Feeling No Pain

The family reunion was great, the gathering of the McFarlin/Adams clan is always a pleasure.  Seeing all the aunts, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd cousins, my brother and his family and Mom and Tommy, it doesn't get much better.  But after 1,100 miles of driving alone and four nights in a hotel I was anxious to get home to Cyndee.  I spontaneously woke up in the wee hours of my departure day and found myself in the car and getting on down the road just a few minutes after 4:00 AM.

I had just put the first fifty miles behind me, driving on the two lane Texas State Highway 152.  Pampa was long out of sight behind me and the lights of Wheeler not yet visible ahead of me.  It was moonless and pitch black, the lights of my dinky rent car forming a bubble of light hurdling down the deserted road.  Having the road to myself I had that rent car wound up pretty tight and making good time.  Then I saw something move in my peripheral vision.

It came from my left, first just a shadow, then quickly taking shape as a well-racked buck.  As the deer entered the bubble of light from my headlights it switched from a dead run to a stiff-legged skid and I started a hard pull to the right.  The adrenaline must have kicked in because everything started moving in slow motion.  I could see the see the path I was going to take on the shoulder of the road (Texas has shoulders that are better than some state's roads) and the buck was pulling his head up and his eyes were beginning to bulge in anticipation of a collision despite his four-hoof skid.  Then I heard it, thump!  The sound was right beside my left ear and very localized, not the sound of crumpling metal and breaking bones that I was expecting.

Between the deer locking up his breaks and my evasive maneuver we had somehow managed to avoid a catastrophe, but not contact.  There was that thump.  I looked in the mirror and the buck was once again just barely a shadow in the glow of the brake lights of the car.  He was standing in the middle of the road, seemingly stunned, shaking his head.  I think I knew how he felt, my heart was racing, I was shaking and my head was quickly becoming drenched with sweat.  The deer trotted off into the darkness and I slowly got moving towards Wheeler.

Somewhere between Wheeler and Elk City, Oklahoma the sun came up.  At one point I looked out the driver side door window to take in the sprawling scenery of wind-swept cattle ranches and farms.  That's when I saw it, a long streak running from front to back of the window, about two inches wide.  So that's what the thump was!  That buck's snout had hit the window as I went by and he left a snot streak!

Knowing that I was not going to have to deal with the car rental company over collision damage was a relief.  I could continue my return home with no worries.  Or could I?

Having started so early and with light traffic I was making some serious progress towards my destination.  The place I would have normally pulled in for the one-night layover came and went early in the afternoon.  The GPS was calculating an arrival time to the park of before the park's gate closes at 10:00 PM.  I was going to go for it and do the whole 1,100 miles in one day.

The rest of the day was uneventful with the hard-bottomed seats of the rent car making sure I didn't get comfortable enough to get sleepy.  The miles just ticked by.  Wind swept plains turned to Mississippi valley and scrub mesquite and yucca were replaced with lush vegetation and tall pines.  But that was the day, the night was about to get a little more eventful.

It was the home stretch, less than ten miles to go and my hips and rear end could be free of what had become the car seat from hell.  The road had stepped down from interstate to state highway to county road.  The county road leading to the park was the narrow, shoulderless, stripeless kind, common in the deep south.

I was on the last couple of miles of the county road that leads to the state park entrance.  It had gotten even narrower, or at least if felt that way because of the dense clump of trees lining the road.  I was driving slow because this neck of the woods is thick with deer.  Just as I rounded a bend the road disappeared, I could not see pavement, only pine straw and dirt.  I stabbed the brakes and came to a sliding stop.

It was pitch black and with my lights on bright they barely illuminated a car in the road ahead of me.  But everything was all wrong.  It was turned 90 degrees to the road, straddling the center.  I looked harder to see if someone was in the car or standing somewhere around it on the outside but saw no one.  As my eyes adjusted to the dark I started seeing that the car was heavily damaged, steam rising out of what was once the engine compartment and dust settling between me and the car.

If you squint just right you can see the wrecked hulk just ahead and between my rent car and the fire department vehicle.

That’s when I saw him.  Laying midway between me and the mangled car was a man on his side.  His back was to me, I could see his shoulders, back and legs but not his head.  He was lifeless.

