14 posts tagged “camping”

There's a really nice OHV/Multi use trail near Mena, Arkansas called Wolf Pen Gap. There are about 31 miles of open trails in, around, and through the mountains and woods of the Ouachita National Forest. These trails are nicely maintained by the United States Forest Service. We are most definitely novice riders although we've owned ATV's or motorcycles since we were kids and these trails fit the bill. Corey had left his Rhino in our care so we took it because if its comfortable ride and ability for us to sit side by side. We had been given some good advice about local trails but ultimately decided to just stick to Wolf Pen Gap due to time constraints and lack of knowledge about the local area. Had we been staying or camping in a more populated area, we probably would have discovered more areas to ride and sights to see but, as I mentioned yesterday, we were isolated on top of a hill. The trails are very scenic, usually, but they had been doing a lot of 'control burning' in the previous couple of weeks and much of the area was burned over and a little smelly.

We stayed on the really easy trails for the morning but then graduated to the 'more difficult' trails by noon.

I refused to try these though!

 

 

 

The dogwoods were in full bloom, the butterflies were out in force (once it warmed up a bit) and the wildflowers were fascinating.

 

There are numerous stream crossings. Most now have bridges built over them to prevent damage but there are still a couple that you cross through the water.

 

 

That one was up about 6" in the floor board! Hard to take pictures when you're holding both feet up.

 

 

 

There are interesting things to see along the way like this old abandoned mine (silver I think). The view inside isn't as grand. Why do people have to throw their trash on the ground!?!?

 

As I mentioned before, the butterflies were out. This one was especially fond of dog turds.

 

If I were a beautiful butterfly, I'd probably hang out here on these adorable wild irises.

 

 

 

 

Some of the views were really nice though once you rode to the top.

 

 

But then you had to make your way down again.

 

After all the riding we relaxed by the campfire at the cabin and grilled dinner.

 

Watched the sunset and tried out the hammock. No relaxing in that thing though! It hangs out over the hill...if you fall out you'll be at the bottom before you stop rolling.

 

More from our trip tomorrow! Have a great day!!

 

Pat and I decided to hang around town for Easter weekend since it was raining anyway. We enjoyed visiting with family Easter Sunday and seeing the pics of the new boat his sister and her hubby are buying. Corey and Brittney left for their newest job assignment in Florida Monday morning. after sitting around looking at each other for a couple of hours, we decided to go to Arkansas and ride the Rhino in the mountains. I called and found a cabin to rent for a few days since we really aren't geared up to tow the ATV with the motorhome and off we went! I love impromptu trips.

 

Our litte cabin was rented through Adventure Trails Retreat. It was quiet and secluded but near the mountains atop a hill with a nice view. We enjoyed the outdoor cooking area and the jacuzzi tub!

 

 

 

 

The wood were full of wildflowers! The violets growing along the hillsides were absolutely beautiful!

There were also lots of these

 

and a lot of these in both purple and white

 

as well as a few of these

 

Mena was in better shape than I expected. Most of the tornado damage was residential but some of the roads were still closed when we were there so we probably didn't see the worst of it. I'll cover some of the really neat things we saw while riding the Wolf Pen Gap trails in my next post. Have a great Saturday!

The last morning of the trip, we had scheduled a tour of the wineries through the Lodge. The trip was cancelled due to lack of participation so we just headed to Altus on our own to do a tour. We began by stopping at the Poste Families Store to do a little tasting and buy a few bottles of wine.

Our next stop was Wiederkehr Wine Cellars which has been in business since 1880. The signpost below makes you wonder if you're still in Arkansas.

 

We started our tour at noon. First we went down into the cellars. The kegs are really very old and smell delighful!

 

The old wine press is beautiful.

 

After tasting a half-dozen or so wines, we headed over to their charming Weinkeller Restaurant for a delicious lunch of Swiss and German influenced cuisine. The candlelit tables are located in the original wine cellar and is on the National Register of Historical Places. It is quite a treat to visit and the food is wonderful.

