking two minutes. While I'm not as maniacal as I used to be--in my younger days, I considered that if you stopped for any reason other than tying your shoe to be a failure--I don't agree with her. It's great exercise and a good way to finish a race if you run out of stuff halfway, but it's not running.

There was a great deal of trying to be funny. I don't recall laughing uproariously while reading it, but I smiled a couple of times.

A Delightful Walk it is, too

A Walk in the Woods:
Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson

Okay, I have to admit that a large part of the reason I read this was that it was available as a free ebook download at the library. But that's only the reason I started it--I finished it because it was just plain good.

And funny, lots and lots of times. It even reminded me of Pat MacManus a little bit.

But I won't lie and say it's completely funny all the way through. It's thoughtful at times. And thought-provoking. Not a lot of natural history, or any kind of history, if that's your thing. But that's not what I wanted at this point and time--I wanted a moving on sort of traveling tale, and that's what I got.

Mammoth leaves Great Plains

 Thursday 6/17

At 9:45 we left the campsite; at 9:54 we left the CLOSED dump station; at 3:18 we arrived in the driveway; and at 3:56 we were all unloaded and ready to rest. Whew.

I'm really going to blast Foss State Park for not warning us about the closed dump station. How is it that I can get no fewer than four texts about parking--your parking is going to begin--your parking permit has begun--your parking permit is about to expire--your parking permit has expired--but not a single one warning me that the dump station is closed?

Leaving the park, Google did it's usual shit again of routing us down a 2-mmile stretch of narrow, shoulderless, farm-to-market road instead of taking us the "longer" 3-mile way around on highways. Why can't I learn to NEVER assume that Google's routes make any sense at all????   Even in a car, that route would have sucked. But in an RV, it probably took an extra five minutes on account of the extra turns, stop signs, and having to slow down to let oncoming wide vehicles pass.

And the most annoying thing is, I'd have discovered this and changed the route if I'd had my expected five minutes of down time at the dump station. Bah.

Eventually we were on the road and driving Route 66...in reverse. Of course we stayed on I-40 and didn't detour down the through all the little towns. I can almost imagine what it used to be like, since I grew up in the days of a 55 mile-per-hour speed limit. Of course my days were due to the oil embargo and cars of my days were more than capable of going 85 mph.

But it's different going 55 mph with the air conditioner cooling your cheeks, cruising on a limited access, 4-lane divided highway. Can I really imagine traveling in a two-door Oldsmobile with a leaky radiator, lucky to make 50 miles per hour on a bumpy tow-lane road? Do I want to?

Yeah.

Oklahoma is weird. When we got on I-35 going south, we were warned 20 miles out that there was going to be a 35 mph slowdown for a workzone. Then warned about it at 10 miles. Then again. When we finally got to the work zone, the work was finished and there was no slowdown at all. We sure appreciated all the warnings.

But a little further along, there was a lot less warning and a horrible slowdown that went on forever. There was a lane closure, but the construction wasn't bad enough to have warranted so much sitting.  In Texas we'd have zoomed through that at 90.

It was excessively hot outside--97 degrees and sunny--so the best of RV cab air conditioners wouldn't have kept up. Ours sure didn't. The air coming out of the front vents was cooler than the outside air, but we were still sweating like pigs. We had one quick stop to fill up gas in Marietta, where I gave the dogs a pan of water and a quick walk. So the total was about 303 miles in  5 hours 24 minutes minus a 10 or 15 minute stop. I'll put it at 303 miles in 5:10 which is 59 miles per hour.  Google has this route at 4:37, so I can only assume they are not taking the slowdown into calculation.

Day 5, I think -- Foss State Park

Wednesday 17 June

Nothing planned for the day. I'll probably just play on the computer a bit, read a bit, and, of course, take Molly for long walks.

By the way, despite all that griping about the winged bugs and the air conditioner not keeping up in the afternoon heat, I love our tiny house on wheels. Was just tidying up and doing the dishes, and enjoying the heck out of it. Not so much that I'm going to mop the floor or anything...but it needs it. Or will need it when I bring the dogs in.

At the last campground the lake shore was pebbled with sandy stones, just a little rough for bare feed but entirely bearable. This one is surrounded by those big white rocks and down at the water, thick red mud. A lot of iron in these here hills, and everywhere it erodes there is dark red dirt. Very picturesque--but also very much a sign that humans shouldn't be digging into such an unstable surface and causing all that erosion.

