Table Rock Lake from Eagle Rock Campground

After a good night's sleep in the Walmart parking lot in Neosho, Missouri, we are on the road to our first campground. We are headed down the narrow winding highways of the Ozark mountains this morning.

We are calling this the roller coaster highway, as it dips up and down through the Ozark Mountains. In this unusually straight section, you can see the ribbon of highway climbing up before it plummets down and immediately back up again. It was quite a ride in a 35-foot motor home.

That road also went beside the edges of Table Rock Lake, and that is our destination today. The only way to get to our campground is over those winding roads, and that might be the reason we found an empty camping spot.

While some of the areas near the lake are flooded, Eagle Rock campground is built on a hill so it is safe and dry. We can't say the same for the day-use area, where most of the tables and grills are under water.

Likewise, the roads and parking lots closer to the lake are also under water.

After getting the motor home set up in this nice Corp of Engineer campground, we put the kayak on the lake.

We're used to steering around branches and rocks, but today we were making our way around grills and picnic tables that were totally submerged. This table top was still sticking out of the water, and it reminded us of swim-up bars in those fancy resorts. This is our less-fancy version of a boat-up picnic table.

Table Rock Lake is a snake-like body of water that meanders through the valleys of the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri. We are in the southwest corner of this map of the lake.

This evening's kayak trip took us to the very end of one of the hundreds of inlets and coves on this lake.

Mark spotted this snake in the water beside us. He read that venomous water snakes float on top of the water, while non-venomous snakes swim with only their heads out. The picture is a little fuzzy, but we think that we are glad that he was heading the other way. Mark spotted two different snakes today, but Denisa purposefully has a hard time seeing them.

Instead of looking at snakes, Denisa would rather be concentrating on the giant purple blooms that are draped in the trees that hang over the lake.

We are guessing that these are relatives to the wisteria plants we have seen in well-manicured gardens. But today they are planted along this wild lake.

We were out on the water until the sun began to set. The water on this huge lake was calm and peaceful tonight. We feel like we have wandered into another of God's wonders this evening at Eagle Rock Campground.

After 40 days and nights - we're on the road again!

After 40 days (and 40 nights), we're glad to be back in our motor home! That's a long time to live out of a suitcase! But we are so glad to be welcomed into the homes of our mothers, siblings, and friends while we were doing what needed to be done during those 40 days. Denisa's Mother is enjoying her new place in town, that allows her more freedom without that 18-mile drive from the country. It also allows for more visitors to drop by to see her.

Even though we will miss our friends and family in Oklahoma and Kansas, we are glad to be back home in our own bed. We also appreciate that our siblings have harbored our motor home during these 40 days. Denisa's sister and brother-in-law hosted it in their yard when we made the speedy trip to the Oklahoma panhandle after the fire. Then Mark's brother and sister-in-law made room for it in their barn. We had to let the air out of the leveling air bags to fit it under the rafters, but the motor home enjoyed cover over its head during some spring storms during those 40 days.

We spent the 41st night back inside the motor home under that cover with a 50-amp hook-up. But first, Mark cleaned the windshield that was dirty after 40 days.

Then we could enjoy a beautiful view across their pond, watching the clouds go by.

We were up early the next morning, as we were excited to be on the road again! Mark pulled the motor home out of the barn quickly, before the air bags could pump up. Then we headed east for the summer's adventure. But it wasn't a very glamorous travel day. Our first stop was to take care of the chore of the annual oil change. We pulled into the Speedco in Big Cabin, Oklahoma, about an hour down the road. This is the first time we've tried this subsidiary of Love's. They don't take appointments, so this is a first-come-first-served oil change. Even though we arrived at 9:45 a.m., we didn't leave until after 2:00 p.m. We bought a large lemonade at the adjacent Love's, and spent that time researching our route.

That's when we found that much of our planned route was flooded. While we just drove through drought-stricken sections of Texas and Oklahoma, we are finding that the lakes and rivers of Kansas and Missouri are flooding from too much rain. We found that the second campground where we had planned to stay was under water! So we're working on Plan B. Soon after we left Speedco, we crossed our first state line of the summer. We're now in Missouri!

Our original plan was to wind through the lakes of southern Missouri, but maybe we would try the faster and straighter highways further north? When we called a little private campground on that route, they were totally booked up on a Tuesday night in May. What?!? We hope this isn't an indication of our camping luck this summer. So we opted for a Walmart parking lot for this first night on the road. 

After being away from the motor home for 40 days, we needed to make a major shopping trip to replenish our bare pantry. We stopped in Neosho, Missouri, where we shopped at all our favorite places--Braums for ice cream and milk, Aldi for fruits and vegetables, and Walmart for miscellaneous. With our chores done, we're ready to really be on the road again! But wait, we have another problem. On this 80-degree day, we discovered that our motor home's dash air-conditioner isn't working, What?!? Mark spent some time checking voltage and discovered the air conditioner clutch wasn't engaging. This Walmart has a truck parking section, and one of those very helpful drivers offered to help. He had a freon gauge and determined it was low. So Mark bought freon at our Walmart, and we now have cool air for our next drive.

