Day 20

  Back in the Rio Grande valley it is hot and dry. Had been that way for some time. It has rained on us nearly everyday since we left Aransas Pass. Alters some plans but you adjust, adapt and over come. Guess where we are in this map

  I took my shirt off to see if I could find a bullseye painted on the back...

 Yesterday I sat in on a fly fishing demonstration given by one of the park rangers. Informative and I did learn some things. May get the fly rod out of storage and try again. Same ranger also cooked fresh rainbow trout for a demonstration last night. Rainbow are stocked in the river as they normally will not reproduce like the Brown and Brook. The flesh of a hatchery raised Rainbow is white. The flesh of one born in the river is pink like a salmon. While both are tasty the pink flesh is better.

 I have spoken of the fog on the river. In yesterdays video you might have noticed wisp of it hanging in the air. The attached raw, unedited video was shot around 6:30 pm just after a rain.

 And even though we are less than 100 feet from the river the temperature bankside is probably 10 degrees cooler. Such is the effect of the cold river water.

 A quick word about Arkansas state parks. This is our third park on this trip and we are very impressed. Facilities in good shape, a lot of programs scheduled, friendly staff and rangers. We will stay at two more in late October, early November on our way home.

gathering rosebuds and making memories

White River

 First it might be informative if I showed you where we are, courtesy of Google Earth.

  Bull Shoals lake was created by damming the White river. The dam is also used for power generation, serving parts of 6 states I am told. When they are not releasing water you can almost walk across it. Because they have had a wet year the lake is full and 5 of 6 gates are open. The water comes from the bottom of the lake and is about 50 degrees in temp. This cold water then creates fog on the river that comes and goes. It is well known for trout fishing. Four types: brown, rainbow, brook and cutthroat are caught in the river. I managed to find the dumbest trout in the river, a 10 inch Brown. The water is crystal clear and I saw it hit my lure. Of course, I released it after thanking it for the excitement.

More to come from this area


video

ps:
I was trying to cook shrimp scampi while also editing that video. The result is not something I am proud, of but will leave it up for now. I can, and will, produce better videos to give you a view and a feel for our experience. Frustrated with my still photography results and having fun learning video shooting and editing, thus more video and fewer photos.


carpe diem

Day 18

 Well we are back in the 21st century, technology wise. We enjoyed our stay at Lake Ouachita even though the weather altered some plans. All the sites here are very spacious and well laid out. We have since moved on to Bull Shoals/White river state park, home of excellent trout fishing.

Travel Map

 If you were put off by my video efforts in filming Goose Island, these are shorter and much better. Give them a look see.

 We will be here for a week and weather is drying out. Should have some interesting photos and videos coming your way soon.




carpe diem

Off the grid

No cell service, no internet, marginal satellite tv, no over the air tv. No, we are not deep in the Amazon but rather at Lake Quachita state park north of Hot Springs. Had to leave park and am sitting in car beside road to do this update. All is well and will catch up with pics and videos when we can. Tried to do video but speed is too sloooowww.

Heavy rain on the way


Carpet diem

Normally they are wrong

 Weather forecasters make a nice living being wrong most of the time. Wish they were wrong now. Being just north of Texarkana, we are in the bulls eye. Don't care to drive in heavy rain, saw four wrecks yesterday, so will stay put.

 Hope they open the spillway...

  How highs the water momma

Lake Millwood SP

 We have swam our way into Arkansas safely. No heavy rain thankfully along the way. Almost have the place to ourselves, suspect cancellations as other sites reserved. A few issues have developed that may cause some changes in our plans, hopefully only minor and temporary.


TRAVEL MAP


MILLWOOD STATE PARK




rosebuds are pretty soggy

WTH?

Who planned this trip? Better question is guess where we are heading? Cooling our heels here at state park hoping it would move out. Weather dot com had it moving past in an hour or so. Beginning to think they were wrong.