REVIEW of Foss State Park

There are three camping areas. We stayed at Cedar Point, on the lake shore. Chinaberry looks like it might be tent camping only; Cottonwood is away from the lake, in a semi-wooded area. Might be a good place for wildlife--I did see a deer over there.

Cedar Point is nice but aged. It consists of two rows of pull-through sites, with this layout: a road, a row of sites, a road, sites, and another road. All have some view of the lake but only the ones right next to it have an unimpeded view. Most sites are very close together--25 feet or so--but slanted so you each get a little privacy blocked by the neighbor's RV. There are many little trees in and around each site, so you can sit in shade if you don't mind moving your lawn chair every few hours. No trees were tall enough to shade our RV, but they did knock a little of the sun off.

Be warned that the site numbers are almost impossible to find. They were painted on the electrical boxes in white paint on gray some twenty years ago. You can't see them at all while driving.  Also be warned that the dump station was closed! We got no fewer than four texts about our parking permits, but not a single text or email warning us that we wouldn't be able to dump. If you're expecting to need the dump station, I'd recommend you call the park beforehand and check on it.

Site surface concrete, pretty level. Small metal/wood picnic tables with NO roofs. Beside each picnic table is a combination fire pit/barbeque grill on a stand. Kind of nice, like an above-ground fire pit.  Most sites were so long you could fit a 35-foot RV and two vehicles in with a third vehicle in the parking spur. Perfect place for a boat with trailer, however I notice that some of the people didn't go to the trouble to park their boats on the concrete, preferring to angle it across the long-suffering grass.

Remarkably clean; just a little litter here and there. Ticks were abundant in the grass. Didn't use the restroom; it was in the day use and/or tent camping area up the hill and not convenient to the RV sites.

Good place for recreational boating; not sure about the fishing. Okay for swimming although you have to scramble down rocks and wade deep mud to get in the water. Water remarkably clean. The 9-hole disc golf course had been mowed but was in very poor repair. Only a few holes still had their signs marking the next hole; a few had poles with hooks to hang your bag on; no "tee" markers at all.  A "heart-healthy" one-mile trail went over to the Cottonwood campground. It was mowed and easy to follow but needed an additional sign or two to show how to accomplish the full mile of it.

Area tips: eat at the Prairiefire Restaurant in Elk City. Very good!!  

But avoid the National Route 66 Museum--a few good exhibits mixed with a lot of the same old kitsch. Almost nothing was labeled--it was like walking through a flea market. On the left wall there was a nice map showing all the towns along Route 66, but with no more information than you'd see on Google Maps. On the right, two old tricycles, a bike and some mannequins in flannel shirts, with no explanatory signs. A few steps further along there was a stuffed bobcat. Wow. Really historical. Some cool old cars but no explanations other than the name of the person who donated them. Not interesting.

We only saw a little of the place because the unfriendly ladies at the desk wouldn't sell us tickets--we'd arrived at 4pm and they closed at 5pm, and they said the "full tour" took 1-1/2 hours. But the two buildings they DID let into only took 10 minutes.

- - - -

We knew that the temperature was going to gradually rise over the course of the week, but what we didn't know was that the Western U.S. was in the grip of a massive heat wave that was setting record highs. Not only were we in the middle of it, but our RV air conditioners weren't managing to keep up.

On Monday, moving day, we noticed that it took hours to get the Mammoth cool enough to sit inside. But we figured that was due to having them shut down and the front window shades open during the move. But then on Tuesday, it was hot and stayed hot, but we left here at 3:30 to go to the stupid museum and the very good restaurant, so we didn't really experience the futility of watching the temperature rise faster indoors than it did outdoors.

Today was different. Around noon, I took the dogs for a wetting in the lake. We sat outside until they'd mostly dried off, then I cam inside for lunch. Shortly after that  I noticed it was too hot to sit comfortably inside.  By mid-afternoon it was 94 outside and 89 inside. And rising.

Molly is very suspicious of this snakeskin.

At 5:15 p.m; it's 96 and 91. The bedroom is very bearable--quite pleasant, really--but there's no good place to sit in there. there are two air conditioners on the roof, one for the bedroom ad one for the main living space. Ed says that the bedroom air is working better because it has a smaller space to cool, which is true. But it's also true that it has only the two small windows to let heat in.  And in my opinion, the air coming out of the bedroom vents is much cooler than that in the living room.

If and when the temperature starts to come down, I'll walk the dogs and then eat supper. And on the next trip, I'm bringing a floor fan.