But first we're checking out the Neosho National Fish Hatchery--the oldest in the country. They've been raising fish here since 1888.

Many of those fish have been rainbow trout, that were introduced into Missouri in the 1880s. Free fish food is available on the porch of the visitor center, and these sizable trout roll to the top of the water in a feeding frenzy when Denisa sprinkled the food on the water.

These big fish will be the stars of fishing derbies for children and senior citizens later this summer. The administrator of the hatchery  said that we should stick around for the fishing derby, and then he added "if you were only ten years older to qualify as a senior citizen." We really liked that guy! We also saw thousands of baby fish that were about the size of our fingers. These are called fingerlings, and they are housed in one of the indoor tanks in the hatching building until they are about 3 inches long.

Then they are transferred to the long narrow "race ways" where they will grow on a steady diet of specially formulated fish food, swimming in cool water that has been oxygenated. While we saw trout bigger and smaller, this hatchery's goal is providing 10-inch trout to be relocated to Lake Taneycomo near Branson. We were glad to be there on the day that the fish taxis showed up. The trucks first had to be disinfected, then filled with the 60-degree spring water that these trout have been swimming in all their lives. This hatchery was built just down the hill from a sizable spring that fills the ponds and raceways with the cool water that trout needs.

The trout are herded down to the end of their raceway, and then held there with a fish corral. We watched as the fish were netted out of their water . . .

and then transferred into their fish taxi. It was fun to watch the process! But we couldn't help but notice that the newest and smallest employee was doing the hardest job of lifting that net and dumping the fish into that tall truck tank. She was on her tip toes!

We found out that this hatchery also does some specialized work to help protect endangered species. We saw the red drum fish that are used as hosts for raising some endangered fresh water mollusks.

They also raise primitive-looking fish called sturgeon. In the visitor center, we saw two different kinds of these dinosaur-like fish. The larger and lighter fish is a pallid sturgeon, and they are endangered.

Sometimes called "dinosaur fish," sturgeons cruise the bottom of lakes and feed from their mouths that are situated under them. These fresh water sturgeon can grow to be six-feet in length.

The Neosho National Fish Hatchery also works with lake sturgeon, and they are expecting about 15,000 baby sturgeon when these eggs hatch in a few days.

Besides seeing thousands of fish today, we took a picture of the two resident ducks.

Even though we are on the road now, that doesn't mean that we are finished with all the work of completing the insurance claim for Denisa's Mother's home. Denisa took another phone call for that situation while we were watching the fish trucks being loaded. For some reason, Mark thought that was photo-worthy.

After 40 days and nights, we're glad to be back in the motor home. It hasn't been a very glamorous travel day, but we got some chores done and we're glad to be on the road again.

One last party before we hit the road

We had always planned this stop-over to Oklahoma and Kansas this spring--we just didn't plan for the stop to be quite as long or start quite as early because of a fire. But we were always planning to be here for a very important birthday--our granddaughter Carter's 4th birthday. She was wearing her party hat like a unicorn, as she watched Mom light her 4th birthday candle.

She wasn't so sure about that candle when it flared into a sparkler candle celebrating that 4th birthday.

This party was hosted at the lake house, with all the grandparents and aunt and uncles in attendance. We love celebrating with this group!

This little girl loves horses, so that's how the birthday cake and cookies were decorated. As you can see, everyone wore their party hats traditionally, except for Carter . . .

and her Grand-dude. Now we know where she inherited her party-hat style. 

We know that Carter loves horses, but we thought that perhaps it was time for something else for her birthday. Gram had asked her, "How about a baby doll that you can change her clothes?" Carter thought for a moment and replied, "How about a horse that I can change clothes?" So we bought a herd of horses, and then Gram began sewing horse clothes. 

Gram's fabric resources were a bit limited. But with the help of our friend Connie and our sister Connie's fabric scraps, Gram managed to make 21 different horse outfits that varied from denim to fur to velvet and lace.

We would say that the experiment was successful, as Carter immediately started dressing her horses and lining them up.

This warm weekend also allowed some time for a boat ride on the lake, and then bubble time. The adults and the children had a good time!

Besides a fourth birthday, we also celebrated Mother's Day that weekend. Denisa was blessed to get to spend the weekend with her favorite men.

Those men took over cooking duties for the day, so Denisa snapped a picture of three handsome men preparing oven roasted sweet potatoes, asparagus, and steaks.

We'll be driving the motor home off into the sunset very soon, but this weekend we were happy to drive around in the golf cart--one of Eli's favorite things. It was fun having one last 4th birthday party and Mother's Day before we hit the road!

We've had some fun on the weekends!

We've had a hodge-podge of blog entries lately, covering Denisa's Mother's house fire, and then catching up with our travels before the fire. We are now wrapping up the loose ends of fire insurance and getting Betty settled in her new place. We've learned some things about making an insurance claim that we wish we didn't have to know. We made a spread-sheet of 432 items in the house that had to be individually listed with purchase dates and name brands. Her policy was a cash-basis plan, not a replacement-value, which made it more complicated. We met with a fire inspector, a claims adjuster, and made countless calls to the insurance office in charge of the claim. We sent copies of clothing and food receipts, records of mileage driven, and rent receipts as we got Betty settled into a new place to live. That also included two weeks of cleaning and fixing up that new place. 

