“It was down in Louisiana….just about a mile from Texarkana ”…

First of all, an update on my recovery from foot surgery…Putting it bluntly, my right foot hurts worse now than it did before the surgery…This is not the outcome I had hoped for.  Trying to be patient, I began to do some light walking in the mornings..and THAT did not go well…Both times I tried it, I had to cut my trip short and gimp back home like Chester of “Gunsmoke”..(OK, I KNOW I lost some of the youngsters right there.)…Also, my GOOD foot is giving me fits.  Probably due to me putting more strain on it while favoring my right foot…Right next to my little toe  on my GOOD foot, it looks like my foot blew up….and that now hurts too…I am starting more PT tomorrow…I’ll be seeing my therapist, Mike , that I saw before..(that would be physical therapist….I  could use a mental one too, at this point). I’ll just be Mike can hardly wait to get his hands on this old lady’s knarly feet again

 

OK , enough about my paws….You may have noticed that I am again cheating and using some older photos for my blog…To add to my traumas, our Kodak digital camera has decided to act up.  It could be because it is 5 years old and has been constantly in use, but for some reason it quit “toggling” , which allowed  me to check my photos….Just sayin’, if your toggle doesn’t work, you may as well just throw in the towel…McGuyver has been online researching new cameras, which means we MAY have a new camera by Christmas…Den’s theory is this..You can never spend too much time in the planning stages….Alllllll righty then.

I dug up some photos of another of our yearly stopping off spots for our winter trip, Wright Patman Lake, Clear Springs campground at Texarkana, TX…

This place is located in the Northeastern corner of Texas, and is known as the Arklatex, combing Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana….You can easily drive into all three states in about 1 hour or less. The above photos were taken at the upper campground area, overlooking the lake..These sights are “first come first serve”…

 

Left is a photo of when we stayed in the lower campground one Spring…Notice how close the lake is to us This is not where is usually is…It gradually crept closer due to flooding and they finally moved everyone out as it flooded.

 

 

 

 

Above photos were taken after we had to move up away from the low lake…A day after we moved, the lake ate up our campsite we had moved out of….

 

The Wisteria is beautiful there in the Springtime…We usually stop on the way down for a few days, and again on the way back in the Spring…The sites are very big and the upper sites are pretty easy to come by in the fall, but you better make some reservations if you stop in the month of March…All of the local Texan/Louisianans/Arkansans(is that a word?) show up over Spring break and the place is PACKED with families, fishing boats, smokers, kids, animals,bikes, toys, radios….and the smell of outdoor cooking at all hours of the day…We have spent a few Easters there…Don’t get me wrong, we don’t mind the local campers.   It is, after all, their local campground…and almost ALL of the natives are fisherman…

 

 

That there in this photo are some mighty fine baby back ribs smoking over the open fire, where we were high and dry from the lake…

After about an hour or so in the foil, we take the ribs out and put them back on the grates to brown them up and lather them up with BBQ sauce…..I gotta say, the Cave Dwellers eat pretty darn good at their campsite…

We really love this place…AND…if you are 62 or older and have the “golden age” card, camping is 1/2 price, which amounts to $9.00 a night…We can’t stay home and pay the heat bill for that price!!  I actually believe that we could close up our home here for one year and live in the Hiker on the road CHEAPER than living here…even with paying our bills on the ‘ol stix and brix…I really do!

Well, the weather here has turned tropical again, with the humidity hanging in the air like a wet curtain you have to walk through…As I sit here in our kitchen, there is a good South breeze coming in the windows…and it is almost cocktail hour…Thanks for tuning in and AGAIN reliving one of the “Cave’s Favs” for camping…Beware!!!!If my camera doesn’t get fixed soon, I may revisit a few more memories…