Memory Lane

Lunch with George

So fun to be back in Okoboji and see George. We went to lunch and then in the evening we got a tour of West Lake Okoboji on the Queen II.  The Queen I met a firey fate some years back but the Queen II has taken it's place and it's' a great historical tour of the area.  Beautiful evening, blue skies and a slight breeze.  George was shocked to see how much the girls have grown. It was a short but sweet visit.  We also made it to Estherville, about 17 miles away, and found the houses Jeff's grandparents used to live in.  We drove by the hospital Jeff was born in.  Fun to show the girls some of that history.

Made it up into Minnesota on Saturday and found a wonderful place right on Lake Wabado, the lake Jeff's grandparents had a cabin on and where he spent a lot of his summers.  We met some fantastic folks, Maggie and Jerry Motyl, at Diamond Creek Resort.  What an amazing couple. They've lived on the lake a long time but just took over the running of the resort three years ago.  The lodge that they are refurbishing for their home was build in 1920.  They've kept the original rock fireplace, so beautiful.  They are two of the nicest people I've ever met, so friendly. The girls had a blast there and Maggie let them drive the golf cart which they loved.

Jeff's grandparent's cabin is up in those woods.  Still
has the original storage shed down by the lake 

 Jeff rented a small boat from them and we all got to try our hand at fishing.  Jeff finally caught one little rock bass right before we left this morning. He almost caught a loon!  We were standing on the end of the dock admiring the loon when it dove under the water.  Jeff was just dangling the lure in the water swishing it back and forth and the next thing you know, the loon is swimming right below the dock at our feet.  They swim fast!!  Such beautiful birds; such a haunting call.  There were probably 4 or 5 pair of loons on the lake, one had a pair of babies. They parent birds would dive down and bring up little fingerling fish and feed the babies.  So cute.  

The Great Fisherman

Something that has really surprised me as I watch birds (I've become an amateur birdwatcher)  is that I've noticed that the parent birds still feed the babies even after they've left the nest.  I didn't know that occurred.  I thought once the birds left the nest they were on their own.  But know I've seen three types of birds feeding what look like almost mature birds. One was a robin, the other was a grackle, and then the loons.  The loons didn't surprise me as much but the other "song birds" were nearly the size of their parents. They hopped around behind the parents and when the parent had something for them, they just popped open their mouths like babies in a nest and the parents fed them. 

Lake Wabado a Diamond Creek Resort

I said to Jeff, maybe the birds can't get their grown kids to leave and fend for themselves anymore than humans can these days - lol! Good grief!

Sunday's drive is to Lake Itasca to the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  It's strange driving through Minnesota and crossing over the mighty Mississippi.  One doesn't usually think about where it starts. In my mind it's associated with New Orleans. Since we've been to the END of the river we need to see where it all begins. 

Driving through this area is like driving in Alaska.  Lot's of trees and just little communities dotted along the road.  I love seeing birch trees again.  I've asked a number of people about moose but apparently they don't live this far south any more. Either hunting or more likely, loss of habitat has cleared them out.  But we've seen plenty of beaver huts, swans, and a few deer.  Looking for bear now!

Corn and Cows and corn, and corn, and corn

Passing through Kansas City, Missouri - HOT!

Made it to Okoboji, IA by way of St. Joseph, Missouri.  So strange how fast you can cross from one state to another once you get out of Texas (or Alaska!).  We  only overnighted in St. Joseph. They are having a heat wave there - severe

Missouri River Drive-By

weather alerts and all.  The heat is awful and the heat index is even awfuler!  In the low 100s and so humid.  I would have liked to visit some of the museums there.  I believe it’s where the Pony Express got its start and the house where Jesse James lived is there.  Lots of history; maybe we will stop by on the way back home when they weather isn’t as blistering. As we left I checked the weather and they were under a flood alert so it's a good thing we didn't linger.

We were going to blast up I-29 to get here but Jeff reminded me “it’s about the journey, not the destination” and so we (he) chose to drive I-71N.  I said fine, but he was driving. I remember that road from when the girls and I drove it 5 years ago.  Miles and miles of cornfields and the road does NOT cut through any farms.  Turn left, drive 10 miles, turn right, drive 15 miles, turn left.  I remember being slightly crazy by the time I got to Okoboji last time. (That may have had to do with traveling solo with a 6 and 8 year old but nevertheless . . . )  I’m glad Jeff was driving this time. 

