Three Mile Day

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

An unexciting but productive day kept us gently busy all day. The walk was three miles on the paved road around the golf course.

Once again though the three miles gave the OFM leg joints some pain so we plan to cut back to a little under three miles so we will not have joint pains. We do get in a couple of other walks each day so we will still average over three miles a day.

Later we got in some shopping at Walmart and they happened some items last night that we had been waiting for. That was a nice surprise. Rain was intermittent for a lot of the day but we never got wet which was nice.

A lot of computer time was spent on considering where we want to go until after Christmas. We have been to a lot of locations in the 17 years of roaming. But now we have to take into consideration the limitations the OFM has on his body abilities a lot more carefully. We still like the western lonesome locations where medical care can easily be hours away.

And to close out the day the OFM did some caulking of small caulk cracks on the Castle. None had shown a leak yet on the inside of the Castle but the old frame of the Castle works the joints nowadays when it goes down the road so we try to catch the bad spots before more damage to the rig can happen.

And the final walk this evening was out by the soccer field to watch the kids having good fun.

We love to see kids playing and having good fun. And that is it for tonight after a good day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Hair Wad

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

Due to odd rain events all through the day we had to adapt to the walking opportunities as they presented themselves. The best we can tell we got in nearly three miles in five parts of walking between random rain squalls.

Then to add to the fun the Castle decided it was time to have a gray water line from the lavatory and bath tub to clog up totally on it's way to the gray water tank. This took about three hour to finally get to working again. We guess we have been lucky that is the only clog in seventeen years. We did have to make a trip to Walmart during that mess but it all worked out finally. The stoppage was a wad of hair at a tee junction where the tub drain joined the main drain line. This old bald guy (OFM) is wondering where all that hair came from since he is the only person bathing in that tub in the last 18 years.

Anyway things are working again. We are hoping that a clogged sewer is again at least 18 years away.

Then we got going on a coloring that has been waiting some attention again for several months.

We worked a good bit on the coloring between walks this afternoon. It is proving to be a major challenge.

There is a corner of it that is being worked on now.

Hopefully the OFM will learn how to paint cliffs from this effort.

Tomorrow starts what is supposed to be a nice week of sunshine for our enjoyment. We would grin real big at that. W plan on packing that week very full of having tooooooooo much fun. Good Night.

Thank You Flood Control Folks

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

This morning we took off to check the water levels around us and found that the authorities had done an excellent job of preparing the area for the Helene arrival by lowering the Wheeler Lake level to handle the run off very well. Here is a very telling photo.

Notice the actual waterline this morning and then notice the edge of the bank at the tree line. Being there in person we got in close and estimated the water level had been dropped about 30 inches. That turned out to be more than enough since the ditches in the campground were already totally empty this morning. We do not know the original low level point but having a bit of room for more after the ditches were empty sounds like a well planned effort. THANK YOU drainage control whoever you are. The OFM Teams really appreciate your action.

On the walk this morning we met a nice fellow and his pup. They are homeowners that also do some rving. We ended up standing around for a half hour at least and Rusty headed home with the OFM blog address in hand and is now a genuine OFM blog follower. Welcome to the mob Rusty.

The afternoon got us to doing a bit more caulking and a lot more trying to figure out what to do next travel wise.

Every one have a nice night and Sunday just being happy, OK. 

What Hurricane?

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

It has been a long day of conflicting information. On the walk this morning it was bright sun and gentle winds. Then about an hour into the walk it clouded over with a hint of sprinkles. The rest of the day was a mix of weather types. Helene was already north east of us by noon instead of waiting until the original estimate of near 1500. We have no real idea of what will happen next so we will just wait and see what happens next.

As far as the rest of the day, nothing special happened. The rigs that evacuated yesterday all returned during the day today but we did not get to talk to any of those folks.

And it is now 2010 on the kitchen clock and it is raining gently and fairly cool outside. We are sorry to not have anything decent to write about but at least we are glad to NOT be writing about hurricane debris being scattered all over.

Try to have a great sleep tonight. 

Interesting Storm Predictions

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 26, 2024

This is going to be interesting tonight. It is a jumble of several different things that messed with the day all day long.

The morning walk was nice and cool and cloudy like fog for the first half of the time. Then as we neared the finish line the sky cleared and pretty white clouds showed up to join the beautiful blue sky in making joy this morning.

We were making good time to fun when a man stopped at the campground from the Tennessee River Office of some sort. He let the campground and Park officers know that they think that the Tennessee River may get to flooding stage in the next few days and flood the campground causing the campground needing to evacuate soon. Panic and attempted planning got started in high speed.

