Lake Fort Smith State Park

July 9th, 2018, Donna and I took grand-kids (Brayden and Hannah) to Lake Fort Smith State Park for four nights. We wanted to get in a summer trip with them and needed somewhere with a swimming pool. We had visited Lake Fort Smith several times by ourselves in the fall when the pool was closed. But with kids in the Arkansas July heat this was the place to go. We reserved campsite #18 which turned out to be a handicap accessible site. This meant that majority of the site was concrete with a raised fire pit. We like sites on the lower loop including the adjacent #19 and #20 being the last sites on the lower loop. Lake Fort Smith is a small park with only 30 campsites so getting exactly the site you want can be difficult.

The swimming pool was never to terribly crowed. It was a nice size pool with a separate kiddy-pool and a splash pad.  

Brayden enjoyed the splash pad with the random dumping buckets. 

 

The only bad part about the pool was having to leave. 

Brayden  procuring fire wood from abandoned camp site

Used my mister and a fan to help cool down in the afternoon

Being on the end of the lower loop the kids could safely ride around the curve to the upper loop and were never out of site. When I say "safely" I mean traffic safety. Brayden is always in top gear riding with reckless abandon.  I did at least get him to wear his helmet.

Hannah on the other hand spent some time in the trailer reading and provided a summary of her favorites sayings from our camping book.

We saw deer everyday from our campsite and on drives in the park.

Brayden and I got up one morning early before the heat and did some fishing down on the lake.  

Wednesday I got some hammock time, but before I was there long the afternoon rain started and I had to move under the awning. Life is hard!

Brayden demonstrates how to dump rain water from the canopy.

I was amazed at how fast the maintenance crew got to the adjacent campsite after it was vacated. They blew off any debris (leaves and sticks) then groomed the gravel at the site with a rake like a zen garden. You want get that at the federal parks.

Brayden and I took a bike ride one afternoon. The pictures below were take from the overlook behind the visitor center.  The overlook gives a great view of the day use area and marina down at the lake.

 

We had a raccoon show up several nights. Our last night he walked up to us and appeared to be begging for handouts. 

This trip makes about 3558 miles we have logged within Arkansas since we first got our trailer in 2015.This may be our last camping trip for a little while until the summer heat breaks. With temperatures in the mid-90's and high humidity the camper's AC unit had trouble keeping up until evening. 

Old Highway 25 Park

Old Highway 25 Park, June 4th 2018
Donna and I left on a Monday for three nights at Old Highway 25 Park. We took Hannah and Brayden with us. Along the way we stopped in Morrilton for ice. I filled the ice chest and attempted a trick to clean my black water tank sensors. The trick is to dump some ice down the toilet to agitate the sensors while driving. Upon emptying the bag of ice down the drain I let go of the bag with one hand - the hand holding my trailer keys and down the toilet they went. After a failed attempt to flush them out the drain (and I want go into details of that process) we gave up on that set of keys. Luckily Donna had a complete spare set. 

We met up with Matt, Sarah and their girls at the park campsite G25. This site had a view of the lake. The sites in Loop G have large level pads for tents or just spreading out. With five grand-kids we had to setup the tent for overflow. The weather gave us a break and nights were comfortable in the upper 60's for tent camping. Brayden and I took the first night in the tent. So cool we had to get up at about 3:00 AM to put on more clothes. Hannah and Zoey decided that they wanted to make the tent theirs for the remainder of the nights.

We spent two afternoons swimming in Greers Ferry lake at the park swinging beach.

Chuck'O is our game of choice at the campsite. Brayden tends to cheat up on the other board and the girls let him slide. Lily was the overall "Under the Lights" champ that night.

Opposite side of G25 (the East side of the loop) are rock outcroppings. The water off the rocks is at least 30' deep and crystal clear.

We hung our trash from the lantern pole to keep varmints out during the night. Eventually, a raccoon outsmarted us by pushing a camp chair up to the pole.

Wednesday evening Donna decided that we needed to go out for dinner although all seven of us couldn't fit in the truck. I stayed back a the camp and somehow Donna and five kids rode in my five passenger truck to Verona Italian Restaurant in Heber Springs. This gave me a little quiet time at camp for our last evening. There is always a great sunset over Greers Ferry lake.

The "White Pearl" and her life boat returned safely to home port in the late afternoon just in time to unload and leave the next morning for Branson, MO to celebrate Donna's parents 60th wedding anniversary.

Showboat Branson Belle with Entertainment Cast

Showboat Branson Belle

Petit Jean State Park

May 7, 2018 Petit Jean State Park
Pretty much missed all spring camping. I spent the spring finishing my outage project at ANO and retired for the second time. Then we focused on our vacation to Spain and Italy. Finally home last week we de-winterizing the trailer and took a camping trip. On short notice we reserved campsite A10 at Petit Jean State Park. For us it is only a 45 minute drive to one of our favorite spots for in Arkansas. Arriving on Monday as is possible for retired folks the Park was a quiet relaxing place. 

Campsite A10

Airstrip Across Lake Bailey from the Campground

A trip to Petit Jean is not complete without a walk down the boardwalk to the Cedar Falls Overlook.

Stopped for some pictures of the falls at the Davies Bridge over Cedar Creek.

Drove on from the Davies Bridge to Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. 

Dinner at the Mather Lodge restaurant is always as treat when you get tired of cooking. We seem to tire of cooking every time we camp at Petit Jean.

The weather had been pretty warm but in the evening temperatures dropped and a breeze came up on top of the mountain. A nice evening for a campfire and some music.

Our older neighbors from Mountain View had their blue grass festival (Honky-Tonk) lights going all night. 

Our campsite A10 had a view of Lake Bailey but no mid-day shade. We need to try and reserve sites along the shore of Lake Bailey for the best view. The lakeside spots are hard to reserve on short notice.

Heritage Acres Venue

Saturday, November 18th, 2017 - Heritage Acres Venue, Clarksville, AR.  

Although not a traditional camping trip I felt compelled to write about this trip we took with the camper.

Donna's friend Tracy had requested help finding a camper for her daughter MacKenzie's wedding. Donna saw her request on Facebook and we decided to offer our camper. MacKenzie and her fiancé Cole were planning a barn wedding at Heritage Acres Venue which had no facility available for the groom and groomsmen to dress and hangout. So Saturday morning we pulled the camper to the Heritage Acres Venue.

We dropped the trailer about 10:30 in the morning and met Cole. Then we returned to Russellville for a the afternoon until time to return to Heritage Acres dressed for the wedding.

Tracy explained that Cole and MacKenzie had been friends since kindergarten. She had a photo of the two of them together as kids. They tied the knot outdoors overlooking the valley on a cold and windy but otherwise beautiful afternoon. 

 

The wedding was followed by a reception inside the barn with Fat Daddy's BBQ, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, wedding cake and more.