2015 Travel West

Thursday, September 21, 2017

2017 WPC Haiti Mission Trip:Thursday -- Keeping our fingers crossed

Dorene P has sent you a link to a blog:

This is hopefully the beginning of a narrative on our Haiti trip this year.

Blog: 2017 WPC Haiti Mission Trip
Post: Thursday -- Keeping our fingers crossed
Link: http://2017wpchaiti.blogspot.com/2017/09/thursday-keeping-our-fingers-crossed.html

--
Powered by Blogger
https://www.blogger.com/

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

JUNE 26-30 CHEAHA STATE PARK, ALABAMA LAST STOP!

JUNE 26-30 CHEAHA STATE PARK, ALABAMA - LAST STOP

Our original plans were to drive from Arkansas the full 500 miles to the Cheaha State Park in Alabama, but as I have gotten not only older, but wiser on this trip we had a slight modification to the plan. This was especially important as we had to pass right through Memphis about half way -- never an easy task. We found a nice, quite RV park on the Natchez Trace near Tupelo, MS and stopped for the night. We never even unhooked the trailer.

The next morning we only had 200 miles to go so we got into the state park at a decent time. Once again we were blessed with trees!

CAMPSITE AT CHEAHA STATE PARK ALA

We began to explore the park. Turns out it is in a little National Forest called Talledega...right...adjacent to the Talledega SuperSpeedway for you NASCAR lovers--but we never went to the speedway. Instead we tried to walk every (moderate) walk and drive every dirt road in the small but beautiful park.

First we looked out at the park from the deck of the restaurant. There are lodges and cabins, restaurant, picnic sites, walking trails, campsites, a small museum and a wilderness trail of many miles along the backbone of the park.

VIEW FROM DECK OF RESTAURANT

CHEAHA PARK BEACH AND SWIMMING AREA BELOW

INTERIOR OF RESTAURANT

Turns out this park celebrates the highest point in Alabama : 2407 feet ! Seems kind of funny after where we have been, but nevertheless it is something to appreciate. Inside the tower, built originally by the CCC to monitor the National Forest, is a small museum showing how the CCC efforts helped so many people acquire skills and earn a living for their families. Somehow it seems a shame that people who need financial assistance now don't think about working for their welfare checks!

TOWER AND MUSEUM

ACCESSIBLE TRAIL TO BALD ROCK

A point of Alabama pride seems to be that they have made the facilities of this park to be accessible to all visitors. While they have this nice boardwalk out to Bald Rock with a beautiful view of the forest and valley below, there is also the original trail through the woods (much less used) which Chick and I took. It is fun to see the difference in the types of trees and landscape back east from what we saw out west. (Both are beautiful!)

ORIGINAL TRAIL TO BALD ROCK

ALABAMA STYLE ROCKS

The next trail we tried was advertized as very steep. We figured we could do it, but after about 1/2 mile we encountered hand over hand stuff that did not seem worth it...much less trying to come back DOWN it later. Age does provide some wisdom. --So we quit and went to find another one.

CREEK ON THE EASY PART OF THE TRAIL.

Next we started to explore more of the park. This is a view of the "swimming beach" (from first photo looking down) looking back UP at the peak that is the highest point. It is really pretty and on the weekend the beach and water was FULL of swimmers and families having fun!

CHEAHA PARK BEACH LOOKING TOWARD ALABAMA's HIGHEST PEAK

Our next adventure was to take one of the short hikes in the park just to see CHEAHA FALLS. We had to laugh about the signs because when we started the CHEAHA FALLS Shelter near the falls was listed as 1.0 miles. We walked for half and hour, crossed a road, and came to a sign showing the Falls to be 1.0 miles. After about 20 more minutes we came to another sign showing the Falls to still be 1.0 miles. We figured they got a discount making the signs by making them all the same!

Anyway, it was a nice walk. Along the way we had just decided to take the right fork at an unmarked intersection, when a lone hiker called to us asking us if we really meant to take that path. We have seen no one on most every trail this entire trip, so it was a little unusual. We said we were headed for the falls and had no idea which path to take. He assured us he had just come from the falls via the left fork and kept us from getting totally lost. We chatted for about 5 minutes and continued on our way. Talking about having "SOMEONE" watching over you!

FOREST TRAIL TO CHEAHA FALLS

STREAM LEADING TO THE FALLS

CHEAHA FALLS...VERY STEEP AND NO PATH SO COULD NOT GET GOOD PICTURE

Another adventure was to locate Chinnabee Lake in the National Forest just outside the park. We found it, but it was pretty small and not much else. We then drove on every back road I could find. Chick was convinced we would never find our way out, but the park is not so huge. We managed to spend a few hours, see some beautiful scenery and have a good time. Nothing to take photos of, however.

CINNABEE LAKE, ALABAMA

No camping vacation could be complete until Chick was able to have a campfire for us to enjoy. Ironically we had to get all the way back to Alabama to have one. Everywhere else it was either a commercial RV park or too cold, or too hot, or covered in fog...but at last the real thing! We gathered wood from the surrounding forest and enjoyed a beautiful campfire on our last night!

WHAT COULD BE MORE BEAUTIFUL?

44 days - 9500 miles! (Snoopy did 6200 with us!) What fun!

THANKS FOR COMING WITH US. UNTIL NEXT TIME...

.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

JUNE 25 BLANCHARD SPRINGS CAVERNS -- ARKANSAS

JUNE 25 BLANCHARD SPRINGS CAVERNS ARKANSAS

Blanchard Springs Caverns is a cave system located in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest in northern Arkansas.