Just like in the movie "RV".  We weren't on the road 5 minutes
when we saw this in front of us.  Gave us a good laugh.

It’s beautiful farmland.  Row upon row of cornfields interspersed with a few stinky cow pastures and lots of cows.  That got the girls' attention as we drove through – lol!  I told them not to complain, that’s where the steak comes from they like to see on their dinner plates.  Mya just grimaced.

NOT a "chipmunk bambi"
(Thank you Google images)

The temperature dropped about 15 degrees when we crossed into Iowa.  It got cloudy and was 75 degrees.  Jade opened the door of the RV at one of our stops and just said "aaaahhhhh".  We are staying in the same RV place we stayed 5 years ago.  There are some little critters here that we thought were a different version of chipmunk but Jeff did some sleuthing and discovered it's called a 13 Lined Ground Squirrel.  So cute.  I thought it was a baby chipmunk that had dots like a baby deer - a chipmunk bambi.  (Glad we got that cleared up - lol!)

Iowa Farmland

We’ve come to see our friend “Grandpa” George.   He is 90.  Such a sweet man.  We are going to go to lunch with him and then drive with him to Estherville where Jeff was born.  It’s probably been 40 years since Jeff was back there. He used Google Earth to locate his grandparents house so maybe we'll stop by.  

Stinky cows - yummy steak:-)

A weird coincidence happened when we were in China adopting Jade.  The baby who was Jade's cribmate was adopted by a couple and the dad was from Estherville.  Who would guess you'd run into someone in China from the same small Iowa town. (Hi Scott!) The guy didn't believe Jeff at first but when Jeff said "Go Midgets!" (the HS team mascot - go figure!) Scott knew he was telling the truth.  So maybe we'll go see if there is a Scott Sunde Blvd in Estherville now ;-)  

Beautiful place, Iowa. Love the fireflies.  It was here that I first saw a firefly.  Will be looking for them tonight.

Table Rock Dam and Fish Hatchery

Crossing the Table Rock Dam

The 10 original gates

Now we know why we haven't drowned at this end of the lake.  Visited the Dewey Short Visitor Center and learned all about the building of Table Rock Lake Dam.  It's a dam good thing it's there or we'd we floating toward the Mississippi River right now.  Jeff said he'd never actually seen a dam before that was having to let water through the flood gates to ease lower water levels in other areas.  The gates were only open about 1 1/2 feet but it looked like Niagara Falls.  The original section of the dam was build in 1959 and designed for "worst case" scenarios.  More recently they decided that "worst case" could be worse than what they had imagined so they added 8 more flood gates.  They did this to alleviate any concern that in this "worse - worst case" the dam would actually fail and then the devastation would be beyond imagining.  As it was yesterday, we couldn't reach the dock without taking our shoes off because the water have flowed over the entrance ramp to the dock.


A giant Rainbow and his smaller companion,
a blue trout.  Some of the other Rainbows were even
bigger than this one.  YUMMMMMM!

A "runway" with Rainbow trout.

On the river side of the dam is the Shepherd of the Hills  Fish Hatchery so we decided to stop there so Jeff could drool over the trout being raised there.  OMG!  The fish they had in the tank inside the place had been there for years and were HUGE!  There were rainbows, browns, and even a blue trout.  I had no idea trout could get that size.  We also got to see the "runways" were the hatchlings live.  These are 100' x 12' and the fish vary in size.  So there were some that were maybe 3" long and others that were 6-7" long.  The brown trout are kept in the "runways" also but theirs are covered with a tarp to keep the sun off.  Apparently, they need a cooler environment and the "fish guy" (fish biologist?  he was a funny guy) said it was cheaper than buying them all sunglasses!   Mya, ever the curious one (and I LOVE it - she asks so many good questions!) wanted to know if fish have ears.  So we asked one of the other "fish guys" and he said yes, but not as we think of them.  They have "lateral lines" that pick up sound and motion.  He said it was like a submarine.  They don't have external ears like we think of them so apparently there will be no earrings or sunglasses on these fish:-)   


Jeff with his girls.  (Jade hates to be hugged - by anyone!)