I grabbed my phone and started fumbling with getting out of the door of my car while dialing 911 thinking I was calling in a road fatality.  I was moving quickly, dreading what I thought was going to be a grisly scene.  But just as I got to him his legs started moving.  By that time the 911 operator had answered I was trying to talk to her and keep the guy from moving at the same time.  But the guy was combative and would not stay down.  I smelled booze on his breath as he was saying something about swerving because of a deer.  About that time another guy from one of the nearby houses came up.  He had heard what we later figured out was a collision with a tree.  I let him work with the drunk while I talked to 911.

In the photo above that’s my little rent car in the bottom left corner.  The headlights are shining on the wound of the tree where the car first impacted.  This collision started the car to spin, scattering debris, completely covering the road as it pirouetted around the fire hydrant.  The G-forces of the spin must have been something else.  Both the front and rear bumper fascia were near the tree and various drive train components as well as the driver were all ejected from the vehicle and left laying in a trail leading to the car.  The guy was laying in the road mid-way between me and his car.  It looks as if he was squirted out the driver side window on the first spin.  He was barely visible because he was covered in pine straw and dirt.  I don’t think he was driving slowly, this much damage does not happen at low speeds.

By the time fire fighters and paramedics arrived the drunk was up and walking, well, stumbling around.  He was very concerned that he was late getting his mamma's car back to her.  He was going to get in and drive that thing home to her.  He was refusing to follow the paramedic's instructions to lay down to be examined.  It was pretty comical to see them out there wobbling around with him trying to get his BP and check his eye dilation.  At one point a fire fighter brought out a backboard, stood it up behind him while paramedics mummy-strapped him to it to hold him still.

In the lower-left corner of the frame below you can see a blurry black thing in the road.  That’s the car’s battery.  This is the place that it and the driver of the car were laying in the road after both were ejected on impact.

 Below is a closer look at the battery.  It was split wide open on the end opposite from me and leaking all its contents.  I guess the guy was lucky he came to rest on the uphill side of the battery.

All the white stuff in the upper left-hand corner are bandage packaging that they used to patch him up enough for the ambulance ride to the hospital.  They did not have to administer anything for pain, he was “pre-medicated” and feeling fine.

I finished my first-on-the-scene interview with the local sheriff and state trooper and was on my way to put an end to a very long day.  

Solo Road Trip

Heeding to Cyndee's insistence that I attend my family's reunion in Texas over the 4th of July weekend I began preparation for making a solo 2,200 mile, 6 day road trip.  After talking it over, it made more sense for me to rent an economy car and drive it while leaving Big Gulp with Cyndee.  It was a no-brainer to do 2,000+ miles in a 32 mpg gasoline vehicle rather than a 12 mpg diesel truck.

The reunion was also a good opportunity to fill in some of the gaps in our genealogy research as well as print reports of the information we had for those that were interested in it.  But this meant packing a computer, 20" monitor, all-in-one color printer, copier and high resolution scanner.  And of course all the assorted cables, power cords, extension cords, multi-outlet surge protector, etc., etc.  You get the idea, the sub-compact rent car was loaded to the gills with all that stuff plus my clothes, a big ice chest and two giant pies from Sam's Club.

Historically we have split the drive from Georgia to Texas into two days.  We typically made it to Arkansas for our overnight and then made it to our final destination in the late afternoon of the next day.  But in those days it was a family of four in the car or towing an RV or both.  This time with just me and car that I swear came from the clown tent of a Barnum and Bailey circus, I was making good distance.  Until that is, the overturned truck and hazardous material spill.  I-40 was shut down in both directions for six hours.  I came up on it in its final hours but the wait to get on the detour was two hours.  I knew I should have taken a bathroom break in that last town.

Even with the delay it was still daylight as I approached Oklahoma City.  A quick phone call ahead and I snagged a discount room at a Will Rogers International Airport hotel.  The timing was perfect, rolling into the parking lot just as the last light of the summer sun was fading.

After a pretty good night's rest and an early start, the four and a half hours between OKC and Borger was done by lunch time.

The next several days were spent prepping the barn, visiting with family, seeing old friends and sitting out one heck of a brief but incredibly strong storm.

Genealogy Central in the Barn Lounge
A wi-fi router was set up to communicate between computer and printer/scanner.

One of the group activities was a trip to Palo Duro Canyon to see the play Texas!, a long standing tradition whenever the clan gathers in the panhandle.

Clan McFarlin down in Palo Duro Canyon for a Night of Theater

Cousin Dan Nelson gave a narrative of one of our storied ancestors from the Adams bloodline.  Henry Smith Adams lived through an impoverished childhood and made it through the civil war, but just barely.  He spent four days propped up on a tree waiting for medical help after getting his eye shot out.  He chronicled it all making it possible to trace his decades of moving from farm to farm in the south and mid-west and of course his service in the Union Army.

