My Home for the Next Couple Months “Hensley Lake”

I left off in my last post just arriving at Hensley Lake on the evening of July 10. This is a very nice Army Corps of Engineers Park in the San Joaquin Valley near Raymond, California. Even though the campground is closed I will be volunteering and helping out in the day use area, in trade for my campsite. As I pulled into the park, I had a couple of the more minor incidents. First as I rounded the corner to the office, (I did not even notice it right away) I blew out a tire on my tow dolly and ended up shredding the tire to pieces before I noticed. Here’s a photo of the tire and rim. I was just so happy that it didn’t happen on the highway, where it could’ve been a lot worse. I was only going about 25 miles an hour when it did, so not any real damage was done. I unloaded the car and while I was doing that, the night Ranger came and greeted me and showed me where my site would be. I drove the car over and he gave me a ride back to the RV.  Where I went about putting the spare tire on the tow dolly, so I could get that to the site to get set up. I got the spare tire on and noticed that the taillight was also missing. But that was no big deal because I had a couple spare ones that I had in the RV. Over the next week I replaced the taillight and got a replacement tire. So, it’s back to almost like new, as you can see in this photo.

After getting the spare tire on. I tried to turn around in the tight parking lot by the office. What I should’ve done was unhooked the tow dolly, get turned around and hooked it backup. But I was tired and in a hurry. It would’ve been a lot less trouble in the long run. But hindsight is always 20/20. What did happen was while I was trying to watch all sides of the RV for the rocks that were along the road. That I bumped ever so gently into the guardrail. Which on fiberglass means disaster in a hurry. Here’s a photo of what happens even at just a couple miles an hour when you push fiberglass against the firm guardrail.

But this too has been a work in progress. I’ve almost got it fixed and back together as you can tell in this photo. I’ll have it all back to looking good in a few more days.

I was so glad to finally get the RV back into it spot, which I must say is a very nice one and settled in for the next couple months. Here’s a photo of the site that I have, in the campground all to myself. Here is the view out my front window looking out over the lake. The campground sits high on the hill with beautiful views of the surrounding area. Of course, the hills are multiple shades of brown this time of the year as it is very hot and dry in the Valley in the summer.

The next morning Maxine and I got up early to the check out the park. The very first thing we did was take a walk down to the water.

Of course, Maxine was delighted to indulge in it. It is very warm and comfortable and “clean as lakes go”. We both have gone swimming many times in the last month.

The park is in an area where there are quite a few snakes. And right down by the boat launch we came across the small dead rattlesnake.

After Maxine got cool down, we took a ride around the lake to check out a couple other viewpoints. Here’s a view from up on the dam. The reservoir is only used for flood control and irrigation so it does not generate any power. Here are couple photos looking from the other side of the lake back towards where my camper is. There are beautiful views and Vistas all around the park. Talking about snakes one day when I was out picking up litter around the park. I came across this rather large snakeskin, but till this point I had not seen any life snakes. But more about that in a later post.

There are also lots of these moonflowers in bloom all through the park.

One evening I did have a deer come right up the valley, when I was sitting out and enjoying the evening waiting for the sunset.

On this particular evening there were a few clouds, making for pretty skies. This has been very unusual, as it is mostly clear and sunny here in the valley. Because of the clouds I was treated to a delightful sunset “a real treat”. The sunset made the hills in the background kind of pinkish in color, which also was very pretty. That’s a brief summary of my peaceful home here in Central California, till the end of September. Next to come, more wildlife and a brief summary of my tasks here at the park. Till then God Bless & Best Wishes to All, Rick

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