Catching up on a Couple Busy Weeks

Wow!  I am finding it a lot more difficult than I thought it would be to keep up with daily or even weekly postings!   So, here I am playing catching up again!

As promised, here are a couple more pieces of art by SHAWNA!  She has sold several so far and these are a few she had sitting around in her dining room while we were there.  Mind you, I took these with our camera so it does not do them justice.  She uses beautiful bright colors.

May 3-After a wonderful few weeks of being 'camped' in Shawna's backyard area, we decided to go a little south of Fayetteville to Winn Creek Rv Retreat for a few nights.  As we were getting packed up to leave, one of our slides was not wanting to come in.  Actually, a couple weeks earlier I had heard a loud pop as I was putting the slide out.  Dale had not heard it, so when I told him I was very skiddish about trying to bring it in, he volunteered to do it.  He immediately noticed that the gears on one end were not moving.  With Doug's help, he and Dale pushed on the outside of it while I manned the power button inside.  We called several RV repair places in the area but being a Monday, no one could even look at it until Thursday.  So, we set up an appointment and took off for the camp ground.  Very fortunately, one of the things we like about our 5th wheel floorplan is the fact that, crowded as it is, we can still access the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom area with the slides in.  We were able to camp the 3 nights without extending the one slide.

We took some time to visit Terra Studios home of the original glass "Blue Bird of Happiness".   It was started by a couple as a hobby and has grown into a unique place to create and display various artistic skills.  That is Dale standing among the tgiant "worms", just one of the funky art pieces around the facility.

May 6- On Thursday, we headed up the road to New Hope RV.  After inspecting it, they discovered a weld was broken on the slide mechanism.  But, as usually happens, they found several other things, too.  :o(  We had noticed an odd clunking when we used the jacks to move the trailer up or down.  Dale had asked them to check it out.  They found a 'tooth' was broken on the gear on one side.  Since the jacks we had were no longer in production, they would need  to replace both of the jacks.  Or, we could have chose to use them as they were and just hope we did not get stranded somewhere with jacks that would not function.  We are not sure how the gear in the jack may have gotten damaged, but we opted to have them replaced.  They also noticed the roof was in need of some maintenance.  Now, we knew the roof was needing some attention as it had been sitting for so long unused before we purchased it.  Expensive as it was, we decided to have them recaulk and apply sealant to the roof.  And, were we ever glad we did.  It seems that it has rained every night since we had it done.  We spent  2 nights at New Hope RV.  They were a very accomodating host giving us a key to the gate so we could come and go after they closed up at 6 PM each evening.

May 8- Our second trip back down to Winn Creek campground Dale took me to the Little O' Oprey in West Fork, AR for a Mother's Day treat.  West Fork is a little town of about 2000.  The building is very old and incredibly in need of some TLC.  But, each Saturday for over 21 years they host a Country Music Showcase of local talent. The musicians were incredible.  The participants would step up on the stage, give the band the name of the song and in most cases the key they wanted it played in.  Some of them just sung a couple bars and the band picked right up and joined right in.  For 3 hours we enjoyed the singing of performers from an 8 year old fiddler, some teens and seasoned regulars.

Everyone there was so friendly, you would have thought we were at a chuch event. No drinking, no dirty jokes, just good clean fun.  The couple who sat next to us have been coming every Saturday night for about 18 years! 

We had a wonderful evening and they treated us as honored guests.  During the intermission a lady gave Dale a Country Gospel music CD.  We were also presented a "Blue Bird of Happiness" from Terra Studios for being a first time guest who came the farthest distance.  As we were saying our goodbyes at the door, another lady came up with a bag containing two "Little O' Oprey" 20th anniversary polo shirts for us. 

May 11-  Having said our goodbyes to the Elliott family on Sunday afternoon, we left West Fork/Winn Creek Campground on Tuesday and headed north for Kansas.  We made another stop at the New Hope RV to have them double check the welds on our other slides.  They took a look and reenforced the key places at no charge! 

We drove to Independence, KS and found Mound Valley Campground, a Corp of Engineers Park near Cherryvale. Usually, COE parks have at best electric and water.  This one had two full hookup sites available as they used to be 'camp hosts' sites.  We selected one of them and decided to stay for five nights.

May 12-  We drove the 20 miles or so to the "Little House on the Prarie" site.  The land that the replica is built on has been in the same family for 100 years.  They have the 'little house', an old Post Office from Wayside, KS and an old one room school house they have brought to the grounds.  Next door, behind the old farm house is the hand dug well that Laura tells about Pa and Mr. Scott digging in The Little House on the Prarie.  In fact, the hand dug well is how they were able to identify the piece of land, as it is the only one in the area.

The remainder of our time at Mound Valley was spent continuing to get settled.  It is just like moving, putting things away is an ongoing process for a while until you decide what fits where.  In our case, we are still deciding what we really need to keep and what we need to leave behind.  I feel like the pioneers who had to lighten the wagon as they headed west.  :o)   We were also beginning for feel like Noah with all the rain.  Every night and sometimes during the day it rained!   We did meet some very nice people from Oklahoma while we were there and shared some time around the campfire with them.  They are hoping to go full time when their house sells.  We exchanged information and hope to meet them again 'down the road'.