Barn Turned Genealogy Seminar Center

Three days of a continuous buffet of BBQ, burritos, cobblers, and pies was not good for my calorie, salt and sugar intake but I loved every minute of it.  It is done now and the cleanup has started.  Time to put the barn back in working order.

Whew Weee, It's Hot! And New Duties

One of the big deals about us living full time in our RV was that we would be able to follow agreeable weather throughout the year.  Our first two summers worked as planned, we were at high elevation and didn't use our air conditioners once.

Nestled in the high elevation and tall, cool
ponderosa pines for the summers of 2013 and 2014

The two winters were not quite as warm as we had planned for.

Frozen In
Big Bend the weekend before Thanksgiving 2013

Big Bend National Park in the Chihuahua Desert and Fort Frederica National Monument on coastal southern Georgia both experienced, according to the locals we talked to; "The coldest winter in 30 years."

Moss draped oaks on St. Simons Island

It looks all green and warm but appearances can be deceiving.
We had below freezing nighttime temps more nights than not.
Enjoying outdoor activities usually was not an option. 

But overall it has been great because we did not swelter through another southern summer or wither in the high desert heat of West Texas.

But here we are, panting like dogs in another Atlanta summer.  We did not get to stick to our plans of retreating to cooler elevations this year but it was a conscious decision.  When we learned we were going to be grandparents all bets were off, we were going to be as close to the new grandbaby as possible for as long as possible.  Chattahoochee Bend State Park in Newnan, GA fit the bill.  It's hot but it's close.

The summer heat is affecting people around here too.  This park has pretty much been a ghost town, nobody is coming out to camp, float the river or even for a Sunday drive.  It's just miserable hot.  The heat is not just affecting visitors but park employees too.  The maintenance crew has started reporting to work at 6:00 AM so that they can be finished for the day and under their air conditioners at home by 2:00 PM.  And one of the part-time employees that staffs the entrance station on weekends and holidays decided that her days would be better spent doing something else.  Guess who got asked to fill in until the park could hire another person?

Cyndee is now collecting entrance fees for about six hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays.

Without the air conditioner this
would be a giant easy-bake oven.

We've been told that the request to fill in will just be until they can hire a replacement, maybe three weeks.  They should have someone in place before the 4th of July.  They already had somebody in mind for the job they just needed to go through the interview process and background checks.  We figured that John could handle all the camp host and janitorial duties alone on the weekends for three weeks.  After all, this place has been pretty slow and our loop, the RV loop, is pretty easy on the public bathroom use since they all have their own bathroom with them.  Famous last words, we made a rookie mistake by not factoring in that this is a government operation.

The interview of the person that everyone thought would be a shoe-in didn't go well.  Plan B was to post the job and quickly get a look at other candidates.  The Park's idea was to hire someone in July for weekends and holidays with the job coming to an end after the Labor Day Weekend.  People didn't exactly line up for 90 minutes of commuting to the park and back home for just six hours two times a week and then unemployment in less than 90 days.

Plan C:  Ask Cyndee, she'll do it.  And she did agree with the understanding that it would be over by the end of September and that we would be able to meet some commitments already made.

One thing did come up that was not planned for ahead of time.  John's family was having a reunion in Texas on the 4th of July.  We knew about it well ahead of time but our understanding was that the park required us to be on duty during weekends and holidays.  But after getting through Memorial Day weekend, Mother's Day and Father's Day and all the other weekends with such low attendance we began to entertain the thought of going to Texas for the reunion.  But with Cyndee now committed to the entrance station, we became me.  Cyndee was adamant that I should go and she would stay and do everything in the campground and entrance station.  I protested severely but she turned to me and said; "I'm a Texas woman, I don't need a man around to keep the ranch running."  There was nothing but one answer for that; "Yes, Ma'm, I'll pack my bags."

Big City Perks

Our original motivation for taking a volunteer position at Chattahoochee Bend State Park was its proximity to Atlanta, and our new grandbaby.  But with Father's Day approaching it is also offering a lot of options for what a dad may ask for.

And what dad wouldn't want baseball and bar-b-que?  The Braves were playing the Red Sox mid-week.  With a poor showing in recent weeks the Braves were not exactly selling out Turner Field so there was a large selection of seats to choose from.  Cyndee picked a couple of seats behind first base and about two dozen rows up from the dugout.  We went all-out and got advanced parking too.  I paid for one spot but I'm pretty sure that Big Gulp is not going to fit completely inside one of those tiny, tight spots in the on-property parking lot.

