Getting out of Dodge!

So in May we decided that we needed to go to a place where we could relax in the outdoors more than 50 feet from a major road and see the bottom of a river. So we headed north to Arkansas. We chose a very out of the way place. We were the only people camping there from Monday to Friday. Very Nice. We swam in the river cuz we could see the bottom. hiked around in the wilderness. Saw some cool animals. But Heidi (ok, and me) was freaked out about the snakes. We came upon the snakes as we were climbing around on the rocks. Yes they are water moccasins, but that was not the creepiest part. We watched one of them slither into the water and go under a rock. It came out again about half way (all under the water) then kinda backed up under the rock again. I don't think we went into the water again after that without quickly making our way to a deep area or faster current area. Cuz we thought that an attack may occur at our ankles by a snake laying in wait. The other weird thing was we saw a racoon when we first got to the camp and thought it wouldn't mess with one of our water bottles. Nope, just as I was falling asleep (not Heidi, she had already been asleep for about 58 minutes more than I) we heard our water bottle fall off the log we left it on, then it proceeded to wrestle with the racoon for about 10 minutes until the racoon bit a hole in and realized it was only water. Just as I was going to sleep I saw this greenish glow float by my side of the tent...a little creepy. But I just thought it was the racoon and somehow the moon light caught his eyes. I realized about a month later that it was just a firefly floating past. Oh, yeah, Heidi has a little difficulty skipping rocks, note the lack of good skip throwing form, but after countless hours of lessons she skipped a rock 5 times!!!!!!!

After our stay in this secluded paradise, we thought we would go to one of the highest points in Arkansas. Which is way higher than any place in Louisiana. But it was a little weird that at the highest point of the mountain range there was a Lodge, mini train, KOA style camp ground. I guess I am just used to the inaccessable mountain peaks.

We also are starting a family legend about how I scared off a bear and how Heidi saved me. So we didn't want to sleep on a hard concrete slab, so we chose the tent site that you had to hike about 1/2 a mile away form anyone else. We (me) carried all our stuff down there. The first night we thought it might rain so we were going to cover the tent with a tarp, so I get out of the tent to open the tarp up by shaking it and when I did that we heard this huge thing run away. Heidi immediately jumped in the tent and pulled me in too! Heidi maintains that it was a bear. We had been told there were bears that frequented this area so we needed to keep our food on a bear pole. My theory is that the main campground was full from bikers and one of them got really drunk and passed out in the bushes by our tent and when I shook the tarp it startled him and he got up and ran away! But Heidi thinks the bear story is better. So we'll probably tell the bear one when we get older.