Bull Shoals Lake Day 1: It's a Long Way to Flippin Arkansas

How will we ever get all of this stuff in the car? That was my worry. Here we were, about to set off on a 9-10 hour drive to Bull Shoals Lake, Arkansas and we had so many "necessary" items that I didn't see how it could fit. But Mike the Master Packer made it happen. Of course, no one could open any doors without Coke cans spilling out and the back end was about six inches off the ground but at 8:40 a.m., we were off.

Bull Shoals Lake is right on the border of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. We had rented a 50' houseboat for several days and invited our friend, Vi, to join us. The GPS lady told us to head north through Oklahoma and after a few more hours, we made it to the Arkansas border.

Finally, around 5:30 p.m., we pulled into Flippin Arkansas.

We had to make a Flippin pit stop at the Flippin Wal-Mart to get some Flippin water shoes. Then just a few more miles to Bull Shoals Lake.

The plan was to spend the night at the Lighthouse Point Resort since our boat was not supposed to be ready until the following morning. When we checked in at the boat dock, they said they had a boat available and we were welcome to spend the night on it in the marina at no extra charge. Bonus! We only had to unload our piles of stuff once in the blazing sun. They brought a pontoon boat around to the boat ramp for us to load all our gear to take to the houseboat.

We motored into the slip next to our home away from home for the next four nights, Sven #19, and unloaded our gear.

After unpacking, the first order of business was finding the score with real time updates on the Mavs' game five of the championship series.

Vi, our self-designated chef for the week, heated up some lasagna and garlic bread for dinner. We then settled in on the aft of the boat to relax and enjoy the sunset.

Shortly after I went to bed around 1 a.m. and Mike and Vi were partying hard on the roof, a terrible commotion occurred outside my window. Earlier in the evening, a huge flock of Canadian geese surrounded the boat looking for food. We tossed them some pieces of bread and thought it was done. But no...they were back and they were mad. At each other. If you've never heard a goose fight before, you're lucky. It was like a waterfowl version of "West Side Story."

the Jets vs.

the Sharks

After the goose fight finally died down, I was able to get some sleep. Mike and Vi met a fisherman who showed them how to clean walleye and both went to sleep as well with visions of walleye dancing in their heads.