All Things Casita!

 

The weather at Cloudland Canyon State Park was perfect!  Casita friends that I had not seen in a great while were there!    Mike and Kathy showed up for an afternoon visit,  Sheryl and Chris drove up for the pot luck and music.  Another couple from past gatherings, Sharon and David, camped next to us. We enjoyed catching up with each other’s lives, sharing the changes and grieving the losses.

 

Cloudland Canyon is a large state park set in northwest Georgia on the Cumberland Plateau. Less than 40 miles from Chattanooga, it is quick and simple to reach.  Just hop on I-24 W towards Nashville, take I–59 S and get off at Trenton, GA. Take one turn right and one turn left in Trenton, weave up the mountain road and you are there! It has numerous hiking trails and two waterfalls.  We drove over to the overlooks on Saturday and the parking lot was full of sight seers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main fun all weekend was the visiting!  We had 13 eggs to show up, two Scamps and the rest were Casitas.  A few of the couples were new to me but most were people that I had known and loved for years.  We got there early on Friday as the park has a weird reservation system.  They will give you a reservation but they will not assign a campsite, so it is first come to get the site that you prefer.

From the moment that we arrived to bedtime, I do not think I stopped talking…. so many people to catch up with!  Friday night we sat by our fire as our new friends from Sarasota shared about their 5 month trip traveling to Canada and back.  This was Bill and Karen’s last stop before returning home.

 

Saturday night was, of course, the potluck and since Sheryl had brought her fiddle, the music was superb.  That night I sat surrounded by lovely people, listening to incredible music and watching the wind sway the tall old trees.  There was a moment of feeling that life could not get any better than this….

It is no wonder that all I want to do is go to Casita rallies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Up....More Fun!

The food box sits half full in the corner of the kitchen.  It is a reminder that we are taking off again in two days.
  
Our "egg club" is having a rally this weekend very close to our home but we had not made reservations to attend, not knowing if there would be energy left after just returning from our two week, two thousand mile trip.

But reservations were made today and we are heading south to GA on Friday.

Swept out the Casita, cleaned the refrigerator and remade the bed with clean sheets. Clothes were washed and the truck is (still) packed. All I need to do is buy a few groceries and decide on the dish for the potluck!  Will probably ask David to make another dump cake!  The last one vanished before we could taste it.

We still had unseen trip pictures on the point and shoot.  My husband enjoys using an old Canon, one of my very first digital cameras, ancient with 4 megapixels.  I downloaded the pics, running them through Picasa.  Great review of the trip!

We are settling back into our routine; cleaning, mowing, playing with the cats and catching up with friends and family.  Still feel real good about our trip and it has motivated us to make reservations for more rallies.  
So much fun to be had!  And I have cut back on my work hours (again)....More about this later.

Buffalo River National Park and a Challenge

We left Branson traveling south down 65 into Arkansas heading toward the Buffalo River.  We picked this area for a couple of reasons.  I had friends in Yellville that I hoped to see and we had both paddled, many years ago, portions of the beautiful Buffalo River.  We both wanted to reconnect to this wild and scenic river.
We decided on Buffalo Point campground, a national park area about 20 miles south of Yellville on highway 14.

We found the campground perfect...only one tent camper!  The site was shady and on the bluff overlooking the river.  But...when we tried to use the jack to unhitch, it just spun around without raising the tongue.   It appeared to stripped (or whatever the correct word is for that malfunction!)

The camper was level without unhitching but the truck was sticking out in the road.  After calming down, we decided to try another campsite and David was successful in backing in the site at a 45 degree angle placing both the camper and truck safely out of the road.

We enjoyed the rest of the evening by having a great meal and a walk on the sand bar by the river.  I saw a beaver floating the river carrying sticks in his mouth.  Looks like he was doing a little remodeling.  The next morning a doe and two fawns kept watchful eyes on us as they grazed close by.

Fortunate for us, a man walking his dog came by that morning and gave us good advice on how to get back to civilization where the repairs could be made.  Following his suggestions we wound up in Conway, AR, where we received excellent service from National Travelers RV, $49 for parts and $10 for labor!

