Withrow Springs State Park

May 17, 2024 we had plans to join John and Lynda at Withrow Springs State Park along with their friends Mark, Jackie and Steve. We had site #15 reserved and set out for an early arrival at the park. The trip to the park turned out to be just short of a disaster. Somewhere along I-40 near Mulberry I glanced in my review view mirror and saw pieces of rubber from a driver side trailer tire flying in the air. I hadn't felt the tire go (and not really sure how long I drove on the shredded tire), but thankfully the other tire on that side did not blow. So I eased the trailer off the side of the interstate giving myself as much room between the trailer and the right lane as possible. It's a scary experience changing a flat adjacent to 75+ MPH traffic. Donna got out of the truck to ask what she could do to help and all I could think of was for her to get back in the truck out of harms way. I initially started watching the oncoming traffic as I jacked the tire and prepared to change it with the spare using my newly acquired Harbor Freight 4-way lug wrench. As I watched oncoming traffic I quickly realizing that I couldn't get out of the way of traffic if I saw it coming at me. The best option for me was to change the tire fast and get off the side of the interstate.  A Nascar pit crew would have been proud of my jacking and whirling my new 4-Way lug wrench.  Donna being herself was in the truck texting here bible study group asking for prayers. Her prayers were answered and we were back on the highway in just a few minutes. 

Knowing that we had no spare I decided to head north on highway 71, rather than risk another blowout on I-49 heading to Fayetteville. We stopped at small tire shop near Rudy to see if they had something I could use for a spare. The lady at the shop looked around and found nothing our size. She recommended that we continue on north to Fayetteville and stop at the Walmart Tire Center. So we headed north on highway 71 where Google Maps told us we missed a turn at Brentwood. I pulled into the Brentwood Cemetery on a nice little flat gravel drive to turn around. Donna had me stop in the drive so she could use the trailer facilities. With Donna inside I walked around the trailer and heard a hiss from what I previously believed to be an undamaged driver side trailer tire. Apparently, the blowout had overloaded the remaining driver side tire and it was going down fast. Thank goodness we missed our turn and had found the gravel drive in the Brentwood Cemetery. I then had to jack the trailer up again and remove the second flat of the day. We disconnected the trailer from the truck and abandoned it in the cemetery to head for Walmart in Fayetteville. As luck would have it Walmart had two of the exact size and load rating tires in stock. The tire guys got our new tires mounted and balance in no time. Then we had to drive the 30 minutes back to Brentwood to mount the two new tires on the trailer and move the old spare back to the trailer spare. So if you are counting at this point that is two new tires with three tire changes and two spares remounted to the back of the trailer. 

With the trailer hooked back up it was about 7:00 PM. We had alerted everyone at Withrow Springs earlier that we were going to be late.  We had 10 half BBQ chickens and sides that were to be everyone's dinner that evening in our trailer. So we turned around and headed back to the missed turn. This road we missed was a torturous series of county roads and secondary highways that seemed to go on forever. We arrived at the campground around 8:30 and unbeknownst to us our fellow campers were waiting on us with plans to go to Huntsville for dinner. They were not going to eat without us (we did have everyone's dinner in our trailer). So we closed down La Quebrada Mexican Restaurant in Huntsville with good food and drinks. 

I found pieces of steel cord wedged in the trailer stabilizer jacks and stuck in the slide out with black tire marks on the white trailer siding and wheel well trim.

Destroyed Tires at Walmart Tire Center

Saturday afternoon we drove up highway 23 to Glory B waterfall just north of Withrow Springs. Took several gravel roads and arrived at the falls only feet off the road.

Saturday evening we had a campfire and later I played a little with some long exposure photos around the campsite. I realized afterwards that I had no decent pictures of with the whole group. I guess we were enjoying the evening too much to stop and take any pictures. Mark, Jackie and Steve left us on Sunday, but we were able stay until Tuesday.

Moon and Stars

Butterflies seemed to be everywhere in the campground. This Great Spangled Fritillary seemed to like to hang out on Donna and Lynda's shoes.

Hammock Time

Sunday evening we went to Tontitown Winery to sing along with Beer and Hymns. We were joined by Lynda's sister Mary Pat at the event. On this night they were playing Beatles songs along with familiar hymns. Beer and Hymns is a local non-profit in Bentonville. All proceeds from this event went to benefit the NWA Center for Sexual Assault.

Peach Bellini's were Excellent

Sargent Pepper and His Band

Monday morning John, Lynda and I drove to the Kings River Overlook Trail. The trail is a well maintained easy hike to the Kings River Overlook. It is a 1.2 mile Out-and-Back hike with only about 100' of elevation change.

Campers on the River Below

Buzzard Flyby

Small Cave Along the Trail

Monday afternoon while everyone else was taking a siesta I set out for a walk on the Forest Trail. This trail starts across highway 23 Spur from the campground and is a 2 mile Out-and-Back trail with about 160' of elevation change. The trail initially heads up hill then flattens out along a ridge. It travels down what appears to be a water line right of way. Along the trail are rustic benches (with cell service) that look out of the hardwood forest and down into the hollows.

Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Water Line Handhole on the Trail

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar

Monday evening we took a trip to the War Eagle Mill. We arrived just before sunset and I took the opportunity to get some pictures and video of the area with my drone. I compiled the video and stills into this short move. Less than a week later a tornado ripped through the area destroying many of the trees, but the mill appeared to be unharmed (KFSM News Video from May 26th).