No, I won't. Promise.

 Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old

Amusing as promised, of course, but surprisingly thoughtful. The author illustrates his essays--each a short chapter on topics such as "I won't refuse to wear a hearing aid" or "I will plan ahead for loss of independent living"--with stories from his own parent's declining years. And those stories are funny, touching, or sad...and often all at once.

And even if you don't agree with all of his conclusions, although in many cases, what's not to agree? you'll find they provoke some deep thought.

I'm surprised the rating weren't higher. But if people were expecting it to be drop-dead hilarious, they would be disappointed--yep, that's it. I see reviews that say "I expected this to be funny, instead, it came off preachy."  

That's about the sum of it. But not in a bad way, at all. In my opinion.

Or maybe not

Bridges Burned
by Annette Dashofy

Hard to say. The mystery was good. But on reading the reviews, I'd gotten the impression that the relationship thingy between the heroine paramedic and the police chief was going to put it over the edge for me...in a good way....

No.  It just made me not like either of them very much. They were both so quick to call it quits and so stubborn about apologies. Not sensible and not even endearingly flawed. Maybe if I knew more of the backstory they both were bringing to the relationship, I might have understood them better.

That aside, with the mystery and the action being as good as they were, if there had only been a little more paramedic-type detail I'd have happily looked for the next book in the series. As it is, it stands as a big, confusing, maybe.

Wish it was longer

Orphan Train

by Christina Baker Kline

I don't know what it could be in such a simple book to make it delight me so much. No real action or drama occurred--just ordinary people doing what ordinary people do, good and bad and indifferent. There wasn't a big scary mystery or intriguing puzzle pulling the story along; I pretty much knew how it was going to end from pretty near the beginning. Still, I couldn't stop reading.

From the cover blurbs you know it's about orphans who were shipped from the eastern big cities to the midwest to be placed as farmer's helpers, domestic help, or even possibly adoptees to childless couples. But it's also about a modern-day girl in the foster care system. And a lot more.

Highly, highly recommended.

Very mixed up review of very mixed up adventures

 Cry of the Kalahari
by Mark Owens and Delia Owens

Not for the squeamish. Very well-written and well told and beautifully narrated history of a man and wife who go to research wildlife in the Kalahari Desert in the mid 1970's.  I heartily recommend this--action, humor, fun, and a whole lot of learning occurs when you go on this adventure.

But I will warn you--the graphically realistic description of the some of the animal behaviors got me down so much that I had to skip forward in the audio feed. I know animals fight each other for dominance, and I don't mind reminders of that. But do I have to listen to vivid descriptions of flaps of skin hanging down, dripping blood, howls of pain...?

Ick. And I'll also warn you that even though the foreward clearly stated that this was the story of their research, not the research results themselves, at times they seem to forget that. You'll learn more about the everyday life of brown hyenas and lions that you even expected to learn. And in my case, didn't really care to learn in quite so much detail.

And I also have to remind you that this is a real description of the real world. When lions stray over into the game reserve, bad things happen. And drought in the desert is a danger almost as immediate. So don't expect a happy experience. But not all that bad, either. Everyone doesn't die in the end.

Should I say that? Probably not. Sorry.

A sequel almost as good as the first

Murder With Puffins
by Donna Andrews


Same characters and same murder mystery format as her first book, but so very different. Meg and her (finally) significant other try to take a quiet vacation on a remote island, where, incidentally, bird watchers have descended in hordes and a hurricane is blowing through.

I enjoyed this almost as much as I did the first one, Murder with Peacocks, and since I gave that one a 5-star rating then you can guess this will be at least 4.75. Same humor, complicated mystery, whacky characters that make you smile just by walking in a room. And the only thing lacking is that the element of surprise is missing, since she did reuse the same people. But I suspect that as I get to know them better, by reading more books of the rather lengthy series, that will make the books even better.

Travel book, on of those "free" ones on Kindle U

 Don't Come Back: a travel adventure of bad-tempered baboons, black magic, and breakups.
by Adam Fletcher


Good, very very good. Almost great, but I'll hold back a smidge on that. What I liked best was that he included himself in his travels. His own insecurities, silliness, failure to throw himself out on the dance floor and boogie like no one is watching....