It was a great way to spend Father's day.  We ended up going to lunch at Landry's Seafood Restaurant (must have been wanting fish after seeing them all at the hatchery - subliminal influence?!)  Boy, do they pile on the food.  We had enough to bring home and eat leftovers for dinner.  I think there is still some left.  We also drove around downtown Branson but we weren't really impressed.  It seems to be trying to be the Las Vegas of the Midwest but there was something decidedly cheesy about the place.  Maybe it was the huge King Kong hanging off the top of a fake tower or the building made to look like the Titanic hitting a fake iceberg but neither one of us was impressed.  The girls got a hoot out of all that stuff though (Mya has all the pictures on her phone - sorry!)  Driving around here is quite an adventure.  Jeff thinks when they established the roads they just paved old deer trails.  Either that or they are old Amish buggy cart paths.  Truly it probably has to do with the topography of the Ozarks but my, oh my, do the roads wander and turn, up and down.  The Harley riders seem to enjoy the roads around here! 


Alligator Turtle - at the fish hatchery

We cracked up at the sign
on the Alligator turtle tank.

It looks like the boat is going to take a while longer to get fixed so we are going to head up north on Wednesday.  We'll just leave the boat there and pick it up when we return.  Jeff is there now getting all the paperwork done.  Time for my walk.  The route around the resort is 1.6 miles - half of that uphill (of course, remember Amish buggy trails!)  It's a pretty good workout and there is a breeze today so that should help. It's been unusually warm here so we've seen 90s fairly consistently.  A dip in the pool afterwards seems like a good idea.

(A big THANK YOU to Jade for remembering the names of everything. I had to consult her a number of times when writing today's entry. My brain can barely retain my own name but Jade remembers EVERYTHING.  Kind of scary!)



Me and the girls on a beautiful
Missouri afternoon.

Finally, sunshine

We were starting to get a little stir-crazy here in the eye of Tropical Storm Bill.  Thought we were going to need a boat after all the rain on Thursday night.  It rained all night long and now the lake is up about 3 feet and still rising.  It covers such a large area (43,100 acres)

A new all time low for entertainment
when it's raining - Jeopardy!

and all those creeks and rivers flowing into it means it's going to continue to rise for a few days.  I decided to read Mya's summer reading (aptly named for the weather) called Dark Water Rising. It's about the hurricane that hit Galveston Island in the late 1800s.  Such devastation! I kept waking up looking out the window to make sure we weren't in the "dark water rising".  Not the best choice of reading material given the circumstances.  

Before the storm

The golf course trail is under water between the 2nd hole and 3rd hole.  It looks like there are sharks swimming out there.  We think it's just some big catfish but there are fins showing.  Makes me wonder if we should be swimming in this lake! Noodling anyone?  

After the storm.  The leaning tree is the one in
the previous picture. Instead of on the shore, it's in the lake.

Still haven't heard anything about the boat which is kind of annoying.  I guess I'll start planning our route north and then we can head out whatever the boat news.  We'll have to wait until Monday as the boat service folks don't work on the weekends.  Go figure.  I guess they are out boating as well. Now we'll really have to be careful of the floating debris.  

Today we may head toward Branson and visit Table Rock Dam. Make sure it's still holding strong.  Or maybe we should just sit here and watch the water rise and start packing if it gets much higher - lol!  

Think I'll try my hand at noodling and see what bites!  

Inside of the "dinosaur egg".  Looks
like the inside of a pumpkin, seeds and
all.  Still don't know what grows from this.

Our new friend "Alvin".  He likes his snacks. (You can
see the water inching it's way toward the golf course
road in the background.)

All that water and . . .

This is what the shore looks like in a lot of areas.  It's no
wonder there are logs in the lake.

Middle Schoolers or Turkeys?

 . . . no boat.  Jeff had a little mishap yesterday when he was out fishing in the morning.  It had rained like crazy the night before and a huge log must of dislodged from the shore and floated out into the middle of this part of the lake.  He was only going about 15 mph but the log was floating just below the surface and he didn't see it.  Split the log right in half.  It doesn't look like it tore up anything but the motor won't go up and down anymore.  He thinks it might be the hydraulic thingymabobs. One of the other guys in the campground gave us the name of a boat fixit place so we went on an adventure yesterday into Missouri. We are only about 5 miles from the border between there and Arkansas.  Since we were out and about we drove over into Branson.  On a better day we'll have to spend some time exploring it. Hopefully, they will be able to fix the boat quickly.  Stinks to be on this much water with no boat.  One consolation is that the weather has not been great.  We are in the path of tropical storm Bill and just got a severe weather alert on my phone for flash flooding in this area.  Hopefully, we won't need a boat to get out of here.  They kayak might be a little squishy with four of us in it!

