Goza's Wanderings and Wonderings: Mount Nebo and Lake Dardanelle

Location: Old Post Road Corps of Engineers Campground (el. 330 ft); Russellville, Arkansas

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 cell phone
click pictures to enlarge

Stop number 12. Next stop
Mansfield, LA.

As I left El Reno, the landscape changed again. Trees became more and more common. Once I crossed into Arkansas it was as if the Great Plains were but a distant memory. I chose a Corps of Engineer campground on the Arkansas river near Russellville, Arkansas. I know, I know, I remember the "bad juju" COE campground a month ago. But like I said then, I had never stayed in a bad COE campground and don't expect any more to be like that one. This is the first campground I have ever stayed in where they allow you to dump your grey water on the ground at the campsite. I'm not doing that but there are several RV's that are watering trees.

Interstate highway 40 in eastern Oklahoma

The trees are crowding in which restricts the view to the left and right. I have mixed feelings about this "semi tunnel effect".

Nice COE campsite with the Arkansas River right out the back. That dam in the background is what brought me here.

This is another project which my father helped build. This was earlier in his career so he would have been the Concrete Superintendent for the construction company. The dam is about 55 years old and still looking good. It is a hydro dam so it has been producing low cost electricity for all those years.

That is the lock gate on the right. I've only seen a could tows passing by. I guess it is still too early for the harvest in the plains.

One of those concrete pours in the dam is the one that "encouraged" my older brother to go to college. He graduated high school while we lived here and started work in one of the several concrete crews my father supervised. This was intended to be a summer job before starting college in the fall. He liked the money and mentioned to my father and mother that he would just as soon work construction instead of going to college. That was a mistake. The next concrete pour, little did my brother know, but my father told the foremen to work my brother just short of killing him. When that 10 hour pour was over, my brother was covered head to toe in concrete and he was flat worn out. That evening while eating supper, he informed my parents that he had changed his mind and thought college was a great idea. He didn't learn about my father's "teaching experience" for several years after her graduated from Arkansas Tech, located right here in Russellville. Yep, my brother stayed behind while my parents, sister and I went to the next project, this time in Pennsylvania.

The dam made a nice lake called Lake Dardanelle. That distinctive tower in the background is a cooling tower for a nuclear power plant. Wow, two environmentally friendly power plants within a few miles of each other. Arkansas, the Natural State. :)