 

We ordered our black forest cake and apple dumplings to go and waddled over to the Wine Shoppe to spend way too much on wines to bring home. I figure I have enough to last at least a year or two. But that's good because their nicer wines are difficult to find in stores.

On the way back up the mountain, we stopped at Cove Lake to get a picture. We would have liked to stay longer but it was very cold and windy.

 

I'd love to go back up there when the weather is warmer. We had cake and dumpings for supper and got things in order to head home on Wednesday morning. It was a fabulous trip and just enough of a trip to feel like I'd had a vacation.

Oops! I almost forgot, the Blog Frames which produced such nice rounded edges on all my pics in this post are by Lanne and can be found here ON SALE 20% OFF. While you're there, check out all the beautiful new products in the store. SMJ has some awesome free goodies there as well that would make nice gifts for teachers and friends.

After our lovely scenic drive. We started hiking. Mom really loves walking through the woods and we had several geocaches that were located along the trails that we wanted to try to find. We began with Greenfield trail.

 

It was really cold and windy but the hike was beautiful. We located our first Arkansas cache!

 

 

With one under our belt we headed for another cache along the Benefield Trail. That has to be the nicest trail I've been on...so clean and level. You can really enjoy the scenery without worrying about stepping in a hole or tripping on a rock. Our second cache was spotted by Mom.

 

It was still cold but we weren't ready to quit hiking so we headed for another nearby cache. I thought I was going to give Mom a heart attack when I parked on the roadside near the edge of a dropoff. She really doesn't like being near the edge of a cliff!

Here she is checking out all the treasures in the cache while I signed the log.

 

After lunch and a brief nap, we were determined to climb to the highest point in Arkansas, Signal Hill to locate a benchmark and the last cache of the day. I hope I'm still able to do it at 87 like my mom!

 

 

There's a huge stone map of Arkansas at the top...very impressive.

After hiking down we went by the lodge to log our finds of the day.

 

The Lodge is very nice and has this great view of the valley.

 

What a great day! My legs ached from the hiking but we had a blast!

The rain poured all night long, the temps dropped and the wind blew. I was certain that there would be no fog but I was WRONG. It looked like a cloud parked itself right on top of the motorhome. I couldn't even see the car parked three feet in front of the bumper! But a miracle happened right after breakfast...the fog lifted...yeah! Mom and I got dressed and decided to do a little driving tour of the overlook road. This was what we saw on our first stop.

 

 

Not quite all the clouds were off the mountain top.

 

Nice rocks!

 

The overlooks are really nicely done in this park...too bad the leaves were way past peak.

 

The wind chill must have been in the teens while we were up there! There were a few times that I had to wait for the wind to die down before shooting because the camera was shaking so badly. Gotta get me some gloves with exposed fingertips for shooting in such cold weather.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of our hikes and geocaching!

Have a super day!

For quite a number of years, with the exception of a couple when my dad was too ill, my mom and I have taken a little trip during Thanksgiving week. We've covered a number of places and done quite a few things on these wonderful trips. DH is not invited nor is my older son since they are always otherwise occupied during those weeks. Taylor would go with us sometimes but not  on this trip. In the past we've camped out at Petit Jean State Park (twice), Devil's Den State Park, Beaver's Bend State Park and one trip through several cities to view various art exhibits.

My mom loves walking through the woods in the Fall. We chose Arkansas again this year because of the beautiful hiking. Uhmm, yes, we do hike even though I'm fat and she's old and has had a knee replaced. We love the woods. Mount Magazine State Park was our destination this year. We left early on Saturday morning heading to my brother's to visit with them on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning we made the drive to Mount Magazine. We arrived and got the motorhome set up just ahead of the rain. With nothing else to do, we left for Paris to do a little shopping.

 

The merchan'ts downtown were having a little Christmas open house to showcase their Christmas merchandise. We really enjoyed looking through the shops. This one was called Girls in Overalls and was full of all kinds of antiques and stuff.

 

Arent these old heaters cool? The one in the back is a water heater.

 

Downtown Paris!

 

That concludes our first day of the trip...tune in tomorrow for day 2.