Great seats.  Even better when the sun goes down and takes the edge off the heat.

It had been a long time since we had attended a game as a family.  Our now 27 year-old was probably in kindergarten when we attended a game in the now long-gone Fulton County Stadium.  It had to be before 1995 because we were there before they started construction of the new stadium which was first used for the track and field events of the 1996 Olympics and then converted into the new home of the Braves after the Olympics left town. Cyndee and I think just the two of us may have been to a game in the new stadium, we both have a vague memory of roasting in some outfield seats during an afternoon game in the late 90's.  That's when the Braves were winning all the time and seats could be hard to come by, they stayed sold out all season.

No sell-outs this year.  Times are tough for the Braves and the fans have thinned.  While this has given us an opportunity to pick from a large selection of seating choices at the last minute, it did not result in bargain pricing.  They are still charging as if the Braves are winning and the stadium is full.

A beautiful but hot and sticky night at the ballpark.  Wouldn't be baseball in Atlanta any other way.

Our seats were really good.  It was no trouble getting a bunch of great action shots like this one.

Plans were made for a couple days later for the whole family to get together for bar-b-que at Fox Brothers.  This place promotes itself to specialize in Texas BBQ, which pretty much means that they cook their meat without the use of sauce.  Nothing but slow cooking over a wood-smoke fire.  I really enjoy their brisket but they have a whole menu full of tasty choices.

But the best part of Father's Day lunch was having all the kids together.  All the kids and table full of BBQ, it just doesn't get much better than that.

The grandbaby is making some new sounds much to the delight of her Memaw and Uncle.

And by the way, the Braves beat the Sox.  Great Father's Day.

Blackberries and Red Bugs.

The last post ended with Mother's Day.  Now, about a month later we are at Father's Day.  The weather has dried out considerably.  My zero-turn mower skills have improved drastically but now instead of avoiding a slide down a wet, slippery slope and rolling over I am maneuvering through giant clouds of dust.   When I take my shower after mowing I am reminded of when my brother and I were little kids and Mom would declare she could grow potatoes in the dirt in our ears.

For weeks now I had been doing battle with some of the sharpest-thorned vegetation I had ever encountered.  There were dense patches of long, six to 10 feet, stalks.  The stalks were green where the growth was new and brown and woody for the previous seasons growth.  Most of these brier patches had added three feet to their height between when I started mowing in mid-April and late-May.  To mow the border between the manicured part of the campground and the natural woods required the wearing of lots of leather.  Any skin or cloth left exposed would be snagged and ripped by thousands of tiny, sharper than a razor thorns.  Before I started getting properly covered I came home bloodied up on my hands and arms.  And this stuff was growing like a weed all over the place.  I was worried it was going to take over the campground and smother the landscape.  It got to where I was using the weed eater before mowing so that I could push back the encroachment and avoid being snagged and die a death of a thousand cuts.

Then one day this "weed" put on blooms.  Thousands upon thousands of tiny white blossoms were all over the park.  These blooming plants were almost always at the border between the landscaped ground and natural woods.  They also seemed to be concentrated around the upper rims of drainage culverts.  It was only a few days more that tiny red berries became visible.  I wondered if this was another of those berries that the birds would eat but are poisonous to humans.  As the days went by the berries got bigger and darker and I finally asked the park naturalist if she knew what the vicious bush with the red berries was.  Looking at me with some amusement she said; "Wild Blackberries".  "Well, duh, of course they are.  I knew that." I said as I turned away to hide my red face.  Geez, I had been whacking and using herbicide on untold numbers of these things for weeks, I hope nobody takes issue with it.

The blackberries are doing extremely well, at least the ones I haven't killed.

A short time later everything started ripening up and it was time to start picking blackberries and putting them on our morning cereal, fresh off the bush.  But with my first picking I found a new nemesis.  I knew to look for snakes, actually I was hoping to find one.  I knew that the thorns were to be watched out for but it was what I didn't know to expect that got me....chiggers!  The weather had turned hot and dry and we were in T-shirts, shorts and sandals all day every day.  When I waded into those berry bushes I must have looked like a giant "Fresh Meat" sign.  Within hours of picking our first quart of berries my legs, hips and belt-line were covered in the bright red bore holes of those insidious little red bugs.  The itching was so intense I wanted to skin myself.

