4/4/07 Weds. About the "Excellent" part of my journey! Last night was not stellar. It got down to 35 if not lower. I had to do some rigging to figure out how to keep the cold air from blasting in through the ventilation in the top of the tent, especially with winds gusting to about 15 or so. Well, I closed up half the tent with a divider, then, using velcro I had around, I suspended a cotton car blanket to the ceiling covering probably 2/3 of the open netting in the ceiling. Then I put my space heater right next to my head on two of my rubber maid containers, put the heater on full bore.
I actually slept okay, bundled up in my extreme weather army sleeping mummy bag. The real challenge was getting up in the morning. I heated up some left over coffee from the pot and started drinking it then wondered what am I going to do inside this freezing tent...try to cook breakfast? I think NOT!
Promptly drove down to my Pancake Restaurant and got warm and ate! That was about 7:30 or 8:00. Don't remember because my brain froze trying to get there. Forecast looks worse for temps. Today's high was about 53 and they are talking about it dropping to 30 tonight!
Anyway, I went for a little drive after breakfast. Left about 8:30 and just got the the public libary here about 4pm (they have free WiFi and I can stay inside a few more hours!) In the intervening hours, I took another big loop around the countryside heading south instead of north like I did yesterday.
Took a tour of the Eagles Nest Caverns. Used to be called, "Bat Cave", but the current owners changed it over some years back. Very interesting tour with a guy from the local area whose wife also works there part time. Talked for a good half hour or more with the current owner, a nice lady and her husband retired several years back and moved from Naples, FL up here. They actually owned it for about 15 years before they moved to the area. Had a nice family atmosphere. The movie "Frank and Jessie" was filmed in part here inside the cavern. The guide said the movie company liked their location because they could actually drive their equipment back to the shoot. The scene itself took a couple of weeks to shoot and lasted maybe 20 minutes on film. Originally the film crew tried to use torch lighting for their scene, but touch light' as does LED light, just gets absorbed by the porous limestone in the cave and does not reflect light well at all. So Randy Newman (I think that's who it was) left his mark on the cave for he was holding the torch that has permenantly scared the ceiling above his perch.
Lots of little bats. That was cool. Look for some pics of my adventure tonight or tomorrow.
I drove over to Rogers, AR then back north and cut back on the same route I took off on yesterday.
On the way north I stopped at Pea Ridge Civil War site. Took a bunch of pics until my battery went dead (left my backup in the tent this morning!)
was calledThere were two overlook areas as part of the auto tour that were spectacular. The second one East Overlook. It was a commanding view of this valley and you could see all the battlefield points of engagements from this perch. I did take a video clip of this one.
Stopped by Inspiration Point again and it seemed less hazy then yesterday and took several stills of the immense valley and winding White River.Well, it's now 5 pm and I think I'll see about killing some more time by getting something to eat!
That reminds me, I need to stop and pickup some diaper/safety pins. Those should do the job holding my makeshift ceiling cover in place, plus I am going to use the bigger, and heavier army blanket I carry with me and it will need more support.
Well, I wanted the "Adventure!" so I got it!
chat later.
Bill
(I sure dislike typing on laptop keyboards...keeps doing weird things to my text and moves the insertion thingy to other parts of the document!)
Bill's Excellent Adventure" documents the travels of its author as he traveled the country between Feb 2007 and October 2008, a total of 20 months. This blog is meant for friends and family and documented the journey through narrative. A new site is under development that will document the trip through some of over 6000 pictures.
Grand Teton
Sinset on Lake Jackson 9/2008
Current Temp for Raleigh, NC
2 comments:
It's supposed to get into the twenties Sunday morning, so bundle that thing up. What about throwing a tarp over the top and lashing the grommets to the tent stakes?
BTW, you can probably get a cheap standard keyboard for about $10 and plug into the laptop. A lot of people, like me, also hate the laptop keyboards and the fickle touchpads.
Nice pic your using on your profile! Look like con from the backwoods of the Ozarks!
Current temp is 32 at 6 am. Been up about 1/2 hour. Managed to sleep warm and toasty but its taking an extrordinary effort to not just pull up stakes, get a refund on the balance of my stay and head for a nice warm motel...ummm, that sounds delicious right about now!
Closed the tent divider and the blanket on the ceiling seemed to work better last night in keeping air infiltration down. Essentially just liviing in half the tent.
The forecast here sounds like yours. Don't think its getting warmer for another week at least. I'll have to take a pic of me in my night clothes...much be a sight to behold! Got these insultated booties on and an insulated hood. They kept me very warm and am I glad I've got them.
Your idea of a tarp over the entire tent is one I thought of...may be a practical purchase today.I'll probably have to pay a good $30 bucks for a large one like a 30' job, to drape over the entire tent. Let's see, the tent is 14 X 12X 8 so that would be about 30' length to cover the entire tent one direction and about the same width to entire encase the tent. Let's see, I've already spent $60 on a new air mattress, probably another $40 on misc camping stuff like pots, pans, hotplate, diaper pins, more tent stakes, etc., plus I am eating out about every meal because it's too damn cold to stay in this tent to prep anything and I'd like to get my ass warm sooner than later! Although the space heater is ok it's not a power house of heat. I can barely feel it 6" from my head. My need to change it out too.
So this little camping idea may not b such a good one for me at least not this portion of my trip...too early in the season. Of course I'm a stubborn old mule and I like this challenge against nature carp.
I brought my mouse and keyboard with me and I use it at the tent. I just didn't take it with me when I decided to stop at the library on my trip today...not making that mistake again! You,re right, those pads are a real nusiance! All of a suddened I'm typing along and my text is inserted into a line several lines above where I'm typing. What a distraction.
I've got a lot of pics to process from yesterday. I'll just find a nice warm welcoming location to spend a few hours and do my processing.
Well, Bill's Excellent Adventure! rolls on!
Let's see what today brings! It's now 6:45 and sunrise is here. Let's see if I can muster he strength to take a shower and clean up. Just the thought of getting undressed in a cold bath house gets me shivering!
see ya later!
bill
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