Author Archives: Jill and Bud

We’ve moved on to central Kentucky.

We’re camped at Dog Creek Campground, which is a Corps of Engineers campground on Nolan River Lake and is just north of Mammoth Cave National Park.

Today we took a tour of Wondering Woods Cave, which starts with a short bus ride from the visitor’s center to the cave area. Wondering Woods was a theme park that operated into the 60’s. The land was acquired by the National Park in 1970. The cave was never developed as part of the theme park, in fact the entrance was blocked.

Recently a pavilion was built along with this broad path…

with a wooden bridge over a gully. The cave was opened for tours in 2022.

Metal steps take you down to the widened entrance…

where a bit of stooping gets you inside. (This is actually looking back on our way out, on the way in I was too busy stooping to get a picture.)

Once inside there are more stairs down into a fairly large room.

Mammoth Cave is the longest cave in the world with 400 miles of passages. Wondering Woods cave is small, the part you can visit is just this one large room, but it is very ornate. This is looking back towards the entrance.

And this is looking forward towards the far end of the cave where a double stairway takes you up for a closer look.

This is looking up. It seems like the cave is as high as it is long.

As we climbed the stairs back out…

Kelly, our trailing guide, turned out the lights,

leaving the cave behind us in darkness.

This was a short tour in a small cave, but still required about a mile of walking and 194 stair steps. Bud had no problems and we both enjoyed it. His new knee definitely works!

We’re traveling again. We didn’t forget how, the truck was fine, the trailer was fine and Bud was fine. Yea!

We left at 9 AM, drove northeast through Arkansas and the southeast part of Missouri. Here we are about to cross the Mississippi into Tennessee.

The Mississippi still looks low to me.

We came to Reelfoot Lake State Park where we were able to level the camper without unhitching.

Reelfoot is a shallow, pretty little lake with an interesting origin. It was formed by the four strong earthquakes of 1811-1812 that occurred along the Madrid Fault. These quakes were so strong they were felt in Quebec and were said to make the Mississippi run backwards for over 10 hours. In the upheaval the Reelfoot River, which was a tributary of the Mississippi, was blocked and formed Reelfoot Lake. Most of the shoreline now belongs to the state of Tennessee.

We are enjoying the state lands. I love the oak and cypress trees, Bud enjoys the peace and quiet and Matey likes the squirrels. There is a trail to another area of the park for us to explore tomorrow.

It’s great to see the sunset in a new place.

We’ve been here a long time, but we’ve taken care of a lot of things.

The truck has a new 40 gallon auxiliary fuel tank that feeds diesel into the main tank 5 gallons at a time at the push of a button.

We also had a new brush guard installed on the front.

We sorted and repacked our stuff so we could fit everything in the shorter available truck bed. The old step ladder wouldn’t fit, so I got this new 12 foot telescoping step ladder, very pricey, but very nice.

It made the job of washing and waxing the trailer almost fun.

We removed the old bumper hitch luggage carrier and instead I installed a rack for our portable gray water tank and a round carrier for sewer hoses. With the hollow square bumper below it we can now carry three sewer hoses. The elbow and “Y” fittings go in a small tote that will fit in our pass through cubby. (The white thing in the hanging plastic bag is our outdoor temperature sensor, wrapped in a paper towel. We deploy that at each stop where it will be out of the sun. The towel is to absorb any condensation.)

We also got a replacement door for our fresh water fill. The old door was missing the knob. They sent us the whole box, but I didn’t want to unseal the existing one. The knob assembly looked like it might break if you tried to remove it, but the little door was easy to take off from the back. Of course I couldn’t get at the back of the old one but I managed to cut off the old door and the new one was easy to put on from the front.