From his description, I imagine he's a pretty hopeless dancer. But that doesn't matter, and by the end, he was still probably a hopeless dancer. But you've learned to like him for trying!

The stories are varied and very amusing. Would I read another? Probably not anytime soon, but would I recommend this one? Yeah. Pretty much so.

Okay for a comic book

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distance
by Mathew Inman

I didn't realize it when I got this book, but it was an illustrated (cartoon) book and I'd read a previous book by the author. I kind of recognized the drawing style, and then I noticed the list of other books by him.

I find him pleasantly amusing and a little bit comforting. Entertaining, too. Not hilariously funny, but I did feel a grin peeping out on my face from time to time.

Would I recommend this?  No, not especially. But if graphics are your thing and you need something light for an airplane ride, this might just fit the ticket.

Lively, fast, wonderful cozy mystery

 Murder With Peacocks
by Donna Andrews

LOVED THIS!  It took me a long time to read, not that I didn't want to blast through and devour it in a very few, but very long, sessions.  Her characters are so hilarious and silly and the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat for hours. And of course I guessed the murderer--we all did--but it was so impossible for him/her to have done the deed that we we were kept wondering until the very end.

So good!  I notice the reviews are not as rave as mine, and after I post this I'll go back and review them just to satisfy curiosity. No matter--I don't care who hates it or what flaws they found--

I loved it and I don't care.

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument, Day 7 and 8

 Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument

Monday 9/26

At about 8:45 I gave up waiting for the Good Sam rep to call me, so I called then. Oddly, I got the same dispatcher I had the day before. Is there only one?  He checked, and said they'd tracked down a tire and would be calling us shortly. And, believe it or not, they called while I was on the phone. Next time I'll give them an hour after my "appointment."

The repair guy arrived at about 10 or 10:30, but he couldn't fix the tire. He replaced it with the spare he'd brought...and now we will have to pay for. Good to be rich, huh?
Incidentally, it wasn't the tire we'd asked for. But at least it was the right size.

And then we were on our way.

We didn't get any time to explore the park, but the map (that the ranger had given us on the road the night before) showed there's a good bit of interesting park down south of where we were, plus an overlook near the confluence of the St Francis and Mississippi Rivers. Also a lot of cool roads to drive. Also the Crowly's Ridge thingy. According to the web it's raised ridge heading roughly north to south in the middle of the Mississippi River floodplain. But even though we were leaving the park on the Crowly's Ridge Scenic Byway, I never saw anything that looked like it. i think it's lost.

My review of Miss R SP, Beech Point  , site 11
So lovely that I want to give it bad review and keep it for myself.
Huge, old trees filled a campground out on a curvy peninsula in the middle of the lake. Gorgeous! The water was a little low but still full of fish and birds, although I didn't go fishing to be sure. But I could see them.

Well designed asphalt (or maybe concrete) sites with water, sewer and 50-amp electric. All seemed very newly built and working, however, the 50-amp had only one breaker and ended up glitching on us a couple of times when we ran both air conditioners and the water heater at the same time. We switched the water heater to LP and things were okay, but just to be safe we only ran one air conditioner during the night.

There was a bathhouse that looked brand new but I didn't try it out. Bear-resistant trash cans and recycling cans dotted the campsites, and there were even a couple of poop stations with doggy bags. The only (smallish) sort of negative I'd give was the street lights scattered here and there. They didn't shine in our windows or destroy our nighttime ambience, but they were unnecessary.

The sites were pretty much spread out, too, some more than others. Sites 14 and 12 were some of the best ones, if you don't mind back-ins. Our site 11 was pull-thru and just the right length for our 32' motorhome and toad.

One bit of advice--drive slowly as you approach the campground and DON'T miss the left turn into it. There is no place to turn around for a long way. Actually, we could have turned around at the boat ramp if we'd known it was there, but the road there was gravel and very torn up, so just as well. Also note: they only allow 10HP or less boat motors. An awesome lake for kayaking!

