Buffalo River (Slideshow Added)

[MarkBarbieri]

Our camping trip was pretty much a disaster. We had an afternoon thunderstorm on the first night that silted the clear river. The second night brough a severe thunderstorm that downed trees near us. On the third day, we decided to just bug out and paddled 35 miles, much of it through pouring rain. On that day, we passed several picturess waterfalls, but we were too busy paddling to stop for photos.

The river part of the trip went so bad it was funny. I'm considering writing a trip report. We had trees crashing near us, major shelter failures, attacks by raccoons, midnight naked runs to the canoe, our longest ever one-day paddle with gear, and unbelievably patient kids. No one got hurt (much) and we escaped alive.

The complete set of pictures from the trip are at http://barbieri.smugmug.com/gallery/3096770#P-1-15

You can see a slideshow at http://barbierifamily.org/slideshow/2007Arkansas.exe

The start of the trip:

The first night's downpour:

My homebrew Nintendo DS charger made from a flashlight made me a hero to the kids:

Strangers in the mist

Turtle Shells

Erik and a butterfly

Dante and Erik tubing near camp

Dragonflies

 

[Lizziejane]

The camping may have been a disaster but you came home with some great shots! I love the strangers in the mist, and Eriks expression with the butterfly - that was sure a timely shot!

 

[jann1033]

hey your trip sounds like every camping trip we take ( last one tropical depression with a tent that ripped the first night...right in the middle of the roof so no place to put anything and not get rained on but the worst trip was when the tornado touched down less than 1/2 mile away in the middle of the night, rain happens so often to us we actually have friends that refuse to go with us )

but love your mist photo and sorry you got such a wash out.

 

[TwoOldPoohs]

Strangers in the mist

This photo is gorgeous! Despite the rain, it sounds like a fun trip.

 

[wdwmom2]

Great pics even though the weather was crappy!!! And hey, trips like these are what great memories are made from .

Anyone else think that last pic looks like a dragonfly orgy ???? I swear, my mind is not in the gutter, it was just the first thing that came to my mind .

 

[jann1033]

Great pics even though the weather was crappy!!! And hey, trips like these are what great memories are made from .

Anyone else think that last pic looks like a dragonfly orgy ???? I swear, my mind is not in the gutter, it was just the first thing that came to my mind .

swhoo glad i wasn't the only one who wondered exactly what they were doing there

 

[AndrewWG]

Great pics even though the weather was crappy!!! And hey, trips like these are what great memories are made from .

Anyone else think that last pic looks like a dragonfly orgy ???? I swear, my mind is not in the gutter, it was just the first thing that came to my mind .

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I added a musical slideshow of scenes from the trip:

http://barbierifamily.org/slideshow/2007Arkansas.exe

 

[AndrewWG]

My homebrew Nintendo DS charger made from a flashlight made me a hero to the kids:

Mark,

As always, your photos are GREAT! I especially like this one. Not for artistic value but for the overall technological genius of it all! That is pretty slick! How does this work and how can I make one if ever I should need it? My DD is slowly getting into the video games (I held it off for 8 years though!) and I can see the need for one of these in the future. I assume it worked just fine or you probably wouldn't have shown the pic.

Andy

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Mark,

As always, your photos are GREAT! I especially like this one. Not for artistic value but for the overall technological genius of it all! That is pretty slick! How does this work and how can I make one if ever I should need it? My DD is slowly getting into the video games (I held it off for 8 years though!) and I can see the need for one of these in the future. I assume it worked just fine or you probably wouldn't have shown the pic.

Andy

First let me qualify this by admitting that I'm fairly well known on this board for my reckless behavior, so try this at your own risk. It worked for me, but it might be doing irrepairable harm in some insidious manner.

I knew long before the trip that the boys would want to play their DSes during downtime at camp and that the batteries wouldn't hold out for the entire trip. I kept planning on picking up some extra batteries or a charger or something. When I finally got around to it, I found that the local game store didn't carry either and that it was too late to find one online. That left me with the choice of disappointing the boys or getting creative. Obviously, the latter choice sounded like more fun.

Some quick research showed that the DS charger puts out a bit over 5 volts. I figured that 6 volts was probably within tolerance. I ran to local Walmart and picked up a cheap 6-volt lantern, a cheap DS charger, and a decent 6-volt battery.

To make my homebrew charger, I did the following:

1) Removed the bulb from the lantern.
2) Cut off the charger, leaving a length of wire and the connector piece.
3) Drilled a hole in the lens of the lantern.
4) Threaded the wire through the hole in the lens and through the hole left by removing the bulb.
5) Soldered the connector wires to the connector plates on the flashlight. I guessed that the green wire went to the + (outer) terminal and the bare wire went to the - (middle) terminal.
6) Hot glued the wire where it came out of the lens and added a little tape for good measure. I did this so that there would be less stress on my solder joints.
7) Connected it to a DS and turned on the "flashlight". The little orange charger light on the DS lit up and their was much rejoicing.

We actually used it on both DSes during the trip and it seemed to work just fine. I was a little nervous about whether it would stop charging when the DS was full, so I only ran it for a couple of hours at a time.

Keep in mind that I'm a software guy by trade and all of this electrical stuff is voodoo to me. I took one EE class and it was on digital circuits, not this stuff. I suppose I also took an electricity and magnetism class, but it wasn't of much practical value either. I wouldn't be surprised if an electrical guru here points out several huge problems with what I did. But hey, it worked for the trip and the DSes seem to still be working. My kids think I'm cool.

 

[AndrewWG]

First let me qualify this by admitting that I'm fairly well known on this board for my reckless behavior, so try this at your own risk. It worked for me, but it might be doing irrepairable harm in some insidious manner.

I knew long before the trip that the boys would want to play their DSes during downtime at camp and that the batteries wouldn't hold out for the entire trip. I kept planning on picking up some extra batteries or a charger or something. When I finally got around to it, I found that the local game store didn't carry either and that it was too late to find one online. That left me with the choice of disappointing the boys or getting creative. Obviously, the latter choice sounded like more fun.

Some quick research showed that the DS charger puts out a bit over 5 volts. I figured that 6 volts was probably within tolerance. I ran to local Walmart and picked up a cheap 6-volt lantern, a cheap DS charger, and a decent 6-volt battery.

To make my homebrew charger, I did the following:

1) Removed the bulb from the lantern.
2) Cut off the charger, leaving a length of wire and the connector piece.
3) Drilled a hole in the lens of the lantern.
4) Threaded the wire through the hole in the lens and through the hole left by removing the bulb.
5) Soldered the connector wires to the connector plates on the flashlight. I guessed that the green wire went to the + (outer) terminal and the bare wire went to the - (middle) terminal.
6) Hot glued the wire where it came out of the lens and added a little tape for good measure. I did this so that there would be less stress on my solder joints.
7) Connected it to a DS and turned on the "flashlight". The little orange charger light on the DS lit up and their was much rejoicing.

We actually used it on both DSes during the trip and it seemed to work just fine. I was a little nervous about whether it would stop charging when the DS was full, so I only ran it for a couple of hours at a time.

Keep in mind that I'm a software guy by trade and all of this electrical stuff is voodoo to me. I took one EE class and it was on digital circuits, not this stuff. I suppose I also took an electricity and magnetism class, but it wasn't of much practical value either. I wouldn't be surprised if an electrical guru here points out several huge problems with what I did. But hey, it worked for the trip and the DSes seem to still be working. My kids think I'm cool.

That's great! I doubt I will try it anytime soon, but the fact that it CAN be done is really cool and I can imagine your kids surprise (and joy) when it worked. Good going!

Andy