Once again Covid-19 caused issues with a planned camping trip. This time Donna was recovering and decided to wait until her 10th day to come to Lake Catherine State Park, rather than come in the 95 degree heat wearing a mask. John and Lynda met me at the Flying J in Russellville on Monday and we caravanned the trailers without Donna to the park.
On the trip to Lake Catherine we took the Owensville Cutoff from highway 5 to reach highway 128 and eventually highway 70. The Owensville Cutoff is the shortest way to get to Lake Catherine from Russellville (avoiding highway 7 hills and the Little Rock interstate) but never without its hazards. On this trip while navigating its winding curves and hills a wide load truck with a flatbed trailer carrying a portable building (maybe 12' x 20' that looked like 20' x40') popped over a hill taking the entire road. I took to a shallow gravel ditch and thought I had rolled the trailer seeing it lean over in my right side mirror. The truck driver probably thought that he was in the clear when he blew past me but soon realized that John was directly behind me with his trailer and the wide load truck came to a complete stop. John slipped by the wide load at a wider spot and we continued on. I talked to John on the phone and he told me that he saw daylight under my trailer tires. I told him that I would be stopping shortly to change into some clean underwear. Finally reaching the end of the Owensville Cutoff we found that highway 128 had a lane closure with a stop light controlling traffic on a single lane stretch. ARDOT gave us 3/4 of a lane for about a mile which was ample space if you were driving a Toyota Prius.
The return trip we bypassed the Owensville Cuttoff by taking highway 7 North out of Hot Springs through Bath House Row to highway 5. Once again we were caught by a lane closure with a stop light controlling traffic access to the single lane for about a mile. I was the lead vehicle followed by John with his trailer then Donna in the Highlander. ARDOT again gave us 3/4 of a lane with an 18" drop on the right and vertical orange stanchions on the driver side (guess there wasn't room for orange barrels). I missed one ARDOT worker with my mirror by about 6" and about 1000 orange stanchions by about 4" each.
The first two nights were quiet at site #65 until Donna arrived on Wednesday from her Covid isolation. Lynda and John were directly across the street in site #62 on the waterfront. Gene and Jeanean were just one campsite away in #66 on the waterfront with their kids Justin and his wife Paula.
 |
| Site #65: Ronnie & Donna |
 |
| Site #62: John & Lynda |
 |
| Site #66: Gene & Jeanean |
 |
| Lake Catherine State Park Brochure |
We had four legged campers Coco, Chuey, Thea and Tank. My grand-dog Coco had recently moved to live with John and Lynda from her home in Dardanelle. All the dogs were well behaved and only needed chasing down a couple times when they went rogue off leash. They were not big fans of the geese and racoons.
 |
| Coco and Pops |
We all stayed well fed. Justin fried fish for us on Tuesday night, John sponsored a low country shrimp boil on Wednesday night then we all chipped in on Thursday night for steaks cooked by Gene.
We had several beautiful sunsets on the lake and the view of Entergy’s Lake Catherine power plant from across the lake was impressive as well.
 |
| Lake Catherine Power Plant |
On Wednesday morning I took a solo hike down to Fall Creek Falls for a glimpse of the waterfall. After weeks of dry conditions it could best be described as a trickle, not the roar we had seen on our previous trip.
Despite all the travel hazards and Covid isolation we all had a great time with the extended Belvedresi family. We enjoyed time at the lake and a trip into Hot Springs for Mexican lunch one day.
