Making Friends

Last night, a long-time friend asked my wife whether or not I would make any new friends on this trip south.  My wife laughed at that and told her that maybe I would talk to some people on the road, but it wasn’t likely I would make new friends. Of course, my wife is right. 

Most people who are out here full-time or even part-time don’t really seem to be out here to make friends.  They might talk a bit about things in common, but then we al move along in whatever direction we are headed.  I met a nice guy named Charlie who has been on the road for a few years.  Originally from Minnesota, he’s headed back take care of doctors’ visits and business.  He is a retired long-distance trucker who lives in a Kia Soul.

I met another unexpected friend on the beach early in the morning while walking Callie. This friend didn’t have much to say so I turned around and headed the other direction.

He/she was about 3-4 feet long.  I asked a fisherman whether gators are rare on the beach.  He said, “Yeah, I never see them here.  Except for the last two weeks, they’ve been showing up, including a dead eight-footer.

This little fellow was alive and had moved off the beach when I walked through a couple of hours later.

You never know what you’re going to see on the beach.

I think I discovered the world’s largest piece of sushi.  It was about two feet long.

I’ve been spending my days taking long walks on the edge of the waves, reading my Kindle, and generally relaxing.  For supper, I had boudin, a Cajun specialty featuring seasoned rice and pork in a sausage casing.  It tasted better than it looked. Ideally, one would heat boudin up in the oven, but the Brew Hut doesn’t feature an oven, so I steamed them in my cast iron skillet.

Louisiana Gulf

Today,  I had a bit more excitement during the travel day that I would have liked.  The drive to the gulf from Indian Creek was only about two hours.  About half-way there,google maps sent me down a road that was not a major highway (short cut).  Unfortunately, there was high water on the road, and a waiting deputy sheriff advised that I go back. 

Now, if I was in a car, that would be no problem to turn around.However, there was water on both high water on both sides of the road, and turning around the Scamp just wasn’t possible.  I needed to back up about a mile to get to a spot to turn around.  Fortunately, there was no traffic or people to laugh at my long distance backing.

Even on the major highways, there was high water on both sides, but the road itself was dry.

We made a big circle around the flooded roads and eventually made it to the free beach. The weather was cloudy, but it was comfortable for beach walking.  The second adventure came when I decided to let Callie off-leash.  She has always stayed close to me at home, but we aren’t home.  Callie decided that it would be fun to play keep-away from me and would jump away every time I got close enough to try to put the leash back on her.

Eventually, and fortunately, she had to stop for number two, and I swooped in and attached the leash.  Callie let me know that she didn’t think that was fair, but at that point, all was fair.  We had a nice afternoon of sitting outside the Scamp. I read a book and drank a Lagunitas IPA, while Callie captured flies in the air and ate them.

It’s raining again, which projects to be a frequent occurrence over the next week.  No matter, I can hear the waves and see the gulf out my back window.  We’re going to hang here for a few days unless something changes.

Indian Creek Recreational Area

The thunderstorms started after I fell asleep and continued all night long.  Callie and I took a short walk along the river after the sun came up, but the North Little Rock neighborhood outside the rv park was a bit sketchy; I don’t run as fast as I used to, although I would hope that Callie would serve as a deterrent to anyone with bad motives.  When a dog terrorizes women and small children, you would hope that she would come through for a real bad guy.  I considered walking across the Clinton Park (metal) bridge, but that seemed to be a bad idea with thunder and lightning in the immediate area.

We took off south about 8 a.m. and followed Hwy 167 through periods of torrential rain and some small hail.  There were a few road signs that caught my eye.  One attorney advertised:  “One call, y’all.”  There’s a guy in Milwaukee with tv ads that say “One call, that’s all.”  Tickled my funny bone but I have a former attorney’s sense of humor.

A sign outside a rural church proclaimed:  “People use duct tape to fix everything; God uses welds.”

Eventually, we made it to Indian Creek Recreational Area, southeast of Woodworth Recreational Area.  The park employee said she had plenty of openings on a Thursday night and hooked me up with a beautiful waterfront campsite for $25 (10% over 50 discount).

This is the view from my back window:

The park employee did warn me to be careful about going out after dark near the water.  We have entered alligator country.  With more rain expected, I will probably be tucked in by sunset.

I’ll use this opportunity with electrical hook-ups to recharge everything, dump my tanks and prepare for some free camping without hook-ups on the Gulf of Mexico.

Illinois to Arkansas

I’ve made some miles over the last couple of days, moving from the edge of heating season to the edge of cooling season.  On Tuesday, I drove from central Illinois to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The original plan was to camp at Trail of Tears State Park, north of town.  After driving 13 miles out of the way, I found out that the road to the campground was closed due to flooding of the Mississippi River.  So I jumped on the Campendium app and found Cape Camping and RV park ($36 dollars with 55+ discount).

