Stark Adventures – Page 2 – Ken and Karen’s travel adventures

4/12/24 Mosey on into Oklahoma

April 12, 2024April 14, 2024karenstark

Friday, April 12, 2024:

Spending the night at: Pines Trails Campground in Robber’s Cave State Park near Wilburton Oklahoma
Weather- clear & sunny. Hi 77, low 58, Humidity Hi 68%, low 29% Another NICE day!!

$28.40/night for Site 19 on the passenger side at the top of a hill including 30 & 50 amp power and water. Long and wide, but have to back up a gravel hill and make a 90 degree turn in-between goal post trees to get in! UGH! We’re staying two nights and there are offroad trails here in the campground. Site 20 would have been WAAAY easier to get into! Darn. You just can’t see the trees and elevation changes on maps to know these things in advance.

4/11/24 Riding day at Mack’s Pines

April 11, 2024April 13, 2024karenstark

Thursday, April 11, 2024:

Spending the night at: Mack’s Pines near Dover and Russellville Arkansas
Weather- clear, sunny, and breezy. Hi 70, low 40, Humidity Hi 81%, low 23% NICE!!

We started hearing buggies start up and move about the campground around 7:30 this morning. I guess people were antsy since they sat around here all day yesterday waiting for rain. A big group of about seven buggies mosied on out by 8:00. We weren’t ready to roll yet and weren’t sure where we were going to go. I sat here and tried to map out a route on OnX which we really like to use to follow a route, using the Maprika app to show which roads were closed. It was a chore – but so way easier with our new StarkLink wifi!! 🙂

We finally headed out, and had to go a few miles on the highway to get to the turn off for the suggested route, then it was another mile or so of pavement. We were going to to do at least part of a 100 mile trip that Greg suggested.

4/10/24 First day at Mack’s Pines

April 10, 2024April 11, 2024karenstark

Wednesday, April 10, 2024:

Spending the night at: Mack’s Pines near Dover and Russellville Arkansas

Weather- cloudy like we’re in a cloud with high probability of rain. Hi 64, low 50, Humidity Hi 85%

We didn’t get up early. It was supposed to rain last night and it did not. It was supposed to be raining this morning, and it is not. We kept checking the weather apps, and every time we looked, the rain was supposed to start in the next hour. And it kept moving out to a later time. Finally about 11:00 we decided to take a short ride nearby so that if it did start raining we wouldn’t have far to go to get back. The trail was rocky and bumpity and fun.

4/9/24 Let’s go to Arkansas

April 9, 2024April 10, 2024karenstark

Tuesday, April 9, 2024:

Spending the night at: Mack’s Pines Campground near Dover & Russellville Arkansas

$45.00/night for Site 18 on the end of the row including 50 amp power and water, very long and very narrow, but we won’t have any neighbors here during the week. We’re planning to stay three nights. Sites 19-25 look wide and nice. Darn. Good choice for next time.
Weather- mostly cloudy and a lil humid like it wants to rain: Hi 65, low 58, Humidity Hi 86%, low 60.

It was sprinkling as we pulled out of Chewalla Lake campground. At least it wasn’t pouring and it didn’t soak us as we were getting Nitro hooked up, pumped out and on our way.

4/8/24 Movin on to Mi’sippi

April 8, 2024April 9, 2024karenstark

Monday, April 8, 2024:

Spending the night at: Chewalla Lake Recreation Area Campground near Holly Springs Mississippi

$18.00 for Site 41 on the driver’s side has 30 amp power and water, about 60’ long and very wide, but slopes to the passenger side. We’re only staying one night, so not unloading Kawi. That could create a problem with our auto leveling system in Nitro. It does not like to level itself on uneven ground with the weight of Kawi inside. Site 42 probably would have been better.
Weather- mostly cloudy and muggy with a solar eclipse at about 1:20pm: Hi 77, low 58, Humidity Hi 99%, low 68 – too muggy for sleeping with the windows open, and it’s gonna rain.

4/7/24 Riding at Minooka Park

April 7, 2024April 8, 2024karenstark

Sunday, April 7, 2024:

Spending the second night at: Minooka Park Campground near Jemison Alabama
Weather- clear and mild: Hi 80, low 54, Humidity Hi 87%, low 30.

Today was a nice leisurely sleep-in day. We had to run our little electric heaters last night cuz it got chilly willy! Tonight will be warmer so maybe no heaters or coolers will be necessary. Our plan today was to do some trail riding since there’s probably a good couple hours worth of trails for us to tootle around on. I picked this place because I figured Kenny would want to do some “less serious” riding to check Kawi out for the season.

We were given this map when we checked in yesterday and weren’t sure what the colors on the map meant. As we rode around, we discovered the colors didn’t have anything to do with difficulty, it was just a way to designate the various trails out in the woods. The trails were well marked and matched up to this side of the map pretty well.

4/6/24 On to Alabama

April 6, 2024April 7, 2024karenstark

Saturday, April 6, 2024:

Spending the night at: Minooka Park Campground near Jemison Alabama, with OHV trails!!

$23.50/night plus $25 OHV riding fee for the whole length of stay, plus tax = $76.78 for two nights. Site B on the passenger’s side has 50 amp power, water, and took a bit of jockeying to get backed into since the pad is only about 12’ wide. It is a beautiful clean campground and site with enough parking for Nitro, Henry and Kawi, and enough cell signal to send pictures.
Weather- clear and mild: Hi 71, low 45, Humidity Hi 99%, low 32 – a lil muggy for sleeping with the windows open.

Today was a much nicer commute! We traveled about 340 miles, and the first 140 were on I-10 which at times was a ghost freeway. So nice!

4/5/24 Road Trip begins

April 5, 2024April 7, 2024karenstark

Friday, April 5, 2024:

Spending the night at: Suwanee River State Park near Live Oak Florida

$26.50, Site 22 on the driver’s side has 50 amp power, water and sewer, and was a piece of cake to back into because there is a huge open area on the passenger side of the road. Sites 22-26 are all like this. (This is for our own camping journal info). Some sketchy cell service-not strong enough to send pictures.
Weather- clear and mild: Hi 77, low 47, Humidity Hi 87, low 23 – perfect for sleeping with the windows open.

2023 Holidays with the family

December 31, 2023January 13, 2024karenstark

We flew to Washington very late in December for Christmas with the family. Our reason for not going until December 22? So that we could stay our normal two weeks then fly to Los Angeles to take a 15-day Panama Canal cruise back to Florida in January. We’d be away from Florida for a month total. All of our Christmas shopping was done on-line in advance and sent to our son’s house in Puyallup, since we’d be arriving there on the night of Dec. 22. Packing for Christmas, winter, and the tropics did not result in carry-on bags only. 🙂

We had our Sell family Christmas on the 23rd at my nephew’s house. It was great to see my dad, the cousins and all the various offspring! Here’s me with our sons Brian, Joe, daughter Janea, and Bennett who is Brian’s youngest son, now five months old.

10/21&22/2023 – The final push to get home

October 23, 2023October 27, 2023karenstark

Saturday we had a looooong day to drive to Macon Georgia. It was about 350 miles, but it seemed like it took forever plus we lost that elusive hour again when we fell back into the Eastern time zone. Getting to civilization out of the forest going south was much shorter, easier, and better roads than getting in from the north was! Before long we were passing Chattanooga, and that meant we were about to plop into Georgia.