Tuesday 4-12 Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

 

Overcast Day

We had an overcast day with strong wind. It started out with the temperature of 60 degrees and got to 75. 

Larry made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We starting getting ready to move on at about 9:30, we were heading to Berryville City Park which wasn't very far. 

On the way to Berryville we did something special. We stopped at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. It specializes in rescuing exotic cats. It has been doing this for 30 years and has rescued 450 cats and bears from across the country. They are a no contact shelter and survive mainly with volunteers and donations. Most of their animals have been rescued from either other animal parks that were trying to make money on the cats or from individuals who were trying to raise them on their own. The majority of them have been mistreated in some way and many of them have physical issues due to their past living conditions. Every hour on the hour they have a tour by a tour guide. For adults it's $25.00 and Seniors 65 and up are $15.00. When we arrived we had just missed the 10:00 tour so we paid and walked around the facility.

During the riding tour we learned about individual cats and how and why they were in the facility. They try to keep cats that are familiar with each other together. If the cats don't get along they separate them with a fence. They will also rotate who gets to be out in the grassy areas. They do this to prevent them from hurting each other. They are not a breeding facility so some of the cats are on a form of birth control. We also picked up a brochure about the cats and how they were rescued. They rescued a tigress, Priscilla last May and she was pregnant. She had three cubs and they all were born with club feet. At four weeks old they started the cubs on treatment. Now they're fine. The tour guide did an excellent job and the brochure was very interesting. We had a great time.

One of the lions

One of the white tigers

 

Priscilla

 

Entrance

After the tour we had lunch. Then we drove to Berryville, which was 20 miles away. Berryville City Park is a small park with restrooms and showers. We don't normally stay in RV parks but it is suppose to rain most of tomorrow and we wanted somewhere with power. You need a code to use the showers. The sites are full hookups. There are full time residents in the RV park. There a creek that runs by the park. They have a gazebo. Since the park is small there is not much area to walk but I did a bunch of laps around the park and also stepped in place, I ended up with 26,000 steps. This put me in 5th place in my group. While I was walking around I met a lady and she walked with me a little bit. 

 

Berryville City Park

I finished reading Willful Behavior. I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I did the Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. It took me 1 hour, 13 minutes and 33 seconds, which put me in 9th place in my group.

We had an awesome day.

 

Monday 4-11 Rainy Day

 

 

Camping

We had rain most of the day. We were so glad we didn't have any severe weather. It started raining early in the morning while we slept and stopped about 3:30 pm. It was hard at times but it didn't keep us from having a good night sleep. We knew that the rain was coming, that's why we decided to stay at Dam Site River Campground for at least two nights. 

Today was mostly a stay inside day. I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I moved onto the Event: Free Cell Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 8 minutes and 51 seconds, which put me in 22nd place in my group. Our internet is slow but I'm glad we have it so I can play my games and blog. We read most of the day.

After dinner I went on an hour and a half walk to the dam and around the campground I ended up doing 22,000 steps, which put me in 5th place. This is pretty good considering all the rain. 

We have been on the road for 23 days. We spent the first week in Oklahoma and the last two weeks we have been in Arkansas.

We have had an outstanding trip so far with just a little rain.

Sunday 4-10 Dam Site River Campground

Camping at Dam Site River Campground

The National Weather Service is saying that we may have severe weather the next few days. So we decided to move down off the mountain to the Dam Site River Campground, its below Beaver Lake. We thought it might be a bit more protected. 

We woke up to the temperature in the 50s. It wasn't cold but it was very windy. It got up to 80 degrees. The weather has been very weird because one day we're running the small heater and today we ran the air conditioner.

Hold on tight

 We didn't leave Lost Bridge North until after lunch because we only had to go 21 miles. While waiting I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I did the Event: Two Game Tango of 20 games (10 Klondike and 10 Spider). It took me 1 hour, 19 minutes and 47 seconds, which put me in 8th place in my group. Larry read.

We had a salad for lunch. Then we got the Minnie ready to go.

Just before entering the campground we noticed that five of the seven gates of the dam were open. Yesterday when we hiked by Beaver Lake and it didn't appear to be overfull. Maybe, they're getting ready for the storm. Before we left the campground Larry had written down the sites that were available. One loop was 50 amps with power and water for $26, the other loop was 30 amps with power and no water. The 30 amp loop sites were surrounded by lots of gorgeous pine trees and if they were not predicting severe weather that is where we would have stayed, we decided to stay in the 50 amp loop because there was far less chance of a tree or a branch falling on us. 

