One Great Sunset and One Stupid Thing

Location: Queen Wilhemina State Park; Mena, Arkansas

Today is day four at this peaceful place and my last. I'm really glad I chose to come here and for staying four days. I've had great vibes every day that I've been here no matter what I've been doing. I think this time of year is the best also with the trees bare of leaves, not very crowded and every day has a little nip in the air. Don't misread that people, I'm not have a nip every day, the weather is a little nippy every day. Geez. Today was the only day I've went to town (Mena) and that was to fuel up for tomorrows moving day and also to try out the Chinese buffet that I put off on day 2. By the way, the Reuben Sandwich I mentioned in the last post was a disappointment. I'll rank it a 3 or 4 on a scale of 10, the Chinese an 8.

That's the lodge with restaurant on the top of the hill.

A nice walking path that will definitely be very different after the trees leaf out.

Nice viewing platform near the lodge with benches. 

The view from the bench

Walking back to the RV. It should be off there in the distance.

Another picture of our campsite

I've done only little exploring and several long, thinking walks. Mostly it's been just relaxing and letting the peace soak into body, mind and soul. Of course that doesn't count day 2 when I could have died because of a stupid decision on my part. After being disappointed with the Reuben, I didn't feel like going back to the RV so I decided to drive around a little since the fog seemed to have left and the weather was clear. I decided to head west since I knew there were a few scenic turn-outs that a way and there hadn't been hardly any traffic coming from that direction. I knew that because my back window overlooks the only highway that comes and goes from this place. So off I went towards Oklahoma on one of those "hope serendipity happens" trips. I stopped at a couple pull-offs and even with the heavy moisture still hanging in the air, it all felt good. More good vibes. I think I almost overdosed on them. But while at one of the pull-offs, I noticed something that made me head back to Freedom and high-tail it back to the campground. What I had noticed was the fog rolling up from the valley and coming very quickly. I had already experienced the strange fog from that morning as it would almost instantaneously appear and disappear. I was probably 15 miles away from the campground and had I have thought about it more, the safest thing would have been to just sit tight in that turn-off and wait for it to clear off again. But instead I foolishly drove carefully cautiously thoughtfully safely barely over the speed limit very fast and broke the speed limit by several miles per hour. Within a mile of the campground the fog caught me and I had to creep the rest of the way to the RV.

Yeah, this wasn't stupid at all (slippery wet steep curves)

Looking at the back window of Liberty as I drove by

A pull-off with a bench. It was chilly and wet but still strangely peaceful. I liked it, I liked it a lot.

I was able to do a little exploring today so I went to see the Pioneer Cemetery from the 1800's. Most the graves are just marked by rocks and there are probably many more that are unmarked. One though, had a modern style headstone like I've never seen before. It had names on both sides and they were different names and dates. The one on the backside was upside down. I'm not sure what it was all about and I don't think I want to know.

The path leading to the Pioneer Cemetery

The entrance to the cemetery

 

Front side, normal

Backside, different name and dates, AND upsidedown.

A view from today to help remember this place

Adventures are all around us, we just need to expect them and look for them.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be leaving Arkansas. Tomorrow I sleep in a COE campground in Texas.

I chose a great campsite again with the setting sun right out my door. It was the only decent sunset in the 4 days here. I got lucky in that the weather front was just leaving as the sun was setting and there was on/off rain going on. The combination made the sunset look like the mountain was on fire. Really neat. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.