Friday, June 14, 2019

A Tough Stay with a Good Ending

We have had an eventful week while camping at Clinton Lake State Park near Lawrence, Kansas. We've explored the neighboring towns, and spent some good time with our son's family thirty miles away. That's a cue to insert another picture of our granddaughter, just home from church! 

But every camping experience isn't idyllic. We stayed here because we thought it would give us opportunities to hike and kayak. But with all the rainfall, we can't get to the lake. All the roads to the boat ramps and the swimming beach are blocked off so we can't even see the water, much less kayak on it. Even though we like our 50-amp electric and water site, this campground has a strange vibe. It seems that the two-week stay limit is not being enforced, and we have some trashy neighbors with RVs that haven't been moved for a while. We've never been in a state park quite like this one.

It looks like there is a trail system in the park, but all the rain has left everything muddy. After a couple days without rain, we decided to try one of the trails that starts at our campground. We went straight down the steps, thinking we were finally going to see the lake. The swollen lake had actually flooded the trail, so we had to take the muddy trail back the way we came. But at least we can say that we finally saw the lake.

In the thick of the woods, we did have a wildlife spotting. This deer seemed surprised to see people on the trails that had been flooded for weeks.

So we were only on the lake trail for about a quarter of a mile, when we opted to fore-go the mud and climb back up the steps to the campground again. That's when we spotted the first one! Mark is a bit of a tick-magnet, and he found two on his shirt as soon as we emerged out of the trees. But then he felt a tickle, and he found this tiny tick crawling quickly up his leg. He found a second tiny tick, while we were making a straight line for the showers to rid ourselves of any more. This is a very zoomed-in picture next to Mark's fingernail, to illustrate just how tiny these last two ticks are.

Mark had a total of seven, while Denisa only had one tick. We don't know if that larger number is because of his magnetic personality, or the fact that he was in the lead on this hike. We took a picture of Denisa's tiny ticks on the end of a Q-tip, with a pencil lead to give it some scale to size.

After all those yucky tick pictures, it seems like a good time to add some beauty to this blog. How about another Carter picture?!?

Also during our stay, Denisa came down with a fierce digestive tract bug. Without going into details, she had a miserable 12 hours. That's the first time either of us has experienced that since we went on the road 4.5 years ago, and we hope it's the last. No photos--but you get the picture.

Even when we're on a full-time vacation, we have stops like this one. So even though we had some fun here, we weren't sad when it was time to move on. Our next stop was a lot more picturesque. We are visiting cousins--Craig and Leta--who live around thirty miles from the lake.

They have an acreage that is so neat that it almost makes us want to settle down and buy a house again.

Denisa fell in love with the chickens that roam the area. They are so used to being hand-fed that they came close whenever she tried to take a picture.

After a day of roaming the yard, these happy chickens are safe inside their very stylish chicken condo at night.

It was fun to watch the rooster crowing, as he was trying to herd his hens around the yard.

Craig and Leta also have bees, and it was interesting to see the hives in the pasture right beside their house.

The worker bees were coming and going from the opening at the bottom of the hive. They were as busy as bees gathering pollen from the fields and flowers around them.

Each fall they harvest the honey, and we were lucky enough to leave with honey for our breakfast toast. Yummy!

What we didn't leave with was our motor home. It's staying here with the chickens to guard it. Craig and Leta are letting us store it in their yard for the next five days while we are doing some real baby-sitting. 

Our daughter-in-law is heading to a surprise event for a friend at Lake Tahoe, so we are keeping our granddaughter while our son is at work for the next few days. That seems like a cue to take a picture of the two of them before Mom leaves for the airport.

So after a tough beginning to this blog, we can report that all is once again well as we continue to wander His wonders.

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