So the OFM spent the rest of the day attempting to assist folks in their evacuation to a higher elevation parking lot in the water park nearby. Many folks got moved over there today. There is about 230 sites in the campground.

We prepped the Castle to be ready to roll with a half hour of notice. We got on the internet to see when all that water is due to arrive here so we could be ready and gone before that date. But we had a trouble in that other government agencies disagreed with the prediction by a bunch.

So for now we are just watching for what actually happens around us in the next couple of days.

I do have to complement the campground's manager for choosing the safest path of moving forward but not doing anything silly in a panic.

The path Helene takes tomorrow inland towards us will make a big difference. This evening the storm did turn away from us somewhat so that is a good sign.

Tomorrow will have some serious evaluating going on during the day.

Sleep well folks, we will.

OFM History

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

This is going to be interesting tonight. The day has been a whirlwind of thoughts and travel possibilities and memories. We are at the moment snuggled down and waiting for hurricane Helene to take its shot at us and suddenly the OFM went into memories mode.

The first he ever thought about living full time in an RV of any sort was when Tioga George got into the life style. If you do not know about Tioga George please do a internet search on Tioga George and learn about this wonderful fellow who caused a lot of folks to take up this lifestyle and blog writing. The OFM was hooked immediately on full time rving in 1997 as a life changing goal. The OFM did not get to go full time rving until 10/5/2007 when he and the Castle rolled out of Richland Washington after quitting his last job.

So we ran around the country getting experience and real world education about Rving as the OFM came to know about boondocking and how much it appealed to him. During this time is when he learned from Tioga George about a whole level of rving the OFM had never considered.

Then a year or so later another very influential rver caught our attention. Al was getting ready for full time rving in a home built van setup. The OFM jumped into learning about that right along with Al. He has been wonderful to learn how to REALLY Boondock. Since somewhere around June of 2013 he has been boondocking all over the place and his blog is well written and full of all sorts of information the OFM did not even know about to ask. Since then Al has been writing an extremely helpful blog about his lifestyle. And tonight his blog entry practically defines great boon docking. So if you want some good scenery and to see what a great boondocking spot can look like, wander over to

https://rollingsteeltent.blogspot.com/2024/09/onward-and-upward.html

We are sure you will like what we saw and maybe even check his site out some m ore. It was definitely worth my while for the last few years.

Now the OFM needs to go check on the hurricane activities.

Ugly Weather Coming

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

An ill OFM greeted the day with a moan. He is running a bit of a fever with aches and pains so he got on the internet to find that he has an influenza of one sort or another but probably not a Covid model. A little breakfast and back to bed to rest and hopefully get better. Lunch time came along and we went to Burger King for our usual. By the time we left BK the nose drainage was down to a gallon an hour and the achy body was doing almost moderately well. After some rest and research on the incoming tropical storms/ hurricane nasty weather the OFM decided he needed to move around some so we got ready and headed out for a short easy walk.

Along the way we stopped at the spot on Flint Creek where we could see the other side of the creek while looking in the direction the storms are coming from tomorrow.

It looks nice now and was very nice while we were there. Tomorrow the lead edge of the storms is supposed to start arriving and mess up the nice weather we have been having. A little over two days of nasty weather is what is expected. The heavy high winds are not expected to get this far inland but the heavy rain is supposed to get here. The worst high wind we have seen predicted for here is 45 mph. So it might turn out to be good weather for recuperation to be the goal.

Everyone be safe and try to have tooooo much fun, OK.

Cabinets Finished Rearranging

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

Another nice day of walking in reasonable conditions. We made a nice walk along the creek and found this nice picture of a vine boosting a flower up a fallen tree to show it Flint Creek. We think it is a nice picture.

Then we went to work on the rest of the cabinets in the Castle. As it turned out the rest of the upper cabinets came out well with a little reorganizing of their stuff and now we are confident that we have things at a near optimum arrangement. Apparently we had done some of this effort a couple of months ago since the OFM found a few cases where the current arrangement was already like we planned to change it to. Yep the OFM is a genuis rite. So this concludes what we thought would be a week of hard decisions. And we are that much closer to a rolling date.

That is about all for today. The OFM is not feeling well with regular flu symptoms but yet very mild symptoms. We plan to take it easy and careful for a bit to see what we are fighting.

