I think his name is Murphy.First of all, as usual for me, I got a flat tire at the campground.
Triple A was so nice to come out from Hot Springs Village and mount my donut (they better, I pay them enuf)! They found a screw, which caused a slow leak, which I drove on at about 70 mph on the way out and ruined a perfectly good tire. There were Canada geese and a pair with 4 goslings..............then 3.....................then 2. Sad to watch them lose their family day by day. Could have been any predator from foxes to eagles.
A couple of days I was mostly confined to my tent because of light rain. I really wouldn't even call it that much rain, just misting enough to get you wet. In between my tent and the rainfly, a lovely bunch of daddy long legs took refuge from the weather...as such I entertained myself, lying on my bed, thumping daddy long legs through the tent.
They tend to calm down quickly, so your targets stays pretty close. Is being mean to insects a sin? 
Since my trip was so early in the year, May, the water was not really conducive to swimming. I did take my boat out for short trips everyday with my two camp dogs,
and it was interesting and giggle making to find out they CAN swim if forced to. 
Of course then I had to take my shirt off and wrap them up as the level of shiverring was vibrating my boat. Natasha stayed right next to the boat, but Boris took off for land. I had to paddle to catch him and yes they both had life jackets on, I'm not THAT mean. 
For the entire week I was there, there was only one other camper and he was the campground host. Rex had Wisconsin plates but said he was from Iowa. He had a cute little sail boat anchored off his campsite. He spent his days "building a camp"
on one of the near islands. Go figure. Maybe he was putting in a still? He did come by and chat a couple of times, so the dogs certainly knew him. Since I was the only camper, I let the dogs (chihuahua mixes) run loose. Boris was up at the potty building when he (Rex) pulled in, in his pickup/camper, and proceeded to attack the poor man. If you know Boris, you also know he doesn't have many teeth left and weighs less than 10lbs. So I'm climbing up the hill to retrieve this vicious mutt and Rex is trying to fend him off and starts to use the towel in his hands to hit at Boris.
This escalates Boris' behavior to LION ON THE RAMPAGE level. Poor Rex. Bad Dog, bad dog!! It was like a bull and a matador Ole! Back doggie, back! (I swear I didn't laugh til Rex left, honest.)During my lonely stay (it was wonderful) occasionally a car or pickup would enter the campground, drive the loop and then leave.
Curiouser and curiouser........ On a trip up the to the store for ice I discovered the locals were driving down to "get a look at the lady camping all by herself".Finally it warmed up enough for me to take a swim. I was surprised the water had warmed up so much just within a week. I experimented with my swim fins I bought for a trip to Florida, and my snorkel and mask too. You can't see but about 6 inches in that water though the fins were fun.
Next day trip up to the store for ice I met an old dude sitting in the store and :myday" he proceeded to tell me and anyone else present about watching me "take my bath". Now I admit, when things got rainy and muddy I did spend a couple seconds buck naked to avoid taking mud into my tent and I thought that was what he had witnessed. Nope................he was one of the locals watching out for "that lady camping all by herself" and had caught me swimming.
Maybe it was 'bathing' when he was a young man.....?Finally the bad weather came in. It wasn't so bad that I had a hard time breaking camp, but it was definitely time to come home. I had had to buy a tent as the steel tent poles for my Kodiak 10x10x6 got stolen while I was moving. Otherwise I would have stayed. I bought one of those pop up tents and got lucky to get a good one. Pretty cool little piece of gear.
Gecko came down one day and cooked chicken stew (yum!!) for me and he's always good company, but I missed seeing any of my other buds stop by. Yes, I know, you got to get to the Buffalo when there's water and it was Rec school too. I don't gravel bar camp so perhaps we can do this at the end of September/October. Keep it in mind.
Had a great trip though!