The caverns were beautiful and well worth the visit. Especially since once again our Senior Passes for the National Parks got us in for free! It was also nice to spend the day in a cavern at a nice constant cool temperature as the temps outside once again hit the mid 80's (We must be getting closer to NC!!)

UNDERGROUND STREAM

HANGING ABOUT 30 FEET IN THE AIR

LOOKING WAY DOWN !!

CAVE ROCKET

PUMPKIN?

LIKE BLUE ICE

We were even able to add 2 animals to our list !

EURYCEA LUCIFUGA - Cave Salamander

CAVE BAT

We stopped to have a look at the North Fork River and the Norfork Lake then headed back to Snoopy.

NORTH FORK RIVER

NORFOLK LAKE

We are grateful once again for the wonderful fog on the White River tonight.

JUNE 24 ARKANSAS DAY TRIP

JUNE 24. ARKANSAS DAY TRIP

We slept late and on Wednesday spent most of the day exploring "on horseback"-- or rather in the truck. We love to find little dirt roads and follow them to see what we find, and that's what we did.

DAY TRIP IN ARKANSAS

We left Cotter heading west through Flippin (whose only industry is building fishing boats), and on to Yellville (the nearest gas station.) Along the way we found a little dirt road heading to Mt. Hershey...which turns out to be an access point to the Buffalo River for canoes putting in or getting out of the river. In spite of Chick's accusations that I was trying to get us totally lost, it was no problem at all!

BUFFALO RIVER

CLEAR WATER !

Returning to the main road we passed Gilbert, where we had departed in previous years for our canoe/camping adventures on the Buffalo River. We stopped where the road crossed the Buffalo to take a look at a spot on the river we had visited several times before. It looked quite a bit different....more rocky shore and a smaller river flow, but still impressive.

RIVER IN THE DISTANCE AT BASE OF TREES BEYOND STONES

CARS AND TRUCKS DRIVING ON ROCK SHORELINE

HIGHWAY BRIDGE IN MIDDLE. RIVER OVER BANKS ON LEFT

We looped back east then north through Calico Rock, Mountain Home, and back to Snoopy. On the way we discovered that there is a large cave system operated by the USDA Forest Service in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest near Mountain View -- Blanchard Springs Caverns-- and we decide to visit it on Thursday.

JUNE 22 -23 Cotter, Arkansas -- Ozark Mountains

June 22-23 Cotter, Arkansas - Ozark Mountains

It was just a short drive on Monday through Eureka Springs, a town strung out on the ridge in northwestern Arkansas, to the tiny town of Cotter, Arkansas where we set up for the next few days. Cotter is on the White River and is supposed to be one of the very best trout fishing rivers in the country.

We camped at Rainbow Drive Resort Campground...a very small set of cabins, some tent sites, and 2 RV sites right on the White River a couple of miles below the Bull Shoals Dam. There was one other camper in a tent. We were thankful for being totally immersed in big trees because for the first time we began to have temperatures as high as the 80's in the day.

As soon as we set Snoopy up we headed out to explore. First stop was Bull Shoals Dam. Chick checked out the fishing regulations, got a license, and cast a few times, but mainly we just drove around to get our bearings.

BELOW BULL SHOALS DAM

FISHING BOAT ON WHITE RIVER

They have had a tremendous amount of rain so far and the lake behind the dam is very full. They are having to let large amounts of water through the dam each late afternoon. The water they release is from the bottom of the lake and is VERY COLD (ergo the river is a favorite for trout). It turns out this is a blessing even beyond being good for trout. Each night as the cold water travels downriver it creates cold clouds over the water by condensing the humidity in the air. The effect is outdoor air conditioning from about 4pm until around 8am...perfect sleeping conditions...in the mid 60's!

And it is like beautiful art work over the water.

VIEW FROM OUTSIDE SNOOPY

Chick has to get up very early Tuesday morning for a half day guided fishing trip. You really need a boat to be able to fish the river, as we learned last time we were in the Ozarks on the Red River. So we had an early supper and then sat and watched the beautiful fog on the river beside Snoopy.

OUR FAVORITE WAY TO PREPARE VEGS -- ONION, POTATO, TOMATO, PEPPERS, MUSHROOMS, GARLIC, DRIZZLED WITH OLIVE OIL AND OREGANO

GRILL OVER CHARCOAL UNTIL DONE TO TASTE

GUESS THE GARLIC ATTRACTED VISITORS!

GOD's ARTWORK

Chick and the guide took off before 7 am. and returned around 12:30pm, with fish enough for a couple of dinners. He caught maybe 30 in that time, but only brought home 3 good sized ones for us to eat. Plenty. Two for dinner and one in the freezer for another time.

READY TO GET STARTED

FIRST CATCH OF THE DAY

While he was fishing, I began a thorough cleaning of Snoopy in preparation of ending our trip. I spent most of the time on the outside and on the windows. Chick took a nap while I finished my chores and then we headed out to explore some more.

We saw the Rainbow Bridge in Cotter-- built in 1930 this rainbow-arched bridge is ranked among the most beautiful spans in mid-America (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) but it didn't impress me much. More interesting was Big Spring that ran into the White River near the bridge...cold, clear, and a place where kids still swing over the pool and drop right in!

RAINBOW BRIDGE

BIG SPRING CREEK

BIG SPRING CREEK FLORA

As we were driving around we followed a road that dead-ended where the Buffalo National River flows into the White River. The cliffs on the Buffalo river are awesome. Chick tried fishing a little and I just enjoyed the beauty of the river. We had canoe-camped on the Buffalo River several years ago with Ed Cake and Irene McIntosh from D'iberville, and I have loved the beauty of the river ever since.