And speaking of fighting there are a couple of storms threatening this area with heavy rains and high winds. So far they look to be below hurricane status by the time they get to our area late this week.

Have a nice day tomorrow and keep on trying to have tooooo much fun.

Empty Cabinets

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 22, 2024

Another nice day of walking in reasonable conditions but just a tad warm. Yep the same starting text again today. We did get the cabinets above the bed cleaned out completely.

There was not a lot in them we found out but they are empty now. Tomorrow is a start in the kitchen and dining area. There are cabinets along the ceiling on both sides so we have more to contend with. However we think there will be more things to contend with in these since we have dinnerware and food storage in them as well as some I don't recalls. We will be finding out tomorrow is our plan.

Walking took a back seat today as we ended up with several brisk but short walks to the dumpsters and back. We still got in over three miles broken into pieces that fit our needs.

On one of the walks we talked for a half hour with a couple thinking of getting an RV so they can take long vacations comfortably. They seemed to really understand the points the OFM mentioned as being important in their choices. They took the blog address with them so they can ask questions. It seemed that they understand the basics well already. Here is hope that it works out well for them.

Now we need to get some rest tonight before we tackle the dining/kitchen areas tomorrow. Good night.

Lighten The Load More

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 21, 2024

Another nice day of walking in reasonable conditions but just a tad warm. Yep the same starting text again today. We carefully made it a slightly longer than two mile walk with a few minute rest stop about midway at a wonderful bench.

Nothing else special happened all day. We did get in a couple of nice close to the campground strolls during the day just to move about.

One nice thing about the Castle is it only takes about fifteen minutes to vacuum the WHOLE 147 square feet of it inside. During the vacuuming we noticed that we still had not cleared the cabinets of excess stuff left over from a get rid effort a month or so ago. So now we have something well worth doing before we get ready to roll. Tomorrow is open so we put that on the schedule. The OFM can get real forgetful about non critical chores these days.

Since we decided to get rid of two bicycles, two kayaks and the mountain hiking equipment the OFM has been sluggish on finishing that task. Well it is time now to finish. We were sluggish as the OFM made sure his mind was ready to get rid of those things three years ago. Well this summer has shown him that he has no business using that kind of stuff again. Therefore we will act on the getting things gone starting tomorrow. This includes the outside storage compartments.

One thing for sure is we did have a huge amount of fun roaming the countryside of the USA while the OFM could still go nuts safely. But aging is definitely put the slow down or stop on a lot of fun things we did during the last 17 years on the road.

But pushing the limits is the OFM specialty. We might get rid of enough stuff we have to put some boulders inside when we camp in high winds.

Just to make sure our readers know about it, New Mexico on January 1 2025 is scheduled to to make a large increase in the cost of using their state parks. It is plenty enough to make a camper think twice before using their facilities. Especially since there is a lot of good free or cheap facilities in the National facilities we have used in NM. Have no doubt that NM has some very nice camping and boon docking areas scattered all over the state we have seen and tried.

A new era of OFM Adventures is starting and we do not know what it will be like but we will be finding our limits and pushing on them. We hope the excitement of getting rolling soon doesn't keep us awake tonight. YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

 

Mischief Tomorrow

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Another nice day of walking in reasonable conditions but just a tad warm. The OFM was taking it easy today on his hip joints hoping they would get better soon. The walk was slower and only two miles and sure enough by late evening the pains were significantly diminished. We really wish we had an idea of the cause of the difficulty so we could NOT do that again.

It made for a slow day and a few gentle conversations with campers in the campground. Even the trip to BK for lunch went gently. But this evening the hips seem to be working decently so it must have been that OLD AGE thing again. We guarantee you in our world 78 is a lot older than 77 was.

So we will rest more tonight in order to be in better shape tomorrow for creating mischief for fun.

Good Night.

Golf And Reflections

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

Another nice day of walking in reasonable conditions but just a tad warm. The OFM was having joint irritations from yesterday's extra exertions across the face of earth (walking too fast). Therefore we did more reasonable walking speed today. By this afternoon the pains had gone and the OFM discussed with himself about not doing that type of speed walking again. He agreed with me.

As we went past part of the golf course this next picture came into view of Hole #11 green with the lake behind it. The sky was beautiful. It sure made the OFM miss his golfing days.

And on farther on down the pathway we found this beautiful reflection on Flint Creek. This shot was taken from the shore looking across the creek with hopes of catching the water still like a mirror of the fantastic sky and clouds reflected from the creek. It was really pretty. The timing was perfect since in just a minute or two a nice cooling breeze came up to cool us off a bit. The reflections got obliterated for the rest of the day.

