catlinyemaker

Welp, J’s work has struck again. This morning I was debating starting my day with the quilting I wanted to do or knocking out a load of dishes before settling in to quilt. Good thing I opted for the dishes, since not five minutes after they were finished, J said: “They want me in Houston.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

Ok, we can do that. It’s roughly 260 miles from East Fork Park in Wylie, TX, down to New Caney, TX, just north of Houston. Not too far to go in a single day, and it was early enough we’d get in before dark. I called the campground we’d stayed in the last time his work dragged us down here, and they were able to find a space available for a week. Coming in at the last minute the way we are, we’re shoehorned into a tiny site barely wider than the rig with the slides out. But that’s ok, we’re in, we’re set up and we’re on time for his work.

( Ramblings about our recent travels... )

We finally left Hot Springs in mid-January after a stay of precisely two months, if you don’t count the brief jaunt to Texas between the holidays. We’d elected to do a short drive day the first day, as we knew the cats had gotten out of the habit of travelling. And as expected, no one wanted to go into their carriers. Normally we just set the carriers down and two out of three cats nip right in. In fact, I have to be careful to set the right carrier in front of the right cat, or they will be mis-boxed. (In which case they stay there; getting it “right” isn’t worth the trauma to their little psyches of prying them back out.) After a brief tussle everyone was boxed up, and hitching up proceeded smoothly.

( Pitfalls of picking a campground online )

We’re in Kentucky just in time for Spring! I really enjoy our days in Kentucky; we usually seem to come through here in spring or fall. We’re in a Corps of Engineers campground at the northern end of the Land Between the Lakes, and yesterday we drove the trace road the length of the national recreation area. It was a beautiful drive. The white dogwoods and the redbud trees are in full bloom, lacy white and pink all along the roadway. Up here in Grand Rivers the tulips and violets are blooming and the weather is almost summer-hot.
( Herbivores, campgrounds good and soso, Arkansas and into Kentucky )

From Nashville we drove pretty much due west to wind up near J’s sister’s place, at a little campground in Kensett, a little town in central Arkansas. The campground was a bit run down but the owner was very friendly, and recommended a place he said served “the best catfish in Arkansas!” There was just enough time to get there for dinner, so we piled into the van and drove east to an even tinier town (pop 132.) Georgetown is literally the end of the road; the tarmac just suddenly ends in the woods. The restaurant looks like someone’s house, and we were worried we’d walk into a living room and surprise the owners watching TV when we pushed open the door. Instead we walked into a homey, cheery dining room with white laminate tables and walls covered floor to ceiling with snapshots: winning high school teams, fishermen holding monster catfish, various record bucks or sometimes just the one they got that year, homecoming dances and so forth.

( A quiet week... )

Yesterday we drove through a downpour to get to Arkansas and camp at Lake Catherine State Park, in Hot Springs.  Tomorrow and the next day are set aside to visit family.  The rain slacked off and stopped in mid-morning, so today we took the afternoon and drove down to Crater of Diamonds State Park, in Murfreesboro, AR.  This park is touted (in the old fashioned sense of the word) as “THE ONLY DIAMOND MINE IN THE USA!”  Everyone we talked to about it had a story: “Oh, someone just last week found a two carat diamond.”  Everyone said the same thing: “Oh, you’re going at a good time!  It’s best to go after a heavy rain; that’s when people find diamonds!”  We could tell we were getting close when every business we passed had ‘diamond’ in the name:  “El Diamante Mexican Restaurant.”