Y’all just ought to see the sunshine from where we’re sitting. We made it to Wright Patman lake, not too far from Texarkana. Texarkana is part of the Ark-La-Tex. That’s what they call this area. Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Texarkana is split down the middle by the state line between Arkansas and Texas and Shreveport in Louisiana is southeast of here. That’s where we get our TV news from. But then I listen to radio stations from Dallas. The Big “D”. The Ark-La-Tex is comprised of a dozen or so counties I think. Well that’s the general idea anyway. Oh! And we are in Texas. We’re parked at Clear Springs campground overlooking the lake in a southern pine forest. Maybe I’ll try to send a picture. But if I don’t, imagine pine trees about 1’ to maybe 3’ in diameter and 50’ to 100’ tall interspersed with some oak, pin oak and gum. The forest floor is mostly bare and covered with pine straw in the camping area with some brush and vine maple where it has not been cleared. It’s all very nice and clean and quite picturesque.
We’ll be doing some volunteer work here for a while. Don’t know what or exactly where yet, but we’ll find out soon. There are 3 or 4 campgrounds here at the lake and we don’t know which one we’ll be in. The ranger who we report to took a few days off so we’ve been parked here waiting. He’s coming by this afternoon so we’ll find out what’s up. We went into Texarkana day before yesterday and did some exploring. Yesterday we did some cleaning and waited around for the tornadoes. Yup! We’re in Texas so there were some tornado warnings! Not much to worry about, but you wouldn’t convince Kat of that.
So we found out we’ll be at Piney Point campground. How does that sound? Is that southern enough for you? We’ll be cleaning up the campground and doing some painting and light maintenance. Working on fire rings, picnic tables, and barbecues I think. The campground well be closed after November so it will be pretty much just us with another couple up the road a piece watching the gate and doing some security. We’ll probably be here for two months or so. At least that’s the plan for now. But we’re flexible!
I guess our volunteer efforts put us more in the category of non-recreational campers. Kind of like our current neighbors George and Joanne. They’re here for 4 months living in their trailer. They have a big yellow tent with freezer, great big commercial size roaster oven and all kinds of stuff. George has a cord of wood or so and sits by the fire in his big office chair all day playing with Peaches and Chico, (a poodle and Chihuahua) while Joanne drives into town to work. Now I should have thought of that! Anyway, the Corps of Engineers lets you stay for 120 days, Nov-Feb, or the winter months. Not many people are here anyway.
So what a game huh? The Buckeye’s are #1 and will go to the BCS Championship game. I wouldn’t move to our new site until after the game. It’s the weekend anyway and I told the ranger we couldn’t move because I had good TV reception where we were and I didn’t want to take a chance and lose ABC. Sometimes out in the country and in the trees like we are, reception gets a little “iffy”. At that point he showed us all of his OSU stuff. Although in this case it was one of those other OSU’s . In his case Oklahoma. So he understood and we’re gonna move today. Getting back to football, now all of us Buckeye and football fans will wait and see whose next. I would prefer that it not be Michigan. They had their shot and lost. Being a west coast guy and PAC 10 fan, I would kind of like to see USC close it out against Notre Dame and UCLA and then go to the championship game. Both teams, along with Texas, have been preeminent for the past two or three years and it seems appropriate.
The trip here from Oregon was good. We stopped in Pleasanton, CA to see our friend Toni and her new beau John. John’s house was nothing less than stunning. He has a great patio/deck area with a view. And he fixes a pretty fair to middling barbecue. We seemed to hit the fall colors just about right all the way south and east. From the Rogue River Valley in Oregon south into California and then again in east Texas the colors have been spectacular. We keep saying that there is no real reason to go to New England for fall color when we have it all out here in the west. We stopped at Meteor Crater, AZ and went passed the Grand Canyon. But just like the last time I did this we didn’t stop. Maybe next time. We even saw some gas for $1.99 but unfortunately I had just filled up for $2.07. Butwwe haven’t seen it for that price again. Maybe soon? Perhaps most importantly we finally got a “Whataburger“! Being who I am, I am always in search of a good burger. The last time we came through the “Whataburger” area we didn’t stop. Kat wasn’t impressed but then she had some funky little thing where as I had the double meat, bacon & cheese A-1 burger. Pretty good, but next time I would skip the A-1 sauce. That would make it close to the “Jack in the Box” Ultimate cheeseburger but with the bacon. Very good! As is the “In and Out” burger, especially with the twice cooked extra crunchy fries. But the prize goes to the “Hardee’s” Philadelphia Cheese Steak Big burger. At least so far. And that came from Sanford NC. I believe that would be the same as “Carl’s Junior”.
