Arkansas Adventures

Lately, Alan and I have not done anything too interesting, except work and get papers ready for Italy.  However, last week we both had a few days off in a row, so we decided to take advantage of it and we went camping at Mt. Magazine state park in Arkansas.  Sounds simple enough right?  Think again.

We left Sunday, set up camp, had s'mores, and all that sort of thing that you do while you're camping.  The next day we were up early.  The day started out with what I have called "The cold shower jig."  The bathrooms at Mt. Magazine were the nicest ones I've ever seen at a campsite, so I actually remember thinking on my way there to take a shower, "I bet the water here is warm, because this place seems a little more 'upscale.'" HAH! It was the coldest shower of my life and at a powerful jet stream.  I ended up jumping in and out of the powerful stream so much, that halfway through the shower it hit me that I was practically doing a jig.  So then I started mumbling in a sing-song voice to myself, "Cold water jig, cold shower jig...etc."  Then I realized how ridiculous I sounded and promptly burst out laughing.  I'm still counting on the fact that none of our lady neighbor campers were in the bathroom while I did that. At least, I hope not.  Well, after the cold water jig, Alan, Denver, and I were off for our hike.  We hiked all the trails at Mt. Magazine that day except for the one that goes to the highest point.  By the way, Mt Magazine is the highest point in Arkansas.  A whole thrilling 2,753 feet to be exact.  So, we hiked someone around 12-15 miles that day.  Needless to day, I got burnt, Alan got burnt, and Denver was too hot.  But we still had fun!

We even got to see some wildlife.  The coolest thing we saw were two white-tailed deer that ran off when we unknowingly walked close by.

I think we wore someone out.  He just plopped down in this stream and didn't budge for a while.

Okay. So we were exhausted after our hike.  I guess Alan was too weak to even hold the bottle up.  

Denver was guarding our tent.  Literally.  Whenever anyone or anything walked by he did his little guard dog grunt/bark.

After out hike, we both showered, but Alan went first.  When he came back, he approached me hesitantly and quietly asked me if I had said something about doing a cold water jig in the shower this morning.   When I told him that I had to because the water was freezing, he hemmed and hawed and looked around before laughing at me and informing me that the water does indeed get hot.  Apparently you have to turn the nozzle more than 360 degrees to the hot side.  Who does that anyways?  Hmph.  Well, just so you know I took another cold shower that afternoon just to prove that I didn't mind and that it was intentional.  Ahem.  

The next day we woke up early to try to catch the sunrise.  When we had hiked the day before we saw a site called Sunrise rock, so we assumed that it was a nice place to watch sunrises.  You can see for yourself.

After the sunrise, we hiked the summit trail.  It's not very long.  At the top there's a "map" of Arkansas on the ground.  I'm standing in Searcy.  At least, I think I am.

By the way, there's absolutely nothing to see at the summit except for this sign and the map on the ground.  It's surrounded by trees, and there is absolutely no view.  Kind of a let down.

This was a cool tree that we walked by.  All those holes are from the early residents of Mt Magazine (back in the early 1900s) when they were getting sap from the tree to make syrup.  

After sleeping on the cold, hard ground for two nights we stayed in the lodge for one night.  It was lovely.  The lodge and the private cabins have claim to the best views from the mountain, as you can see.

Yes, mom, this was our room.  It was pretty awesome.

He's so cute. I love him.

On our way back from Mt Magazine, Jessie the jeep decided that she wanted some attention and she broke down on us about 8 miles outside of Conway.  Alan walked a couple of miles towards Conway before someone picked him up to give him a ride to a car shop.  I stayed in the car with Denver, until it got too hot for him.  I then sat on the side of the interstate in the shade.  Needless to say, I grabbed the attention of one of the state troopers.  He kept saying that he didn't like me sitting in this area by myself and asked if I wanted a ride someone.  Well, of course, both mine and Alan's phones are dead so I have no idea where to get a ride to and told him so.  After he drove by and checked on me several times, he finally asked if Denver would bite someone if they attacked me.  I said yes just to ease his mind, but I'm pretty sure that Denver would attack any attacker with enthusiasm.  I dunno, it might work though.  The attacker might see this big, black dog bounding towards him and assume that he's vicious and high tail it the other way.  Of course, the only attack Denver would actually do would be a variation of a bounce and lick attack.  Well, finally the tow truck showed up.  Six hours later we had a ride to Searcy.  Jessie had to spend the night at the car shop.  Now she's back with us though, and we are one happy family again.