Mammoth Goes to The Falls. The Big Ones. Day 5

 
Sat 23 Sep

We crammed much into the next four days, although much less than we might have. All I have to share is the short version. We
drove to the KOA campground in Ontario Canada

Took some travel pictures

Waited for Edward to arrive

Ate at a big, expensive Chinese buffet, the Mandarin Restaurant. The sushi selection was skimpy, but they had excellent prime rib and a lot of desserts.  Everyone enjoyed it a whole lot.

Slept.

Mammoth Goes to The Falls. The Big Ones. Day 4

Fri 22 Sep
Delaware State Park Ohio

It was exciting driving through Cincinnati and over the Ohio River. I hadn't done that in a long time.


.

But I have no memory at all, and very few notes, about Delaware State Park in Ohio. I did enjoy the big trees,

and especially enjoyed the red leaves of poison ivy changing along the trunks of many trees. Very beautiful.

Our camping spot. I think it was just a cleared area amid woods. But since I have no bad memories either, I have to assume they were good. Camping memories usually are.

Mammoth Goes to The Falls. The Big Ones. Day 3

Thu 21 Sep

 

This was a stay at camp and go to Mammoth Cave day. I'd booked the Cleaveland Avenue tour, thinking it would be focused on geology.  (That's what the brochure said) But the only geology we encountered was the naming of the tour after a famous rock collector named Cleaveland.

 

 

The tour guide tried very hard, but it was lame. The tour. After the only worthwhile thing he did was stand and sing on a rock shelf that had a natural echo chamber underneath. When he hit certain notes, the vibrations were cool.

Other than that, not worth the price of admission.

Later I took Molly for a walk by the train tracks and was excited to see a female American Redstart! The colors in the tail make this warbler unmistakable. After that I had my eye on a yellow-throated warbler and was about to get a good ID, but a train came through so close to where I was standing that I flinched and dodged by reflex.  I doubt if it fazed the bird, but it spooked me enough that I completely lost my focus.

There was no place to jog there. I tried and ended up going up and down the little streets around motels and the soybean fields.  But they did have a fairly nice dog park, so I'd stay there again if it were on the route.

Also something I had not seen in a long time--tobacco barn. 

 

We ate dinner at El Matzalan Bar and Grill. It was okay but confirmed our prejudice--you just can't get good Mexican food north or east of Texas.  

Mammoth Goes to The Falls. The Big Ones. Day 2

Wed 20 Sep

Horribly long drive.  Google only listed it as 5-1/2 hours, but it took us a lot longer. The RV's transmission was malfunctioning, continually up-and-down-shifting for no apparent reason. And then toward the end of the trip, the ABS light came on. After spending over ten thousand dollars getting all the brakes redone, that was an insult added to injury.

Mississippi River at Memphis:

 Welcome to Kentucky:

And traffic was atrocious, from the moment we set out until the moment we arrived. We ended up at:

REVIEW Cave Country RV Park
Sweet little country RV park

I'm not particularly fond of RV parks in general, but this is an exceptionally nice specimen of one. The sites are side-by-side, crowded together, but you have all the space you need; picnic table, fire pit. The manager was exceptionally nice and went out of her way to explain all the amenities--pool, washer/dryer, game room, fitness room, dog park, and so on. I didn't see a playground.

We had a gravel surface, level, excellent layout and connections for full hookup.
The utilities worked well. The Wi-Fi was odd--the old, original address worked fine, even though she warned me that it was slow and crowded.  But the five or six new access points failed to assign an IP address for my phone; my computer connected but couldn't use the internet.

It was convenient to get to from I-65. The traffic noise and the occasional train in the distance was annoying, but not unbearable.  There were lots of trees, flowers and green space all around.  McDonalds and Cracker Barrel in walking distance.

The other campers were quiet and may have been pleasant enough. But we didn't interact with any of them or particularly want to. There was at least one jerk with a flag proclaiming his stupidity for the world to see. Can't stop stupid.

Sadly, at odd intervals there was an awful sewer smell at our site. Also, a lot of very loud trains came through not far away. They went fast, so the noise was short-lived and bearable.  (Plus, I like trains)

They had a large fenced dog park.  Also, a big field and a lot of trees over by the train tracks where birdwatching was superb. Several fall warblers flitted around.