I'm such a blog slacker! I have FINALLY finished resizing and editing the pics from the balloon races...yep, same ones we always attend in October every year. As usual, we had a great time..beginning with the balloon glow on Friday night which we just barely make because of the two hour drive to arrive at our campground. There were more balloons in the park this year which made for a very happpy me.

 

 

 

Of course, on Saturday morning, we were up with the chickens ready to chase balloons for the best pics. I think we found it...

I especially liked shooting through the old oak trees and spanish moss.

 

 

There were so many balloons at this target at one time that it looked like a traffic jam!

 

We watched the barge drop from across the river (Vidalia side) because last year the view was blocked by a beer truck:-( and later sat on the levee at the park for a nice sunset over the Mississippi River.

 

After a really nice meal at Fat Mama's Tamales (yeah, I know, I fit in there just fine), it was off to bed to be ready for the early Sunday morning Balloon Flight.

While we waited for the balloons to rise and shine, I took the opportunity to snap a few pics of this old double decker tour bus at the RV park.

 

 

 

Seeing the balloons rise over the river was breathtaking. Unfortunately, it was also foggy so the pics are not as good as I would like for them to be.

 

 

 

The first target of the morning was practically in the park. The wind picked up a bit too much though before they were through and gave some of them a bit of a problem with the nearby trees.

 

 

This balloon was very close!

 

 

This pilot put a good wind-up on his bean bag before tossing it at the target.

 

This only one who had a bit of difficulty with the wind-tree combination...my most favorite balloon actually bounced off this line of trees and I was staring, rather than taking pics, too horrified to shoot! But it was all okay.

 

Aside from one really bad restaurant experience, in Vidalia, Friday night, at the Fish Fry, it was a great trip!

Today is election day here in the U.S. and I have the day off!! I'm headed to Monroe this afternoon to have a bit or oral surgery and maybe just do a little of my newest obsession, GEOCACHING!

 

Oops! I almost forgot....these pictures are greatly enhanced by the ROUNDED CORNER FRAMES by my friend LANNE...available at Shabby Miss Jenn Designs!  Stop by the shoppe...there's an awesome sale going on!

 

AND, I managed to snag a spot in the One Day Photography Workshop with Karen Russell in Lafayette next weekend!! I really need to get a little practice in with the camera before I head down there. Hopefully, this will improve my photography skills a bit.

Have a great day!

Friday afternoon, as planned, I took the motorhome out to our campsite at Caney Creek Lake. What was not planned was that Pat would not be camping with me and I didn't bother to take a car. My brother picked me up Friday afternoon and I spent some time visiting with him before he left to attend his 45th class reunion. Now before you make any assumptions about MY age remember, my mom says she raised two only children. He's 15 years older than I am. Yes, I do know that I am still old. I borrowed my mother's car to return to the campground for the night.

Saturday, we all gathered to clean up the extra lot that we own near my mom's home on the lake. After a really nice visit and lunch Pat drove me back to the campground and we visited with other camping friends who also happened to be in town for their class reunions. While I took a dip in the lake, Pat grilled a couple of steaks for us. After dinner Taylor called to tell us that he was caught in a really bad storm about 40 miles north of us. Transformers were blowing, trees falling and power poles snapping. He took shelter at a local video store before heading to a friend's house for the night. During the call, Pat decided to leave to head to our house before the weather got any worse and left me to fend for myself at the campground. That storm missed our area and, after being reassured by the local weathermen that we were done with the nasty weather, I hit the sack exhausted from the day's work.

Being the cautious type I am and hating not knowing what is going on with the weather while I'm on the road or at work, I have the Weather Channel send text alerts to my cell phone so I'm in the know at all times. Around 1 am a text came through saying that there was a 'significant weather alert' for my area. I turned on the TV to check the weather but all the warnings were far east of my location. Now, since the alerts had been going off all weekend in the overnight hours regarding heat advisories, I wasn't too concerned as I headed back to bed. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I could hear the weather coming. I could hear the wind before the storm reached us. I jumped out of bed, closed both slide out rooms on the motorhome and checked the weather again only to find out that there was very little information out there other than that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. Just to be safe, I put on my bra under my jammies and my flip flops and was considering helping the neighbors put their awning away but they had already gone back inside. Then things got really interesting. The trees began to fall. Not wanting to look like a complete idiot, I headed to the bathhouse on foot (no car remember). And this is what the damage looked like the next morning.

