CuRVWander

Once the Fourth of July weekend had gone, so too any excitement to speak of.  Oppressive heat has set in and people are vacationing elsewhere, at a lake or staying in air conditioned environments.  The two air conditioners in our camper have been running 24/7 and yet the temperature inside rises uncomfortably in the afternoon. We have a trickle of campers, enough that we are in a routine of daily bath house cleaning early in the morning before it gets too hot to breath.  Mornings is when we do campsite maintenance too.  With the rain we have been getting, the grass and other vegetation is growing vigorously, requiring mowing and trimming at least once a week.  It's taking about five hours just to get our campground mowed and then another four hours on the gas powered trimmer.  All of this being done after five pm, working until it gets dark a couple of times a week.  Still, I would sweat pounds of water and it would take conscious effort to drink eno...

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 ...

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 w...

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 sout...

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...

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 requi...

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 ke...

We arrived at our new volunteer position a couple of weeks early.  The repairs to our camper that we went to the factory in Kansas for were not as severe as anticipated and completed much quicker than allowed for.  We had planned for the worse and hoped for the best, we definitely got the best.  But getting to Chattahoochee Bend early was an adjustment for us and the park. With a couple days to ourselves we used the time to scrape off 2,000 miles of bugs and road grime. In an earlier post it was mentioned that the park staff were all new.  Of the seven-person staff (this includes park management, administrative and maintenance), the longest service time was six months, and that was the administrative assistant.  Everybody else had been here only 2 weeks to two months.  The park manager was one of the two-week term people and the assistant manager's position was vacant.  She (the park manager) was on duty as the sole ranger in the park, 7 days a...

Here in the first days of April we have been getting oriented to our new home for the next several months.  Chattahoochee Bend State Park (CBSP) is a name that is descriptive of the park's location.  Situated alongside the Chattahoochee River, the park encompasses a large horseshoe-shaped "bend" in the river to the southwest of Atlanta, near where the river becomes the border between Georgia and Alabama. Within the bend and five and a half miles down the river is the park, a total of 2,900 acres.  At the apex of the bend is a haul-out for people paddling the river.  There are platform campsites for an overnight stay in these piney woods that were once part of a managed forest operated by Georgia Pacific or one of its kind.  If you are of a mind to, these back country campsites are available as a hike-in too.  For backpackers it is an easy, flat 5.5 mile walk (one way). The bend in Chattahoochee Bend State Park While the "bend" is relatively remot...

I know I am sounding like a broken record but, it is a wet morning at our Arkansas campsite.  Once again we expect to dodge rain on our drive today.  But today it looks unlikely that we will stay dry, the rain coverage is pretty heavy between Tennessee and northern Alabama. Normally when we are coming east on I-40 and make the transition south to I-20 on Highway 78 between Memphis and Birmingham, the timing works out for an overnight stay at a favorite campground in Tupelo, Mississippi.  But yesterday's destination of Village Creek State Park in Arkansas put us a little farther along than normal, we'll be skipping Tupelo this trip.  Besides, we are really getting anxious to get back to the Atlanta area and see the grandbaby.  Anniston, Alabama, just east of Birmingham, will be our goal for today. Anniston has a Camping World Store that also operates a campground about a block away.  This place is convenient, just off I-20 and right on our route.  W...