Cemetery Beauty & On To Branson

There was only one thing that I had left on things that I wanted to do in Harrison and as strange as it may seem, it was to go to a cemetery. As I explored on the internet things to do in Harrison, one thing that they said that was a must see in the Fall is the Maplewood Cemetery. So we left the camp around 10:00 and ventured out to find the cemetery. WOW, is all I can say! I have never seen such beautiful maple trees with so many different colors. I must have taken 30 pictures and I have put some of them in this post. They were simply amazing!

After the cemeteryvisit, we went back to the camp and picked up our trailer and headed onto our final destination of Branson, MO. Branson was where we decided to take a week vacation to this year and about a month ago, we decided to expand it to another week so that we could visit the national parks in the area as well.
The weather today is beautiful. It was around 65 at 11:00 when we left Harrison. We had only about an hour ride into Branson. We are now in Branson and our campground is great. When I made the reservations about 7 or 8 months ago and told the woman at the campground that it was our first trip to Branson, she told me she would give me the campsite with the best view.....and she did. I have also posted a picture of a view of Downtown Branson from our campsite. GORGEOUS!

Once settled into our campgrounds, we went downtown to explore and see about show tickets. When we checked into the campgrounds, we talked with the lady here about shows she recommended. One of those shows was a relatively new show called The Rankins. These are two brothers who impersonate great muscial duos of the 50's-90's. They have a band, as well as three girl backup singers who also perform different numbers throughout the show. The show was OUTSTANDING! I am so glad that we went. Before the show, we went out to a beautiful Italian Restaurant called Tony Z's. It was one of the prettiest restaurants I have ever been in and had wonderful food!
Today was a great way to begin our time in Branson. This week will be completely different from last week. Last week was all about country life...this week it is all about shows and city life. On our vacation, we are experiencing the best of both worlds! I am so thankful for the wonderful time we are having.
Love you guys!

Mountain View, AR 25th Annual Bean Festival

Back when we decided to extend our vacation to another week, we began to look for a couple of towns south of Branson where we could stay that would be close to the National Forests that we wanted to visit. One of the towns that we thought we might want to stay was Mountain View. I called two different RV parks and they were both completely full which was very unusual. When I inquired about openings for this weekend, the woman at the park acted like I was crazy to think that I would be able to get a spot. She said, "Honey, I have been booked up for over a year for that weekend. When I asked her if something special was going on, she said with much excitement...."Oh yes, the Bean Fest." She said they have it every year and it is a huge event.

So we decided since we were only a couple of hours from there that we would drive over and check it out. This gave us a chance to see scenery we had not yet seen and have something to do once we got there. She was right! The little town of Mountain View was packed. There were lots of arts and crafts booths, food booths of all kinds, live music in the square with one act after another, silly races that people had made push carts and raced, as well as every kind of bean and cornbread that you could possibly imagine. People came in from all over with their best beans. Who knew??

We enjoyed the Bean Fest. We got back to camp right around 4:15. I am in the middle of doing some laundry and I think the clothes should be dry. So I better run over to the laundry room and check them, Looking forward to watching Alabama football in just a little while. ROLL TIDE!

Have a wonderful night!

Buffalo National River Area

We began our day around 9:00 this morning heading towards the Ponca-Boxley Valley area. We stopped and got gas just down the street from the camp where the gas was $2.57 gal. The road to this area was gorgeous. I believe these leaves are definitely at peak. Our first stop was in Jasper where we stopped at the
Elk information Center. Here they gave us all kinds of information on the area, including some short hikes they recommended. They had a wildlife museum here too which was very interesting.

The first stop they recommended was Steel Valley. When we left the road to go to Steel Valley, we went down, down, down a road. When we got to the bottom, we were met with a beautiful valley where there were stone sides just above the bank of the river and we hiked a short trail where we shared the hiking trail with horse back riders. This area was beautiful!

We continued down the road and the next stop we came to was an area called Lost Valley. This was another hike that was recommended by the girl at the information center. She told us there was a difficult trail and an easier trail. It was only about 2 miles, but at the cross roads where you decide whether to do the difficult or easier trail, there was nothing to tell you which was which. So we just chose the one that looked the easiest from that point. One went straight up a hill and the other was straight. So we chose the straight one.......WRONG CHOICE!!! We ended up have to climb rocks up hill for about 1 1/2 miles! You can see the rocks on some of the pictures I have posted here, but pictures do not convey how difficult this was. I am proud that we completed it, but boy did I have to listen to Randall complain alot because he had wanted to

turn around before we ever even got to the difficult part and I just insisted that we go on. Oh well, maybe be lost some weight today, or at least we didn't gain any:)

The rest of the afternoon we continued on the scenic highway that we had been on. I can't tell you how beautiful it was!!! Every curve was more beautiful than the next.

