Days 167 & 168: Oil City, LA

The Arkansas border was just a few blocks up the road from where we had camped on Thursday, so first thing in the morning I went and dipped my toe over the line for a few miles, so that I could say that we had bicycled in Arkansas.  Arkansas is the first new state we've visited since early July when we crossed into Indiana (we've been in eight states since then, all of which we had bicycled through last year).

We were on the road at first light on Friday, as it was forecast to be yet another hot, humid day.  Most of the ride was along a fairly scenic route, and for the most part traffic either wasn't bad or there was a decent shoulder to ride on.  I managed to get my 46 miles in before 10:30 am, as we had a lot to do once we arrived in Oil City.

Oil City was one of our general delivery mail stops, so we had a few packages waiting for us.  It was also the first time that one of our Amazon.com orders got messed up.  They shipped a box of stuff via UPS, which won't deliver to a local post office.  So I called the UPS store in Marshall, TX to see if I could send it there (there being no such facility here in Oil City).  They said I could, so I confirmed the address I found online with them and then Amazon had it redirected there.  Trouble is, the store recently changed locations, and the address that they confirmed was the old address.  Since UPS couldn't figure out that the new store was across the street, it got sent back to Amazon.com.  And of course the UPS Store didn't mention that there is a $5 fee for them to hold a package for you (we had another package waiting for us there)!

I was in Marshall, TX because it has the closest Walmart tire center along our route, so we had our new tires shipped there.  I waited for them to be installed on the van while Alea and Lana stayed behind at the campsite.  It was nice to get that chore done, as the wheel with the damaged tire couldn't be stored on the rear spare tire hanger under the van, so it has been on the floor of the van and in our way for the past week.

We are camped just south of Oil City at Earl G. Williamson Park ($12, power, water and adjustable showers), which is run by Caddo Parish.  It appeared to us when we got here that the showers weren't working, as there is a non-functioning outdoor shower in each bathroom.  It turns out there is another indoor shower at the back of the building, provided you know the code to open the door.  That took a bit of effort to figure out, but we eventually did.  

Our water hose isn't long enough to reach the water spigot on our site, and all the power posts for the campsites are installed on the wrong side.  But for $12 per night we aren't complaining.  It's quite a bargain compared with a large percentage of sites that we've stayed at.  

It's a nice enough park, situated on the shore of Caddo Lake (Texas is on the far shore of the lake).  If we had wanted, we could have had a lakeside campsite with a view of the oil pump jacks out on the lake (Caddo Lake is the site of the first over-water oil wells, is the second largest non-oxbow lake in the south and boasts the largest cypress forest in the world).  But that would have meant a lot of late afternoon western sun being reflected off of the water.  We also would have needed to keep an eye out for gators whenever we had Lana outdoors.  So we opted for a site with shade instead.  

I spent Saturday starting to craft the roof mount for the ARB awning that we have ordered (in light of our troubles this week, we've had it shipped to my niece, who will bring it with her when we rendezvous near Austin in a couple of weeks).  One of the things that arrived in the mail was a 12" piece of 1/4" thick, 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" T6 structural angle aluminum.  I have cut that into two pieces and have drilled two holes in each so that it can be lag bolted to the roof mount that I will make.  The new awning will be bolted to the angle aluminum, and I'll drill holes in it for that purpose once I know the diameter of hole that is necessary and the precise spacing (I believe it is close to 2" on center, which is why we are using 3.5" angle aluminum).

I had tried to find another Camp Inn owner in Texas that might have a table saw that I could borrow, as I needed to rip an angle along the length of a six foot long 2"x2" piece of clear pine (so that the top of the piece would be more or less level once installed on the roof of the van).  Instead, I more or less accomplished that with a 3/4" wood chisel and a lot of sweat.  It is pretty rough, but that side will be sealed with silicone, so it doesn't have to look pretty.

Now all we need is the awning and a shady site where I can install it, hopefully one with a picnic table that we can put beside the van to facilitate getting everything in place.

We had a cold front come through this afternoon, so we will have one day of cooler and drier weather before the weather pattern once again returns to more of the same.  It was nice just to have some pretty good cloud cover this afternoon, giving us a break from the nearly constant sun that we have experienced lately.