Annie Lee the Argosy Update: No. 032

Craig had been fishing at Reelfoot a few years back but I'd never been...

And we've been talking a lot lately about seeing new places and how we can travel north just as easily as we can travel south [but y'all know we love The Gulf!]

When we saw that the State Park was offering a vintage camping event we signed right up!

A little history

and interesting facts...

And omgoodness, y'all this is a beautiful campground

- if you have a spot on the water -

I really love the kinda other-worldly feel of cypress trees...

But. HELLO -

This was our welcome committee -

HUNDREDS OF BEES.

But, surprisingly they were very calm and gathered around the queen...

So officials quickly removed them for us. Whew...

And we were able to set everything up -

Still loving my step and how I can decorate it lots of different ways...

I knew this event had some awards around decor, etc. so I went into the recesses of the attic and pulled out some 'summer' stuff I've not used in ages...

The palm tree is a blow-up from OTC that we've had since the boys were teenagers... the [metal] flamingos came from a direct order catalog over 15 years ago...

and I brought along the dahlias for a bit more color...

I wrapped lights around the tree and we hung a couple of strings of lights on the awning

[from 5 Below - because I'm just not sure what I want yet... ha]

And we still LOVE Craig's tiki lights that we've had for few years now.

And hey - we got a ribbon for most lit up at night...

Fun!

We're still not sure who won the other awards as they were just hung on the camper door

and not really announced...

Unfortunately the person who planned this event was in quarantine and unable to be with us during the weekend... but The State Park staff and volunteers with 'Friends of Reelfoot Lake' took great care of us -

There were lots of events planned [and included in the cost] including a raptor show with some beautiful birds that have been injured and unable to live in the wild...

This great horned owl was gorgeous... but the barred owl stole the show when he continuously flipped upside down after they took his tiny mouse [meal] out of his claws... he was having nothing of it this show stuff...lol...

The eagle was beautiful too - they've had her for over 7 years when she and her brother were rescued from there nest that fell in a storm... the brother was able to rehabilitate and return to the wild... we also saw a red tail hawk that was pretty too.

The park hosted us for a campfire and s'mores both nights, a pancake breakfast...

and a fish dinner at a local restaurant.

We could also go on canoe or pontoon boat rides...

It was cool to see so much of the lake from the water...

There's so many birds here!

Loved seeing osprey and eagle nests as we boated around...

We even saw an osprey eating a fish...

And this eagle up in a tree...

I've got to get into the habit of taking my little super-zoom along when we camp...

This is as good as it gets with my phone zoom...

blurry, but I can tell it's an eagle. Ha.

We saw a couple of eagles fly around the campground...

And these big brown squirrels around the campsite were pretty tame...

Going into the weekend we knew it was going to rain most of Saturday...

[Love seeing the water out our back window!]

So we'd planned to drive over the Mississippi River to Missouri ...

We enjoyed driving around some small towns...

and Craig did some personal shopping for himself and friends ...

Then we headed back to camp where

we just relaxed inside and read a bit while we enjoyed the scenery ...

The wind kicked up when the rain stopped in the afternoon

so we enjoyed a chilly spring sunset from our place around our campfire...

Two things: 1] I soooo enjoy having my [first] cup of coffee outside in nature...

And our little spot right by the lake was so quiet and peaceful.

[Due to the cypress knees there's not many water sports happening here...]

And 2] The more we camp in #AnnieLeetheArgosy the more we refine our set-up so that it's easy to use... having our coffee pot on this little toaster oven is a space saver and keeps the counter top neat and clean. [Toaster oven from Ollie's / dish drainer from Target / flowers from a root from my mama's roses...]