To be continued…………….
We’ll be doing some volunteer work here for a while. Don’t know what or exactly where yet, but we’ll find out soon. There are 3 or 4 campgrounds here at the lake and we don’t know which one we’ll be in. The ranger who we report to took a few days off so we’ve been parked here waiting. He’s coming by this afternoon so we’ll find out what’s up. We went into Texarkana day before yesterday and did some exploring. Yesterday we did some cleaning and waited around for the tornadoes. Yup! We’re in Texas so there were some tornado warnings! Not much to worry about, but you wouldn’t convince Kat of that.
So we found out we’ll be at Piney Point campground. How does that sound? Is that southern enough for you? We’ll be cleaning up the campground and doing some painting and light maintenance. Working on fire rings, picnic tables, and barbecues I think. The campground well be closed after November so it will be pretty much just us with another couple up the road a piece watching the gate and doing some security. We’ll probably be here for two months or so. At least that’s the plan for now. But we’re flexible!
I guess our volunteer efforts put us more in the category of non-recreational campers. Kind of like our current neighbors George and Joanne. They’re here for 4 months living in their trailer. They have a big yellow tent with freezer, great big commercial size roaster oven and all kinds of stuff. George has a cord of wood or so and sits by the fire in his big office chair all day playing with Peaches and Chico, (a poodle and Chihuahua) while Joanne drives into town to work. Now I should have thought of that! Anyway, the Corps of Engineers lets you stay for 120 days, Nov-Feb, or the winter months. Not many people are here anyway.
So what a game huh? The Buckeye’s are #1 and will go to the BCS Championship game. I wouldn’t move to our new site until after the game. It’s the weekend anyway and I told the ranger we couldn’t move because I had good TV reception where we were and I didn’t want to take a chance and lose ABC. Sometimes out in the country and in the trees like we are, reception gets a little “iffy”. At that point he showed us all of his OSU stuff. Although in this case it was one of those other OSU’s . In his case Oklahoma. So he understood and we’re gonna move today. Getting back to football, now all of us Buckeye and football fans will wait and see whose next. I would prefer that it not be Michigan. They had their shot and lost. Being a west coast guy and PAC 10 fan, I would kind of like to see USC close it out against Notre Dame and UCLA and then go to the championship game. Both teams, along with Texas, have been preeminent for the past two or three years and it seems appropriate.
The trip here from Oregon was good. We stopped in Pleasanton, CA to see our friend Toni and her new beau John. John’s house was nothing less than stunning. He has a great patio/deck area with a view. And he fixes a pretty fair to middling barbecue. We seemed to hit the fall colors just about right all the way south and east. From the Rogue River Valley in Oregon south into California and then again in east Texas the colors have been spectacular. We keep saying that there is no real reason to go to New England for fall color when we have it all out here in the west. We stopped at Meteor Crater, AZ and went passed the Grand Canyon. But just like the last time I did this we didn’t stop. Maybe next time. We even saw some gas for $1.99 but unfortunately I had just filled up for $2.07. Butwwe haven’t seen it for that price again. Maybe soon? Perhaps most importantly we finally got a “Whataburger“! Being who I am, I am always in search of a good burger. The last time we came through the “Whataburger” area we didn’t stop. Kat wasn’t impressed but then she had some funky little thing where as I had the double meat, bacon & cheese A-1 burger. Pretty good, but next time I would skip the A-1 sauce. That would make it close to the “Jack in the Box” Ultimate cheeseburger but with the bacon. Very good! As is the “In and Out” burger, especially with the twice cooked extra crunchy fries. But the prize goes to the “Hardee’s” Philadelphia Cheese Steak Big burger. At least so far. And that came from Sanford NC. I believe that would be the same as “Carl’s Junior”.
To be continued…………….
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