Thems turkeys in them there barns.

On a lighter note, we keep teasing the girls that we are going to buy this turkey farm.  It's right across from the entrance to the RV resort.  I wonder how much a turkey farm costs?  The girls would keep really busy feeding turkeys, scooping turkey poop.  It's a Butterball turkey farm!  Jeff said that turkeys are apparently really stupid animals.  Okay, I can work with middle schoolers or turkeys.  Hmmm?!?!  Not seeing a lot of difference there.  They probably smell about the same.  Jeff keeps reminding me that he is retired so I guess it would just be me and the girls scooping poop.  But heck, we could come back to this spot every night.  Gonna have to think on this!

We'll have to wait and see what the verdict on the boat is in terms of how long it takes to get it fixed.  If it's going to be awhile, we might change our plans and head north early and do that part of our trip and then come back here to spend time when we have a boat.  We'll keep our fingers crossed that it's a quick fix (and not expensive - thank goodness for insurance.)  It's all good.  We are on vacation after all.

What doesn't kill you . . .

. . . can sure hurt a lot!  Pickle ball is a court version of ping pong and the girls don't take playing any sport seriously.  There is more laughing and trash talk than anything; oh, and a lot of running after the ball.  But it's my fault that the game fell completely apart.  Jade hit one in my direction and I was going to hit it HARD back to her and ended up smacking myself in the face with the paddle.  At first they didn't know if I was laughing or crying - Jade showed some compassion, Mya just laughed at me.  All three of us were rolling on the ground - those two laughing and me laughing/crying and holding my forehead.  It resulted in a quarter size egg on my forehead and a headache.  What a dope! It still hurts this morning.  Thank goodness I didn't break my glasses.  They probably saved me from having an even bigger lump!

A small Gar.  I'm not eating it!

We think this is a White Bass.  

Jeff is getting good at catching all kinds of fish.  We have heard varying stories about how much you can eat.  I didn't realize how all our man-made pollution affects the fish population.  Some of the information I was reading said that you shouldn't even try to eat black bass because of the high mercury content.  White Bass and Crappie (pronounced croppy!) are edible but not a lot of them.  Jeff is going to do some more investigating so maybe we can eat what he catches without glowing in the dark.  Apparently, Gar are edible too but yew!

I think I could have gone a little farther but . . . there was
that banjo music playing in my head.

I went for a two hour kayak trip this morning. Gray and overcast but warm and calm. There are so many little coves and tributaries it would be very easy to get lost. It's so peaceful though and I can get back where the motorized boats can't go.  All you can hear are the birds and the bugs.  Saw two deer, does I think. On my return trip, one of the does had two little babies with her, all spotted like Bambie.  I must have seen at least 10 Great Blue Herons. They are not as happy to see me as I am them and as beautiful as they are, they make an awful sound.  They sounded like they were telling me off for disturbing their tranquility.  So do I have any pictures of these.  NO!  We got new phones and I didn't know how to zoom in.  But next time . . . It's a little eerie going back so far alone.  There is literally no one around - at least that I can see.  The theme music from Deliverance kept popping into my head.  It is Arkansas after all - lol!

There were some pretty flowers on this ridge.  Next time
I'll know how to use the zoom.

Jade's artwork - so cute.

Timed it just right.  As I type this the clouds have burst and it's pouring rain.  Too cozy though in our little home on wheels.  Great weather for reading or coloring our mandalas.  Found a great coloring book full of beautifully designed mandalas.  Mya has been working on one but is not quite finished. Today might just be right to start one myself. Jade spends a lot of time drawing and does the most darling animals. So talented.

Time for lunch.

Love having these on this lake.

Sunday Excitement - Trip to Wal-Mart

Sunday morning drive to Wal-Mart to get provisions.  It's a family outing!  We are remembering all the things we forgot to pack and it's also hard to feed 4 people out of our tiny fridge. Thank goodness Jeff bought the extra freezer that's in one of the bins.When we drove to Berryville  it was lunch time and we were hungry. We had the choice of Pizza Hut, McDonalds, or KFC so Jeff chose Pizza Hut. On Sunday, it's $6.50 per person for the buffet which has different kinds of pizza, breaksticks and salad.  The place fills up with all the people from the area churches. Jeff said we should make that our Sunday routine!

Map of Table Rock Lake - we are in
the lower right-hand corner

"T-Rex" wakeboarding.  Mya named her that because
she won't straighten out her arms.  

