Schafer State Park, heading home

July, 2024

And then the very last morning here arrived and I knew I needed to hitch up and head home. But before I did that, I took one last very long walk through the campground, and visited the Satsop River at the two or three access points from inside the campground. I just took my time.

But … even before that walk to the river, I simply walked behind my campsite early this morning, onto the access road that’s inside the campground, and just stood there and listened to the birds and took one long last look at the trees and the sky. Oh it was lovely. Here’s the 360-degree video I took while standing there, simply turning slowly all the way around. The only RV you see is Towhee the Trailer. It’s not that the campground was empty … it’s that the campsites are spaced well apart from each other. I almost added music to the video below, but the bird songs seemed more beautiful than music. Turn your sound way up (WAY up!) to hear the birds.

Yep, that’s what I had to live with all week. Pretty wonderful eh? 🙂

After taking the video above, I took the long meandering walk through the campground that I mentioned, past every campsite (and a few group campsites) and I enjoyed two or three more views of the river. Along the way, I found these Foxglove flowers (below).

And then it was time to hitch up the truck and trailer. It was a hot morning. The temperature was warm enough that I had extended the awning before I left on my walk, in order to keep the trailer cooler. It was a warm day!

I ate my lunch in the trailer. Then, as I started to tidy up inside the trailer, I brought in the awning and just opened all the windows for fresh cool? air. It was hot out! I put everything away snug as a bug for the drive down the road. It was just about 1pm and I needed to leave. So I hitched up, then closed up the trailer, then jumped in the big white truck, turned on my air conditioning in the truck (on high!), and headed down the road with the trailer in tow.

But, I didn’t get far!

Just a few miles down the road, as I was slowly cruising along this back country road, I noticed the black cow above, simply standing in a pool of water. Lucky for me, there was a spot just beyond that allowed me to pull off the road with truck-and-trailer. I walked back to the cow and the pond. Gosh, by now it was 2pm or so and it was HOT out!

After one brief look at me, that cow turned back to the pond and just stood there in that cool water, completely ignoring me. There must be water immediately under/in the grass too, since she rested her nose/head there. Part of me wondered why she didn’t just sit down in that cool water.

I watched her for a bit. There were a few other cows and calves nearby but none of them availed themselves of this cool respite from the heat. She was the smart one!

And then she did something that I sure wish I’d taken a video of. She lifted her head very briefly, then let out a low and looooooong moan, stretched her neck and her head straight out, and PLANTED her head/chin in that grass/water. The cool water splashed up around her head, dripped off her ears, and off her forehead into her eyes. And she just stood there with that cool water pouring off of her head and neck.

I sure wish I could have climbed in there with her and, with bucket in hand, poured cool water over her.

I hoped the evening dews and damps brought relief from the heat to her and the others. I cruised on home in my air conditioned truck, with trailer in tow, lucky me!

I hope life is good for all of you folks too. Keep cool! 🙂