We ate dinner at El Matzalan Bar and Grill. It was okay but confirmed our prejudice--you just can't get good Mexican food north or east of Texas.  

Soybean fields, common to western Kentucky

Mammoth Goes to The Falls. The Big Ones. (And visits kids)

Tue 19 Sep 2023
Home to Village Creek State Park near Wynne AR
 

It seemed a long day driving, but we've had longer. We headed out at eight a.m., which means our actual departure time was 8:15, my fault--and arrived in the late afternoon.  Not too much road construction and no major slowdowns. The second of the two gas stops was awfully long, close to 30 minutes, because there were so many trucks in the way. Who'd expect a Love's in the podunk town of Palestine, Arkansas to have so much traffic?

But we arrived intact. The little state park (Village Creek State Park near Wynne AR) is lovely. The campground was nearly empty and very, very quiet. The parks roads, however, seem to have a constant stream of traffic. Where the traffic is coming from and going to, I do not know. I suspect people think this is a cut-through to somewhere.  All l I found was a boat ramp.

 But it's nice. No scenic view or anything, but right on Crowley's Ridge near the St. Francis river.
Some notes on that from the encyclopedia of Arkansas:
Crowley’s Ridge is an unusual geological formation that rises above the Alluvial Plain of the Mississippi Embayment (Mississippi Alluvial Plain, or Delta). The ridge contrasts sharply with the surrounding flat table land of the Delta. In terms of formation, the ridge is generally thought to have once been an island between the Mississippi River and the Ohio River. It became a long and narrow hilly ridge after the rivers changed course millions of years ago. Prior to the change in course, the Mississippi River flowed along the west side of what is now Crowley’s Ridge, with the Ohio River meandering along the east side. The work of these major rivers and their subsequent shifting in course resulted in the formation of an erosional remnant that is now Crowley’s Ridge.

Crowley’s Ridge, completely surrounded by the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, is clearly visible because it rises some 250 feet above a relatively flat landscape. The ridge is capped by a deep layer of wind-deposited (loessial) soils, a fine-grained soil created millions of years ago as glaciers moved across the continent. Extensive areas, including the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and Crowley’s Ridge, were covered by windblown soil. Rivers and streams that continued to meander across the plain washed away the loessial material. On Crowley’s Ridge, however, the loess continued to collect, up to fifty feet in depth in some locations. Since loess is very easily eroded, steep slopes and deep valleys characterize much of Crowley’s Ridge.

One of the unique features of Crowley’s Ridge is its natural vegetation. Interestingly, many of the trees that make up the forest on Crowley’s Ridge are similar to those found in the western Appalachian Mountains. The ridge is covered with a lush mixed forest including oak and hickory and uncommon hardwood trees such as American beech, sugar maple, and the tulip tree or yellow poplar.

I remembered, when we got here, how much my planning for travel and fun of camping sustained me during my last miserable year of work. From the moment I started to think of retiring until the day I officially handed in my laptop, I HATED work.  But all of a sudden, I don't want to quit, because then I won't be able to do any programming (for other people). Why do I miss programming so much all of a sudden, I cannot fathom. It's true that programming, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE, is only a small portion of my work. And it was especially bad then.

I think what happened is that after I started contracting, all of the yuck work was handed off to my coworkers and I was reserved for jobs I could do offline, with little customer interaction and poorly-controlled schedules.  That was heaven, to me--programming and no interruptions!

I'm resigned to missing that, unless I can pick up a short term project or two. Who knows what will happen in a couple of years?

Anyway, that's nothing to do with the here and now. Molly and I took a long walk over to the boat ramp, a horrid, beaten-up and broken down mess.  But other than having to dodge all the traffic on the roads, it was a pleasant walk. And now supper, then after-supper stroll, then reading and then bed. I love camping.