We finished the walk in good shape and being easy on the joints the rest of the day seems to have healed the OFM. That was a surprise but we will take it.

And that is about all the excitement for the day. It was nice and pleasant to just relax and scribble on art paper and consider what we might do when we get rolled soon. We pretty much plan to make our first camping, as opposed to interstate rest area, to be Martin Creek Lake State Park for a night or two as we usually do. It is a great place to get out of rush mode and go into nearby Tatum Tx, for a very good Mexican lunch and maybe supper also.

Time for us to practice having tooooooo much fun again we think. Good Night.

Very Tight Travel Schedule

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Another nice day of walking in reasonable conditions but just a tad warm. We ended up with four walks of which three were little one mile roaming's around the campground just saying howdy to folks. The fourth and longest was the real walk of three miles first this morning.

After the walk we decided to see if something was wrong with the bathroom basin.

That area is horribly cramped for an OLD Fat Man to wrinkle his body into and still be able to use tools on sewer pipes. But the OFM got in there enough to find that there is no trouble with the piping in the cramped cabinet. Of course the OFM did have to leave a small puddle of blood on the floor just so he would know he made an honest effort at the inspection. Now we can roll without worrying about the basin drain failing during the traveling.

Speaking of traveling, KCD asked about that subject this morning in a blog comment. We are hoping to get rolling pretty soon. We are currently waiting for our up to date new drivers license to arrive by way of slow as the dickens USPS MAIL. Then we should be ready to roll unless more garbage happens like the last 16 months has been.

We do have a sort of schedule planned and tonight it will be posted as hopeful.

Two days after the drivers license arrives we will roll out heading south on I-65 from Decatur Al down to I-20 in Birmingham. West on I-20 until we enter Texas at Waskom Tx. From there we plan a loop to happen inside Texas just for the fun of it. On Nov 1 we plan to be back in Decatur for attendance to grand kid performances in their outside of school activities. Then we plan to leave on Nov 21 to head back to Texas and New Mexico for winter and spring roaming until late May when we return to Decatur Al. Again.

Please understand that we normally do not like to make such detailed and restrictive plans, But the LONG break from travel due to the break downs of Sierra, the Castle and the OFM for repairs has us a tad nervous about us and the equipment.

That is about it for tonight, We want some extra rest so we can get back in shape for having tooooo much fun. Good Night. 

Hummingbird Fights

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Another very nice day here in north Alabama. But not a lot happening. During the walk this morning there were only about five folks we saw on the three miles of trails we traversed. Did not even get a puppy pet to do.

We piddled a lot of the day trying to learn more art things. We might have another small picture tomorrow of our current efforts at art education. Our current education effort is combining watercolor with colored pencil for our medium of art effort. So far it would be nice to call our efforts a total failure instead of some other names available. But we are learning and that is the fun part.

As you might have guessed we did get some stoup cooked and it really is good. There are four more meals of it in the freezer.

Cubed thin pork chops are the meat component of the stoup and it is tasting excellent. This is our first time to use pork chop meat in stoup. It will happen again.

The big excitement around here lately is watching the humming birds fight over the flowers at the front door of the OFFICE. So far they have been too quick for the OFM to get a picture.

Every one try to have some good fun tomorrow but be safe. Good Night.

Fun Day In Alabama

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 16, 2024

WOW what a nice day after yesterday. The day started as a so what but became a great day overall. We got busy early on a walk just to get limbered up. The OFM hips were screaming nasty things at our body wen we set out slowly. But after a half mile or so of careful and gentle walking things got loosened up and the hips did very well. That was a surprise change from what they started like.

At the start of the afternoon walk this branch was back lit by the fantastic sky we had and at first it looked like the leaves were on fire when we first saw it. But it was just the dramatic sunlight lighting up the fall colors already.

On down the trail we found another good scene to show the gorgeous evening sky while looking across Flint Creek.

After meeting a very nice fellow, James we think was his name, we talked fishing happily for about an hour it seemed. That was a wonderful visit for sure.

Back at the Castle the OFM went to work trying to plan a month long trip before we need to be back here the first two weeks of November. During that time we had a big attack of could not make up our mind. So we get to work on that again soon.

Then tonight it became stoup time again. So we got busy and cut up a bell pepper, onion and celery to go with a can of pinto beans and a container with already chopped pork chops and a Knorr bag of Mexican rice. It will likely be ready for supper tomorrow night. We bet the OFM will manage to force some of it down.

