Westward Bound: Day 15-16, May 19-20, 2013, Traveling to Foss State Park, Foss, Oklahoma

 Note: I apologize for this coming so many days after we were here. We have been without consistent internet for several days. Since these days, we have been to Santa Rosa and Sante Fe, New Mexico and are now in Mesa Verde National Park, in Colorado. So I am two blogs behind even as I complete this one. Yikes! As you can imagine, there are boatloads of pictures to cull through from our visit to Mesa Verde. Hopefully, it won't be long before I can upload those blogs as well.

On to Foss Park State Park, Arkansas  

  Our first stop on the way to Foss State Park, in Oklahoma,  was Fort Smith, Arkansas, to visit the National Park Visitor's Center. It was a quiet and beautiful Sunday as we passed through this lovely memorial. Richard made sure to add one more stamp in our National Park passbook.

  

 Crossing the Oklahoma state line, we noticed the geography changing to more flatlands and yep, the wind started picking up. We had left early that morning, hoping to cross over the state before the predicted, ominous tornado threats became a reality.
  

Although cloudy and windy as we traveled through Oklahoma, we were fortunate to be just ahead of the predicted "ideal conditions" for severe tornados that eventually hit Oklahoma City on Saturday and Sunday.  We passed the area along I-40 that was hit on Saturday by a scant hour or so. Whew!

 

By the time we were encamped at Foss State Park, NW of Clinton (see below), we were in an area of blue skies and we found that our waterfront campsite was beautifully shaded. Sitting in such tranquil beauty, it was so surreal to watch the news of such devastation in the very area we had just left. 

 

As you can imagine, muh of our time at Foss Park was spent glued to the TV, worrying  about the victims.

 

The view from our campsite and two of the flock of geese that occasionally wandered by.

The sunset on the lake.

  Shown above are some of the discoveries from our morning walk. We never did figure out the contraption made from a tire.

 

The trees are much smaller and definitely show signs of the continuous winds. I was quite taken with this cluster of trees with picnic tables tucked within its' bower.

We were very excited to see this roadrunner!

 After our walk, we hopped in the truck and headed out to cross over the dam and check out the other side of this enormous park.

  

Although hard to see, on the ride side of the road across the dam, a herd of buffalo was grazing.

We took this zoomed in picture of our campsite from atop the dam. Our camper is one of three tucked into the trees on the far left of the bank. You can barely see them! Such a peaceful, beautiful area. Hard to believe just one hour away, Moore, OK. was about to be ravaged by the F5 tornado (day 2 of tornados).

 Following our walk and drive throughout the state park, we headed in to explore Elk City, OK. This small city is a real cowboy and rodeo town and has a really neat museum area that celebrates the local history. We were intrigued to find that we were on Route 66. This brought back memories of the TV show we enjoyed back in the 60's. There were also lots of signs that led us to the Route 66 Museum that was attached to the local cultural museum.

               

 The culture of the area was captured so well with the metal sculptures. 

I loved the Christmas tree made of old horseshoes

My late brother, Mike, would have loved this  display. There were four wall of nothing but Popeye memorabilia.

  

 

  

Seeing this quilt made me wish, all the more, that we had Shelley here with us,

Check out this hand tooled leather. These are part of a very large set of luggage for  the wife of one of the famous Bueller Brothers, who were rodeo icons from Elk City. The wives of the brothers performed bareback riding and other rodeo acts. The Bueller Family was honored with two rooms of memorabilia from several generations of rodeing. 

Richard was in hog heaven with all the antique machinery and flywheels on  display.

I loved this large fence and its delightful design created with farm implements.

A delightful sculptuer of the state bird, the roadrunner.

Now we are off for Santa Rosa, Arkansas!