 

Note to future self--this place is right on the borderline of being too far off the road for an overnight. Especially an overnight on such a long trip as we're undertaking. It would have made more sense to choose a KOA in Brinkley or Forrest City. But oh, how horrid that would be!  Crammed side-to-side with other RVs, people and dogs everywhere, and no place to walk! There's a tiny creek running right behind our picnic table; there's birds making funny noises in the trees; there's darkness (or will be soon, when the sunlight vanishes); and there's quiet!!!

Another note: the campsites have NO cell phone service. When I walked over to the boat ramp I found good AT&T service, and I'm told that the office has WiFi. But no phone at camp.

Love it.

So good I'm going to start re-reading them

 Ellie Dwyer's Startling Discovery: Book 4 of the Ellie Dwyer Series 

by Dianne
Winger

There's just something about these books that fills my heart with satisfaction and my head with enthusiasm. Ellie Dwyer is just so--so me!  She's almost exactly what I want to be when I grow up. Except...I already am. I think I'm actually a little older than her.

So she's a middle aged woman with all the insecurities and worries that go along with being alone in life. But she's not sitting back and knitting--not her!  She's out there doing stuff, like living alone in a tiny pop-up RV and moving from campsite to campsite. She made a best friend out there and now they're doing stuff together a lot of the time, which takes Ellie out of her comfort zone in many amusing ways.

But she's not superwoman either. Some of her flaws are not mine and some of them are so annoying that I want to give her a good shake. But never, never stop reading her. She's my bestie and I wish I lived next door to her. In a campground in Arizona somewhere. Or Colorado. Or....

This book is similar to the others in that two or three interesting subplots wind around the main plot and keep it lively. The only minor thing I don't like--and it's minor indeed--is the author's tendency to overindulge in simple day-to-day activity descriptions.  I tolerate those descriptions, and am sometimes amused by them, but from time to time I find myself wishing she'd "spice things up" a little. Like instead of describing a mundane hike on a trail with lovely scenery or muddy roads, why not have a Cactus Wren attack her, or a rattlesnake come slithering by and give her a fright?  After all, the author is writing a middle-aged campers' best fantasy, why not add some nature stuff?

No matter, I still love them all. Please keep writing, Ms. Winger.

Lots bookmarks but not much reading

This Is My South: The Essential Travel Guide to the Southern States
by Caroline Eubanks, Caroline

Darn, this wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped. For each state covered, she split it into two or three areas--eastern, central, western--and gave a brief introduction. The introductions were the same old blah you'd read on the state travel guides on the web. Too short; too impersonal; too useless.

The next part of each area was a series of lists--places to eat, places to stay, unusual things to see, tours to take.  I found that pretty useful information and made lots of bookmarks.  But again, it was so impersonal as to be little more than the information you'd find in a Lonely Planet guide or any travel guide.

Too bad--it had great promise. And was very professionally done. And I mostly agreed with the sort of places she chose to include (thus all the bookmarks).

So it wasn't great, but might have been "worth the price of the book" as they say about recipes.

A good memoir and a good mystery, lucky me

 Finding Me

by Viola Davis

Great memoir!  I wish I'd taken some notes about what I liked so much, but I only remember being excited to pick it up and reluctant to put it down. She's an exceptionally cool person too.

Sorry I can't provide more details. You might think my lack of memory about what I read is a bad mark against it, but it is simply a bad mark against my memory. I was traveling at the time I read it, too.  But even if the book itself was horrid (and it wasn't), just reading a memoir by such a hard-working, smart and funny woman who survived Hollywood is worth the experience.

Marigolds For Malice
by Bailey Cattrell

A third in the Enchanted Garden Mysteries series, and exactly as enjoyable as the first two.  But...no better. I'll still read another one, if there is one. She's gradually--very, very gradually--introducing an ominous magical theme that may turn into something very thrilling.

Or not. I still enjoy the stories, and although the mystery isn't really all that involved or exciting, the idle patter of her day-to-day life is enjoyable. And the "flower and herb lore" that she weaves in, whether real or make believe, is interesting.  And you have to wonder if she's ever going to spot a real fairy in her fairy garden. I wish I had one!  I should look into building one as a hobby someday.