Our main objective of going to this region today was to be in the Ponca-Boxley Valley area late in the afternoon so that we could see the elk herds that were supposed to appear in the fields along the highway. People just go up and down a section of highway (about 1 1/2 miles) watching for elk to come into the fields. We began doing this around 4:00. We saw the first couple of female elk way off the road around 4:30-4:45. We continued to drive the route. Around 5:00 we saw a bull elk and female elk closer to the road and I was able to get a picture of the bull which is posted here. Many people were sitting along the side of the road in front of one particular field. So we decided to park here to thinking these people must know that the elk come here. Randall had his window down and an old man who lived in the area said that as many as 20 to 30 elk would come into this field right around dark. He was absolutely right. Right about 6:30 all of a sudden about 15 to 20 deer came down off the mountain and entered the field together. It was so late, I was not able to get a picture of the herd. It had the largest bull we saw with this herd. I was able to get great shots of it on video however.

Once back at the camp, we grilled some steaks and had steaks, baked potatoes, green salad and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Yum!

We had a great day! We thoroughly enjoyed everything we did, except Randall was not fond (to say it mildly) of the hike at Lost Valley. He jokingly threatened to push me off one of the large rocks after we climbed it. I got to thinking later if he had done this, he would have told people that he lost Vallie at Lost Valley...Ha!

I'm tired and I am getting ready to get in my cozy little bed. It is supposed to go to around 40 tonight and I think I throw on an extra blanket.

Good Night!

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Moving On To Harrison

We left the good ol'e Hot Springs KOA campground this morning at 8:45. Last night, we had rain and a little wind as a cold front camp through the area. As the wind blew, the hickory nuts in the trees above our camper fell on top of the trailer and it sounded like a bowling alley inside the trailer as the large nuts hit the top and then rolled off the back. This scared Camp to death and he hid under the table for a long time. When we woke this morning it was 47 degrees!

Our first stop on the way to Harrison was to get gas in Conway, AR where it was $2.43 per gallon. The scenery on this ride was beautiful. I video taped a lot on the drive. The pictures I have taken out of the truck window have not been very good. So I do not have any still pictures. But take my word for it...it was gorgeous!

The only other stop we made was to get some coffee and hot chocolate.

We are now at the Shady Oaks RV Park about 7 miles outside of Harrison. We were a little surprised to find it was out in the country. We thought we were right in the middle of town. But the longer we have been here this afternoon, the more I think we will really like it. It is really beautiful as you can see in the pictures I have posted here. All of these pictures are here at the park.

We are just a little tired today. The only thing we did after we got here was to go into town to the Wal-Mart and pick up a few things we needed. Randall has already eaten supper of grilled chicken, rice and green peas. I am not hungry quite yet, so I will eat in a little while.

Tomorrow we plan to go to areas where elk sightings are plentiful. Randall just turned on the Auburn football game. I guess that's all for today.

Love to all of you! Have a great night!

Gorgeous Talimena Scenic Drive

After a delightful breakfast of pancakes and sausage at the trailer we left the campground around 9:00 for our day on the Talimena Scenic Drive. Before we left Hot Springs, Randall was determined that we were going to find a bakery where we might find a cake or pie. Grocery stores are very scarce around Hot Springs for some reason. We went by Cracker Barrell and they said they don’t carry the pies and cakes until November. So we continued to look and found a San Francisco Bread Company. We thought we had hit the jack pot, but it ended up they did not have whole cakes and pies but did large muffins, carrot cake slices and cheese cake slices. So we bought them.

By the time we did all of this, we left Hot Springs to travel to Mena, AR where the Talimena Scenic Drive begins. The drive to Mena takes about 1 hr. 45 min. We left H.S. around 9:45. We stopped and got gas in Mt. Ida. We only needed ½ tank, but went ahead and filled up because there are no gas stations along the Talimena S.D.

After our disappointing drive yesterday on the Scenic 7, I truly hoped this one would be better. My hopes came true. This drive was absolutely beautiful! Our day started off mostly sunny and went between totally cloudy to partly sunny. Even in the clouds the overlooks were fantastic. The leaves in this area had more color than any we have seen so far. I think they are near peak in the highest altitudes we were in today. This drive was well worth the time. As I said before, the drive starts in Arkansas and goes all the way to Oklahoma. We didn’t complete the whole route, but did most of it.

We took food with us to picnic, but it was so cold and windy in the area we were in around 12:00 that we decided we would have to eat in the car. But wouldn’t you know that God provided a wonderful place for us to eat right at 12:00. At 12:10, we came upon the Queen Wilhelmina State Park where they had a beautiful restaurant. This is the only restaurant on the whole drive and we came to it right at lunch time and we didn’t even plan it. That’s just like God! We really enjoyed this buffet lunch with a wonderful dessert bar and fabulous coffee!

We arrived back at our camp around 4:30. We are expecting rain as the cold front comes through tonight and in the morning. Since we are leaving here in the morning and going to Harrison, AR, we decided to go ahead when we got back this afternoon to do as much of our breaking down camp and hooking up things as we could in case it is raining in the morning.

