This year, in order to fit in our annual camping trip with the Hannan's, we knew we'd need to find a new location outside of the Black Hills. The hills have been good to us but with us living in NC, the drive was out of the question. We decided to plan our visit in a neat little section of the country at about the halfway mark between MN and NC... The Ozarks!
Now... what's a Hannan/Snegosky trip without a few laughs at Brent's expense?
I mean, someone has to look out for all of the purses.
(A wedding reference.)
At times he just makes it too easy for us. At least he knows we only make fun of people we like to their face.
When we were in the planning stages of the trip, Matt sent an email to everyone with several pictures of the river and waterfalls in the area. We all were getting pretty excited for the trip until Debbie Downer (a.k.a Brentie Bummer) responded to the email with something in regards to the drought and the likelihood of all the waterfalls being dried up.
If you have ever seen SNL and the Debbie Downer skit, his email read exactly like something she would say.
At one point (I believe it was on day two of five) Brentie Bummer referred to the trip as practically being over already. He was referring to us not having time to see everything the area had to offer... but we laughed with at him just the same.
OK... enough about Brentie Bummer... back to the trip...
Kate is a teacher so we chose MEA week/end (October 17 - 21). We met up at a campsite just outside of Jasper, AR called Kyles Landing. The drive to the campsite was steep and rocky. We were glad to have four wheel drive and functioning brakes. We chose a nice little campsite down by the river (site 19) that was both spacious and private.
We had a few fellow campers walk through our site to access the river, but it's OK because we are
mighty neighborly.
(The "mighty neighborly" reference comes from a song that has been an anthem for previous camping trips.)
After setting up camp we encountered a little thunderstorm and rain.
The area is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in at least 25 years,
so we all got a chuckle out of the Polish luck that follows us everywhere.
And to the Ozarks... "you're welcome".
Kate, Brent, Lucy, and I took shelter in the Hannan's tent while Matt put on his rain gear and tended to the fire.
Matt just isn't a "sitting cramped in a warm tent" type of guy.
Once the rain let up, the rest of us emerged and we started cooking burgers for dinner.
The next day, we decided to hike to the most photographed rock in Arkansas,
Whitaker Point.
The trail to the point was approximately 1.8 miles one way and was fairly easy.
Lucy loves to hike and led us most of the way.
At the point, we ran into a couple from St. Cloud, MN.
When the couple asked where we were from I had to stop and think for a second.
I guess we haven't been gone long enough because Minnesota is still the first place that comes to mind.
Along the way, we came across a creek that was dried up.
We made Brentie Bummer pose for a picture.
The view from the top was gorgeous.
I can see why it is a very popular rock for picture taking.
After the hike, we returned to camp for some relaxation and a taco dinner.
On Friday, we stopped into the forest service office to ask about the local civil war homesteads and cemeteries.
(Upon recommendation from Stacy, our site 17 neighbor.).
After some directions and uncomfortable laughs from the ranger over Matt's Wild Turkey t-shirt,
we were back in the truck and headed down the road.
Our first stop was the Parker-Hickman homestead.
The home was built in the late 1830's and was last occupied in 1978.
I think Lucy was thrilled to see an actual house,
and was hoping we would stay the night here (in warmth) instead of our chilly tent.
After leaving the homestead, the road took us right into the Buffalo River on a low water bridge.
Matt first told us about these low water bridges after a previous trip he took with some college friends.
During their paddle, a truck crossed the river right in front of them,
and they couldn't see the underwater bridge from the kayaks.
Can you imagine?
I was glad we got an opportunity to cross that same bridge.
After crossing the bridge, the adventure took a bad turn (or two).
We ended up lost in the middle of nowhere and the locals weren't too friendly toward out-of-towners.
We saw signs in front yards that read anything from "Posted", "Private", "Keep Out", and even "GO AWAY".
After cruising the very bumpy gravel roads for a couple of hours without a clue how to get out,
we all started to become concerned.
We saw a sign for Tom Thumb Cemetery but we had missed the turn and decided to just keep going.
Later, we ended up back at Tom Thumb Cemetery,
though we still weren't sure how.
After a few more dead ends, we drove past a house with a man outside hauling wood from his truck.
Brent waved at the man and the man waved back.
After seeing this nice gesture, I asked Matt to turn back and ask him for help.
The chances of him shooting us seemed far less than any other encounter we had had over the last couple of hours.
The conversation with this man was one of the highlights of our trip.
(Although at the time, it was far from a highlight as we just wanted to be on asphalt).
The conversation went a little something like this:
Matt: "Excuse me, sir. Do you know how we might get back to a main paved road?"
The Hillbilly (in a Forrest Gump accent): "Hmm... A... main... paved... road...? A main.... paved....road.... hmmm... Well.... you want to drive down this here'a road and you'll get to a Y. You'll want to go right... but you could go left... but you'll want to go right.... then you'll just keep'a goin'. You'll keep'a goin' 'till you get to another Y. This time, you'll go right.... but you could go left. Hmm... but you'll go right and then keep'a goin'. You'll see some mailboxes and you'll keep'a' goin' and then you'll take a hard right.... but you could go left."
And so on...
Bless his heart... we could tell he knew exactly where we needed to go but had no clue how to tell us.
(These roads has so many turns and nothing was marked well).
Yes, he was very backwoods but we were definitely the idiots
with a GPS in the dash, a park service map, and four smart phones.
Once we started back, his directions actually made some sense to us.
After one last wrong turn (and a few tears from the pregnant lady)
we found our main. paved. road. and headed straight to camp.
We spent some time relaxing and going over all that had just occured in the previous four hours.
The guys took a swim in the river before starting our spaghetti dinner.
On Saturday, we toured more sights that could only be seen from a MAIN PAVED ROAD.
We stopped at a cemetery that was rumored to hold the remains of Merle Haggard's great, great grandparents.
After a few steps in the cemetery, Lucy began to walk funny.
I picked her up and noticed dozens of cockle burs on her legs.
I lifted my shoe and saw I was covered in them too.
Kate, Lucy, and I went back to the truck to pick cockle burs off our shoes and legs
while the guys checked out the cemetery.
Our next stops involved some short hikes to natural bridges (again, no waterfalls for Brentie Bummer).
This was another spot Matt had been to previously.
2006
2012
To wrap up our adventure, we stopped in at the historic Ozark Cafe for dinner. We think the entire area was busier than usual because of peak fall colors. The cafe was busy. We found a table and our waitress stopped over to take our orders.
The experience was just that.... an experience. The food was lukewarm. Half of my order (the fried pickles) didn't arrive until we were ready to leave. Matt's strawberry shake arrived once he was finished with his food. The waitress took Brent's pop to refill it during dinner - but it was never seen again. They ran out of almost everything by the time we left (even baked potatoes).
We were mildly annoyed until our waitress confessed that she didn't even work there and was helping out a friend that night.
In fact, this lady had never even been to the Ozark Cafe before!
At least dessert was a success!
The overly fried (black) fried pickles left much to be desired.
We returned to camp with a few minutes of daylight to spare for packing up.
The next morning, we went our separate ways.
After a grueling 14 hour car ride back to NC, we were happy to be home,
but not as happy as Lucy was to have her warm house back!
We had such a wonderful time with our friends.
It went by so fast (it was over before it even started - right Brent?).
We are already excitedly discussing our plans for next year!