It has been over seven weeks since the fire, and we still haven't gotten the final settlement from the insurance company. That might not seem like such a long time, unless you consider how many expenses one has when they have to replace everything. It takes a lot of money to continue life after a fire!

While we were working most of those first five weeks, we were also playing on the weekends. For example, the second weekend we made the trip to Kansas City to spend time with our oldest son and his family over the Easter weekend.

We colored eggs,

and painted rocks,

played, and read lots of books. That's a look of love shared by both the guys in the picture below.

Besides coloring and hunting Easter eggs, we also made a trip to the Kansas City Zoo with our daughter-in-law and grandchildren on a cool weather day.

We found that the animal statues are easier to photograph than the real animals . . .

and the merry-go-round animals are especially fun.

The third weekend we drove to Oklahoma City, and took Eli to spend a little time with his great Grandmother. Betty is still smiling after the fire, and glad to see her youngest great-grandchild.

We had more family time that weekend, as we got to attend a great niece's 11th birthday party.

Then we got to be there when our youngest son ran his second half-marathon race. We watched the start of the race on television, where we could see the thousands of runners lined up for as far as the television cameras could see. Runners Magazine calls this one of the 12 best marathons in the country. The runners today came from 47 different states and 12 different countries.

Then we walked quickly to a point where we could see Blake at the six-mile point of the course.

This area is called "mimosa beach" where less serious runners can stop for a drink.

While the runners looped around three more miles, we walked straight to the intersecting point to see that Blake was still running smoothly at around mile 9.

Then we drove quickly to the finish line to watch Blake still running well after 13.1 miles! This is "The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon" and it memorializes the 168 people that died in the Murrah Building bombing on April 19, 1995. The last part of the race is lined with pictures of the 168 victims, which included children that were in the day care on the first floor of the building.

Before the race, Blake texted us that he would be pleased with a finish time of 1:40, happy with a time of 1:39, and very happy with a finish of 1:38. So we knew he was ecstatic when his finish time was less than 1:35. That's an hour and 35 minutes of running, and averaging 7.25 minutes per mile. His cheering party met him at the finish line festival for pictures, and we all had smiles on our faces because we were so proud of him! His adoring crowd also includes his wife, and her parents.

The finish line is in Scissortail Park, where views of downtown Oklahoma City make a good back drop.

We kept suggesting that Blake sit down and rest his legs, but he wasn't even tired. So what did we do after we ate tacos? We went for a three-mile walk around their neighborhood.

Our walk included some of the marathon path, including a notorious hill. From watching Blake's progress on the race app, we noticed that this big incline was labeled "gorilla hill" for the racers.

The fourth weekend we drove to Wichita Falls, Texas, for a great nephew's wedding. That nephew is 6'6" and his bride is right at six feel tall. So Mark's Mother looked short between the bride and groom.

The wedding was a great time to see many of Mark's family members, including his Mother and his siblings.

That trip was close to our friends, Connie and Steven's house, and they let us stay with them. We got to do some hiking at Quartz Mountains State Park while we were there.

After taking some pictures of the hikers from the front with those beautiful granite mountains behind them . . .

Denisa had to take this picture from the back. What are they doing?

They are sneaking up on this eastern collared lizard. We don't have the good camera with us, so they are trying to get the closest picture possible with their cell phones.

While we are talking about scaly reptiles, we have to include a picture of the snake that Mark and Joe found while cleaning up the yard at Denisa's Mother's new house. We had never seen anything like the underside of this snake with bright yellow and orange colors. When he googled it, Mark determined it was a nonvenomous ring-necked snake. When disturbed, they will coil up their tails and raise it up to expose the bright orange underside.

While we are creeping you out with snake pictures, we should also mention that we went to the Rattlesnake Derby in the nearby town of Mangum on that fourth weekend. This festival is complete with a carnival, blocks of vendors, and the chance to buy fried rattlesnake. But the highlight is the rattlesnake pit with hundreds of live snakes. Denisa was a little disappointed that attending on a Friday evening means that the snake pit was closed. But we also didn't have to deal with the 30,000 people that would be attending on Saturday. 

The fifth weekend we were at Mark's brother's house in eastern Oklahoma, for a Cinco de Maya fiesta party. 

It was a fund-raiser for their church youth, which included some of our great nieces. We shared a great evening with twenty others, enjoying the Mexican food and live music, and beautiful weather on the patio.

We had a special treat because our best friends from thirty years ago were there, and we got to spend time catching up with them.

Our weeks were filled with the work of fire insurance, shopping for replacement items, cleaning out a house, and then moving Denisa's Mother into a new place. But we had weekends of fun as well. It has been more than seven weeks since we got the phone call that Denisa's Mother's house had burned to the ground. We are glad that we could help get her life back on track, but we are also glad that we got to have some fun on the weekends!