Inside the trailer we got a new mattress. If it looks like one side of the bed is higher than the other, it is. That’s because the new mattress with our latex mattress topper is perfect for me, but Bud felt like he was sleeping in a hole. We took the topper off and Bud was happy with just the mattress, but I woke up with a backache. So I cut the topper in half. Matey must not have liked the height change across the foot of the bed where he sleeps, so I took some of the spare latex and made him a cushion for the floor next to my bed where he ended up. Last night he slept on the floor in front of the cushion, there’s no pleasing everyone!

Bud had been using my seat cushion from the truck to make his chair higher, so I used some of the latex to make him his own seat cushion and a little lumbar pillow. I think they all came out pretty good and the only casualty was my left thumb; I managed to run Jamie’s sewing machine needle through it. She’s going to give me a tetanus shot tomorrow.

So I have been pretty busy. I also had a root canal on one of my teeth ( I have to wait until we’re back in November to get the crown, for now the tooth is just built up with composite.) And I got new prescription sunglasses which I’ve been without for a couple of years.

Most importantly, Bud has learned to walk with two straight legs the same length! We took a short hike on a mostly level trail at the top of Hot Springs Mountain. He took the walking stick (which he is holding in his left hand with the repaired carpel tunnel) but didn’t need it. He’s now driving again, and, most wonderfully, cooking!

Yep, we’re almost ready to travel.

The surgery on Bud’s knee went well, but the surgeon did have to mess around in there a bit as Bud had not only worn through the cartilage but quite a bit of bone, too. The surgeon added 10mm of metal to one side of the bone.

Here he is, 8 days post surgery in the camper with our dinette converted into a convalescent couch. The big contraption his leg is resting in is a Continuous Passive Motion machine. He uses it 6 hours a day for three weeks and every day he increases the angle to which it bends his knee. I think he’s around 95 degrees now, he goes up to 120. The white thing on his calf is not a dressing, he has one on each calf and it’s an inflation cuff to prevent blood clots. We call them the puffers. He’s supposed to wear them 22 hours a day (read all the time) for two weeks. The small white cords hanging off the bed are leads from an electric massage device. I stick four little pads to the part of his back that seems to be constantly aching and it sends a small current to massage those muscles. Jamie lent that to us. I might have to get him one for Father’s Day. It takes about 10 minutes to get him set up like this, with the TV remotes and a drink in easy reach. Oh, and off to the left you can just see his walker. Because of the extra messing about and a strange and painful “pop” Bud felt the second night in the hospital, he is supposed to use the walker for 2 weeks.

But, all in all, he’s doing well. He can move around in the camper pretty well. He gets in and out of the camper and in and out of the truck on his own (I just need to move the walker and a small step stool we are using for the truck). He’s gone to physical therapy twice now and today we had a visit at the office of the surgeon who will fix his carpel tunnel problem. The very good news is her scheduler was able to slot him into a cancellation so the surgery is scheduled for May 15 with the follow-up visit on May 25th and we can hopefully be on our way as scheduled on June 5th.

I’m ready for some disc golf!

Friday we moved to a commercial campground, The Vista at the Lake.

This is part of an old resort along the upper part of Lake Hamilton.

It still has a small boat launch and some rather cramped sites on a little inlet off the lake.

It’s an odd mix, with some sites that used to be for permanent residents,

and a row of single wide trailers. There are also some apartments and some cabins.

Down this dirt driveway…

is this old building which Sean says used to be quite a popular restaurant.

We chose a site on the top of a hill.

It’s a ways down to the lake on one side (past these huge pipes that will be part of a new water main for Hot Springs).

Down the other direction are the trailers and some long term residents,

and the pool, which is supposed to open in May.

With only one other neighbor here

we have plenty of privacy.

The people who own this place now seem nice. I think it may take them a while to get the place anywhere near what it used to be but it gives us a nice place to hang out with plenty of places to walk Matey. Bud has his knee replacement surgery tomorrow, so we’re stuck here until the first part of June. It’s nice enough, the price was reasonable and it’s just 20 minutes from Jamie. It’ll do.

Happy Easter, everyone, from beautiful Lake Catherine State Park.

