Friday, May 4/2012

I woke up to sunshine!!  Woo Hoo.  Perhaps that is a good omen and the jeep will be finished and this rig can get moving again.
Alas, we are back on the road and headed North.  Yeah!!!!
We stopped at the James Kipp Recreation Area as they have a nice campground there and we have stayed here several times in the past.  When we pulled in, we noted that the camp host was not in attendance and since the sign said "campground full" there was no reason for her to be there.  Since we are not a rig that can simply "turn around" we continued into the campsites taking the loop that would eventually lead us back to the entrance/exit road.  While doing this, a camper flagged us down and said that he would be leaving in about half an hour (which actually became closer to an hour - but who is counting) and we were welcome to his site.  BONUS!!
When John asked him why the campground was so full he said that most everyone in the area was fishing for paddlefish.  This fellow had caught himself a 100 pound paddlefish and was done now. Of course John and I had never heard of paddlefish so I had to "google" it and found out it was related to the sturgeon (it too dating back to pre historic times) and that they were only in a select few rivers - one of them being the Missouri and only in a few select areas of those rivers.
We eventually got settled into the site and Hogan and I went for a bit of a walk.  The camper that had left the spot for us mentioned that the campground actually just re-opened recently as there was massive flooding last spring which covered the whole campground and surrounding area keeping the campground closed till Aug.  While out walking I certainly saw evidence attesting to this calamity.  The once lovely grassy field (where Hogan chased deer and Canada Geese last year) was barren and cracked from months under water.  It was quite ugly.  Oh well, if God is willing and the River don't rise again this year, it will recover and next year there will be grass.

Heading out

Little bit of a rainbow

We hunkered down for the evening watching hockey and feeling glad that we were able to get a spot for the night.  It looked like rain and we both went to bed hoping that this was no going to materialize.