Couple of short mysteries

 Dark Side of the Moo
by Ellen Riggs

The next in the series of the "Bought the Farm" cozy mysteries.  I found it very enjoyable, but I can't say why exactly. The mystery was pretty good, although now a couple of weeks after reading it, I don't remember who dunnit and what they done. The people were amusing but I can't say I ever laughed out loud or re-read a passage that was exceptionally clever.

It's just sweet and homey and exceptionally....well...cozy.

Will read more.

 

Blanche Among the Talented Tenth

by Barbara Neely

I love Blanche--she's a hoot. I'm not sure how well we'd fare as best friends, though. She does so many things that make me cringe and others that make me feel sorry for her. Get a life, please!  (But then, maybe she does!)

But I don't feel like reading another one in the series for a while. The mystery was pretty much nonexistent and tangential to the story. Which is okay, provided I really, really liked the story. And in this one, I found myself not caring. At all.

Sorry to be negative. On second thought, I probably will read at least one more in the series. I like her so much.

Gosh I know so much now, I'm stuffed!

 On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
by Harold McGee

Unbelievable encyclopedia (in content, not format) of all there is to know about food and cooking, plus a lot of other stuff. Told from a detailed chemistry perspective, for the most part. You'll learn how molecules bond, how sugars crystallize, how all the different candies are formed. About the different ways sauces thicken and why. About, well...just everything.

It's grouped according to category--milk, eggs, meats, plants, then progresses onto sauces, gels, and combinations, like cakes or candies. Then the basic ingredients of protein, starch and lipid. And oddly enough, it almost never gets boring. Only a few few sections of a very few chapters were so tedious that I skipped forward, and then only a little bit.

It was just that good.

Great memoir

 I'm Glad My Mom Died
by Jeanette McCurdy

Unbelievable from beginning to end.  How a nutcase mother and a freakishly disfunctional family life can shape a person who somehow, with everything against her in all possible ways, survives. Maybe even thrives, although I'll let others be the judge of that. She wrote an awfully good book, anyway.

Mammoth in the Land of Ups and Downs, Day 10

 Fri  9/1/2023

Boiling Springs State Park
Small, immaculate, and lovely

Concrete Pad on gravel drive. We had a pull-thru site with full hookups, and it had a big concrete picnic table (no cover) and a shade tree. Fire grid and barbeque grate. Everything was extremely clean and very well marked, maybe over-marked--signage warned of everything you might need to be aware of except the sticker burrs in the grass. (We camped there in early September, and they were pretty bad around the edges of the roads and in the camping area.).

Tons of trails, although be warned that the trail signage was a little confusing. But there was cell phone coverage everywhere, so I could use my phone GPS to sort out the criss-crossing routes. The signs on the trails indicated they were for day use only--dawn to dusk.

The boiling springs area was beautiful and full of birds to watch. There were several playgrounds and picnic areas, too.

Checkin time was 5pm, but we were able to check in at 2pm without problems. The park office lady was very friendly, chatty and helpful.

Although the park filled up for the night--it was a holiday weekend--everyone seemed to be quiet.  It seemed to be mostly families or older people. Most dogs were on leash. Our next-door neighbor chose to leave his outside light on all night, making it bright as day in our bedroom, but that's typical rudeness. No traffic noise at all--it was very quiet except for the frequent trains that went by at a distance. Since I grew up in a town with trains, I found that a pleasant noise.

 See on the drive

The building around the boiling springs, very pretty

And of course Molly had to go for a swim.

And then, next day, we went home.  Sorry I have no other notes for the day.

Mammoth in the Land of Ups and Downs, Day 9

 Thu 8/31/2023
Sun Outdoors Rocky Mountains to High Plains Camping RV park.

Scary drive today but we made it. The brakes held out, screamingly.

Highway 40 to Kremmling and then 9 south to I-70 are pretty roads, but not scenic. Which is good--we do not like scenic in the Motorhome. No loopbacks or scary climbs or dashing descents--just a simple 2-lane road alongside a beautiful river.

The RV Park High Plains Camping is a great overnight stopover. I should review it. The sites were grass, plenty long enough--not exactly spacious but not crowded. It was very quiet in the park--I only saw one person and dog outside their camper the whole time we were there--but there was lots of highway noise in the distance. I think the noise came from the little highway out front rather than the interstate--the interstate was a few miles away.