The dogwoods are blooming here and Jamie and I encountered them walking the Falls Trail with the dogs on Friday.

This is the falls of the trail, not big, but lovely.

The whole trail has recently been renovated and is very nice.

Yesterday I was able to finish Sean’s birthday present. We bought him a new flag and solar powered flag lights. I installed the lights but when I went to take down the old flag it was tangled in a tree. Later Bud and Jamie helped get it down and then Bud and I tried to dig up the base that held the flag pole to move it from where it was, much too close to a 30 foot Gingko tree that must have been a sapling when the flagpole was originally placed. We dug around it and had resorted to backing the Ram up to drag it out with a strap to the trailer hitch when a kind neighbor intervened and lifted it with a small forklift.

Yesterday we bought 2 bags of quick setting Sacrete, I dug a hole about 2 feet deep and then Jamie helped me put in water and Sacrete keeping the flagpole base vertical. Once it set we slipped in the pole and raised the new flag, but I left in the afternoon. Last evening Jamie sent me this photo; the lights do work!

Bud is taking it easy until his surgery. He is no longer taking the very strong NSAID that allowed him to walk for the last year, so getting around is pretty slow and painful. We opted just to stay at the camper for Easter.

I celebrated the day by taking another hike with Matey. We started up the Falls Trail, this end of it goes up along a smaller stream, crossing back and forth on nice new bridges.

Then we took the Horseshoe Mountain Trail and kept going gradually up. After 1.45 miles we reached this knob, every direction was down from here. Another 1.44 miles brought us back. (Mileage according to my Apple Watch.) Matey did really well and that was a great Easter gift for me.

We arrived back in Hot Springs on March 20th. Our first week was spent at Stephen’s Park, a Corps of Engineers campground at the base of Blakeley Dam, just northwest of Hot Springs on the Ouichita River.

The last time we stayed here was December of 2021. We were in campsite 3 and I took this picture of the camper from across the river.

I took this picture of campsite 3 on March 21st (that’s not us) and you can see that the river is running a lot higher.

That’s because they’ve been letting a lot of water through the dam from Lake Ouachita into the river below. But the lake level is still about a foot and a half above normal. And it’s not even the rainy season yet!

We’ve gotten to see Jamie and the family a few times so far. While we were still at Kirby Landing Sean, Jamie, Beth Ann, Adler and Bria came out for a hike.

Stephen’s Park is a small and laid back campground, so while we were there we took the opportunity to wash the camper. It looks much better, now.

I started this post and then we moved to Lake Ouachita State Park for a week. We’ve been there twice before. It’s a nice campground but has a weak cell signal so it was impossible to upload images for the blog.

We did have the opportunity to join the family to celebrate Sean’s birthday. Since he had his cake (cheesecake) at the restaurant…

Jamie made him a birthday drink when we got back to their house.

Last Saturday Jamie, Adler and Bria joined Matey and me for a short hike. Here we’re taking a break after about a mile and a half because Matey now tires pretty quickly. He’s 13 and has a heart condition. I’m trying to walk him as much as possible, though.

It was a lovely path along the shore of Lake Ouachita.

Jamie spotted this beautiful Luna moth right at the edge of the path.

Yesterday we moved to the other side of Hot Springs to Lake Catherine State Park.

We have a nice site right at the top of a little hill. It was steep enough that Bud had to use 4-wheel drive to back the trailer up and in on the damp roadway.

It is a very private site, though, and we have TV and fast internet so all is well.

Lake Catherine is the lowest of three lakes made by damming the Ouachita River. We were at the highest one when we camped at Lake Ouachita State Park. The middle one is Lake Hamilton which is right in Hot Springs.

This is a lovely place to watch spring come. That’s good because we are here until June 5th. On April 14th we move to a commercial campground. On April 17th Bud is having a total knee replacement. Once he no longer needs his left hand for a walker or a cane he will hopefully have carpel tunnel surgery. Once that is done we hope he is all fixed up for our next adventure.

