We're On the Road Again!

We're on the road again! We had been planning this 12-day tour into the Arkansas Ozarks while we impatiently waited for winter to turn into spring. We went to early church, then loaded food into the refrigerator and freezer, and hooked the trailer to the pickup. After six months of the trailer being winterized, we were glad to flush the pink anti-freeze out of the water lines and start another season of wandering His wonders!

Our first stop was just two hours south at Kansas's Lake Crawford State Park. On a Sunday afternoon in April, we had our choice of 80 available sites, so we didn't even make a reservation. We thought we would save the $2.50 reservation fee, but found they charge a $3.00 walk-up fee. Bummer! We paid the $15 annual state park day-use fee when we renewed our Kansas tag on the pickup, and this was the first time we've used it. So we didn't have to pay today's $5 per day use fee. For some reason, it feels like we were spending more money than we were saving here at Lake Crawford!

Since this was a one-night stop, we left the pickup hooked up. On his first attempt, Mark backed perfectly into our spot in Oak Point campground. His RV driving skills weren't even rusty from taking the winter off! We have lake views in an uncrowded park on a beautiful spring day.  Since the pickup was still hooked up, our only choices for exploring the state park were on foot or on bicycle. We considered not bringing the fold-up bikes, but we were glad to have them as we started the ten-mile circle around the lake. Have we mentioned it's good to be on the road again? 

We stopped for lake views and rode the heavily shaded side roads to places like Lonesome Point.

We rode the paved road that goes all the way around Lake Crawford, and we only saw one other vehicle on this Sunday afternoon in April. We also stopped in at the butterfly garden. 

While the butterflies were few and far between in April, this hummingbird moth was sampling the pollen while Denisa snapped his picture.

We stopped at the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) museum to get information about this group. Crawford Lake was formed from a dam constructed by the CCC in the 1930's. We've seen many sights all over the United States that were built by these young unemployed men whose families were literally starving during the depression. In exchange for their labor, the young men were fed, clothed, and housed, plus paid $30 per month. $25 was sent home to their families, so they were left with $5 in "fun money" for the month. The CCC was formed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and its goal was to enroll young men into a "peace-time army, sent into battles against the destruction of our natural resources." The natural stone structures they built almost 100 years ago are still in use today. The old stone watch tower is now a museum at Lake Crawford State Park.

This area also included a little cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. Arriving in April meant that some of the facilities were not yet open. But the purple irises out front were open.

We also walked to the Farlington Fish Hatchery just a quarter mile from the lake. It consisted of 30 ponds that stretched as far as we could see. They produce 231,123 channel catfish, 162,888 largemouth bass, and assorted sunfish, bluegill, and walleye here.

With numbers like that, perhaps even we could catch some fish here. But this area was closed to fishing.

At this point, the only thing between us and our camp site was a two-mile bike ride that included crossing the low water bridge. Because of recent rains, the water was flowing swiftly over the road. There were signs warning to not attempt to walk through the water to cross the bridge.

About this time, we heard a loud hiss right behind Mark. He had a blow out on his rear bike tire! Now what are we going to do?!? The good news was that the green slime inside the tire sealed the puncture, and it had a little bit of air left. It would be better to walk his bike home, but not across that low water crossing. What are we going to do?

It made for a very interesting ride over the low water bridge. But we made it! Now it was Denisa's job to ride behind Mark, with instructions to yell if the tire got so low that it would damage the rim.

We had to ride across the dam and through the campground. Denisa yelled more than once, but Mark just kept pedaling. While the sealant inside the inner tube stopped most of the leak, Mark was riding on very little air by the time we got back to the trailer. Being on the road again does not mean that everything goes smoothly. At the end of our first day, we enjoyed a nice sunset over Lake Crawford--still happy that we were on the road again.