Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back

Tuesday, July 9

So begins our longest jaunt to date, a 24-day excursion to Edward's house in Massachusetts and also to Cape Cod, to see the ocean birds.  We were overly excited to finally be traveling again after Motorhome Specialist Repair Shop having kept our Magnus idle for two months for no good reason. We cancelled a trip and rescheduled another in order to let them sit on their useless butts pretending they were working on the warranty problems. In the end, they fixed about a third of them.

We finally got so disgusted at their refusal to give us an estimated pick-up date, that we gave them our own ultimatum. Politely.  We simply said we needed to pick it up on July 3, and asked what they could get done by then.  Everything else would be submitted directly to the manufacturer and we'd arrange our own repairs.

It appears that something as simple as asking the service tech to itemize work done required them to stop all work and pull it out of the shop. And of course they weren't going to do anything else at that point. So fine--we picked it up on Monday July 1 (I think) and headed home. 

So, after such a long (and unnecessary) hiatus from camping, we were happy to be on the road.  We headed out early Tuesday morning for Lake Catherine State Park in Arkansas.  The weather was nice; a cold front had come through and dropped the temperature from the upper 90s to the lower 90s.

 

 

 

 

 

The campsite at Lake Catherine State Park was nice, but not nearly as nice as I expected. Roomy, lakeside, pretty...and with a scenic view of the powerplant directly across the lake.  Unlike our last experience of "power plant camping", this one wasn't very loud. We could only hear a slight humming coming across the water.  The lights were pretty, but pretty annoying, too.

The power plant

 

It wasn't super crowded--on a Tuesday, after all--but the trails were very popular. Our campsite was within a few hundred feet of the trailheads of three trails. Molly and I took the "red loop" toward the waterfall, but we ran out of time before we got there. We did get to cross this cool hanging bridge--

 

Lucky we turned back when we did. The plan was to eat at Fisherman's Wharf in Hot Springs, and their parking lot was jammed full with a constant stream of cars circling around looking for a space. After we gave up squeezing around in the overflow parking, we took a final circle through the main parking lot and--wow--right in front of us--a man and woman were heading toward their truck, drink cups in hand. We waited, which is something I never would have done in an earlier life, in the parking lot with our turn signal on.

A few frustrated people went around us, but the man and woman finally got in their truck and backed out. And so we had it!

Very good food but not as good as I remembered. Expensive. Will do again if we're in the area.

 



Molly and I didn't get much of an evening walk. It was getting dark and there were too many deer, some mysterious animal rustling up in the trees, and then a couple of people walking their pack of dogs. She was driving me crazy and so I ended it short.

Tomorrow we'll be on the road again, to a park near Memphis. Should be great.

Review: The Promise by Robert Crais

The Promise (Elvis Cole, #16; Joe Pike, #5; Scott James & Maggie, #2)

Notice the Goodreads series list above. The author is running three series at once, and he decided to bring in all three in one story. Interesting idea, and if I'd been into either the Elvis Cole or Joe Pike series when I started, I might have found it less confusing.  I'd only read the Scott James & Maggie book #1 before.

So yeah. The mystery was really good and the human emotions quite involving and all very much worth the reading of.  But having four narrators plus an occasional chapter told from the view of the bad guy...all in one short mystery novel...too much.  Not too confusing, which I found surprising, but just too much context switching to make it a great, sit down and dig in 'till it's done, experience.

I'll see if I can read one of the older Elvis Cole or Joe Pike novels and let you know  how that turns out.

Review: Suspect

Suspect
by Robert Crais

Pretty darn good!  More of a police thriller than a whodunnit, which is fine for a change.  The relationship between the officer and his ex-GI dog, Maggie, is both touching and scary. She tends to bit people a lot, but of course that's what she was trained for in Afghanistan or IRAQ or wherever it was she was stationed.  She's back and deemed unusable by the police K9 manager guy, who is also a pretty great character. But of course Scott chooses her and finagles a 2-week trial.

If only he'd learn to listen to his dog!

Review: Tent for Seven

Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West

By Marty Ohlhaut

Wow--this one is all over the place!  Man and wife take the family camping up in the Canadian Rockies, and it's not even a question of how many things can go wrong. It's a lot.  A lot of good happens, too. So it's thankfully not all misery and misfortune. With bears.

He throws in some stories of trips that he and his buddies took, back in the day, and while I didn't find those especially exciting they weren't very long and didn't provide too much distraction. He wanted to tell them, and I'll let him.

Very enjoyable throughout.

Review: Miss Cecily's Recipes For Exceptional Ladies

 by Vicky Zimmerman

Based on a real person--if I'd known that while I was reading it, I might have slowed down a little in the middle. Because...basically...I was skimming. Just a bit. But it got so bogged down with the narrator's obsession over her boyfriend in that part!  She was thinking the same thoughts and making the same excuses over and over.  I grew bored and once I'd started skimming (just a bit) I forgot to slow down and savor the story of Cecily's life.  Which was really interesting.

I don't think I can give this four stars but if you're a foodie, you'll give it five. I'm not one, and while I find gourmet food interesting it's about on the par with say...fashion, for me. Interesting in a vague, academic way but not something I want to spend a lot of time on. Or read about.

So a lot of food, a lot of dialog, and interesting historical story told as narrative, not real-time, and a rather boring boyfriend story.  And amusing, too.  You may love it.

Review: Bones, Anorexia, OCD and me

How did she keep a diary consistently enough to write this? Because it's really detailed and it goes on for years. Years when she told herself the same lie every day--I will stick to the eating plan this time--and failed, every single day. Her anorexia morphed to bulimia (binging and purging) early and it surprises me that she calls it anorexia in the title. I always make the distinction between "starving yourself to death by eating very little" and "starving yourself to death by puking up everything you eat." And after the first few years, she clearly had the latter.

Pretty wow as in amazing. Although if you want to read this book, I'd suggest you read the first one-third and then skip to the last two chapters. Because almost everything in between is the same old misery on rinse-and-repeat cycle.  I'm not saying it was repetitive or boring, but don't waste your time hoping for a magical moment. Recovery just happens and I don't think she knew exactly why. Having a badass therapist helped.

Fyi, I didn't find it triggering at all. So it's safe to read if you're prone to eating disorders yourself.

Sorry no update for another week.

Traveling to Massachusetts.