Josh Rogers campout report

[Rick Taylor <taylorr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Really had a great weekend with some really nice bus people.

Rachel (my 3 year old) and I headed down to Turner Falls OK early Friday
morning.  I had been taping Rachel's favorite PBS shows for a couple weeks,
so she was very content on the 8 hour bus trip.  The weather going down was
very nice even with a slight head wind, but the temps were very good.  The
'76 westy pulled the Scamp easily at about 60MPH.  I found if I go faster
than 60, my gas milege drops fast, so I keep the speeds down and it really
helps the engine too.

We met up with Art in OK city and caravaned down.  Coming into the park,
you have to pass over a couple low water crossings and I noticed they were
a bit deep.  The water running over the road was about 12" deep and had a
good current to it.  Art went through it ok, but I was worried about the
Scamp, it is light and fairly low, but it did just fine.  It looked like a
flood had just gone through the park, picknik tables were twisted and piled
up along the sides of the river and logs were piled up on the walking
bridges.  Found out they had just had the flood a couple days earlier and
started cleaning it up the next day.

Set up camp under some nice shade trees, then went to look at the river.
The extra water really made it look like a mountain rapids, the water was
rushing over the rocks and white water was everywhere.  That night the
campers next to us had a hard time keeping the noise down, seemed they
enjoyed yelling and cussing at there kids, so we decided to move camp the
next morning.

Took Rachel to see the falls Saturday morning and with the extra water, the
falls were HUGE!!  There were kids swimming under the sides of the falls to
get behind them, but I heard later, they had closed the swimming area
around the falls.  Good thing they closed the falls, can you picture what
would happen if a log or picknik table came over!!  We also saw the castle
that was built out of native rock and went up the side of one hill.  I
don't know how one man could have built it, I think there are close to 200
steps alone along with many levels and rooms.  The castle is a blast to
look through, but it takes a lot of climbing.

The campsite we all moved to Saturday morning had a crystal clear stream
beside it that has been carved out of solid rock.  Our busses lined the
stream and the kids (big and small) played in the cool clear water.  The
water was about a foot deep and the creek was about 12 foot wide, and
running over the carved out rock really made a nice sight and sound.  It
was wonderful sleeping next to the mountain creek, the water sound is so
soothing.  Rachel really wore herself out playing in the water and slept
very well Saturday night.

Leaving Sunday morning, the Scamp was blocked in, so instead of asking
someone to move, I just picked up the tounge and turned it 90 degrees so I
could hook onto it.  I heard a few comments and got some attention, that
little Scamp is so nice to camp in, nice to pull with the bus and so easy
to move around by hand.  By the way, I have a hitch that is like the ones
Jamie Rivers is selling and I not only pull the scamp, but have pulled a
fully loaded '64 westy up hill from Cal to Arizona for about 500 miles.

The bus and people count was down this year, but not the quality of the
group.  We had a really nice group and it was good to renew old friendships
and make new ones.  As it turned out, there was not a single splitty in the
group, only bays with one Vanagon.

The trip home was headwind all the way.  Once we crossed into Kansas, the
wind picked up to 30-40 MPH and it took a bunch of gas to get home.  The
temps also dropped from around 80 in Oklahoma to around 50 the further
north we went.  With the cost of fuel, we may have to limit our trips next
year to ones that are closer to home.

Really tired today, but some nice memories to last through the winter till
next camping season.



Ramblings from an old shop teacher,
Rick Taylor
School Email - <taylorr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Home Email - <BusBarn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Smack dab in the middle of the USA,
Berryton, Kansas