Very quiet at night, even on Saturday night when we arrived. On Sunday people cleared out and there were only about six out of about 25 sites occupied.

The Bear Creek Nature Loop Trail across the street is wonderful.

We ended up at our last park, DeGray Lake State Resort Park in Arkansas. My notes say,

Good place for an overnight, especially at the end of a trip. About 4-3/4 hours from home. But horrible for a camping trip--we should check out the Iron Mountain COE instead. Supposedly has water for filling tank but no water at the sites. 

The state park, or at least the campground we occupied (site 90) was on a narrow peninsula with a road down the middle and campsites on either side, closely bunched together. The only place to walk the dogs was down to the turnaround loop at the end of the peninsula or along the drive--between all the campsites--back to the boat ramp.

The tent campsites were very nice, though. Too bad we're not into that now--they were completely empty.. And the boat ramp was huge, although I didn't see a dock. It would be a pretty nice lake to bring a boat to.  But no place I'd want to linger.

Our site was well arranged, with water and sewer and a lovely little fenced patio with picnic table, grill and fire pit. But the trees were not ancient and lovely like the ones at the previous park. They were smallish and not really lush, which is normal for the end of the season but still a little disappointing. We could have used the shade, too--it was supposed to be cooler temperatures when we arrived, high around 82, but it sure seemed hot. 

There were a few birds here and there. Some sort of migrating warbler was firmly attached to the large, extremely clean white pickup truck at the site across the drive. I think maybe a yellow-throated warbler. I got lots of good looks at it, but every time I started to walk over there and get a close picture, the white-haired lady at the site came outside. For some reason I was firmly convinced that she would take offense of me taking a picture of "her" truck. It was so big honking white and clean, it almost didn't belong outside of a dealer's showroom.

So I gave up on the bird. There were a pair of grebe on the lake, plenty of crows, and one red-tailed hawk I saw taking a drink by the water's edge next morning.

My Review of DeGray Lake $36 site 50 water/electric/sewer
Nice place for glamping but no place I'd want to linger.
The sites were very well done--asphalt, very level, with lovely patios. Full hookup.  Some were spaced too closely together--for example, our patio was a stone's throw from the one next to us with no vegetation between. It didn't have the feel of a private RV park, but wasn't anything as spacious as I'd expect from a state park.

The people crowded in at night and there were many RVs with bright lights all over the place, all night long. The lake was lovely but not the sort of place you want to sit out late and enjoy the night sounds.  Although I didn't hear any loud music or annoying people--they were mostly an older crowd and it was a weeknight.

There is no place to walk your dogs except up and down the road, or you can pick a tortuous path through the rocks along the water's edge. But there was a tent camping area over toward the boat ramp that was completely empty and had lots of space for dog walking.

Although our camping area was small and cramped, the other parts of the park look like they might be well worth a visit. There's golf, maybe horseback riding and I saw a disc golf course and a paddling trail. But all of those would require a short drive or bicycle ride (or a very long walk) to get to from our campsite If you're staying at one of the other camping areas, or don't mind the walk, it could be very nice.

Tue 9/27, return

Chilly in the morning; headed home. Nothing else to say. I was happy to be taking Molly back to her yard and her squirrels, and I missed the cats a little and missed the kids a lot, but I wasn't all that happy to be going home. It's not our home right now, and I feel a like a stranger in it.

As we left I saw the sign for Crater of Diamonds State Park. I guess if a person were of a mood to pick up rocks, mostly quartz I'm sure, it would be a good place to go. So maybe we'll be back here sometime. I've seen worse places, for sure. And I've camped much worse places.

During the night the campground filled up, a lot. I didn't see any kids around, after all this is a weekday and school is back in session, post pandemic. But such a lot of old, rich white-haired men and ladies. Like us.

Our next door neighbor greeted me and I should have talked to her, but I was concentrating on my next move toward getting ready and failed to respond with a conversational gambit. I just replied "good morn" and turned to pick up a load. Not to give you the impression that "getting ready is all that big a deal these days. We've gradually made our camping rig easier and easier to set up/take down and it only takes us twenty minutes or so of concentrated effort. Less if we have sewer, because we dump in place.

