Wow, what an adventure!

As always, I'm behind, but I just realized that I never actually posted about the adventure that me, Brett & Renee had one Saturday in October. It was October 4th to be exact. That was "Family Day" at Arkansas Tech. The date had been on our calendars since Brett registered for college. A big concert with 38 Special and then a football game. Unfortunately, it was just not meant for us to attend. Dale's grandfather passed away, so he was going to be in Iowa with his mom & sister for the funeral. Daddy was still recovering from his surgery and it was just too soon for him to expend that much energy. Brett didn't want to go to the game without his Papa or the concert without his dad. So here we sat on Saturday afternoon, what to do????? Well, our family has always loved going for drives, usually with no particular destination in mind. When I say "our" family, that means all of us. Dale & I both grew up going for drives with our parent's as kids. Brett doesn't know any different. Renee was not easily convinced. She just didn't understand about going for a drive just to drive. Then we decided okay well maybe we could go to Pinnacle. Then I decided, hey maybe we could go check out where Dale & I would be staying at Petit Jean. So that's what we decided to do.....

We found "The Studio" at the Winthrop Rockefeller Center with no problem. It and the view were even more beautiful than I could have imagined.




Once we got there I think Renee was pretty happy. She got the chance to take some pretty cool pics. Most all of the pictures used today are her's. (I actually copied these from her Facebook and the title of the album is "Wow what an adventure"). So now you know, I'm not afraid to plagerize!



This is actually someone's house and this sign was in the front yard. When Dale and I went back the next week, the sign was gone. Hopefully the thief brought the stuff back, and didn't steal the sign.

We explored the mountain a little. Went to Mather lodge. We actually ran into a gentleman that we had met at the hospital when daddy had his surgery. It was so odd running into him there. We had talked in the hospital cafeteria. His daughter had just had a baby, and then developed a blood clot. The baby was precious (not as precious as Eva Kate, but still precious.) Anyway, I never thought I would see him again, and had often wondered about his daughter. We had agreed to pray for her and they had agreed to pray for Daddy. I could not believe it when I saw him standing there in Mather Lodge. Thankfully, his daughter is fine! We found out that he actually has 8 daughters and now 2 grand-daughters, so he & his wife are very blessed.

After leaving Mather lodge we saw this road with the sign saying Jct. Hwy 10. We decided to take the road, it seemed like a "short cut". Yea, right.............



After we got to the end of that road we had the option of turning left (which would have taken us to Hwy 10) or going right....where the sun was setting. It seemed like we should be able to go right and then find another road to get us back home, so off we headed into the sunset. Mistake....big mistake. After driving forever, looking at the sunset, we found a place to stop to try to capture some pics. I took off running up the fire road. Yes, I said running...... The next thing I knew I was falling, I could feel myself going down but it was in slllloooowwww mmmmooootttiiioon. Brett & Renee did not know what to do (thank goodness she did not capture that on camera!!!) I jumped up and kept running. We arrived in a field that had been clear cut probably last year because there was a lot of new growth. We could see Lake Nimrod stretching out below us in the valley. Below is one of the pics that Renee got of the sunset.


After driving FOREVER, on dark, windy, foggy roads (without seeing even one deer). We finally ended up going through Hot Springs Village and then found the interstate just outside of Benton. Yes, you read that correctly, from Petit Jean to Benton. The kids may never forgive me, but WOW, what an adventure..............