The office had a pizza sales booth but we didn't try it out. Water, electricity, sewer all worked fine.

Nice office  staff. They apologized much for all the sticker burs in the grass. They're working on them, but it may be an impossible task. There's even a dog park, but we didn't use it. The RV park itself was large enough that i could walk my dog all around the park and get a little exercise, despite the burs.

Until sundown, we were very happy with our choice of an overnight stop.  But after dark, a strong odor of feedlot permeated the air.  Really bad.  I guess the wind shifted.  It was gone next morning.

Mammoth in the Land of Ups and Downs, Day 8

August 30
Today was a "stay in camp day" but we took a quick trip into the park to see wildlife and ended up crossing the Continental Divide again.  Just briefly. We also saw a moose in the time-honored way of spotting wildlife in the National Parks--you drive around and look for a line of cars pulled off the road and people gawking with cameras.

 

Lake at the top:

 Pretty flowers back at camp

Molly in the Colorado River near camp

Bye-bye, moosey
 

Last day at Sun Outdoors -- Mammoth over the "lake"

Nothing much to say otherwise.  I did make these comments:
This has been an awful second half of the trip. Our brakes started making an awful scraping noise on the driver's rear side, where Ed said the brake pad was thin. Thin, indeed. We noticed it on the drive to Pueblo Lake--I think--and at that point we probably should have headed straight home. But we went on, up to the southern bypass for Denver and then on I-70 up into the mountains. We took state highway 9, the longer way around, so as to avoid the US-40 "scenic" route.

It turned out that was a good decision, because US-40 is indeed scenic and it also has a road construction 1-lane closure up in the curvy part.  We took it when we went to Mt. Evans.

Anyway, at some point the ABS light came on. We stopped and added a little brake fluid but it was basically full. So we limped on and arrived at the KOA campground. After setting up camp and thinking matters over, we decided that it would be impossible to take those brakes on the Massachusetts trip.

I really didn't want to throw away all those non-refundable reservations and also screw up Edward's plans to join us in Niagara Falls. So I started looking into RV rentals. I soon found that our nearby RV dealer would only allow a 1500-pound tow--we couldn't take the Jeep. I insisted we could drive two cars, but that idea was really silly.

Eventually we realized we might be able to rent an RV up north somewhere, so I checked 1-800-RV4RENT. Their maximum tow was 2500 pounds, so still no Jeep, but we could at least rent an RV in Worcester and do the short trip.

Anyway, all these worries and concerns totally destroyed my concentration and ability to put two logical thoughts together. I fell into my distracted habit of saying ridiculous things, forgetting stuff, having trouble sleeping and waking up with nightmares, and other horrid stuff.

I finally calmed down and started thinking rationally. Things weren't so bad--we'd take a severe financial hit if the plans had to be cancelled, but there are alternatives. We'll see.

And there we leave it until we know something for sure.

Mammoth in the Land of Ups and Downs, Day 7

29 August 2023

We headed to Mt. Evans to take the scenic drive. The trip over there was exceedingly pretty and we delayed a little on account of my senility.  My brain had remembered that it was part of the Rocky Mountain National Park, and my park entrance permit for the day started at 11:00. So we dawdled, enjoying the overlooks.

And the ski slope on the way,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yes, this below is snow.

 

But when we arrived I hiked up to the gate to see if we could go on in a little early, and the lady informed me that my Rocky Mountain pass was no good there--Mt. Evans has a different system managed by the City of Denver.  Luckily, we were able to secure one of the last available permits for the day.  But the stupidity of it all, was that I already had a permit--I'd reserved it months earlier back when I was setting up the rest of the trip.

Oh, well. We got to go and it was indeed awesomely wonder. And very, very crowded. But worth it.

 Bighorn sheep, I believe

Above treeline again!

 Marmot?

Marmot!

Had my eyes closed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made it!

Shaggy

Sheepy

Pika foraging

Pika surveying his territory

Now, that marmot was photogenic

I also saw a Mountain Chickadee. No picture, but still a lifer for me. 

And return to the pink mountains at sunset,