So it's like this: do dishes. Close dog cage and put on bed for travel. Do morning ablutions (teeth, contacts, clothes.) Put away computer, camera and any clutter I've piled on the table. Replace trash bags and set trash outside to go the dumpster.  Make a cup of ice-water for travel. Pull back window curtains and remove the shades in the front windshield and front side windows. Put away dog water pan; get Molly's traveling leash and attach to the drawer handle.

If I'm concentrating (and not watching birds) all that takes 20 minutes. Ed puts away the ice maker, dumps the tank and puts up the sewer hose, water hose and electric cable. Then we pull out to a parking area, hook up the jeep (10 minutes or less), and we're off.

Some of the things we used to do, like stow the satellite dish, are not needed. And the Jeep hookup takes a third or less time than the car used to take.

The drive was uneventful, I'm afraid. And faster than expected, being mostly Interstate 30. So this concludes a trip I'll now dub, Mammoth Escapes Chaos and Children.

NOTES
1. De Gray Lake is a convenient one-nighter, and Beaver Dam at Caney Lake Rec Area a pretty nice campground, but Mississippi River State Park is a destination.
2. For once, I estimated correctly on the amount of fruit to bring. Remember: plan one fruit serving per day and include a banana or two in there.
3. Remind Ed to check the tires two days before a trip.
4. See if you can avoid driving through Shreveport on I-20. It's rough, really rough.
5. Always, ALWAYS print a detailed map to the campsite. Every campsite.

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument, Day 6

Sun 9/25

As expected, we woke up to find we were in an astonishingly beautiful little state park. And not all that little--we were in the top portion and there was a whole lot more down to the south. But up there was the place where the camping was, and so we were.

It was pretty full but not at all crowded--maybe two-thirds to three-quarters. 

I'd been perturbed on the previous night because google Maps kept showing the campsite out in the middle of the lake. But that was accurate--it's on a curvy sort of peninsula jutting way out into the water. Very, very beautiful--water on all sides, shallow but not swampy--big, tall old trees everywhere.

Herons, egrets, cormorants abound. Well...cormorants abound. For the others, one heron and one Great Egret is normal and par for the course. There were a lot of chimney swifts still around, but no swallows that I could see. One Summer Tanager and lots of little twittery birds. Red-headed woodpeckers; Pileated woodpeckers heard but not seen.

It wasn't very hot the day we arrived--91 degrees per the weather forecast.  But when I took Molly for a walk/jog, I was so hot and bothered that it must have been much warmer. I jogged up the road to the boat ramp and then on down.  Early on I hit the strangest thing--a fully equipped bike repair station! Right in the middle of a field beside the road.






We went on until we met a pair of motorcycles and a truck pulling a boat. The driver of the boat, a woman, slowed down to warn me about a couple of loose dogs running up the road. I decided to turn around. Finding a plastic bag on the road, I picked up a bag full of trash to take back.

Most of the walk so far had been in the sun, so when I returned to the turnoff drive into the campground and noticed that the walk was just going into deep shade, I kept on going. And off the to left was a "nature trail". So I promised Molly we'd go just a little ways on the trail. 

It was a marvelous trail! Not wide but well marked and full of signs labeling the huge trees here and there. Great trees!  The biggest white oak I've ever seen. Black walnut, Chestnut Oak, Tulip Poplar--haven't seen on the those in a while--Red Oak, sugar Maple. The signs were close enough together that I couldn't help going on and on, excited by the prospect of the next huge tree.

Clearly I was the first tall mammal who'd walked the trail that morning. Spiders abounded, and most of the webs ended up on my face. We found a lovely box turtle,

 

 

 

 

which I saw before Molly did and was able to prevent her from investigating. But then the aggravating dog reached under a bridge and pulled out this poor snake--

After a couple of "NO!!!!" said with feeling, she dropped it. It was able to crawl away, so I can only hope she didn't hurt it too badly.

