Wednesday, December 10, 2008 - Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville MS

Water on the floor by the door, Dec 10, 2008, Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville MS

It's a long way to the bath house from here

Maybe half a mile. Certainly farther than I wanted to walk through the woods in a blowing thunderstorm. I was tempted to hunker down here at Site 39 and hope for the best. In the end that's what the other three campers here did but since the Campground Attendant came around to warn us to take shelter an hour or so before the storm I felt I didn't want to risk having him come by at the height of the blow looking for me when I didn't show up at the bath house. So I unhooked and drove over, parked as far from big trees as I could, and ended up staying camped there in the road all night. That gave me a chance to do my laundry this morning before heading back to Site 39.

These darned leaks are driving me nuts

I've pretty well run out of ideas about where these leaks are coming from. I'm collecting my thoughts at A Tale of Two Leaks.

Night camp

Site 39 - Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville MS

This is a quiet, well maintained COE campground with level gravel sites, reservoir views, electric & water
There is good biking on the park roads
Most sites are wooded so solar gain is limited for those with solar panels
Good Verizon cell phone service - Access is via Extended Network, roaming
No Verizon EVDO service - access is via the Extended Network and service varies from slow to barely useable
Find other references to Twiltley Branch
List the nights I've camped here
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Heliograph route between Fort Cummings NM and Tubac, AZ

1886 heliograph transmissions between Tubac near Nogales Arizona/Mexico, and Fort Cummings New Mexico: Joe Marques (Flagstaff) was doing some research in old Flagstaff newspapers and found something that might interest. In the Arizona Weekly Champion, Saturday August 7, 1886, page 2 column 1, it says: "A message was recently sent by the government heliograph (signalling by sunlight flashes) from Fort Cummings, N.M. to Tubac, Ariz., a distance of 400 miles, and an answer received in four hours." What a great [research] find! This was during the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, and the heliograph system at that time did indeed extend between the two stations. From Tubac, the most westerly terminus, the intermediate stations were Baldy Peak or possibly Josephine Peak just a little south of Baldy), Fort Huachuca, Antelope Spring, Emma Monk, White's Ranch, Bowie Peak (or Helen's Dome), Steins Peak, and Camp Henely (east of Fort Cummings). This means the message would have been relayed seven times, one way. It most likely was a test message, and relatively short, but I would love to know what it and the reply really said. The 1886 "airline" distance between Tubac and Fort Cummings; and of course on to Fort Cummings. I calculate the one-way distance between the two extremes as being 241 miles, with round trip of course being 482 miles.

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