FRIDAY, 8/3

FRIDAY, 8/3: 

     Decided to take the kayaks out this morning.  This is one of the places we knew we’d be able to use them, with the 2 lakes just minutes away.  Put in Shadow Mountain Lake about 10:30 & paddled around 4 little islands that a Ranger told us about.  Motorized boats aren’t allowed in there, and there’s a No-Wake zone around the larger perimeter of the islands.  Water was calm & beautiful, as was the sky & temp – probably upper 70’s.  Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for about 2 hours.  Saw many Wood Ducks, including a mama with her brood behind her, an otter, Canadian geese, a couple of osprey, and a couple of osprey nests, with the mama sitting on top.  After a couple of hours, a wind started coming up, and we were pretty much ready to come in anyway.  Was fun to paddle against the wind and across the ripples it made . . .  just enough of a challenge to make it interesting.  Bill said that I had greatly improved my paddling since Michigan! :)

     On the drive back home, stopped by to see where Grand Lake’s boat access was, as the next time we kayak, we might want to do it in Grand Lake.  Also drove by the scene of THE DISASTER, and of course now Bill could see exactly what he did wrong and what he should have done.  Ah, the clarity of hindsight!  It started raining, and fairly hard, while we were doing this – so we sure got out of the water at the right time!

    Lazed around the RV, I finished my book, The Paris Wife, a novel fictionally narrated by Ernest Hemingway’s first wife.  I was surprised at how it moved me . . . was a sad,  heartbreaking story of how they had a great love, but he totally ruined it because of his ego & narcissism. I really felt her deep in-loveness with him, despite how awful & outrageous he became, and how it just about killed her to let him go.  And how, even though she went on to have a happy, secure, long-lived second marriage, she retained a very tender place for him in her heart, without bitterness.  I’d like to find out how much of the book is totally made up out of the author’s own head and how much based on the author’s research of old journals, letters, etc.   

       We enjoyed a yummy dinner of bar-b-qued ribs, baked potato, & asparagus.  While Bill was cleaning up, I took Pappy around the RV park.  Another very nicely laid-out, natural-looking park.  So far we’ve picked two winners!  And our site is one of the best – sloping woods in the back, heavy vegetation on the other 2 sides, so we have lots of privacy.  Only negative is that Wi-fi is only available in the rec room up by the office, so we have to walk up there any time we want to get on-line.  But spotty Wi-fi is just a given in these mountains, as is TV & radio reception.  We haven’t had the TV or radio on at all since we’ve left home, except for brief periods when we can get something local in the truck.  So have no idea what’s been going on in the world, what the stock market’s been doing, how politicians are coming up with new ways to be nasty . . . don’t miss it at all!  The only thing I’d maybe like to watch a little is the Olympics.  They do have a big screen TV in the rec room here, where they have the Olympics on, but we’ve only taken advantage of that once, briefly, while we were using Wi-fi.  The lure of the outside . . .   

    Was cooler tonite than any previous nite – the first night it’s been cool enough for a campfire.  So Bill went & got wood, and we started one.  He even picked up some marshmallows & Hershey’s for S’mores!  The fire really felt good – it was really chilly outside – probably in 40’s-low 50’s.  Enjoyed it til it was almost out, and we were too cool to stay outside any longer!