Nebraska Weather, or Not...

On Saturday evening we settled down to a game of Mexican Train on the dinette table.  The mini blinds were half closed because the sun had been shining in during dinner.  As we started to play, I noticed there were some neat clouds coming up and opened the blinds all the way.

One look and we were outside taking pictures of some really wild  cloud formations.

Southwestern Sky

Northwestern Sky

Within minutes, the wind came up and large drops of rain started to splash around us. We took shelter in the Alfa, got out the weather radio and made a few quick evacuation preparations. Things like making sure I had my purse and keys, and Craig had his wallet and keys.  When we arrived on Friday, we were given a flyer showing where to go in case of a weather emergency and a list of radio stations to tune into to.  

Craig found the radar scan on the internet that showed some red areas coming our way, and there was one severe thunderstorm warning on the radio that included the county we were in. We did not like the sound of "ping pong ball sized hail possible". 

Craig lamented: "we've just gotten the Alfa into the shape we want, and now she might be blown away!"

The actual heavy rain didn't last very long, and it seemed like the lightning and thunder were farther off. 

The sun came out again and we were treated to a rainbow. 












As the evening progressed we saw more really neat clouds. 

Although we both grew up in the Midwest, we agreed neither of us remembered this type of cloud formation.  It was a bit eerie.

The whole storm lasted less than an hour. I had put a glass out as a rain gauge and it  collected less than 1/4 inch of rain.

We went back to our game and checked the weather forecast before going to bed. Nothing severe expected.

I thought a lot about the storms in the Midwest as we headed this way. But having lived here I was not afraid. Storms happen just like earthquakes, forest fires, and floods. We will never be 100% safe anywhere.  With that in mind, I found this storm exciting.

A stitched-together panorama image of the initial "wall cloud" including our neighbors' fifth wheel:

White River, Lake of the Ozarks and Beyond

As we wallowed in our wonderfully relaxed state that resulted from our time in the Hot Springs Baths, we choose our next destination. Craig admits he isn't quite sure why, but Lake of the Ozarks was on his bucket list. It was a little over 400 miles north. I gave him the chore of picking out a campground and making a reservation. He found a treeless spot at the state park for Sunday and Monday. There was a park on the Buffalo National River that was about half way. They didn't take reservations for less than two days in advance, so we thought we'd take a chance on getting one of the "walk-in" spots.

By the time we got there, the campground was full. Not the end of the world.  It was still quite early in the day, so I checked the Woodall's and found a nearby RV park on the White River that had open spaces. It worked out wonderfully at the end of the day. The park was quite open and Craig was able to get the World Cup game.

The big river was the draw for most of the parks occupants. Most were fly fishermen and we watched them wading in the river in their long rubber pants. 

On one side of the park there was a small pond that had water lilies galore. They were not blooming yet, but I bet they are gorgeous when they do.





I love clouds!  I put my love of the sky aside for many years while living in California. In summer we had clear sunny weather from May to October. When we did have storms in the winter, the sky would just get overcast and gray. Every once in a while we would have some good thunder-clouds, but I rarely could see them from our house. Not much of a sky view.

As we have traveled thru Arkansas and Missouri, we have had thunderstorms almost every night. The mornings have started clear, and the big white clouds have built up thru the afternoon.  Love it!

On Sunday, we had a nice, uneventful drive to The Lake of the Ozark State Park. Craig had picked out the spot after considering the park campground map and Google Earth close up.  There are 181 sites. 177 of them are in the trees. He managed to find one of the four that had a clear view of the sky!

Site 149

Here we have a very happy Craig, enjoying World Cup soccer.

We also went for a short evening walk around the campground and down to the lakeshore, which was just beyond the trees. 

Monday morning I finally did it.  I got up at 5:30am and took a walk. It was damp, but quite cool. When I started out, everyone was asleep, but as the sun rose a few of the tent campers emerged and got their breakfasts started. It had rained quite hard overnight, and I spoke with one guy who had had his tent cave in.  His story made me very happy we lived in the Alfa!

I didn't walk far, maybe a mile, and was back home in an hour. Craig didn't know I'd been gone.

