Arkansas Weekend

We had a marvelous weekend with my dad! I really wish I had pictures to show you. But alas, my camera is still broken. ;-(

We drove up on Saturday morning, leaving around 7:30. We got there around 12:00. We drove straight to Little Missouri Falls where we were meeting my dad. This place was on back roads! The last 8 miles was the longest 8 miles of our life! But it was worth it. The craziest thing was realizing this was the place I had spent many spring breaks with my youth group. I recognized the big rocks! Little Missouri Falls is God's waterpark. The kids slid down waterfalls, jumped into the river, chased minnows, and swam everywhere. They had a blast! We stayed there for about 6.5 hours. We ate lunch and dinner there. My dad did an excellent job picking out lunch meat and other snacks.

After we left there we drove around and looked over some vistas. We also found a lake that was tucked away into the woods. Remember, we are on back roads! After that, we got a bit "misplaced." If anyone knows my dad, he likes to drive around and just find stuff. After clarifying directions with a local farmer, we thought we were going right. After confering with Eric's GPS and my dad's atlas, we realized we needed to go back where we had come from. We stopped by a chicken farm and everyone, but me, had another sandwich. It was about 9:30 now! LOL We went in the direction of Mena (45 min. away) and my dad went the opposite direction to his cabin. (45 min. that way)

We had a great hotel room and it was wonderful to shower and sleep in a bed! The next morning we slept late and lounged around. We ate Sonic and watched the Travel Channel. ( I miss that channel!) We did "church" and then the kids swam for a while. My dad got there at 12 and we headed up to Queen Willehimena (sp?) for lunch. We stopped several times at different vistas. We pulled on to a road and found an old fire tower! It was open and we actually got to climb it! We were at the highest point in Arkansas at that point! It was so neat! We had lunch at the lodge overlooking the mountains. Beautiful! We rode a train around for a while and then changed into our bathing suits. (I would not let my kids change at the falls. Those bathrooms were gross!) We went back to the Falls (with a stop at Baskin Robbins!) and swam for about an hour and a half.

We headed home around 7 that evening. We drove a different route than my dad because he wanted to see which was fastest. We stopped at a little drive thru diner on the way home which was AWESOME! We arrived home around 11:00, tired but happy!

The best part of the whole weekend was no cell phone service! We would have it for a bit then it was gone! YAY! It was complete quite. I loved it! We did have a phone call that had to be returned a bit late because of that. (sorry Huber's!) All in all, it was just a great, relaxing weekend. I highly recommend Little Missouri Falls if you need a get a way that is not that far. It took 3.5 hours and the drive is not bad at all.

I really wish you could have seen the beauty. It was great to get away and just realize that God is so big! I told Eric, "how cool is it that God made this beautiful river with waterfalls between two rivers? It's like He is whispering, "Remember Me!" I love being in nature. I think I feel closer to God there than anywhere else.