After another long day we stopped at Village Creek State Park (still in Arkansas).  No phone or internet there, either!  I did not expect to be connected out in the wild of the Ozark backwoods but 40 miles from Memphis!

We woke up sad on Friday morning knowing that our most excellent adventure was over that day.

But there are more to come!

Buffalo Point 

Buffalo River

Water level was very low

more Buffalo

Village Creek State park

Friends, Branson and a New Toy!

(Playing catch-up after a long travel week...post started 9/12/12)

Our current location is Compton Ridge RV Park in Branson, MO.  Our friends, Glenda and Jeff, are here work camping and we had promised to swing by for a visit. This is a couple that full-times with two cats and a dog. (www.casitaescapes.blogspot.com.)

We met them last New Year's eve in Austin; I had been following her blog for months.  (Perfect Weekend, 1/2/12)

They have shown us a grand time touring the town and the lakes.  But the most fun for us, besides the visiting and catching up, was a visit to the Coleman outlet store where we, after much deliberation, decided to upgrade our grill.

My husband is definitely the cook!  And for years he has been doing a wonderful job feeding me while using a $20 walmart grill.  The Coleman store had a small, more compact 3 in 1 stove that I can also use to make rice and coffee outside the Casita.

Glenda and I could not stop talking!  From Casita travels to Casita mods, blogging, smart phones, google, parents and husbands.  What a fun visit!

Compton Ridge RV Park was definitely a good worksite for them and a great place for us to spend a couple of days.  Good company, good food and wonderful scenery.

Fall River Lake Kansas

I am getting behind with my posts... feels funny to be talking about where we were 2 days ago but I don't want to leave anything out!

Sunday night after the rally found us in southeast Kansas at another COE lake, Fall River.  The camping book indicated that there were 3 campgrounds on the lake and I could not figure out where they were in relation to the main road.  We picked the one that was located miles away on the far side of the lake!

We did finally get there and it was pretty and deserted.  Unfortunately some nasty biting flies drove us inside and we did not get to enjoy sitting out looking at the lake.

Tree carving found at entrance 

Whitehall Bay campground

Fall River Lake

Sunset over Whitehall Bay

Kansas Egg-stravaganza 2012

Fiberglass travel trailer rally is four words that's impossible to describe or explain unless you have experienced one.  The best descriptive word that I can find is FUN!

And it is the people, not the trailers, that make it so much fun!  Good people, troopers, hardy....with whiners not allowed!

We spent 6 nights visiting, eating, comparing trailers, and sharing travel adventures.  Tonight, 150 miles down the road, I am missing all of my friends.  This is about a family, a community of like- minded people who really care about each other and care about getting the most out of life while they can.

Thank you, Tom and Joyce, and everyone else that made this such a great gathering!

Emily's pretty wind socks

Milford Lake

Republican River

Another 16'!

Pete's Wonder Egg's art

Hot, Hot, Hot!

"Milford, Kansas....and it is soo hot!  The Chatta-Egg's thermometer registered 102 degrees during the last leg of our journey here!"

This is what I wrote as a draft several days ago before I succumbed to heat exhaustion! Looking back at Monday and Tuesday, we were really in a survival mode.  The combination of high temps and high humidity made hydration the number one priority.

A brief recap...we arrived at this Kansas egg rally at dusk on Monday after struggling through miles of heat.  Didn't stop because it was just too dang hot to stop when our destination was so close!

Tuesday was spent waiting on a fifth wheel and a pontoon boat to vacate our site...they waited until checkout time to leave, 6 PM!  
While we were waiting, Larry of Little House Customs, www.littlehousecustoms.com, put Window Max covers on two of our windows and added a new high rise faucet to the kitchen sink.

Jerry C of Eggrollings, www.eggrollings.blogspot.com, greeted us shortly after our arrival.  Nice to put a face to the words.
The next day an Oliver trailer pulled in entertaining us with the high tech set up.  Later during a tour inside I learned I was within the Wonder Egg, www.peteandthewonderegg.blogspot.com.  And Oscar, the dog, is delightful!

The weather has moderated, our first potluck breakfast is completed and the agenda is to visit, to sit, and  to look at the lake!

our home

waterfront property

Jerry's inflatable kayak

Milford Lake

sunset

Milford Lake