{"id":2571,"date":"2013-08-20T03:10:45","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T03:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2014-01-26T20:00:18","modified_gmt":"2014-01-26T20:00:18","slug":"august-10-17-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=2571","title":{"rendered":"August 10 -17, 2013, Millpond\/Hummingbirds and Toilets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our afternoon rain has slipped into our evening.\u00a0 Thankfully it delayed until the reunion party using the pavilion had departed and we fell back into hushed mode.\u00a0 Tranquility is the norm at \u00a0Millpond but when it rains there is a Halloween like spookiness that sends chills up and down your backbone.\u00a0 Gigantic gangly tree limbs dressed in thick green moss cast eerie shadows on the paths.\u00a0 A canopy of vines high above the tree tops allow vaguely filtered light, changing the appearance of the park.\u00a0 Predator birds flutter from limb to limb sharply expressing their displeasure of the weather.\u00a0 Their piercing screams disrupt the silence and startle us as we drive through checking the status of site availability.\u00a0 Our campers are huddled together for warmth, tent people in their cars, trailer people in their kitchens.\u00a0 Thin trails of smoke from drowning camp fires are floating between the raindrops.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those days I am glad we have our home with us wherever we are temporarily planted.<\/p>\n

Another rain cooled day.\u00a0 Most of our work is under cover so we don\u2019t mind the wet. \u00a0I start towards the flush toilets and silently pray that campers have been mindful of the \u201cleave nothing but footprints\u201d code. \u00a0\u00a0I may have seven toilets to clean over Johns two but the smell from mine is minimal while the odor released from his vaults is too nauseating for me to endure.\u00a0 Besides, my work camping rule was never to do toilets, yet here I am with seven.<\/p>\n

Ray and Karen, our Rock Creek host neighbors, stopped in for a visit.\u00a0 They have just purchased a 26\u2019 travel home with two slides.\u00a0 Both are excited about having all that extra space.\u00a0 I\u2019m still amazed that they both survived thus far in a 19\u2019 camper van.\u00a0 They seem genuinely happy with their new rolling home.\u00a0 As we sit and chat, our little \u201cguzzler\u201d is busy chasing newcomers away from his own private store of nectar then pauses to sit, waiting for his next challenge.<\/p>\n

\"Eating<\/a>\u00a0\"Waiting<\/a><\/p>\n

Our park is again overflowing with families for another full weekend starting Thursday night all the way through to Sunday.\u00a0 The beauty of this campground is hard to photo.\u00a0 The campsites are surrounded by trees and are tucked into their own semi private niches.<\/p>\n

\"Millpond<\/a><\/p>\n

Our neighbor John has a large Christian crowd at his group campground.\u00a0 Down at the swimming hole the shrill cold water shrieks echo around the dozen or so mini kids splashing in the water.\u00a0 The sounds break into our quiet.\u00a0 We have a wedding and our neighbor John\u2019s group will use our small swimming hole for a baptism.\u00a0 That\u2019s 150 people by \u00a0the swimming hole, over two thirds being children, and 100 at the pavilion for a wedding.\u00a0 It is nowhere near quiet for the next 3 hours.<\/p>\n

Bats just came out and darted over our heads leaving for the night.\u00a0 The bride and groom are off on their life adventure, the baptism has added another soul to the Baptist church and clean-up is complete.\u00a0 Our forest ranger stopped to say \u201chi\u201d before we begin our bounce on down the road to do our nightly potty room toilet paper check.\u00a0 Hard to believe we have been here long enough to gather cob webs on our tire wells and under our steps.<\/p>\n

\"Bouncing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our afternoon rain has slipped into our evening.\u00a0 Thankfully it delayed until the reunion party using the pavilion had departed and we fell back into hushed mode.\u00a0 Tranquility is the norm at \u00a0Millpond but when it rains there is a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lilypad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}