The first and most important item on yesterday morning’s agenda was getting the electric company’s “right-of-way instrument” notarized. The same notary public we’d worked with last fall made a house call here at the campground, and we had that knocked out early.
Around noon we drove up to Branson and strolled the old downtown with our visiting Texas friends — small establishments of all kinds, tons of character, the sort of irresistible shopping district that used to be common in tourist towns. In need of a tide-me-over ’til dinner, we stopped at a sweet shop where I quickly decided on… wait for it… a huckleberry ice-cream cone.
Sadly, there wasn’t enough left of that flavor to fill my order, so I substituted blueberry cheesecake ice cream. After plopping an enormous portion on a waffle cone, the smiling scooper reached deep into the empty huckleberry tub and scraped up every last bit, depositing it like a cherry on top of my cone.
It was a delightful surprise.
We wrapped our road trip with Chicago-style pan pizza at Mr. Gilberti’s in Hollister, joined by the Missouri friends who’d first introduced us to the place. Easily my all-time favorite pie — delicious.
Driving back to Arkansas in steady rain, we weren’t complaining. We haven’t flirted (yet) with the kind of drought conditions Ozarkansas endured last year, but by the looks of Crooked Creek and Gray Spring this week, the region’s aquifers could use a boost now. In short, we’ll take it.
With the right-of-way document notarized, we still had to bring it to the Marion County Clerk to be officially recorded before sending it to the electric utility. We wanted to handle that this week, meaning today, so we dashed over to Yellville early this morning.
It was, of course, another pleasant experience at the courthouse — everyone was cheerful and helpful, and we were in and out in no time. When we got back to the bus I scanned the executed form and e-mailed it to the engineer, then mailed him the original.
So that’s done. Now we have to knock down some trees.
By the way, it looks like our site contractor is ready to prep the pad where our fifth-wheel will sit, involving two or three loads of rock and some skid-steer time — probably Monday or Tuesday, depending on weather. (A little more rain would help, actually.)
Tomorrow we’ll be back on The Mountain with our Texas friends. We’re thinkin’ take-out BBQ at our new picnic table. Maybe a scoot to the summit for a walkaround. We’ll see.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB