News: Bad Grizzly. Possum Kingdom. Mt. Timpanogos. Google Wrong. Sewer Eruption. Slave Lake by Ivan.

The grizzly bear that attacked and killed an RVer at Yellowstone National Park won't be destroyed. The female bear evidently perceived the hiking RVer as a threat to her cubs and never previously had a run-in with humans.

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Possum Kingdom State Park open for business after April wildfire

If the heat and the wildfires haven't driven you out of Texas yet, and you're looking for a quiet place to camp for a while, or paddle around a scenic lake, check out Possum Kingdom State Park west of Dallas/Fort Worth near Caddo.

You may be thinking that the wildfire that scorched all but 200 of the park's 1,528 acres has left burned out campsites and cremated opossums littered about. However, the fire mostly bypassed the park's cabins, campgrounds, marina, and swimming area.
But most people don't know that, and you may find the campground nearly deserted, a rarity for July. You can even rent canoes and kayaks at the concessionaire's store by the lake and find the lake mostly to yourself.
The park is known for its fishing, lake sports, and camping, and as soon as the word gets around that the park is open again following the fire, the crowds will return.
Possum Kingdom State Park is 17 miles north of Caddo on Park Road 33. Entrance fee is $4 per day for adults, $2 for seniors. Camping is $12 for water only; $17 for water and electric; $20 for premium water and electric. For information, call 800-792-1112 or visit their website.

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Mt. Timpanogos campground closed due to flooding in Utah

PLEASANT GROVE, Utah -- "Mt. Timpanogos campground located on the Squaw Peak road has been closed until further notice due to extreme flooding. The campground will remain closed until the flooding potential has decreased and it is deemed safe and dry enough to open and any necessary repairs have been made.
All other campgrounds are open except Rock Canyon, which is not accessible due to a landslide. All picnic areas are open. American Fork River is still running swift so parents should keep childrenand pets away from the river. Shaffer Fork and Timpooneke roads are still closed.
Most trails are dry at lower elevations, but as you reach higher elevations trails become wet and muddy and snow packed. Snow may continue to block access along shaded portions of trails. Hikers should be aware of snow crevasses and bridges. Water may be flowing underneath melting and eroding snow bridges. "
SOURCE: USDA Forest Service press release RV Daily Report

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Google map brings recreation-seeking motorists in droves to Clinton Township family's driveway

"Joe Proudman/The Star-LedgerLaurie Gneiding stands with a barricade she puts in her driveway on the weekends to detour Round Valley Reservoir seekers from driving up to her house. Gnelding realized about a year ago, that Google Maps mistakenly gave her home address for the entrance to the Reservoir, but nothing has been changed. On a busy weekend, she says that a couple dozen people will drive up her driveway in search of the park.

Going somewhere?

Like millions of people each year, maybe you turn to Google Maps. The web site conveniently allows users to input a starting point and a final destination, and with one click, users get detailed directions.

But for Laurie Gneiding, Google Maps has been anything but convenient.

Since 1987, Gneiding and her husband Michael Brady have lived in one of three log homes found at the end of a quarter-mile long driveway in Clinton Township. The homes back Round Valley State Park, which boasts swimming, boating and camping in summer, and cross country skiing and sledding in the winter.

"We’re surrounded on three sides by woods with the state park as our ‘backyard,’" Gneiding said "We love being in the midst of nature."

But in the past three years, along with visits from a bald eagle, bear, coyote, foxes and dozens of species of birds, the couple has had a new kind of visitor: humans looking for the entrance to the state park.

"It started with one or two people but last year dozens of people were coming up," she said. "This year, someone told us that the directions for Round Valley State Park on Google Maps led them to our driveway."

UNWANTED VISITORS
Before realizing the wrong directions came from Google Maps, Gneiding and her neighbors did what they could to stop the traffic in the driveway.

Last summer, they erected four signs. Two, at the bottom of the driveway, say "No Trespassing" and "No Trespassing, Private Road." The third sign is about 50 feet up the driveway, saying "Private Drive." The fourth sign, Gneiding said, is on her property boundary and says "No Trespassing."

"I have no way of telling if they were effective for some, but many people chose to ignore them and come up anyway," she said.

