Quiet Sunday and Monday and now it is Super Tuesday!

We had a very quiet day that included checking out different parts of the park and chatting with a man whose accent was so strong we could barely understand him.

Marty, still in her biking clothes, on the scenic overlook trail.

The is truly a beautiful park.  The trees are all old wood and tower above us a good 80-100' and, because of their height, block out almost but not all of the sunshine.  Most of the pines are of the loblolly variety, and produce VERY large cones.  We're taking some of these home to be used by us and friends as peanut butter "dispensers" for birds. We are certainly ahead of the camping season but not ahead of the fishing season.  There are only eight other campers here not including two hosts.

The recent heavy rains have raised the lake's water level.

Here we are right by the lake on a 1.5 mile short nature walk.  The trail was just over one-half mile from our camper, so we got in a 2.5 mile walk.

There are eagles in the park and, on Monday morning, one flew right over us as we were biking!  It doesn't matter where we are, when we see one of these great birds it is always a thrill.  There are lots of cardinals in the trees and other birds whose songs we don't know.

This park is what we would call comprehensive.  It has cabins right down on the water, at least one of which is handicapped accessible.  Each of the campsites on our loop has both the paved pad for vehicles plus a large level sand filled-area for tenting.  There is a free laundry as well, rather unheard of in campgrounds and the equipment is mostly pretty new.  Apparently the park facilities and amenities were updated recently.  It really shows; the sites are spotless and we'd certainly plan to come here again.

We did get out on the four-mile trail with our mountain bikes, but the surface was dried leaves, lots of roots and dried long pine needles which proved too much for Marty (a combo of the needles and levels concealing roots making for a tricky riding surface) and so we turned around and went back to the camper via some detours to the boat landing and group cabins.  

We left North Toledo Bend around 10 am, driving through the town of Zwolle.  Zwolle is tiny, but boasts a couple of large timber-based enterprises, one of which is Wyerhauser.  Even so, the one-block downtown is dead, and the whole area is depressed. After Zwolle we looked for a place to stock up on supplies before coming to South Toledo Bend for five nights. We did our shopping in the town of Many, where we also stopped for coffee.  Many is not much more than an intersection with a Walmart, MacDonalds, gas station, and Wendys.  We had coffee in MacDonalds where we got more than our money's worth.  As we sat we listened (yes, we paid close attention) to several conversations around us.  David's back was to the conversants, but Marty had fulll view.

Two old men were sitting together.  They had their meals delivered and were spoken to by name.  As they sat and talked varous subjects were discussed one of which was exercise.  One of the men was using a walker and maybe that's why the subject came up.  But they talked about what they did for exercise and the walker user demonstrated with his hands what he did with his feet and ankles.  And added that it "didn't much help."  The other man said he had a cheap piece of equipment which didn't do much for him either.  On to politics and the Donald.  The walker man said he didn't think that Trump really wanted to be president.  The other seemed to agree and both said that they didn't think much of politics either.  Next they talked about PTSD and said that just being in a place might be enough to develop it.

As the men spoke, the three old gals got their meals delivered to them and talked about everything under the sun with added "um hums" and head bobs.  The Dollar Store was a big topic and all the good things one could acquire there which prompted a show and tell of what one of them had purchased.  One of the women turned toward Marty after she sneezed and said something about health.  Later she asked where we were from and so Marty said "Maine".  The old gal said that's pretty close.  Do you have an apartment?  Marty replied that we were in a small RV.  She responded that would nice, but she had an apartment.  Then on to how many children and she said she had three boys and one girl and they all lived in Kentucky.  Marty said we had three boys, and she responded that she had three boys and one girl.  We think it was our accents....or maybe their accents that caused a small communication breakdown.  But we enjoyed talking and that was what mattered.  We departed wishing them a good day and received the same back.

Once on the road again we saw logging trucks and more areas of clear-cutting.  It just always makes us sad to see that.

As for the countryside, it is very hilly here, nice rolling hills too.  A very pleasant drive between the two campgrounds.

Muki decided that he needed to be on David's lap, so he rode most of the way as you see him in the photo.

We have arrived and we are in the exact same site as we were three years ago!  This time, however, there are many fewer campers so we really have the place pretty much to ourselves along with about six other camers.

This campground has nice paved walkways in some areas so we decided to go to the Visitor's Center via the nature walk you see below.

One of the nice features of the nature walk is a fishing wharf.

 Below is a view to the right side of the wharf.

And here below is a view to the left looking out onto the lake

This is the visitor center where three years ago we helped some folks get set up for a wedding.  It is a wonderful building with large open center space, exhibition hall, and a function room as well.

Above is the view looking out on the lake from the large center space.   This was the backdrop for the wedding that happened when we were here last.

The campground hosts are from Grand Rapids, Michigan (small world...Marty is originally from Grand Rapids).  We have seen in just a matter of a few hours a white pelican, several eagles, woodpeckers, and a kingfisher.  There are all sorts of birds here that we are hearing and over the days will be able to identify more of them.