I returned to find out Ed had broken the tire's valve stem with his tinkering, so I spent the next half-hour on the phone with Good Sam Roadside assistance. We're covered for any sort of tire or motorhome problem, but since it wasn't an emergency, and we were in a safe parking space, and it was a Sunday, the repair wouldn't be dispatched until the next day. Lovely.

Molly and I had another nice walk at around five o'clock.

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument, Day 5

Sat 9/24

The Day of the Drive From Heck. Beeping noise--hydraulic fluid leaking from jack stand. Called a hydraulic repair shop, closed on Saturday but the guy directed us to O'Reilly's to get a replacement hose made. Sadly, the nearest O'Reilly's didn't have anyone who could make it. They called around--the next closest one had a person who could make it, but their machine was broken. They found a place 35 miles out of our way to the east, with both a working machine and a person who could make the hose.

Ed ended up crawling under the RV and replacing it himself, a dirty job that took hours. Then we had to refill the fluid, which took another hour because our big jug was not sufficient and the store only had little, one-quart bottles. We had no idea how much we'd need, so we bought two at a time--for a ridiculous price.  I ended up having to go inside three times to get more, and the third time took forever--only two guys were working the counter, both were dealing with other customers, and there two people in front of me.

After the hydraulics were fixed, our tire pressure alarm went off. The passenger's front tire was slowly leaking air. We went to a nearby Love's and parked at an air filler machine, which of course, did not work. The lady inside directed us to go to pump #1, where we got in line behind a big truck whose driver was nowhere to be seen. Eventually we gave up waiting, moved over and got our gas, and then went up on the trucker's scale beside pump #1 and used the air hose from the opposite side. The truck driver finally returned and pulled away--just as we were finishing.

After that the drive to the park was almost too bad to describe. It was dark, lightning was flashing in the distance, and I had no map. The park entrance was open but we didn't think to stop and look for a map.  We proceeded to the campground, where our site was marked 'available' instead of 'reserved' and the campground was named differently from what I'd written down. So I thought it must not be the right one. We kept on going and soon ended up going off into darkness down an unknown road with no chance of a turnaround.  A lucky encounter with a ranger coming the opposite way confirmed that we had, indeed, been at the right campground--but there was absolutely no chance of turning around and going back. Our only hope was to proceed on, down narrower and narrower gravel roads, until we exited the park and got back in cell phone signal range.

The moral of that story is, always have a map, always double-and-triple-check the location of your campsite, and never panic. When in doubt, stop and think and look up stuff on your phone, and never never never keep driving!

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument Day 4

Fri 9/23
Morning trip to Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge. Nice one! It had a tiny boardwalk trail up to an observation platform, just a little raised platform overlooking a field. Just as we reached the end of the boardwalk, I said, Holy Shit! and startled a small pack of wild pigs off to our left. They saw us as soon as we saw them, and they skedaddled for heck. Molly got a look at them, but from such a distance I doubt if she got a smell.

 

We also saw a big bunch of turkey hens, both on the drive out and the drive back.  The wildlife drive itself was uneventful, but we don't mind trying. You never know what you'll find, but it's a guarantee you won't find anything sitting at home.

In the afternoon we drove all the way down to Natchez, breaking my rule of never planning a day trip longer than one hour. But it was the whole point of the trip!  The other point, anyway, not counting the Vicksburg Battlefield, closed by tornado. Since we couldn't see that, we were going to see at least one antebellum mansion.

We had a later start than I hoped and then got detoured fifteen miles (or more) out of our way by a sweet potato spill--yes, that's a real thing. A truck hauling boxes of sweet potatoes had apparently tilted during its turn onto the Interstate. Probably it went up on a curb. Two or more boxes of sweet potatoes had dumped out onto the highway. A policeman was routing traffic onto the west-bound Interstate, and like a couple of idiots we went the way he told us to. The minute we did it, I knew that was a stupid, stupid thing. We were in the Jeep, for crying out loud. All we had to do was make a tight U-Turn and then we could have easily detoured around the mess to the south and east.