Then we got fancy and finished the evening off with a fresh brewed mug of sweet green tea to finish all the excitement we had today.

This is about all the excitement the OFM can handle in a day. We think the OFM is getting a bit too old to handle having too much fun anymore.

Day Of Near Nothing

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

Grocery shopping / restocking was our major priority today and we were successful but the cost was $79 for five small bags of food. This should last us for about eight to ten days. We were surprised at the bill. WOW.

It was a no rain day and warm day with nearly nothing happening all over the campground. We walked a little and visited a lot. Suddenly we recalled it was rent due day so we went to visit the OFFICE and the nice ladies there. They were inventorying the the store food supply for re-stocking. We charged the $580 rent and got out of the way of the work going on.

Back at the Castle the OFM sat outside for a few minutes and decided to blow off the ' front yard' to make things nicer. So we did and now it looks like this.

Then we sat for a few more minutes and put the chair away.

Supper was from this mornings shopping and was some fake Mexican food with the Great Value label on it. The correct label would be edible? Oh well we know now.

That is how today flowed by with little effect. Good Night.

Fallen Leaf Joined Us Today

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2024

It has rained all day to one intensity or another. A couple of breaks in the rain were used to repair new small leaks in the Castle where the previous caulk had cracked a small amount and the rain found those cracks. The good part is we needed the rain for the vegetation dying from the drought. Despite the abundant rain the ditches have not had much moisture get into them. The rain hit the dirt and soaked right in. So overall it has been a good event but let us back off a bit now OK?

The OFM even broke down and got out the vacuum cleaner and went all over the inside of the Castle. Since the Castle is only 147 square feet of space total inside it takes a lot more working with the equipment to get into the nooks and crannies chasing the dust that hides from us. Remember in most RVs you end up vacuuming the floors, walls and ceiling to clean those surfaces.

The OFM made a new coloring over the last few days. It was a new fallen leaf on the grey gravel trail a few days ago. Now we get to enjoy it on the blog.

It was a simple fun coloring to do and relax about how well it comes out. The size is about 3 inch by 5 inch. Naturally it is named Fallen Leaf and was nice fun to create.

That is about all there was for today so the long half hour after lunch nap was a luxury we could get used to. Good Night.

Preparing For More Photography Opportunities

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

The day has been nice all day until right at dark when slow rain started. The odd part is the drops are huge but it is a slow gentle rain amount of huge rain drops from leftover hurricane clouds. We got in a couple of nice walks but stayed near the Castle to duck out of the rain if it caught us out on a walk. It worked out well as it turned out.

No pics jumped out at us and a couple we tried anyway came out pretty yuk. So we put that idea away.

Late this evening the OFM got out his hand weights to kill time while the rain was coming down gently. It has been many months since he did any upper body weight work and WOW was he out of shape. So we experimented with our hand weights and the OFM is so weak it was shameful. This proves walking does not help the above the belt body keep decent muscle tone. We sat in the dining room in the Castle sipping water thinking about this sudden revelation. So we got our upper body hand weights out to check out our shape. Our upper body shape is puddle. From waist down the body is nicely fit for an old man. So into the internet we went to find out what shape a 78 year old man should be above the waist. Yep it was bad body news. The OFM needs to do some tune up on his upper body.

Like a lot of things we have noticed, at 78 years old special care needs to be taken when using weights for exercise after about 75 yo. So we got out our hand weights and the internet suggestions. We intended to show them they are wrong. But we feel that the OFM proved them very correct. The part that caught our attention first is the need for more recuperation time between work out days starting about age 75. OK. Then we read precautions about too heavy a weights on old joints with not so great lubrication. A few other things were mentioned as well as recommended weight amounts to consider as you age. There was a good bit to consider as it worked out. Basically the OFM will be hitting up the hand weights store tomorrow with a list of things to check for during his decision making about what to bring home to help make him more capable of walking the trails out in nowhere land soon.

Maybe we will get lucky and be able to put the OFM into great photography safely really soon. Have a great night everyone.

Camping And Visiting Plan Discussions

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

We were barely visited by hurricane Francine today. She flicked her eastern edge on us a few times with little sprinkles events to keep us awake. Then after she had moved on past she sent some 35 mph plus or minus wind gusts to keep us awake for about an hour. It was sort of fun watching the tall trees trying to get blown down. None did here in the campground. A couple of small branches did come down but no known damage happened. And then it was all over.

