Sunday 10-21 We're Home

After eight weeks on the road we are finally home. We had a super time. We drove 5600 miles and visited nine states (Arkansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Texas). During our trip we attended four square dancing events. The first event was a three day event called WIPAC in Wisconsin, we danced to Jerry Story, Jerry Jestin, Darryl Lipscomb, Siegmann brothers (Noah, Lincoln and Jed). The event had Plus, A2, C1 and DBD dancing and round dancing. The second event was for two days of dancing A2 and C1 with Bill Haynes in Minnesota. The third event was for three days called Fall into the Heartland in Ohio, which had A2, C1, C2 and C3, we danced to Darryl Lipscomb, Bronc Wise, Ross Howell, Todd Fellegy, Bill Haynes and Ben Rubright. The fourth event was a three day event called TEXPACC in Paris, Texas, where we danced to Tim Ploch, Bronc Wise, Daryl Lipscomb, Vic Ceder and Ross Howell. All four events were excellen. When we weren't dancing we did a little hiking, reading because of rain, walked around the campgrounds, looked at waterfalls and other sites. We camped 8 States Park, 1 National Park, 2 Corp of Engineers Campgrounds, 1 RV Park, 1 Fair Grounds, 5 Casinos, 1 Civic Center, 1 Lowe's, 2 Walmarts, 4 City Parks, 1 Hotel, 2 County parks and 2 National Forest Campgrounds. We rode the motorcycle once. It's always nice to get away but it's nice to get back and sleep in your own bed. 

We got home at noon and we unloaded the Minnie. I did some laundry. We spent the afternoon and part of the evening catching up on some YouTube videos. On Amazon we watched the movie Disobedience, which was about a woman returning to her Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her because of her attraction to a female childhood friend. It was a slow moving movie. I didn't like it.

Relaxing in front of the television

    

Last Day of TEXPAC

Closing day in Paris Texas

We had a gorgeous day in Paris, Texas, sunshine and clear skies. 

The day started out with two, one hour workshops with Ross Howell and Vic Ceder. Both callers did an excellent job of putting us in challenging positions. The afternoon was three, one hour dances with Ross Howell, Bronc Wise and Darryl Lipscomb. We had a lot of fun. The evening dance was from 8:00 to 10:30. The first two hours we danced to Tim Ploch, Ross Howell, Darryl Lipscomb and Bronc Wise. Once again the callers did an excellent job. The last half hour was the closing dance where all the dancers from the C halls come to the A2 hall to dance to all five callers and door prices are given away. We were tired so we didn't stay for it. We had five to six squares all day. We had an excellent day of dancing with friends and the five callers.

Vic Ceder

Darryl Lipscomb

Tim Ploch

Having fun dancing with friends

Friends having a great time

Friends from Dallas

Paris, Texas was having a fund raising barbecue from 11:00 to 2:00 to raise money for a fallen trooper. You paid $10.00 per person and you eat all the brisket, ribs, pork , beans and potato salad you want. You paid as you entered the ramada and you got a plate, a cup for beans and eating utensils. Then you get either water or tea. Then you walk around and get food from the participants in the barbecue competition. There had a great crowd and some of the competitors ran out of stuff. We hadn't had barbecue in a long time. The brisket and ribs were delicious.

Smoking meat for the fun raiser

Having fun during the fun raiser

Enjoying my barbecue

At 5:00 we all met by the Ethel Tower to square dance for a documentary film being made by a couple of young film makers from overseas. Their doing a documentary on small towns with the same name as a big city, such as Paris. They wanted to show different activities that are happening in the small towns. They asked if we would like to participate. We had fifteen squares of dancers that showed up. It took about forty-five minutes to film our section of the documentary. We had a great time. It gave us the opportunity to see how a documentary film is made.

     

Friday 10-19 Fabulous Day of Dancing

We had a fabulous day of dancing. We started out at 10:00 with two, one hour workshops with Bronc Wise and Tim Ploch. Bronc worked on all four couples and all eight concepts. Tim continued with the same concepts but he added different positions of Chain Reaction. We had six squares during the workshops. Both workshops were very challenging and fun. It started to rain hard while we were dancing, we heard the rain on the roof. But by the time we finished it slowed down.

Bronc Wise

After a two hour lunch break we were back dancing. The afternoon session was three hours, an hour each with Vic Ceder, Darryl Lipscomb and Ross Howell. We had a super time. We had six squares in the afternoon.

Ross Howell

We had a few hours to rest because the night dancing didn't started until 8:00. We danced to all five callers for a half hour a piece. We had six squares most of the night and couple of tips we had seven. We were in good squares all night. At times there were mistakes but we kept dancing. We had a super night of dancing.

Paris Texas Ethel Tower at night

Red River Valley Veterans Memorial 

Thursday 10-18 TEXPACC Trails End Dance

I'm excited

Today's drive to Paris was about 100 miles, mainly on two lane highways. We drove through a few small towns. When we got to Paris we filled the Minnie up with gas and bought a few groceries. We arrived at the Love Civic Center at 11:00. We had lunch and then went over to check in. They weren't set up yet so we went back to the Minnie and read. Later on I went back and checked in for the dance. The civic center folks were not around so I had to go back later and pay for our rv site.

In the evening we attended the Trails End Dance from 8:00 to 10:30. Every 30 minutes they changed callers, we danced to: Darryl Lipscomb, Tim Ploch, Bronc Wise, Vic Ceder and Ross Howell. We stared out with seven squares in the A2 hall. We danced with our friends and other dancers we hadn't danced with in a long time, there were also some folks we have never danced with.  Betsy and Gary came all the way from Georgia to dance. We had an outstanding night of dancing.