But no, there we were, headed in the exact opposite direction from where we needed to go, and the next exit wasn't for fifteen miles.  We were able to take an alternate route and so we didn't have to double back the whole fifteen miles, but still we'd lost so much time there was no way we'd make the two o'clock tour of the mansion. 

It was a long drive but a smashing reward at the end--the Mighty Mississippi River!  Having grown up on the banks of the Ohio River, I always considered that one big, but this one, of course, is really big.

We arrived about ten minutes too late, so we walked around the grounds until the three o'clock tour started.. We were at the Melrose Mansion, owned and operated by the National Park service. It was in great shape, having been continuously occupied until the seventies or so. Most of the furnishings were original and they looked great. Sadly, we were no allowed to see the back passage to the dining room, where slaves brought in meals, or the butler's pantry. And the slave quarters back across the way were locked.  And also, sadly, the tour guide explained that the reason for the sad state of the gardens was because they'd lost their gardener and were looking for a new one.  They weren't ugly, or too grown over, but it clearly hadn't been kept up for a few years. I totally missed seeing "Laura's garden", a little planting made in honor of a slave girl.

The tour guide was great! A young dude who'd worked with the park service for quite a few years, but was still enjoying his job and learning all he could. He knew and conveyed loads of stuff.

 

After our lovely tour, there was only time for a quick stop to gawk at the Mississippi
before heading back to the dogs. They got a long walk of forgiveness, and Molly got to take the route through the "bear habitat." Sadly, no bears in evidence.

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument, Day 3

Thursday 9/22

On to Poverty Point Reservoir State park.  I thought it was a strange name, and assumed it had something to do with the living conditions of the settlers here. But apparently that was the name given to one of the ancient tribes--the Poverty Point civilization.

The park map says,
Also on site are the Marsden Mound Trails, a group of five earthen, Neo-Indian mounds, dating from the Tchefuncte through the Coles Creek civilizations, and possibly later.

 

 Yeah. What it didn't say was that the mounds were leveled for agriculture and excavated a long time ago, probably in the 1930s. The tallest mound was 10-13 feet tall and the others 4-5, with a raised wall connecting them. But they all seem to be gone. While I was walking the dog I did come across a strange uprising in the ground, a ways away from the marker. Possibly it was one of them?

 

Also this sign for "Mound B" in the middle of a dense woodlot.

 
 

 

 

Anyway, we felt defeated. Yet again we'd set out to see a historical artifact, only to find it gone. Like that village in Arkansas--all that was left there was a bit of iron pipe by the river.

Here's the review I posted on campgroundreviews.com:
Asphalt surface, very nice and level.The 30/50 amp power worked fairly well although the 50-amp circuit only had a single breaker. It glitched a few times while we were running both air conditioners, so we backed off to just one and switched the water heater to LP gas.  The dump station was very nice.

Not crowded down where we were, but at the end of the park with full hookups, it got very crowded during the weekend. But not especially noisy. A good number of people had bright lights in their campsites, but none shone directly in our windows so we could not complain. But the night sky view was ruined.

We failed to see a bear despite trying very hard.  There were a few trails, very mosquito-ey at the time of year but also very easy to follow. A number of people were fishing in the little river that runs through the park. There's also a large reservoir just beside the park.  Note that the Marsden Mounds no longer exist, except as a mowed area of ground with a historical marker.

 

This campsite will become legend due to the abundance of sticky leaves that we managed to track into the motorhome. Something about the tree--it's just a hackberry, which I'd never known to have a sticky substance--or some tiny insect, or maybe it's just in the air, has coated everything here with a sticky residue. The falling leaves glue themselves to everything--our shoes, our chairs, our dogs! It's like living in a sugar factory.

Other than that, it's unremarkable. Not crowded at all over at the end of the campground we are in although it's pretty crowded by the entrance. I suspect those are full hookup sites. I tried to get one of the three pull-thru, full hookup sites when I made the reservaion, but those were reserved for walk-ins or some such nonsense.

Pretty walk, pretty lake. And birds.