We’re going to be on Lake Greeson until next Monday. On Tuesday, because it was in the 50’s and sunny we decided to go play disc golf. The nearest course was kitty-corner across the lake. On the way there we detoured to check out a car wash that might have accommodated the trailer. Alas, it had no foaming brush, so we decided it was not worth the 70 mile round trip. The trailer remains dirty.

We then went up to see the dam that makes this lake. This is the lake just above the dam. Like all these mountain lakes it’s narrow and convoluted since the water fills the valleys in these hills.

This is the dam, and it’s called “The Narrows”.

Bud and I remembered that we had been to the stream below the dam once before. Then it had been a shallow, rocky trout stream. There may still be trout, but right now it is not at all shallow. This is the Little Missouri River.

We did get to play disc golf and the course was a mix of open woods…

and huge fields.

It’s pretty chilly here, but this field wasn’t dusted with snow or frost.

It was covered with tiny wildflowers.

Yesterday we moved to a new campground; the Corps of Engineers campground at Kirby Landing just a few miles east from Daisy State Park. In our tour of the lake we had stopped to check it out. The site we had reserved was fairly small and seemed awfully tippy. It was bad enough that I checked online for another open site but there wasn’t one. We figured we’d just make do.

This is the site. This was the most unleveled site we’ve seen at a COE Campground. We pulled in and backed up as far as we could (there was now a camper behind us) to get to a more level area. The trailer was still at an 8 degree angle. We do not have nearly enough blocks to get us level at that angle. Before we tried anything drastic I checked online again. There is more rain and cold coming so I thought maybe someone had cancelled. They had!

I was able to switch our site to this one.

It still has about a three degree slope, but we could handle that.

The last thing they need around here is more rain,

but if that prompted the cancellation I’m grateful.

We’re in Arkansas now at Daisy State Park on Lake Greeson. The last couple of days have been sunny and cold.

We have a lovely site with a rear “patio” area. The lower area is a tent pad, but it makes a nice addition to the “patio”. With the lake view these would be great places to sit out. The first sunny afternoon I did sit out with Matey, who loves to be outside. But it only got up to 60 degrees so it was too cool for me. It’s only gotten colder since.

It was warmest when we arrived, but we were inside a cloud so it was misty.

There are three of these yurts to rent here. They have heating and air conditioning and I bet some of the folks in tents wish they had rented one of these. It got down to 35 degrees last night.

The first night we had thunderstorms and the next day as the clouds rolled out the cold rolled in.

I think that’s been a pattern for a while here. The nature trail was under water in some places and eroded in others.

The lake level is high and the lawn and trees at the shore were flooded.

The dock is floating but I don’t think those kayak racks are supposed to be in the water.

Oh well, the lake is pretty and for now the sky is blue, so we’ll enjoy it,

even though a lot of the time we’re looking out from inside our nice warm trailer.

On Tuesday we came further north to Lake Claiborne State Park just north of I-20. From here we go back to western Arkansas and then back to the Hot Springs area for a prolonged stay while Bud has knee replacement surgery. This is a bit earlier than I would have liked but his pre-operation visit is scheduled for March 20, almost a month before the surgery.

We’re holding onto spring here with the dogwoods and azaleas in full bloom.

I was excited to see wisteria blooming in the trees, but then I looked it up and found that this is Chinese wisteria and it is an invasive and becoming a problem.

We have a pretty nice site here. It’s nice staying in parks through the week in the off season because there are so few other campers.

I sit out with Matey in the afternoons and this is the view we have.

All this lovely shade was nice when it was 78 degrees out, but today it’s only 60.

This park also has two disc golf courses.

We’ve played them both.

We prefer the longer one as it has a bit more room to throw on the fairways. You walk about three miles to play, but that’s fine with Matey and me.

This has been a nice stop and a good farewell to Louisiana.