 

This leaning tree was across the street from my camper. These people were almost ready to leave Sunday morning when I took this picture and who could blame them!

 

 

There were lots of other limbs down that just missed campers.

 

And this is what happens to your awning if you fail to put it away when you leave your campsite.

 

Luckily, this was the only serious damage I saw to any of the campers although quite a few of those in tents got quite a scare.

Today I used the new Blog Frames by Lanne available here AND they're on sale for 25% off right now. These frames make it incredibly easy to get pics onto your blog just insert pics and you have way fewer uploads to make. Lanne also has some awesome textures for use with your photos.

 

 

I'll show what I've done with those tomorrow but they are here and they're on sale too! While you're there, please also check out the yummy new goodies from Shabby Miss Jenn. I can't decide what to buy first...I adore the candy bar wrappers and treat toppers and she has the most awesome blog goodies and a free August desktop! All these fabulous goodies are on sale so hurry.

Yesterday I spent the entire day cleaning house. I'm a little closer but have a LONG way to go to get ready to paint the den. I have more of the same scheduled for today...but...the Goodhousekeeping Fairy (my Mom) helped me yesterday. She folded a mountain of laundry yesterday. Now for the final vacation pics.

On our way back to the campground from Apalachicola we stopped by to see the Cape San Blas Lighthouse. The gift shop was already closed but I was able to get a couple of pictures of the lighthouse which is also undergoing renovations.

 

On the way back out the drive I took this pic through the trees so you could see the actual light better.

 

The following pics are the final two pictures of the park at sunset.

 

As I said in earlier posts...the sunset were NOT spectacular this visit...either too many clouds or too few.

 

Pat had taken off an extra day but we were not able to stay at the park so we headed to Chauvin, Louisiana to visit his sister and her DH. We can park the motorhome in their front yard on the slab where their home used to be before the hurricane. There is a nice view of the bayou and shrimp boats and Pat enjoys fishing and crabbing from their little dock.

 

Shrimp season isn't open right now in the closer waters so most of the boats are docked.

 

There are way more 'for sale' signs on the boat this year. The diesel prices are killing the shrimpers.

 

And that concludes the vacation report for this year. Yesterday I booked TWO WEEKS at the same park in Florida! Way more cost effective that way and we will be celebrating a big anniversary next year. Back to the cleaning grind for me! Have a great day!

What a great weekend! As is usual for us, DH did NOT get away from work
on time and I thought I might have to leave him behind..but he made it.
We arrived at our campsite around 5 pm just in time to set-up the
motorhome and grab the cameras for the balloon glow. This one was
setting up about 100 feet from us so I took a series of pics so you
could see how they are inflated.

At this point, they are inflating using a large fan.

Here she is beginning to fire the burner to fill the balloon with hot
air…that’s why I stepped back..it is really hot!

As the balloon fills with the hot air it rises and the crew sets the
gondola upright as it does so.

Now it’s all inflated and ready to glow. This year there were far fewer
balloons in the park…only 5 compared with 11 or so last year.
They weren’t up very long either so I don’t have too many ‘glowing’
pics.

This balloon is called “Electric Rainbow” I know because we have one of
their trading cards.

Since most of the balloons weren’t up very long, we didn’t get any new
cards this year.

This one looks good during the day but is too dark to be very pretty when glowing.

The lighter in color the envelope (balloon part) the prettier they glow.

We watched the fireworks too but I didn’t take pics because we didn’t
get far enough down to avoid having the Mississippi River Bridge in the
pics.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We took a short walk
around the Flea Market and headed to the MH to retire early so we could
chase balloons Saturday morning at daybreak. The powers that be here at
school have discovered that Vox is a blog site so they have “smart
filtered” it out. This post is being sent via e-mail so I may have to
‘pretty it up’ when I get home. Have a great day! I’ll be editing pics
in my spare time to share tomorrow.