We are really enjoying our vacation! We enjoyed the Hot Springs area. Now we look forward to seeing what adventures Harrison holds for us.

Love to all of you back at home!

Scenic 7 Byway and Mt. Magazine State Park (From Hot Springs) Tuesday, Oct. 21

We left the campground this morning around 8:50. The weather was overcast when we left, but turned mostly sunny for the rest of our day. Our first stop was the Federal Building in downtown Hot Springs where the Visitor Information Center is for the Ouachita National Park. Since all downtown parking costs to park, Randall dropped me off and I went inside the building. Since it is the Federal Building, I had to go through a metal detector to enter. Once again, I set off the alarm. The man made me raise my pants leg to make sure I didn’t have a gun tied to my ankle, he said. They let me go on up to the second floor where a very nice older gentlemen was very helpful with all the info I needed about the area of the park we planned to visit.
Our plan was to take the Scenic 7 Byway which was advertised to have spectacular views. We were not impressed at all with the byway. Very few vistas could be seen because of the grown up trees blocking views. And since the Fall foliage is only at about 10 percent in this area, there really wasn’t a lot to look at.
The first thing we did however was to take a nice little paved trail called the Friendship Trail. Randall, Camp and I were the only ones on the trail. It was very pretty with a couple of nice bridges. It was an easy walk. Once we left here, our next scheduled stop was the Buffalo Gap Auto Tour Trail. This was a huge disappointment. It was a 9 mile gravel road that made a loop. There was absolutely nothing to see on it accept thick woods. It was advertised to have beautiful views. Once again, all the views had grown up trees and you could not see through them anymore.
It was only about 11:00 at this point, so we decided to go a bit further to Mt. Magazine State Park in the Ozark National Park. I am so glad we did. The fall colors were much more vivid here I guess because it is further north as well as a higher elevation. Mt. Magazine is the highest point in the Ozarks. We had a picnic lunch here and went down a little ways on a trail that had spectacular views. It is the prettiest scenery we have seen since we got here. We drove through the campground here and it looked extremely nice with the exception that it had no cable for TV, which Randall insists upon. Maybe when we get Satellite TV for the trailer we can come back to this park.
We took a different route back to Hot Springs. We drove Highway 27 South to Highway 270 back to Hot Springs. This highway had much better views than the other one. It was a beautiful country side with mountains in the background.
We arrived back at the camp around 4:15. We out a roast in the crock pot before we left this morning and had bar-BQ sandwiches, corn on the cob and baked beans for supper. We are now sitting in the trailer watching Andy Griffith.
We had a great day! Tomorrow—Talamenia Scenic Drive

VACATION-DAY2-HOT SPRINGS, AR

We woke up to a temperature of 47 degrees….burrrr!!!! We had our little heater on so we were nice and warm. I got up first and Camp and I took a walk around the park. It was exhilarating to walk in the crisp morning air. After eating breakfast that Randall fixed of eggs, grits, toast and sausage, we were ready to head out to the Hot Spring National Park.

We rode to the National Park, looking for the Visitor Information Center first. We managed to find an entrance into the park, so we decided to take out on our own. We made one loop through the park stopping on one trail to walk a little. We found out that dogs are allowed in the park on a leash. So we decided to go back to the camp for lunch and get Camp and go back in the afternoon. When we came out of that side of the park, we decided to to look for the visitor information center again. We looked and looked but could not find it. We had a few maps that were not very good. We finally figured out it was on the main street downtown somewhere along Bathhouse Row. When we drove down the street we couldn’t spot it, so we decided to park and walk. Finally we found it and got much better maps of the park and the area.

We walked downtown for about an hour and it was getting close to lunch. So we went back to the camp and ate some sausage dogs that Randall grilled last night when he grilled the hamburgers. Afterwards we all three loaded up and went back to the other side of the park. We got out several times to walk on different trails. Camp was in heaven!! We decided that we would go back to the campgrounds and return to the park late this afternoon when we might stand a better chance of seeing some wildlife moving around.

This afternoon we took a nap. We went back one last time to Hot Springs National Park around 4:45. On the way, we stopped and got gas. At this station it was $2,59 per gallon for a total of $45.50. We walked a new trail which ended up being about a mile. No wildlife seen other than birds and a few squirrels. Oh well, it was beautiful anyway. I thought the leaves would have changed more in this area than they have. There is very little Fall color here. I'm hoping as we go further north to Harrison and Branson we will see more color. Tomorrow we plan to take the Scenic 7 tour and head north into the Ouachita National Forest. This forest is much larger than the Hot Springs Forest. We will only see a portion of it tomorrow. The weather here tomorrow is supposed to be a low of 53 and high of 75 sunny to partly cloudy.

We ended our day back at the camp with pork chops that have been cooking all day in the crock pot. We put them on top of yellow rice and we also had green beans. All delicious as usual!

We are now watching "Dancing with the Stars." I only have an hour of internet time at this park per day. I plan to do an update tomorrow night as long as we get back in time.

Hope you all have a wonderful night!!!