This year, she took it a step further, spending $125 on a 8-foot-long orange traffic barricade, onto which she attached signs that say "Private Driveway/Private Residence" and "No Park Access."

"It goes across the driveway at the top of the hill on Friday nights and stays there each weekend and holiday, like July 4th," she said. "Anytime we need to leave the house we have to move it or put it back." "

More at: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2011/07/google_map_brings_recreation-s.html

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Southwest fires close national parks

"Wildfires in New Mexico and Arizona have taken their toll on National Park visitation. Arizona's Saguaro National Park was closed for a few days when wildfires in the south part of the state worried officials about safety. During the closure a lightening strike caused a flare up was quickly controlled. Firefighters limited the damage to less than a tenth of an acre.

Next door in New Mexico, Bandelier National Monument is still closed due to the same wildfire that threatened the National Laboratory at Los Alamos. The fire in the monument threatened a newly renovated visitor center, and officials closed the park on June 27. As of today the park remains closed."
Photos: NPS     Posted by Russ and Tiña De Maris.

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Sewer Eruption.

Before today, I knew not the existence of sewer geysers. This terrifying video shot by a youtube user captures the intense eruption of a sewer geyser in Montreal, Canada. The force of the geyser blows open a manhole cover, lifts a car off the ground, and severely damages the vehicle. As the underground waste spills out into the road, the cameraman remains steady. He films as the eruption reaches disgusting new heights towards the video's end.

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Slave Lake, the town that burned then flooded, which I mentioned last Saturday, not only had Will and Kate there, but Ivan and Hailey were there, too:

http://roadtrip-06.blogspot.com/2011/07/slave-lake-fire-flood.html?showComment=1311123552127

The blog has pictures of the damage to homes and dealerships. 

Ivan and Hailey only just got out in time by going down a muddy back road.

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From a buddy that lives in Nacogdoches Texas.

How Dry is it in Texas?

In Longview, TX a man said he'd killed a mosquito that was carrying a canteen.
A man in Dime Box, TX said the chicken farmers were giving the chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs.
In Lake Palestine, TX they caught a 20 lb catfish that had ticks on it!

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Yesterday:

It is still hot.  The day before, to try to save on electricity, I had put the kittens in their big "house" cage, and shut the AC down in the grooming/middle rooms.  They like being in the house, and are so quiet watching everything that goes on.  But with no AC in the grooming/middle rooms, the thermometer only went up 5-6 deg., but then the compressor had to work for a while, when I put them back in there at night.  I don't know if it saves anything, so I left them loose in their room yesterday.

Ray arrived early again, and started on more preparation for re-painting on the outside front of the cargo trailer. At that time it was in the shade, but by the time I got back with Jay, it was in the sun. 

The first thing Jay and I did, was to get out some tarps.  Jay fastened one corner of a tarp to the top left side of the trailer, and tied it to the awning's hardware on the right. We stretched out the tarp, and Jay drove two long T-posts into the ground with a pole driver, so we came up with this.

 

To address the lack of shade over the outside work tables took a bit longer.   The sunshine would come over the roof of Pugsy the vintage motor home, so we attached a tarp to the luggage rack with ropes.  Then pulled it over to the house, and anchored the ropes to the side of my house, and so we made shade over the work table.   Now we look like real Hillbillies.

When the weather is cooler, we will build something more permanent, as this is going to be an ongoing problem now that those 5 pine trees are gone.

 

Ray and Shay feed their cats in the little sitting area in front of the guest house, and if they don't pick up the dishes right away, the remnants bring flies.  When I was at WM, I had bought one of those fly trap things that you prime with honey, but I remembered I had a little electric bug zapper.  Being very allergic to skeeters, I found that it works great, and that the small zappers seem to work better than the large ones. 

I haven't used it for years, as we are so careful about standing water.  There again it has really been too dry to be bothered by mosquitoes this year. 

I hoped that it would work on those pesky flies.   Jay and I made a wooden arm frame which extends about three feet from the lattice over their sitting area. We temporarily ran an extension cord to an outlet up in that attic.

 

It didn't attract the flies.   Maybe we need to lower it.  Maybe one has to have a brighter larger bug zapper.  But at least we have the framework to attach fly papers, or some other fly trap out of the way of people and pets.

 

That was enough for the day.