We actually had a horrid time leveling, at first. I'd directed Ed to back up as far as possible, which put the leveling stands just behind the concrete "stop" bar. That's an okay thing to do, so far as I know, but that put our back end quite a few inches lower than the front, which seems to have freaked out the leveling mechanism. It kept hoisting all four wheels off the ground and then tiling us sharply to the left.

Ed tried multiple times, tried some tricks, and then finally gave up and took the suggestion I'd made early on--to pull forward a couple of feet and see if the levelers liked that better. And that did the trick--first try and only the slightest of adjustments--in fact, I believe all four tires were ON the ground this time. Where they belong!

Across the river to Vicksburg and a not-so-memorable supper. Rusty's Riverfront Grill. Very high ratings.  The salads were poor (bad blue cheese dressing; old lettuce.) My food was good but not a great combination (blackened fish with a crawfish cream topping.) Ed's fried fish platter was tasteless.

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument Day 2

 Wed 9/21 Day 2

A second day at Beaver Dam campground. It's really hot right now, with highs in the mid-90s and no wind at all. And a little humid, too--humid enough that our motorhome windows fogged up from the air conditioning running inside. Luckily our little de-humidifier is still humming along.

With the heat and our horrible colds, we just didn't have much energy for moving about. I'd taken one of Ed's 4-hour antihistimine tablets the night before, and that dried up my sinuses beautifully, allowing me a lovely sleep. In fact, I fell asleep literally "as soon as my head hit the pillow." I woke up many hours later and was surprised to see Ed in bed, snoring away. Usually I wake up--or am already awake--when he goes to bed.

Something-- either the drugs or the sleep or the good meal the night before--made me feel much better in the morning. But still no energy. We dragged over and walked a little ways on the trail across the upper lake spillway, but turned around halfway across the earthen dam between the two lakes. Or were they two parts of the same lake?  Dunno.

 

Then I ate a little lunch and took a little nap. At least the nap took place outdoors, in my lounge chair. But after a while the sun shifted around the trees and glared at me until I awoke. It was oddly refreshing, unlike the usual nap which leaves me hot, bothered and miserable.

Molly got a fairly nice, long walk in the afternoon. We went back to the boat ramp where the trail we'd taken in the morning started, but there were a few people hanging about and I decided to turn back. We detoured onto a side trail for a little while, but like the trail of the day before, it appeared to be taking us to a big, empty spot on the map. So we returned. All we saw were a couple of rabbits; all we heard was a possible summer tanager off in the trees.

And that was pretty much it for the second day. Not a bad day, by any means. Molly got a second walk just at dusk, pretty much the same route. It was dark when we returned and the stars were out, Jupiter was astonishing, and the Milky Way was way crazy beautiful. There wasn't a lot of sky exposed, but what there was was pretty amazing.

Mammoth Does Not Go to Vicksbug Military Monument Day 1

Tue 9/20

This trip was trashed by a tornado. It appears that a tornado went through the National Military Monument at Vicksburg. They had to close the whole park and cancel all the camping reservations. I only found this out when I went to the web page to verify my reservation--early last week. I called the park, and the lady who answered said that she was just about to start calling campers who'd made reservations.

Great--since this was the place that the whole rest of the trip was built around.

However, for reasons that shouldn't be explained, we were in no mood to cancel the whole trip. So I found a new site for two of the three days we'd planned for the Military Monument campground, and I extended our stay at the campground coming before it.

Which is where we were headed, bright and early on a Tuesday morning. Beaver Dam Campground at Caney Lake Recreation Area, Kitsatche National Forest.

I don't remember the drive very well. My head cold had reached its apex and I was miserable, snotty, and dozing off most of the trip. We arrived after about four hours of drive time (including a 20-minute backup at road construction just West of Shreveport) and a 30-minute refuel stop at a huge, crowded Love's. The dogs got their walk and water before we were even done filling up the tank.

Next we had the joy and excitement of driving through Shreveport on I-20. Wow. That is some rough road. It would be miserable even in a car with healthy shock absorbers--in Mammoth I was surprised we didn't break anything or shake our  brains loose.

