Before the sun, it is cool. I step outside and look around. The campers in the site past us are packing to leave. A few sites on our other side are empty. Our closest neighbors are down by the restroom. They are quiet.
Moe is inhaling his breakfast, Nancy is putting melted soupy ice cream over a bowl of Wheat Chex, and I stick a spoon into the cold liquid strawberry cream that last night was solid. Ice cream in a cooler packed in ice morphs into cool cream. Still tasty and refreshing in the blistering heat. Yup! The cool switched to hot, 97° in thirty minutes.
We begin walking to the lake below the dam. We near a campsite where Logan, approximately eight years in age, is staying with his family. He sees us, we see his grin, he shouts “hi Moe”. He came over last night and introduced himself. The walk to the dam is on hold for a bit. We enjoy a visit with his family, Logan tosses a ball for Moe.
Back on the walk, it is still getting hotter. We walk to the water. Moe gets plenty of new sniffs and discovers many new places to pee. Nancy watches birds, I see opportunities to capture photos.
It’s now 4 p.m. and we drive to Mapes RV Store to pick up ice and drinks. We stop at Little Red Shin Rock at the entrance to the campground.
I notice a sign indicating that we are crossing the Santa Fe Trail.
The wind has been blowing the screen tent and as it moves the cross struts bend and twist. We go back to Mapes to get some rope to brace the tent poles against the wind. He didn’t have what we needed but did have a 100’ length of 1/4” poly rope. I buy it and back at the campsite Nancy and I cut lengths and sealed the ends. The ropes are installed and doing the job.
