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.
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