Campsite One

I am invited to drive around the park and choose a camping area.  There are a number of organized primative sites with drive in parking spaces, and the park is practically empty.  But one area, Sailboat Beach, has a sprawling grassy area running down a gentle grade to the water, with the option to put up a tent anywhere.  With the temperature hoving at 100 degrees in bright sun at 4pm, I select a spot fifty feet from the water, under the shade of a spreading leafy tree.

Returning to pay the $16 I owe for a night's camping, the office has closed, and I go to the small store instead.  The older gentleman behind the counter informs me that he grew up in Clinton, AR, and we exchange stories of our use of the internet to solve problems involving repairs of things.

Back at the site, I am the only human in sight, though a bunny greets me as I drive down to the shady tree I have selected.  The heat is like a heavy blanket after hours in the AC of the car.  I open a Negra Modelo, and begin to unpack the car.  Tent up on the lovely thick grass, mattress inflated, food and gear ready on the picnic table.  The water beckons, and I can no longer resist.  As no one is around I consider a skinny dip, but instead timidly don trunks.

The bank has a very gradual descent, reminding me of the Gulf of Mexico on the east coast of FL.  I am 40 feet off shore and the water is only waist deep, a far cry from Beaver, where I am over my head five feet from the shore by the cabin's dock. The thermocline here is much shallower than at Beaver--the surface water is bathtub warm, but only 2-3 feet below the surface, the cold layer almost takes my breath.  But I feel as though I have been waiting for this water all day, and I swim my required number of strokes and then float around quite a while.

I've been noshing all day on road food--sausage, cheese and crackers as a nod to trips of yesteryear, and on carrots and jicama (Karim, I'm finally eating the jicama!)  So I am full after the three beers and decide not to cook anything,  I packed lots of fresh healthy food from home--HB eggs, sauerkraut, summer sq and zuccini, yogurt.  So I'll be eating that stuff for the first few days, before i start in on the canned goods, brown rice, vacuum packed soups, etc.

Checked the weather as the western horizon was getting dark.  50% chance of Tstorms 8-11 tonight.  Piled all the gear on the picnic table so I can tarp it if it rains.  Tent fly off to get the breeze, but ready to put it up if the rain arrives.

Before the storm?

It is earlier than sundown, but the sun has  been behind dark clouds as I've been writing this.  Breeze has pickup up--now maybe 7-8mph, very peasant, in from the lake and thus not as hot as earlier.