Waveland Park

October 4, 2019

The summer of 2019 heat hung on with the warmest September on record beating out the previous record from 1953. With the first sign of fall in the 10 day forecast I reserved site #30 at Waveland Park on Blue Mountain Lake. On Friday, October 4th we picked Brayden and Hannah up in Dardanelle after school. The adventure started with a car wreck that blocked both lanes of highway 27 south of Dardanelle. The Yell county sheriff department and state police forced all traffic to detour down a one lane road to Bethel Road. Oncoming cars were having to stop on the shoulder to allow us to pass. After the detour we drove through light rain that stopped just before we reached the campground.

This was our second trip to Waveland Park in 2019. Site #30 was next to site #29 that Donna and I had back in April. 

Crisp air on Saturday morning was nice for cooking outside and enjoying breakfast with the kids.  

 

I hung the hammocks in the trees behind the trailer. 

When electronics were put away the kids were forced to find something else to do.  Hannah finished some math worksheets and Brayden actually read some of his new book.

Saturday night we had planned to have burgers charcoal grilled on the fire pit. Turned out that the hamburger was still frozen in the refrigerator. So plans changed and we went to Mount Magazine State Park and ate at the Skycrest restaurant. We all shared a giant piece of possum pie. Nevertheless, nighttime rolled around and Brayden built us a fire for S'mores. 

With a chance of rain we packed up most everything Saturday night. We broke camp before noon on Sunday in anticipation of storms. We made it back dropping the kids in Dardanelle and getting unloaded at home before the storms arrived Sunday evening. It was a quick trip but always good to get away with the grands.

Old Highway 25 Park

September 5, 2019

Back to Heber Springs to stay at Old Highway 25 Park which is one of our favorite campgrounds on Greers Ferry Lake.  In fact, we stayed in the same campsite G22 that we had back in March. The main reason for this trip was to see Addie's first performance as a Heber Springs High School cheerleader at the high school football game. With the kids back in school Donna and I camped by ourselves. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and stayed through Sunday. Campsite G22 does not have a dedicated water hookup and as soon as I started setting up camp the neighbor lady in G21 came out to disconnect their water so that I could connect and fill-up my fresh water tanks. We carry a "Y" hose connector and I installed it so we could share the water which worked great.

 
  This location on the Loop G peninsula is a particularly good spot to take in a sunset.

Lots of trees to setup hammocks and watch the boats go by from the top of the big boulders on the shoreline (or just take a nap).

Friday night we went to the Heber Springs football game. Heber Springs was playing the Clinton Yellow Jackets for the Battle of the Red Trophy. We got to see Addie cheer for the first time. The temperature was a sultry 92 at kickoff, but a great game just the same. Heber and Clinton traded touchdowns with Clinton coming out on top 28 to 27. I was a real heart breaker for Heber Springs.

Even with the heat and humidity the Panther mascot was working the crowd.

 

[Addie is 4th from the Left]

 Donna grabbed a few short videos of the Heber Springs cheerleaders.

Donna and I went to Matt's house on Saturday evening to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks play Ole Miss.  The best part of the game was Pizza Pie-Zazz pizza and wings. The Razorbacks took a 31 to 17 beating in their first SEC outing of the 2019 season.

Headed home on Sunday after what was a great three day trip getting to see all of the Heber Springs family. Ready for some fall camping weather.

Dam Site Recreation Area & Campground

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Summer would not be complete without a trip to Greers Ferry Lake for some water fun. We reserved site M4 at Dam Site Campground for four nights arriving Wednesday evening. We had not previously stayed in Loop M, but were happy with the site on the lake side of the loop. These sites are high above lake level and for all practical purposes provides no access to the water. The separation between sites was good with water and electrical service. The pads were apparently intended for a trailer / RV or a tent.  With Hannah, Brayden and the Heber Springs girls spending the night we took our new Eureka Desert Canyon 4 tent for additional space. It was a tight fit in the narrow site. The picnic table was movable and we swung it around on its short chain to the double wide asphalt drive. I noticed several other sites in the loop had to do the same thing.

Back in the day when I was a Boy Scout we were taught to leave campsites better than we found them. A simple courtesy to the next guy. It isn't a very big thing to just pick-up after yourself and in the process pickup things folks may have inadvertently dropped or the wind had carried away. Someone at our site felt it necessary to intentionally throw plastic, cigarette butts and batteries among other litter into the fire pit. I cleaned the fire pit out before I would let anyone start a fire due to the potential noxious smoke that would be created when using it for a campfire or BBQ grill. 

Brayden and Hannah had never been to Blanchard Springs Caverns. For a cool summer activity on Thursday afternoon we caravan'ed to the cave. The previous year we did the longer 1.2 mile Discovery Trail. Tihs time we took the 0.4 mile Dripstone Trail because I wanted Hannah and Brayden to see the cathedral room (and it was just easier walking for us old people). Donna took some great pictures inside the cave.

When we returned to the campsite Thursday afternoon we got a pretty hard rain shower.  This was a chance to see just how well the new tent would stand up to rain. It was completely dry after the rain.

Friday morning we we had a 140 HP tritoon party barge reserved for five hours. The kids had a great time tubing and swimming off the barge. We stayed mostly in the area of the JFK dam where there was minimal boat traffic.

Saturday morning all of the the kids played Uno. Not sure just who won, but from the noise I think they had fun.

Later Saturday Brayden and I went to the swim beach (or at least what was left of the beach). The lake level was about 6' above normal. Brayden (a.k.a. Sharkboy) played find the rock. We had a triangular rock that I would throw for him to fetch. We kept the rock!

It was a little cooler on Saturday evening so I had Brayden build a campfire for the requisite S'more roasting. Brayden has got the tepee style campfire building process down. The fire starter sticks help!

We returned to Russellville on Sunday bringing another great trip to an end, but the memories will always last.