August 14, 2021-White Oak Lake State Park

(click for today's pictures) 

Again we slept wonderfully well last night. Robby commented that it was hard to get up and start the day when the dog was still sleeping soundly. We were up and starting on our breakfast by 9. Today's menu consisted of pancakes, bacon, and egg in the holes. 

It was already warm by the time that we were working on breakfast. However, we pretty much have the breakfast making down to a science. Robby works outside while I work inside preparing the pancake batter, getting things out for breakfast, making the orange juice, straightening up inside, getting ready and putting up all of our bedding from last night. By the time he is ready for the inside stuff, I pretty much have the inside things and myself ready. Campbell and Keaton are the breakfast helpers and are both the pancake queens.

As soon as the kids finished their breakfast, Graham, Campbell and Keaton rode down to the playground to make pine cone bird feeders. Whitman reluctantly changed out of his fleece long sleeved and pants pajamas. He then rode his bike down to the playground with Bentley and I followed. I think that they had a good time making their birdfeeders. They all hung them nearby the camper. Currently, Keaton and Whitman's bird feeders have disappeared. They were probably taken by a squirrel, but we also have another idea of where they may be.

After breakfast we picked up and hurried to our next adventure. We hurried because we needed an early start for our trail walk. Reagan, Whitman, Bentley, Robby and I walked the three mile trail while the Anderson, Graham, Campbell and Keaton rode the 5 miles of the 10 mile bike trail (they took a short cut so they didn't make the entire loop.)

The trail was shaded and very nice. Now Bentley was a fool on the trail and pulled the leash like a maniac. She doesn't usually pull at home and has never pulled like this before. Now twice Robby let her go, and she just walked to me and then to Reagan. When she made it to Reagan the second time she acted like she hadn't seen her in weeks and made all kinds of whimpering noises. That is when we decided that maybe she was trying to "rescue" the bike riders that went a different trail than us. (Turns out that wasn't the case-she is just crazy.)

My one instruction for the bike riders was to take some pictures. And they did! I couldn't have been more pleased. I knew that they would be careful and watch out for each other so I wasn't too concerned about that-it was the pictures that I was worried about.

We met the others at the half way mark. We were hot and sweaty, but they were hot and sweatier. They had gone about 3 miles compared to our 1.5. Apparently their trail was up and down some hills. Ours had some gentle slopes, but it wasn't too steep. We all sat at the halfway point (walk in campground) and drank our waters to cool off before we headed back.

About half way on our loop back, the bike riders joined in with us. They zoomed on down the trail and made it back to the camper while we still had a good half mile left on our trail. It was hot and really, it was a lot of fun. Robby and I always say that we wish we had a trail that we could walk every day.

Reagan did have a shower after the trail. Well, the boys did as well, but she took hers at the bathhouse. While she was there, Robby and I ran to the visitor's center mainly to pick up a sticker for the camper. I guess we have moved on from Christmas ornaments and are now focusing on camper stickers. I guess we have to have something to spend our money on. 

Back at the camper, some folks had lunch (hot pockets, sandwiches, leftover pasta from last night, salad and crackers were the options that I know people ate. Bentley had a bath, and I am sure that she felt better afterwards. A three mile trek is a lot for our little lazy dog.

Since it was getting hot, we put Bentley in her kennel and loaded up. We drove about 15 minutes to Poison Springs State Park. There was a civil water battle that happened there.And of course there was a trail. On the way, I had said that we were not going to do the trail. But since there was a trail...and since it was only .3 miles we decided to walk on it.

Reagan stayed on a picnic table and opted not to walk the trail. We figured we would be back soon enough-of course we had no idea that it was going to be the longest .3 miles ever. Ha! We did walk up and down hills, but it was a neat little trail with bridges-I am not sure why I find bridges on trails so entertaining, but I do.

Reagan drove us back to the camper. By this time that summer shower was happening, so we all scurried around moving things under the tent. It didn't last too long but long enough to make things messy and to make all of our stuff wet. We hope that things dry well by tomorrow or we will have to unload all of our outside stuff so it can dry out very well.

We had some downtime in the camper this afternoon. When we are all in this camper, it is a bit noisy and it is always shaking. Since we don't have stabilizers, this thing just bounces whenever anyone moves around at all.

Robby, Reagan, Graham and I headed off to Gurdon to buy our supper-BBQ from Allen's. It took us a bit to get there, and I really wanted to see the drag races but they were postponed today because of the rain. Maybe next time we are in the Prescott area.

We brought the bbq back and worked on heating up some fries for our supper. The fries were done in the air fryer and were delicious. However, the beans were even better-I guess they had bacon in them. We had laughed because when Robby ordered supper they asked him if he wanted a quart or a pint of beans. He said that he wanted a quart. Then we started second guessing ourselves since a quart is 1/4 of a gallon. They were yummy enough that we did some pretty good damage to that 1/4 gallon.

After eating and cleaning up, we all headed to the dock. There was fishing, kayaking, and bike riding happening. Whitman and Reagan rode the kayaks first. Then Anderson and Graham were next followed by Keaton and Campbell. When Keaton finished, Robby rode some and finally I took his spot in the kayak.

I will say that everyone had thoroughly enjoyed the kayaks. So much so that Robby has looked to buy another one or two. However, the price that we bought ours for has now doubled so we will be waiting a bit.

After Kayaking, Campbell and Keaton went to take another shower-well, this might be their first today. I think that the boys are on the second or third showers though. I am taking mine in a bit because I think that I smell like fishy lake water. 

We did have s'mores inside when we finally put everything away. I am getting to be a pro at making s'mores in the microwave for a crowd. In a bit, we are putting these folks to bed because we have had a busy and active day It has been a pretty perfect weekend away. 

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