A Soggy Month

Life at McCormick’s Creek this month has been damp, to put it mildly. We have had more days with rain than without. Friends, Mabel and Benny Smith, are camp hosting with us. We had planned to hike all the trails throughout the month, but there have been few days when the trails were not too muddy to walk.

We’ve enjoyed several visits with the family, though, and were able to walk on a couple of those days.

Chris, Jeanne and Cameron brought Dakota with them.

Chelsey and Alyssa climbed the fire tower. Grandpa and I decided our legs couldn’t handle all those ladders anymore.

A few of the rains have come with hard storms. A few days ago, lightning hit several trees in the park. This one was split from top to bottom.

Just a few feet over, the bark was blown from the tree in the right photo in a random pattern, throwing bark even across the road into a site there.

We did manage to hike the trails a couple of times with Benny and Mabel, but on this one, Ron and Benny had to lay additional rocks in the streams for us to be able to cross. Benny and Mabel will leave at the end of this month. Ron and I will stay through July.

The rest of the way

We left Belton on May 17, and made our way toward Indiana, a little quicker than we normally would, knowing that the end of the week was bring Memorial Day weekend, and full campgrounds.

We traveled through northern Arkansas and were surprised to learn that it is a major rice producer.  Somehow, you don’t think of Arkansas when you think of growing rice.  Field after field was green with the tiny shoots.

We saw the brand Riceland on many of the storage buildings.

 

As we traveled on through Missouri and Tennessee, the rivers we crossed were swollen with flood waters.

 

More surprising was the appearance of the trees.  The destruction was similar to that caused by straight line winds, but continued on for hundreds of miles.  We learned that night that the trees were destroyed by a winter ice storm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a night at the John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, KY, a favorite campground of ours.

The next two days we stayed in a small campground in Corydon, IN, to give us time to visit with family and friends in the area.

On Friday, we moved to Dania’s driveway, near Bloomington, where we spent the next 10 days.

 

Chris, Jeanne, Cassie, Cameron, Dania, Chelsey and Alyssa were all on hand for a cookout our first day there.   Chris prepared a delicious seafood boil.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the remainder of our stay visiting, and relaxing, with lots of walks through Chris’ housing development, Foggy Morning Glen.

 

 

Pictured on the right is the site of Chris and Jeanne’s planned home.  The trees were cleared from the site just days before we arrived.

 

 

 

On Sunday, we made our last move for a while, to McCormick’s Creek State Park.  We will be working as camp hosts for the park for the next two months.  This is our third year to work here.

Belton Lake C.O.E. Live Oak Campground, Belton, Texas

 

Belton Lake is a great place to camp when you want a “laid back” relaxing getaway.  We arrived on Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends, Glenn and Donna, arrived on Sunday morning.  We spent a very enjoyable week together, sharing meals, playing games, and visiting with Donna’s family members who live nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more on Belton Lake and it’s impressive Dam Mural, visit our previous posting from here:

Belton Lake Stay, April, 2008

From Las Cruces to Belton, TX

Whenever possible, we like to find new routes to travel, and this time, we decided to take U.S. 380 to Texas.  It was a scenic route, traveling through the Sacramento Mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

The various signs of Roswell, NM brought a smile to our faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid-afternoon, we stopped for a break at Tiny’s Burger Barn in Tatum, near the state line.  In contrast to the name, the burgers were anything but tiny.  Both the barbecue and the burgers were from local beef, and simply delicious.

We stopped for the night at a free campground in Brownfield, TX.  Northern Texas has many of these small free campgrounds (some with a donation box).   Several of the communities have decided it benefits their local economy to offer camping sites.  We stay in them whenever we run across one.  This one, as most, was in a city park, but we were pleased to find free internet provided by the local high school.

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, I snapped this photo as we purchased fuel… not a sign you expect to see in a community.  

A sure sign that you’ve arrived in western Texas is the appearance of the giant windmills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent this night in Ranger, Texas.  The campground had a private lake inhabited by beavers. 

We didn’t spot any beavers, but evidence of their industriousness was all along the bank. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The afternoon of the following day brought us to our destination, Belton Lake Live Oak C.O.E. Campground.

Square Dancing with Ron and Anita

We try to find square dances as we travel. From Benson, AZ (covered in a previous post) we moved to Deming, NM. Arriving on Saturday, we picked up a square dancing friend, Bill, and drove another 60 miles to Las Cruces for the Southwest New Mexico District dance. The Southwest District consists of clubs from Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Deming, Truth or Consequences, and Silver City. Seven clubs were represented at the dance. Rusty Wright was the caller, and Jim and Linda Klein cued for the round dances. Dancers filled the floor at the Belton Bridge Center, home of the Blue Bells Square Dance club.

Later in the week, we danced with the Good Time Squares at Deming. Several years ago, while staying in Deming, we saw a flyer for 3 free square dance lessons. We decided to give it a try, and had our first five square dance lessons with the Good Times Squares and their caller, Rusty Wright. We try to dance with the group each year as we pass through. A small club, we only had one square this week.

While in Deming, and the next week while staying in Silver City, we danced with the Silver City Squares. Fred Beem is the caller. This area has lost 3 callers in the past five years to retirement or death, so Silver City is encouraging several of its members to become club callers.

Before leaving the area, we spent a few days in Las Cruces and danced with the Crossfires, a Plus Club, and the Circle Eights.

The Crossfires meet at the Belton Bridge Center in Las Cruces:

The Circle Eights meet at the Munson Senior Center:

Ted Clements calls for both the Crossfires and the Circle Eights.