   

Pam and Bruce waiting for the next call

Our friends Sharon and Mike from Colorado having fun

Darryl Lipscomb calling the first tip of the dance

Having fun dancing with friends

Friends having fun

Vic Ceder calling

Other friends having fun dancing

Wednesday 10-17 Back in Texas - Rocky Point Campground

Back in Texas

The rain came back last night around 7:00, by morning it had stopped. We have another 200 + miles to go to get to Paris Texas. We decided to drive about 100 miles today. 

On the way out of DeGray Lake Campground we dumped the tanks. There was no fresh water at the dump station so we decided to wait until we got to Texas. The drive was mostly interstate. While we were driving it rained a little bit. We entered back into Texas at Texarkana. We are camped at Wright Patman Lake, which is a Corps of Engineers lake. It has four campground but one was closed for construction work.We are in Rocky Point Campground.

It was a little complicated to get a site because the government is converting their old reservation system to a new system. The new system is not working correctly so the folks at the gate can not assign you a site, you have to make a reservation online. Normally anytime you make an online reservation a fee is charged for the reservation, the good news is that there wasn't a reservation fee. The gentleman at the gate let us drive around and find a site. Once we found one Larry went to the website and made a reservation, then we had to go back to the gate and check-in. The system was down so they had to write the information down. This campground is suppose to be open year round but the budget was cut so now the park will close at the end of the month. The camp hosts had a three year contract and the park said they won't honor it. They were told they could stay at their site for free until they find something else.

Once we were checked in we had lunch and then we walked around the campground. When we got back we read. The rain came back in the afternoon and stayed around. We had a break in the rain so we walked around for another half hour. We know were back in Texas because we saw a lot of deer while we walked. We walked down to the ramp and around the rv loops. When we walked by the lake we saw some pelicans swimming in the lake. Our two walks were very nice.

Rocky Point Campground is beautiful with a lot of trees and a big lake. It has 124 campsites for RV and tents. All campsites have 30/20-amp electric hookups, 15 have sewage and 41 have 50-amp. Each campsite has water, picnic table, barbecue grill, utility table and fire ring. There are restrooms with showers, playground, boat ramp, cleaning stations for fish, beach and hiking trails. If you have America the Beautiful Senior Card you get 50% off.   

Camping at Wright Patman Lake

A couple pelicans swimming in the lake

The cute playground at Rocky Point Campground

        

 

Tuesday 10-16 DeGray Lake State Park

Camping at DeGray Lake

The weather forecast was correct, it rained all day. Great day for reading and staying warm. 

Reading is fun

For dinner we made bacon sandwiches using biscuits. The rain had stopped so after dinner we walked around the park for an hour. We walked down to the boat ramp and around the camping loops. The ramp was real rough and steep, it needed some work. The lake was smooth and there was a little steam coming off it. When we walked by the hiking trails we saw beautiful signs for each trail. On the way back a couple of deer snorted at us and hopped away through the trees. They were very graceful and beautiful to watch. We wouldn't have seen them if they didn't snort at us. When we got to an open field by the lake we saw six deer grazing. A couple of them looked at us but one of the others started to run so they all turned and ran into the trees. By the time we got back it was starting to get dark but it wasn't raining so I stayed out to do more steps. By the time I went to bed I did over 11,000 steps, which was over my goal. We had a very wet relaxing day at DeGray Lake State Park.

One of the hiking trail sign

DeGray Lake

Hello

 

Monday 10-15 Another Rainy Day

It's raining

It rained all night and into the morning. In fact it rained on and off all day long, at times it came down hard.

We were camped in the Lucky Lady Casino parking lot and when we woke up the parking lot was empty, apparently the casino is not open 24 hours a day. We had changed time zones so it started to get light out a bit earlier, Larry wanted to get on the road so I crawled out of bed about 7:10, which is early for me. But I had slept about seven hours so that was plenty of sleep, plus I take naps while Larry drives. We had oatmeal for breakfast and then we got the Minnie ready to go. We were on the road about 8:00.

It was going to be another long day of driving for Larry. We drove interstates most of the time. The rain came down hard at enough at times to make us slow down. One person did not slow down enough and ended up sliding off the road into the medium.  We started in Missouri and entered into Arkansas where we saw lots of fields of rice and cotton. They are in the process of harvesting the cotton, all of the harvested cotton was in round bales similar to round bales of hay. I don't remember seeing cotton baled like this before.

It's suppose to rain all day tomorrow so we decided we needed a place to hold up at for a couple of nights. Larry had thought we would drive into Texas today but he decided to stop earlier at DeGray Lake Resort State Park in Arkansas. While Larry was checking in the gentleman asked if there was anyone in the group that was 62 years old, I am so there was a 25% discount for the site. What a nice surprise. Once we were setup we went over and took a shower. In the evening I baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. We spent the evening reading.

DeGray Lake Resort Welcome sign

It's a big park with a golf course, disc golf course, a 96+room lodge, campground, day use area, marina, park store and hiking trails. The campground sites are 1-82 Class B (water and 30amp), 83-107 Class AAA (30/50amp, water and sewer) and 108-113 walk-in sites. Every site has a lot of trees, picnic table, grill and fire ring. The campground has two dump stations and restrooms with showers. There are yurts you can rent. The marina has 132 slips and you can rent fishing boats, motor and party barges, canoes and deck boats. The day use area has a boat launch, beach, picnic tables and grills, restrooms and playground.