So the OFM filled the day with with house cleaning and taking short walks several times. These two pictures were taken on one of the short walks. They were short walks so we would not get caught far from home if the storm got ornery. Here was the only two shore birds seen today.

We filled the afternoon doing inventory on the OFM closet and what clothing he has still in stock after a year. Walmart is doing clearance sales on clothing this week so the OFM wants to get some if it is needed. After all the counting and thinking was done we found we had about one each more of shirt, long leg pants and shorts, underwear etc than we feel we need to carry around with us. So we are in good shape for clothing for the next year. That was nice to find out. The cold wear outer clothing like sweaters etc. was resupplied last year at the end of winter. So now it looks like we are all set for the next few months in the clothing department of the OFM Teams.

We have been having discussions with a few folks about where they plan to go next. It seems as if there is a lot of folks here this year that are planning to stop traveling nationwide and call themselves finished. The cost of campgrounds, fuel and most things has gone up enough they plan to stay within a one/two day radius of this area for the foreseeable future. The general idea that gets repeated is they will travel to go to some relatives area within a chosen radius and spend time just visiting grand kids and relatives. That is not a bad idea in the OFM opinion. More fun time and less driving. And the OFM will totally agree that the summer crowd of campers has grown noticeably in the last couple of years.

Well that is it for tonight. Good Night.

Hurricane Preparations

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

Today was another picture searching day during our walk. Today's walk was a little over three miles and once again very nice all the way. We even met another fellow on the trail that has traveled a lot of miles and wasted some time swapping stories. That was fun.

As we entered the forest section the new Log Face was checked and the artist has added a few nice touches to the face. We have not seen whoever it is doing the faces but we enjoy the product when we see them from the trail.

On ward near the halfway point we found this VERY new fallen limb scattered on the trail. There was no sign of someone getting hurt but it still made the OFM shiver at the thought of a tree biting him.

As the hurricane ages it heads somewhat our way. We are expecting significant rain as of this writing. The Tennessee River is a barge utilized waterway to move goods to market. So the river authority raises and lowers the river water to keep the barges floating properly. In the last 24 hours they have dropped the river level a bit over a foot in depth in anticipation of some of the rain from the Gulf of Mexico hurricane getting into the river watershed and trying to flood things. So we have a nice amount of river bottom showing in the creeks and other shallow areas of the swamp around here.

When the rain starts tomorrow afternoon it will us a lot of good to prevent local flooding as well as keeping the merchandise moving to market.

We finished the walk in good shape physically today with no aching joints for the first time in a long time. Other than the rain from the hurricane every thing is going well in this area of the world, so relax and sleep well. Good Night.

Flint Creek Photo Trail

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

The day was a nice day of cooler weather which we used in part to take a nice gentle walk along one of the trails with the objective of just looking for a few nature pictures to enjoy tonight. It turned out to be lots of fun and a bit interesting a couple of times when we got a bit close to the actions of some of the critters in the wilds.

Turtles are out in abundance with many of them to be large enough to see well amongst the natural items around them. This pair were on an old tree limb right at water level and were very comfortable with having an OFM get fairly close. However the shutter noise did cause them to vacate the limb with a vigorous splash.

We were walking along Flint Creek which is a very wide creek bordering the park we are staying in. While sitting at a resting bench at waters edge we noticed a boat ramp on the other shore, so we zoomed in a long distance shot so we could locate where the ramp is in the neighborhood across the creek.

When we got back to the Castle we looked on the map and found that the little camera shot the shot of a bit over 4000 feet distance, We were amazed at that long of a shot from a little Canon pocket camera.

We hope to go find the ramp in that neighborhood soon.

These are only four of the pictures of about 25 we shot while taking an easy going walk in the woods.

Our next shot is a grown tree leaf we found floating on the reflection of the incredibly blue sky we had for a nice while at the first of the walk. It took the OFM several tries to get the image he wanted since the nice gentle breeze kept moving things around but persistence paid off we feel.

And the last photo for tonight is a web that we had fits getting to hold still so it was not a blur from the gentle breeze. Several shots were taken. We are really glad it was not still in the film day$$$

of photography.

We took about eight exposures of this and a little breeze would hit at the wrong moment and once an extremely bright glare of light hit at the wrong moment. However we did pretty good before we quit. For those who want to try the spider web shots, this area normally has lots of webs close the the waters edge like this one.

We took about fifty shots all together to produce this four to show our readers. We hope you enjoyed the gentle fun we had on the walking trail along the water in the park.

Good night.