Road Trips
May 20 through June 19, 2004
I’m finishing out the spring journal
with some photos from several short outings we made during the
last four weeks. The first picture below was taken from our
front yard on May 20. I’ve found out how to predict where
the moon will be in the sky at any given time, in order to get
some more interesting pictures. Cliff and I sat out in the back
of the truck and watched it appear as the dusk sky grew dark
enough for the thin sliver to stand out.
That weekend we went to Petit Jean State
Park with James and Melinda's gang for an overnight camping
trip. It should have been a blast, but I continued the trend of
going out with too few hours sleep and to tell you the
truth I was pretty miserable. We all went fishing at Lake
Bailey and caught quite a few nice redears, of course all I did
was bait hooks, untangle lines and keep hooks and bobbers on
the boys' poles. We also made the short hikes to Rock House
Cave, the CCC Cedar Falls overlook, and Bear Cave. I didn't
take the camera though, 'cause I just didn't feel like it. I
did get an interesting picture of the lake at sunset.
Saturday the 29th, Cliff and I got up early
to see Union Pacific’s Challenger No. 3985 steam train
down at the Union Pacific offices. This is the same train I
caught a surprise look at
back in February. The locomotive was spending the night in Van
Buren on its way from Cheyenne to Houston to participate in
several events associated with the George Bush Presidential
Library. Later we drove out to Shibley Road and waited
for the train to come by.
On Monday evening, June 7, Grant and I went
for a drive after dinner to chase a front that had just moved
through. We didn’t get much rain at home, but according
to the radar maps everybody to the north got a bunch. We drove
up I-540 North of Alma, and the views were just awesome once we
got into the mountains. There were misty low clouds and fog
rising out of the valleys, and the sun kept peeking through the
clouds to light everything up. Grant was equally impressed and
kept shouting for me to look here or there. I’m
definitely making similar trips in the future.
A rainbow suddenly appeared and I pulled
off at the first exit to try to get some pictures, but by the
time I got the camera out and on the tripod it had faded away.
I put Grant in the middle of a huge patch of Queen
Anne’s Lace right beside the truck and snapped some
pictures for Stacey.
It’s been a rainy and cloudy June. As
of the 22nd, we received 5.4 inches of rain according to the
gauge at the house. In comparison we only got 1.95 inches in
May - no wonder the waterfalls dried up. In April we received
7.75 inches, with the majority of that - 5.25 inches - falling
in that monster storm April 21-24 that flooded so many places
in the Ozarks. That means the rest of that month we only saw
2.5 inches of rain.
I continue to keep an eye out every evening
for good sunsets and have made several trips down to Lee Creek
Park whether I have the camera with me or not. There was some
nice stuff Saturday, June 12.
Fathers Day came a day early for me on
Saturday the 19th. A big storm system came through that
afternoon, and although we “only” got six tenths of
an inch of rain in town, according to the radar map the areas
both north and south of us got a lot more. I worked all day and
after dinner I wanted to get out of the house so Cliff, Grant
and I got in the truck and headed towards Mountainburg to
hopefully take in some great views similar to our road trip on
the 7th.
When the boys saw Frog Bayou where it
crosses Hwy. 282, they wanted to stop and check it out. They
said they wanted to throw rocks in the water, but I knew it
would only be minutes before they wound up in the water. It was
wonderful weather with the temperature only in the high 70s and
the air had that quality from having just rained. The creek was
running with fresh rainwater, we had the sun going down to the
west and fog-filled mountains upstream to the East. What a
great end to a great spring!
For the drive home Grant wore a sweatshirt
I had in the back seat, and Cliff found a poncho I had tucked
away.