We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. We don't have a boat or the desire to swim in the lake. The day was quite overcast and we thought it might rain. I think we are still in the "vacation" mode, and want to make the most of our days. We decided to go to one of the four "show" caves in the area. I chose the one that has guided tours, as opposed to one that is only accessible to spelunkers with special equipment. The Cave of the Ozarks is state owned and the electric lighting has been removed. The ranger-led tours are by lantern light.  It was cool and interesting.  Every cave we have been to has been different.


I wanted to get up early again on Tuesday, but when I woke, I felt so relaxed and comfy I just didn't want to. 
Freedom!  Freedom to get up or not!

But ... just before 7:00 I heard, "Come on wife, get up, let's go for a hike...".  Craig was up and getting dressed.

We drove to a place where we saw a trail-head sign. It was for a 3 mile walk into a "wild" area. The sign informed us the trail was unmaintained, rough, with rocks, unbridged streams, and fallen trees over the path. Sounded like a challenge we would enjoy.

And we did. This downed tree was almost to big for me to get over, but I did.

3+ miles was just right. By the time we returned to the car it was starting to get pretty warm. After showers and yummy orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we spent the rest of the day staying cool in the coach watching soccer and reading. With all the blinds up on the shade side, I watched the deer grazing in the next site.

I also got started on downloading filling out the forms we need to complete for our change of residence to South Dakota.  Not fun, but necessary.

How are you spending these hot days of summer?

Petrified Forest / Painted Desert

On our second day in the Petrified Forest National Park we visited the part north of I-40. It is called the Painted Desert.

But before I share what we saw there, I want to respond to a few of my recent comments.

Karen in The Woods said her mother had been disappointed when she saw the petrified wood because she had expected the trees to be still standing. I think this must be a common misconception, because thirty-five years ago, when we first visited this place, I thought the same thing. They should have called it the Petrified Logs National Park!

Judy pointed out the logs did crack into segments due to natural causes.  I knew that, BUT after so many years of helping cut and collect our winter supply of firewood this place reminded me of all that work.  I'm sure there must be a dynamic tension involved to cause the petrified logs to split so evenly into rounds. Fresh wood never would split like this. Rounds are cut and splitting goes with the grain.

I have a good imagination, and had fun speculating about the aliens collecting firewood and leaving a ruined forest behind.  Roswell is not so far away!  :))

An answer to my Florida friends Karen and Al, the RV park we stayed at was in Holbrook. It was a KOA. There was also a Good Sam Park on the same road that look fine, called the OK RV park. Who wants to stay at a place that is just OK?  We usually avoid KOA's because they can be a little more expensive, but our first choice that had been found in the Passport America book was an absolute dump. It was called the ROOT 66 RV park, and we pulled in, took one look and left. I really have to start looking at the reviews and not just the book listings.  The KOA was fine. Clean and convenient, but not spectacular in any way.

Now on to the Painted Desert:

Although there are many square miles of wilderness in this part of the park, the paved road only goes along the southern rim and is viewed at a number of pull out overlooks. If you were just driving through, pulling a fifth wheel or driving a large motorhome with a toad would not be a problem. There are no steep grades or hard curves. I debated suggesting we drive the Alfa around the north segment in the morning and then continue on our way, but decided we could just as easily stay an extra night at the park we were at and pull out Saturday morning. 

Looks like a postcard!  We have so many great shots it was hard to choose which to include.

One of our stops was at the Painted Desert Inn, a restored cafe and hotel. It is no longer used as such, but one does get the feel for the route 66 experience. 

Thanks to these guys who did so much work building our National Parks and doing restorations of many places like this. The CCC provided work for many during the depression in the 30s. 

There was one trail along the rim that we walked. It was about a mile long and had some very good signage marking the plants and explaining what the Native Americans had used them for.  Once again the weather was very mild. 

There were a few other people and a couple of bus loads of school children in this part of the park, but we managed to play leap frog from pullout to pullout with them.  The kids were all well behaved and enjoying themselves. I think many of them were special education students and they were very closely supervised.

At the last pullout we stopped at we saw this delightful rig.

The couple who built and are pulling it have a blog called 
Tiny House Giant Adventure I haven't read any of their posts, but will be following it. Looks like fun!

Finally we have been having fun looking at the clouds and seeing things in them just as we did as children.

Winged Dragon

Flight 370?

I am composing this post as we drive toward Albuquerque New Mexico on I-40.  The day started with clear skies and no wind. We watched the cloud change and have just driven thru our first rain storm with lightning, thunder and small hail. The Alfa did well.