It took weeks and lots of Chigger-Eze anti-itch cream before the effects of those little monsters wore off, although I look like I have giant purple freckles all over me that are the scars from the damage they did.  After that first picking experience I have since developed a 'picking protocol'.  I now put on long sleeves, long pants, socks and lace-up boots.  But before putting any of that on, I spray my lower legs, feet, hands and forearms with DEET.  Then the socks go on and they get sprayed.  Then the pants, boots and shirt go on and they get sprayed.  Haven't been bit since.

The berries lasted into early July so we had a pretty good stretch of time that we did not buy strawberries for our cereal.  If we had freezer capacity we could have easily put up enough berries to last the rest of the year.

Just Chugging Along

Chattahoochee Bend State Park (CBSP) is a new park, first opened in June of 2011.  The 2,920 acres the park sits on was purchased from a forest products company.  The main logging road in was paved and all other logging roads were blocked and nature allowed to take them back.  It is a bit odd to be on one of the hiking trails and suddenly step into a wooded area where all the trees are perfectly aligned and spaced like rows of corn, a remnant of the managed forest era.

To build the two campgrounds they clear cut and bladed smooth everything within the campgrounds.  Utilities were laid, roads paved and campsites graveled.  A few trees, most of them maples, were planted and hunks of ornamental grass were plugged in here and there but for the most part the campgrounds are shade-less with a lot of bare clay.  One day, when the maples mature, the campgrounds are going to be spectacular.  But for now, the newness and semi-torturous path to get here have kept this place undiscovered.

Being undiscovered has made for some pretty slow camp hosting.  During the week the RV campground may have only two or three of the 26 campsites occupied.  The tent campground is completely empty for days at a time.  Each weekend we'll pick up a few campers but there are always a good selection of campsites available for those who like last minute plans.  But while our visitor assistance camp host duties have been light, our maintenance chores have not.  Bath houses still need to be cleaned, 40 acres of grass mowed and trimmed and all streets and campsites cleaned with a gas engine blower.  When we sold our house I was never happier to also sell all the lawn care equipment and not think about lawn care ever again.  But now here I am caring for more lawn and outdoor space than I have in my life.  Go figure.

But, recalling why we took this volunteer position to begin with (to be as close to the new grandbaby as possible) we are getting that accomplished too.  That little girl has totally taken our hearts and we are treasuring every minute we get to spend with her.

We have made many trips to Atlanta for some quality grandparenting time.  Most of the time it only takes an hour door to door.  But if we don't time it right and get tangled up in one of the rush hours we can easily be double that.

To get to Atlanta from CBSP we have to go through the town that the park is associated with, Newnan.  While the park's mailing address may have Newnan in it, it is a solid 40 minute drive from the park to the nearest grocery store or restaurant in town.  Almost to a person, arriving campers declare; "Wow! This place is hard to get to." or, "If I had known it was this far we would not have come".  Still, during the week when we do not go to Atlanta we go into Newnan and explore.

Newnan is a classic old (founded in 1828), southern town with a traditional city square.  The center of the square is the location for the county seat and city hall.  It is a grand old building.  The city has done a great job of revitalization and the whole place has been buzzing with activity every time we have gone in.  A good number of the businesses on the square are restaurants, the first one we decided to try was the Alamo.  It is a repurposed movie house, where the screen was is now a stage for live music, a large bar is along one wall and booths and tables along the other.  It's mostly a bar that serves food but on the week night were there it was just a few of us there for dining.

The Alamo is a bar/restaurant built in a converted 1920's movie house.

The fare at the Alamo is traditional bar food, burgers, hoagies, pizza but they also have some specialty items.  We tried the garlic knots for an appetizer and boy were we glad we did.  Cyndee got a gourmet burger and I tried their calzone.  Pretty sure we'll be going back.

Mother's Day has also come and gone here at CBSP.  Since we are going to be in one place for the whole summer and the state is not super strict on having only "natural" vegetation in the park, Cyndee has treated herself to some tomato plants.  They are in plastic basket containers and set on top of some logs.  We have never had much luck with tomatoes in containers but we are going to give it another go.

Mother's Day Tomato Plants

Another really nice addition to Mother's Day was a visit from all our kids.  The daughter and son-in-law bundled up the baby and all her accouterments and our son set his active bachelor life aside for a few hours and they all came out to the park.

We had a great cookout and our daughter had her first Mother's Day.  Cyndee had all her kids together at once.  She was one happy camper.