Westward Bound Days 11-14, May 15-18, 2013, Pine Bluff, Little Rock, & Hot Springs AK

After a long day of driving across the bump-bump-bumpiest roads of Mississippi, we finally arrived at Marsha and Larry Connor's home just outside of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, about 5:30p.m. We were worn out from the rough ride. Thanks to the lack of investment Mississippi puts in their highways, I discovered all my clothes had jumped off the clothes rod and were lying in the floor. That's the roughest ride we've ever had!

Marsha and Larry's beautiful homesite - a site for sore eyes after bumping through Mississippi!

The joyful reunion of two siblings that haven't seen one another for eight years.
The smiles on  Richard 's  and Marsha's faces say it all!

Our first day of adventures with the Connor's was a trip to Little Rock to see Clinton's Library.
Yes, staunch Republicans that they are, Richard, Marsha and Larry went.
 I think maybe that's why Larry looks so impish in the picture below!

 

It still seems strange to have to go through security checks at national  sites but that is the way it is. We had a few chuckles when it took three attempts to get Larry through without the alarms going off. Just like we have experienced with Richard in the past, it was his shoes that set it off. Who knew that some men's shoes have metal in then?

The bridge that inspired Clinton's theme for his Presidential Library: The Bridge to the 21st Century (coinciding with his ending his presidency in 2000.) The architecture mimics the structure of the bridge as well as extending out over the river towards the bridge. This picture was taken from the third floor of the library. This old abandoned bridge was converted into a pedestrian bridge as an extenstion of the library.

The first thing Richard asked me when we entered this room was 

"Do those lights remind you of anything?"

 My answer was "Yes, our cactus light fixture in our home in Winter Haven." 

Turns out these are a result of Clinton wanting the fixtures to be symbolic of pine trees.

The lights represent "acorns" and were created in Denmark. Our lamp was also created in Denmark.

We were delighted to find another Chihuly blown glass sculpture when touring the library. He donated

this to the library. We have now enjoyed his sculptures in Nashville, St. Pete, Seattle and Little Rock.

After a great meal at the Flying Fish, we traveled back to Pine Bluff  to attend the high school graduation of Marsha's grandson, Hunter. Here he stands with his proud mom, Dawn. Congratulations to Hunter, who plans to join the Navy and see the world, beginning in August.

Up and at 'em fairly early next day, Dawn joined us as we headed to Hot Springs, AR.

Marsha grabbed this picture at the top of the Hot Springs National Park Observation Tower.

Looking down on Hot Springs from the Hot Springs National Park Observation Tower. After leaving the tower, we traveled down into the city to the Visitor's Center, learned all about Bath Row, strolled along Bath Row to enjoy the little shops and then had a great lunch at Bubbalu's Restaurant (yummy burgers and the best fries ever). 

Before departing the Visitor's Center, we made sure Richard got his National Park  Passbook stamped.
We anticpate lots of stamps in this book as we move across our beautiful and diverse country!

Dawn, in front of one of the few bathhouses still in operation.

 

Our last stop in Hot Springs was to check out the national park campground,
Gulpha Gorge Campground, which was positioned along this beautiful creek (or small river).
We want to remember this one since it is the only full service national campground that we have found. Next trip out here, we might caravan camp with the Connor's at this lovely place!

On the way back, we dropped Dawn off at her Dad, Ken Dunemn's place, where she had left her car.
It was so nice to see Ken after so many years. He too has now retired.

  

On our last day, we mostly relaxed at Marsha's house, caught up on our laundry and just enjoyed one another's company.. Later in the afternoon we were pleased that Hunter and Dawn came back to join us for a delicious barbecue pork chop dinner prepared by Marsha. As you can see below, Hunter pitches right in to help his grandmother. We were so impressed with what a fine young man he is...very personable and great manners! 

Here we go, pulling out of Camp Connor, heading off to Foss State Park, in Foss, Oklahoma, with a stop by Fort Smith, AK to check out the next national park. So long and a huge thank you to Marsha and Larry for a wonderful visit and for your gracious hospitality and allowing us to camp in your yard! We hope to see them again real soon.