The showers and bathrooms were nice.  There was a view of some kind of pond or drainage area.  The best part was a city paved path that went for miles and miles. Callie and I hiked until sunset.  We had quite a struggle over all of the bicycles on the path.  Callie does not like to share.  Some of the babies and small children must have looked like sheep to herd, because she wasn’t crazy about those little people either.  In the morning, the path was much quieter, and she managed to let a few bikers by without giving chase.  Small steps.

Today, we drove through rural America.  I set google maps to avoid highways and headed into what my daughter calls hillbilly country.  I passed towns like Possum Knob.  As I drove through, I saw lots of white poverty: people not living well with lots of trash in the yard and homes in need of major repair. I found myself wondering what these people seek in presidential leadership, who they voted for (if they voted) and why.

By late afternoon, I made it to the Downtown Riverside RV park in North Little Rock, Arkansas. I called around 2 p.m. and reserved the last spot in the campground.  There were many beautiful spots along the river.  There were also nice spots across from the riverfront sites.

Because I reserved the last spot, my site was special and away from all of the others.  Nevertheless, I was grateful to get a campsite and it actually provided me with more privacy than any other site.  Plus, the price was right, ($13 with Passport America discount). I’m tucked into the upper right corner of the photograph.

From the rv park, I literally walked across the Clinton Park Bridge to the William Clinton Presidential Library.

From there, Callie and I walked along the river and up through downtown Little Rock and then back across the bridge to the rv park.  There’s still a little daylight at 7:50 p.m; the windows are open in the Scamp; and it’s quite comfortable.

Southward Bound

Similar to my last couple of trips, there was a lot to do before I could leave on this one. Justin’s Christmas present was two tickets to Mumford and Sons last night at the new Milwaukee arena, Fiserv Forum. Unfortunately, he bought tickets for Sunday night rather than Saturday night and didn’t tell us until about a week before the show. This meant that the concert was on a schoolnight/worknight.

The concert didn’t end until after 11 p.m., and then the ushers unhelpfully directed Justin (who is in a power wheelchair) to exit via a stairway. We dropped off Allie at 11:30 pm and then drove to Whitewater and got Justin ready for bed around 1 a.m. We didn’t get to bed until 2:30 a.m. On four hours sleep, Julia headed off to work and I hitched up the Brew Hut and drove south for warmer temperatures.

Tonight, I’m camped at Comlara County Park near Hudson, IL. The projected low at home was 29 degrees overnight. Here, it’s supposed to be a balmy 36 degrees. I’m not complaining.   There are about half a dozen campers here at this 155 site campground.  The water isn’t turned on, and the bathrooms are locked.  Good 30 amp electrical hookups for $24/night to run my small electrical heater.   And you can’t beat the view.

Spring Breakout

Spring has finally started to arrive in south-central Wisconsin.  It’s maple sap/syrup weather when nights dip below freezing, and the days warm up into the 40’s and 50’s. I’ll be on the look-out for good deals on syrup at the smaller farmers’ markets later this summer, as we are all out after having stocked up a couple of years ago at $12/quart.


There’s been some good ice fishing during the last week or so, but that season has run its course with the ice breaking up. And the birds have started to migrate in large numbers. The sandhill cranes began arriving several weeks ago–even with temperatures falling below zero.  Now, the swans have arrived.  Today, on my walk with Callie, the snow geese were out–dozens of the black-tipped winged birds soaring above the Wisconsin River.

Justin is home for spring break.  He seems generally in good spirits and has re-committed to college.  Justin has spent much of this week catching up after missing a week of school while fighting depression.  He will be back to school next Sunday.

Allie has returned from Mexico with the end of her spring break.  People worry about the dangers of Mexico, but the worst thing that happened to her was a bad sunburn.  There are all kinds of dangers, but we tend to underestimate those dangers right at home and overestimate the ones in other countries.

The snow and ice around the Brew Hut is nearly gone.  I’ve been making some minor repairs and improvements. The powered tv antenna was stuck in the on position, draining the battery, so I swapped out that failed part.  A broken drawer underwent a redesign, and turned into a deep shelf.  The black tank got a new cap. A broken strap holding up the gray tank outlet was replaced.  A propane tank leaky hose was swapped out for one that works.  I upgraded my outdoor cooking stove from a one- burner butane stovetop to a Classic Coleman two-burner propane stovetop.  A burner valve died on the Scamp cooktop–discontinued model without parts.  I’ll operate with one burner inside for awhile until I figure out a solution.

I’m feeling more optimistic about my planned trip south in April with the Brew Hut.  Since I’m a pessimist and don’t want to jinx it, I’ll put the odds at 50/50.  Callie says I’m a Debbie Downer.