Spent some time on the lake Saturday.  So peaceful compared to Lake LBJ or even Canyon Lake. Cricket Marina is right around the corner so we can fill up easily - and the girls can fill up on ice cream! That's always the first question when we get to a new marina.
 Mya was right when she said we spend all our money on gas and ice cream.  Maybe instead of keeping track of RV fuel and mileage, I should keep track of boat fuel and ice cream expenses.  The way the girls eat ice cream, the RV fuel may be cheaper.  They both are figuring out the wake boarding thing.  It's pretty strenuous and crashing into the water either gives you a wedgie or fills your sinuses with lake water.  Sounds like fun, huh?!  There are a lot of fish in this lake including Gar which we've seen a lot of.  Now I'm kind of freaked out about being immersed in the water.  Do those things bite people?  Maybe it's better not knowing. 

Mya hanging on for dear life.  No one wants to crash!

We've got a pretty good routine going.  Jeff gets up around 6 and goes fishing.  I get up around 8 - 8:30 and can gokayaking, blog, whatever.  The girls sleep until around 10 or 11.  So we get the mornings to ourselves and then we have family time in the afternoon. I went kayaking yesterday morning and saw a "bambie" eating it's breakfast in the underbrush, two squirrels playing chase, a great blue heron getting it's breakfast, and a big dead catfish floating in the middle of the lake.  There are so many different birds and other animals here.  There seems to be a number of woodchuck families that live in the rock cliffs.  We have a chipmunk that comes to visit (we got him food at Wal-Mart too!) and we bought a hummingbird feeder that has already had visitors.  Don't know what we'll do today.  I think we may take on a game of Pickle Ball.  Mya has been at me to go play but I did something to my foot (probably from my toes gripping the brake pedal through Dallas!) so I'm not walking too well at the moment.  Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  She won't be up for a few more hours anyway!

This is NOT fun!

The Vampire at the pool - guess which
one this is?!

Found these in the debris piles of logs
down by the lake.  They look like
dinosaur eggs.  I think they are some
kind of seed pod.  We haven't been
brave enough to crack them open!

The one who likes having her pic taken.

Landing in Paradise

Home away from Home.  Lots of shade trees
and bushes for privacy.

The cobweb-free patio seating area. 

First morning waking up at our home away from home.  This place is so beautiful and tranquil. The lot we bought is surrounded by huge trees - gotta find out what kind they are. One side is an easement for electrical and it's been planted with all kids of bushes and flowers that give us great privacy from the neighboring lot. The wifi tower is also right there!

Got here about noon yesterday, had some lunch, got the boat launched (SOMEONE didn't button down a cushion and it went flying out of the boat.  Thank you Mya for risking life and limb to pull it out of the lake!)  and then spent some time cleaning up the place.  It's been vacant for awhile so the spiderwebs and bird poop have had a chance to take over. (There are a lot of birds here - yes, hello Mr. Mockingbird - but you know what that means!) I told Jeff we needed those pointy cone things that they put on marina light poles to keep the seagulls from pooping all over the posts.  Anyway - I got the patio table and chairs all scrubbed clean and we found some beautiful, like-new seat cushions in one of the storage bins so we enjoyed our first toddy (or two!)

"Walls" of Table Rock Lake.  Need to learn more about
the geology of the area.

looking out over the golf course and lake.

The girls seem happy to be here - Jade was happy I was de-cobwebbing everything; she's a bit of a freak about spiderwebs and such.  We went for an after-dinner boat ride just to get a sense of our surroundings.  I've only been out on the lake once in my kayak and not very far. Jeff has never been on the lake.  It's huge!!! There is a marina just around the corner from here so we can get gas easily. The lake is fed by the White River and this area must have gotten a lot of rain like we had in Texas because the shoreline is littered with all kinds of logs. People have been going around and stacking it into piles.  Don't know if they plan on burning them.  We did see one huge pile close the the marina and it had been lit and was smoldering.  Kind of tricky on the lake too because there are a lot of logs floating in the water. Jade and Mya both got to drive the boat last night.  You should see there faces when they get it going fast - grins from ear to ear!

Hwy 540 up to Fayetteville, AR.  My kind of country

Hwy 311 - We're not in Dallas anymore, Toto.

