Mammoth Goes Visiting

Home to Horseshoe Bend Campground on Beaver Lake

1. Planned distance: 331 miles
2. Map time estimate: 5:12
3. Adjusted estimate: didn't calculate
4. Actual distance: forgot to check
5. Actual time: 6:00, return trip 7:00
6. On way out, one quick pee stop and one quick gas stop. On return, one quick pee stop, disastrous gas stop and then another one. Plus construction delays.
7. Average mph trip: 58

This was not really a camping trip. It was a trip to visit Grandmother that involved staying at a campground. Here's the story:

When we'd had our second Covid shot and waited the necessary two weeks, it was finally time to go visit Grandmother again. But we already had trips planned, so this was the first free time to travel. And since I'd been in "camping trip" mode for so long, I defaulted to choosing a campground--not thinking about how easy it was to simply stay at her house.

Except it's not so easy anymore. There's no place for the dogs to sleep. In years past we've put Zack in his cage in our bedroom and Izzy in a cage in the garage, but she really hated that. And now we have Molly, and while she's perfectly well cage trained, she's never been stuck alone, far away from us. She really needs to be in the bedroom, too.

We'll argue that point another time. Anyway, I reserved a campground as close as I could get--about an hour away. Later I re-checked the reservation and realized that I'd reserved a 30-amp campground. So I changed it to a different one on the same lake, not noticing it was an extra half hour away. So there we were.

The drive up was sort of a test to see how the Mammoth would handle the long grades uphill and down in the mountains. She did splendidly!

Beaver Lake (Horseshoe Bend campground, Corp of Engineers) might be a nice place, but it was full of stupid people. Actually it was not completely full, but close enough. With all the dogs being walked here and there, it was very difficult to take Molly for a decent walk.  I had to wait until after sunset, Which didn't prove to be a problem, because we didn't get back to camp until after sunset every night.  We encountered a few deer but, thankfully, no loose dogs.

There are a couple of campsites down at the water's edge. They might be very nice, especially if we came back with the boat.  One of the idiots camping there has spoiled the whole shoreline for everyone else--he has his trailer lit up like a 1970's beer joint. I bet he is so clueless that he thinks he's doing us a favor with the stupid lights. Unless I could get a site on the water, I would definitely not camp here again.

Tonight (we arrived on Monday but I didn't write this until Wednesday) we get to leave at 6:30 instead of 7:00, so we might get back to camp before sundown. Unless we decide to stop off for some carryout supper.  Last night we were both hungry when we returned, so Ed had a can of stew and some cookies, while I had a half can of chili and a whole lot of chocolate candy. I messed up my diet completely, I'm ashamed to say.

Well, enough complaining. I will only note that it has been a year and a half since we were last here and saw these people, but Ed's Mom is watching a TV show and Ed is asleep in his chair. Idiots, all of them.

Green Heron, Great Blue Heron, Fish Crow, Starling, Purple Martin, Brown Thrasher, American Robin, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Canada Geese, House Sparrow. And one really cool butterfly.