 

With difficulty I overrode Google Maps recommendation and forced it to bring us in from the East side of the park. It turned out to be very easy to find that way. I was told that the western entrance was impossible to navigate so I didn't even try. And on we went, following signs (why can I never remember to print a map???) to the camping loop and our site. The places was nearly deserted--I saw a host and maybe two other campers. There were several sites marked "reserved" but without any dates, so who knows?

REVIEW:
Site 16
Quiet, quiet and more quiet. Even the birds were silent this early fall weekday. Since we were there on Tuesday and Wednesday, the campground was mostly empty. It is--as we were warned--far off the Interstate on some pretty narrow, junky roads. But nothing we had trouble with. On advice from other campers, we took the eastern route, though Minden and up 159.
The camping pad was asphalt, pretty level, and very long. Crumbling at the edges but who cares? 50-amp power was excellent; water fine. The dump station was small but usable.
Our site 16 was in a little loop along with two other sites--it would be a good place to camp with friends. We had a view of the lake through trees with a mowed spot where you could easily access the lake for fishing or launching a kayak. (You'd get your feet wet, though)
The campground loop road is very narrow and had a few overhanging branches, but they were small enough to be ignored or ducked around.  I'd strongly advise printing out a campground map before you go--it wasn't all that hard to find our site, but it could have been easier with a map.3
I didn't try the restroom or showers.
Trails meander here and there through the camping area, boat ramp and spillway. At the tiny boat ramp there is a trail that crosses the spillway, goes over a bridge, then continues between the two lakes on a grassy bank. After that it goes up a nice, shady hill with lots of tall trees, but we didn't go that far. It would be worth going on to the end...where ever that is. I didn't have a map and never saw any sort of ranger station that might have had maps. But no matter, the trails were easy to follow.

Some good facts to enjoy

 Factfulness:
Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund

Well, I stand enlightened. I knew my views o
f the world were probably a little on the pessimistic side, but I had no idea how much they were. Mind you--this book is not all rosy and cheery. It's just facts.

He tends to divide the world's living conditions into four groups or "levels", with one being what we'd call pretty backward--no running water, food insecurity, no toilet; and four being the standard western lifestyle. Which, by the way, not every one in even America meets. But the majority of the world is on level 2 right now but it's not a big majority--almost as many live on level 3, with running water, a refrigerator, transportation to work, kids finishing high school. And in a few years, the curve will shift upward and that will be the majority.

The main thing I learned is that yeah, even in arenas that are very depressing, the trend is often upward. You just need to look at the numbers. Women are having fewer babies, even in catholic countries, and the babies are living longer. Kids are getting vaccinated--although in America, maybe not for long.

So I recommend this book. It's readable--very--but not light or "trendy". The research is serious and the math is not trivialized.

Okay...ish mystery

Unsafe Haven
by Lucy Burdette


She can write suspense, I'll say that for her. I found this hard to put down even though I didn't feel closely bound to any of the characters. The only one I really liked was the cop's daughter who was doing her teenage act-out number in a frighteningly dangerous way. Her mother had died, she felt alienated from her father(s), and all the anger, stress, and raging hormones had her whacked out, totally.

But she befriended a lost girl on the street and just might have come to act like a decent person by the end.

So the book is suspenseful, freakishly fast-paced, and full of potential. But while Ms. Burdette set the stage for the other characters to be deep and heart-warming in their varied problems and life situations, I never got sucked in enough to really care. Yeah, Miss Main Character, you blew your chances for a wedding by your own weak-willed nature, saying yes to so many people that you never had a thought of your own. Yes, you redeemed yourself in the end--(best part of the book)--but that didn't make me ever want to meet you in literature again.  Sorry--not my idea of a new best friend.

And I'm not criticizing the writing--it was superb so far as I noticed--but it hit a couple of my superpet peeves. Changing perspective and jumping inside too many people's heads, for one. And really unexpected leaps of insight unsupported by logic, for another. Plus an awful lot of coincidences. Oh, well--still a very good book, just not my fave.