The drive yesterday was uneventful.  I absolutely LOVE this part of the world.  Lush, green rolling hills and dotted with pastureland. This area we are in seems to be the home of the Tyson chicken and Butterball Turkey farms (Hwy 311).  There are signs at the various farms but you don't need a sign to know you've driven by one; the smell is enough of a sign - phew!  "Jesus" (our GPS) tried to steer us down some dirt road but luckily we had looked at the route ahead of time and I knew enough to turn on 311, not 811.  Jeff tried to get me to take a road that "looked okay" on the map.  I chickened out (no pun intended - har!har!) and decided to go the slightly longer but safer route.  And since I'm always in the lead driving, he just followed.  I said to Mya, "I can't believe he is following me.  After 24+ years of getting us lost, he is a brave soul!"  There has been no chance to fall asleep at the wheel with both girls laughing, singing, giggling, and playing with the dang

radio stations.  They've discovered that radio reception is a bit weak out here in the sticks so they just try to sing louder than the static.  It's a good thing Jeff is in the car!

I could just stay here forever.  Got everything we need.

Well, it's 11:30 now and Mya is finally up. Haven't heard a word from Jade. It's either go to the pool or take apart the patio lights and clean out the cobwebs. Hmmm?  Decisions. Decisions.

June 10th - Jeff's birthday.  Dyslexia has it's benefits;
Jeff is only 46! Thanks Mya:-)

Traveling with Teens

Mya is wearing the perfect shirt for the trip.

Thank you Theresa and Scott for our "heading out" photo!!  We have the best neighbors ever!

Here we go! Mom, you would
have totally freaked out - lol!

Whew!  Day one was a nail biter.  Headed out about 9:30 a.m. Both Jeff and I talked about how we were considerably more nervous on this trip since we are driving separate vehicles until we get to our spot at Table Rock Lake. My biggest concern was getting through downtown Dallas - I've never even been there before.  Jeff has to stop more frequently for fuel than I do so it's not like we were following each other.  The girls did a good job of keeping me awake.  Mya asks lots of questions and Jade played with the dang radio the whole seven hours we were on the road.  I now know the lyrics to about six songs that kept playing over and over again on the different stations as we made our way north through Texas.  My favorite song now is "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon.  I'm going to be the coolest middle school librarian in town because I'll know all the songs and who sings them.  (Today, Jade kindly told me to "Shut up and Drive" - such a smart one.)  There's one song none of us get, something about "my face being numb when I see you"???  We'll have to listen to that one again to figure it out.

Proof I really drove through this mess.
No, it's not photoshopped.  Notice the white knuckles.

Anyhoo . . . driving through Dallas was crazy! Such beautiful buildings; we were in awe.  But it seemed like every road was under construction and even though we were there around 3:30 p.m. I swear the entire world was on the roads.  There was a cloud burst.  The GPS came through though, we made it through the turns and loopydiloops and the sun came out!  I was worrying about Jeff, he was worrying about me but all was well.  My favorite area along the way was Waxahachie just south of Dallas - lush, green rolling hills.

The place we were headed for the night was in Melissa, TX and of course, the exit for the place was also under construction so we had these funky instructions about getting off here, doing a u-turn there (yeah, right in a 35 foot RV).  Thank goodness we google-earthed it before we left so that when we got to that spot I could visualize what I needed to do.  When I finally made it through all the construction and onto the service road that led to the RV park I just looked up and said "Thank you Jesus and GPS".  We are thinking of naming the GPS "Jesus" (the hispanic pronunciation!) It sounds sort of the same.  It has saved us time and time again - lol!  Jeff missed the turn the first time around but showed up about 10 minutes later thank goodness.

Today we crossed into Oklahoma around 9:35 a.m. and all was quite because the girls were still sleeping.  Kind of dull all on my own though.  Jade fixed that when she got up and got the tunes going.  Heard the same dang songs we heard all day yesterday.  There have been some good 60s and 70s stations that I love and know ALL the words to the songs (remember John Mellencamp's Hurts so Good" anyone?) Jade couldn't believe I knew all the words - she laughed at me!

Today was a fairly short day.  We are sitting in a dumpy KOA in Alma, Arkansas right on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border.  Hence the dumpiness of the place.  Sorry - I just haven't seen anything in my trips through Oklahoma to recommend it for much.  It's Jeff's birthday so we've got presents and cake for him tonight.  We only have to drive about 130 miles tomorrow to get to Table Rock so we'll arrive around noon and can get settled.  Looking forward to it!!  I think it's pool time - it's 96 degrees - whew!