Teardrop Camping in the Rain - Lost Bridge South Campground - Garfield, AR
No matter how much you prepare for a trip, the weather will always be the wildcard. We realized this again during a recent trip to Lost Bridge South Campground, near Garfield, AR. Luckily, most of the rain was limited to Saturday morning, so we were still able to enjoy the weekend.
The trip got off to a bit of a shaky start. About 15 minutes from the house, Tammy realized that she forgot her medications for the weekend, so that required us to head back to the house. At least we hadn’t made it too for before she realized that she forgot them.
We had not camped at Lost Bridge South since last year. We enjoyed that trip, other than our site for that trip was directly next to the boat ramp, and one of the amenities was a floodlight that was pointed toward our site all night. Our site for this trip was definitely an improvement. We were in site #21, which was directly across from the day use area. However, that area was only being used by campers, as there was no “day use” due to COVID.
That evening was clear, and we stayed up later than normal looking at the stars. The Perseid meteor shower was expedited to peak on August 12th, which was only a few days away, so we were hoping to catch a glimpse of a few, which we did. The only thing that could have made the night better would have been if the camper across the campground would have shut off the bright light on the side of their trailer. That, of course, started the conversation on being in a campground vs. being out in wilderness.
Saturday morning was much cooler than expected for that time of the year. As Tammy made breakfast, we started making our plans for the day. The plan was to hike a short trail in the park, then take the paddle boards out on the lake. By the time we finished breakfast, those plans changed, as there was a storm heading our direction. We debated on if we should still try the hike, if we should take the top off of our canopy, and if we should get in the trailer. After about an hour of deliberation, we decided to postpone the hike, and to sit outside under the canopy until the storm blew over.
As we were watching the rain, I realized that I had a notification on Messenger. It was from someone else in the park, who recognized us from our videos! We replied, and told them to stop by and say “hi” if they had a chance. As the rain started to subside, they stopped by our site. We chatted for quite a while, and decided to later meet up on the water, as they had kayaks, and we would be out on the boards.
We also had another visitor while it was raining. As we were sitting there, a park ranger walked up to our site and started chatting about everything from our trailer, to Bagheera. He was very nice, but the whole conversation I was thinking that it was strange for a ranger to stand out in the rain just to chit-chat. Eventually, he got to the point of the visit, which was our shower tent. He stated that the Little Rock region of the Corps of Engineers had recently changed their policy, and those were no longer allowed. He was fine with us leaving it up until it dried out, but then we would have to take it down.
As we were sitting there that morning, I also realized that I forgot to check in on RVillage. We haven’t had an account for long, and we have never been at a park with another member, so I often forget. Anyway, when I checked in, I realized that there was another couple on RVillage that was in the same park. I read their profile, and for some reason, one thing that stood out was that they had a dog named Brees (after Drew Brees). After the rain stopped, I heard Tammy chatting with someone who was walking their dog by our site. I just happened to hear them say that the dog’s name was Brees. It just so happened that the other couple on RVillage was in the site right next to ours! We chatted with them for a while as well, and ended up hanging out with them and their family later that night.
The remainder of the weekend was enjoyable. We hung out with new friends, got to take out the paddle boards, and eventually were able to check out that hike. I would say that the weekend definitely didn't go as expected, however, I think camping (and travel in general), is often better when you don’t let expectations get in the way.