We left on Saturday afternoon in the rain. It had rained, sometimes heavily, for much of the night. My husband grew up with a farmer Dad, and when he was small, they went camping on rainy days. As he said "The crops were being watered and the hay was too wet to take up," so they would pack into the old Pontiac and head for the hills. Black hills, that is. They lived in Nebraska, and often the Black Hills were north of whatever system was watering the farm. He was very excited to go camping in the rain.
We did not get north of the storm. Saturday night the rain stopped, and we camped in Historic Davidsonville State Park in Black Rock, Arkansas (pop 717). We were the only tent campers. I rented the tent very reasonably from work, but it smelled like wet, dirty socks. We had fun cooking out under a lean-to my husband rigged up with a tarp and some rope. We slept in the tent and awoke at the 5:30 AM insistence of a hoot owl. We made oatmeal on a propane camp stove. We took everything down and headed for the showers. You could not adjust the water temperature, but it was nice and warm, and the showers were very clean and new-looking. By now the temperature outside was cooling, and I put on a part-wool sweater under my rain jacket. It started raining again. We toured the abandoned site of Old Davidsonville. Even the courthouse was gone. The town had started about when my ancestors settled in middle TN, in the early 1800s. Some of their buildings and cemeteries are still around. Nothing was left but bits and pieces at Davidsonville.
We then headed for Mansfield. On the way we stopped at the tenth largest spring in the world, to watch almost 10 million gallons of water an hour gush over a dam, and tour an old, no longer used hydroelectric facility. It continued raining.
We arrived at the festival to be directed to park in a pasture, complete with fresh cow patties. We heard 2 gardening speakers, listened to an afternoon showcase of exceptional musical talent (I didn't know kids that age could do a Bach fugue on recorders), ate marvelous food (the restaurant charged for drinks, but took donations for the food), toured the stores (seed store was tempting, but I have no more ROOM!) , and tried (at first) to avoid the increasing muck. I wished I had my muck boots.
We checked the on-site camping- a green, grassy field, but with puddles, rain, and a biting wind. We decided to come home, and stay longer next year if the weather is better. A little more music and we headed home, after a friendly Larry and company pulled us out of the parking area with a backhoe and chain.
Camping is definitely a feasible vacation for us. It is inexpensive, and can be fun under trying conditions if you keep a good attitude. We had fun. and I feel like we were gone and resting for many days. I knew we were in the right neighborhood when we drove through a small town and there were no bars on the pawn shop windows! It was a good break.
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