Once again I'll blame Reagan. Reagan re-defined government as a problem and taxes as theft rather than the dues we willingly paid to live in a decent society. He normalized homelessness: I never saw anyone sleeping on steam grates or someone panhandling with children until the Reagan administration.
So what have I been up to other than avoiding listening to the news? Quilting, knitting, puttering in the yard, doing some container gardening, reading, the usual. Getting ready to be snowbirds. The S.O. and I have campground reservations in Hot Springs, Arkansas, later this month. It's a Corps of Engineers facility so here's hoping it's still open two weeks from now. Federal campgrounds are kind of hit or miss during this shutdown. My optimistic hope is that if they do close it will trigger a notice and refund from recreation.gov but who knows?
I'm hoping it stays open. It's a place we've been before. We spent several weeks at Stephens Park with the 5th wheel a couple years ago. It's on the Ouachita River just below the Blakely Dam near Mountain Pine (hometown of radio personality Bobby Bones, whoever he is)(Mountain Pine is a really sad little town; the humongous sawmill closed a decade or two ago and the town effectively died). The town is depressing but the campground is nice: only 9 sites all with full hookups. It is snowing here today so Arkansas is looking good.
It just hit me. I have no photos from Stephens Park, which is a bit odd for me. I thought the resurrection ferns on the trees were cool so it's odd I never immortalized them through technology. I liked the layout of the campground, too. Lots of space between the sites. Usually I do at least one photo of the camper as set up. Maybe this year. . .
We will be using Skippy, our vintage (1993) Fleetwood Bounder. It's a Class A. We've camped in the U.P. and northern Wisconsin with the beast but no long road trips yet. The farthest drive was from here to Hurricane River, about 150 miles one way. No issues, unless you count the abysmal mileage typical of a Class A. The best it did was about 7 mpg. There must have been a strong tailwind that day.
It's a bit odd. Skippy is huge compared with our previous RVs and I do appreciate the space . . . but the 5th wheel felt cozier. We still have McGee. We talked about selling it after we acquired Skippy but never got around to advertising it, and now we're thinking we'd rather sell Skippy and keep the trailer. We do need to find a new (to us) pickup to tow McGee. Our F350 diesel needs the high pressure oil pump replaced. It's an expensive time consuming repair and one the S.O. cannot do himself.
The S.O. talked with an experienced diesel mechanic. The guy said he'd done high pressure pump replacements. It took about 12 hours and he hopes to never do one again. Given that the pump alone costs over a grand and 12 hours of labor would add at least another $1500 we're inclined to take the mechanic's advice and watch for the price for scrap iron to get higher. The truck still runs but is sluggish so towing anything with it isn't a good idea. We're planning to truck shop in Arkansas. If we succeed we'll put Skippy up for sale in Hot Springs.
And now I need to get back to figuring out what needs to go in Skippy and what stays here.
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