Larry reserved the site for a couple of nights and if we have to stay longer it's available until Thursday. Today we used my Senior pass so the site was only $13 per night. After setting the Minnie up we read for a bit.  

I was going to barbecue some chicken but it was too windy. Instead we had rigatoni noodles and tomato sauce. After dinner we went on a walk. We walked to the dam and took pictures of the water being released through the flood gates. There's a few areas along the banks of the river where we saw families fishing. When we got back to the campground Larry went back inside under the air conditioner and read. I continued walking around. I walked to the other loop and walked around it a few times. By the time I got back I had walked an hour and a half. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in 7th place in my group for the week. For the week I did 166,327 I missed my goal of 175,000 but that's ok considering we had a day of rain. 

Beaver Lake Dam

We had a great day.    

 

Saturday 4-9 Lost Bridge North Campground & Trail

 

Beautiful Spring Day

We had a beautiful day with sunshine and very little wind. It was very cold this morning, 31 degrees but it got to 70 degrees. 

We decided to leave Prairie Creek Campground and move to Lost Bridge North Campground. We had breakfast and then we got the Minnie ready to move on. We have been on the road for three weeks and needed to do laundry so on our way we stopped at Splash N Dash Car Wash and Coin Laundry in Rogers, it was very nice and clean. We were in and out in about an hour and a half. After doing laundry we stopped at a Murphy USA and filled the Minnie. This was the cheapest gas so far. It was 3.459 per gallon. We have been paying between 3.699 and 3.779. The Minnie usually takes 26 gallons or more so this is a little of a savings. 

After getting gas we continued on. It was only 21 miles away. The drive was through Rogers and up a curvy mountain road. Lost Bridge North is also on Beaver Lake. There are eleven public campgrounds on Beaver Lake. Beaver Lake is a huge reservoir and beautiful.

We didn't have any reservations for Lost Bridge North so we drove through  the campground and found a site we liked. Larry parked the Minnie and went online to make reservations. He tried to use my Senior pass to get 50% off but he couldn't. He called to see why. The lady, who helped us said that since we had already reserved a site at Prairie Creek for tonight the system would not allow us to use the card for another site on the same night. Larry asked about simply cancelling the first reservation but the system will not allow you to cancel a reservation that is in the process of being used. So we had to pay full price, which was $22.00. That isn't bad.

Camping at Lost Bridge North Campground

A squirrel enjoying its dinner

After setting the Minnie up for the night we had a salad for lunch. It was a gorgeous day so after lunch we decided to check out the hiking trail. The hiking trail parking lot was next to our site so it wasn't too far away. The trail was a 6.6 loop trail and it took us 3 hours. The trail was very challenging, it went up and down the hillside and through trees and creeks. There were a lot of leaves on the trail so we had to be careful. At places there were loose rocks and roots. There were two guys hiking the trail in front of us and they got to a place where the trail disappeared. When we caught up to them Larry went on his phone and using the trail map he had downloaded along with the GPS he found that the trail ran along the creek so we walked a bit and he was able to find the trail. The guys hiked with us for a bit. When we separated, because they were faster, they thanked us. The trail took us by nice rock formations and some of them formed caves. During the hike we saw an old farmer's pond and what was left of a 1900's farm. There was a sign that gave the history of the farm, it was the Schrader's Farm. We met up with the two guys a few times. By the old farm there were some primitive camps. We sat on a big boulder and rested. The trail took us along the bank of Beaver Lake and by the marina. A family of six passed us on the trail going the other way. We had a great hike, even though we were worn down at the end.

Old Farm Pond

 

One of the rock formations

The marina from the trail

 Another rock formation

 

The trial we did

 

Steps we took to the top

After our hike I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I did the Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 49 minutes and 28 seconds to complete, which put me in 15th in my group.

For dinner we had leftovers. After dinner I went on an hour hike/walk. I walked down to the shower building, which was a mile down the road to the main entrance. I started the walk by going around the campground because I missed understood what Larry told me. I took the trail to the main road, which was about .2 of a mile. The first time I went left instead of right. But that was ok because it took me by the marina, boat ramp and around the campground. The second time I took the trail to the main road and went right, which took me up and down the hill. At one point I had to walk up hill for a half a mile. I was exhausted by the time I got to the top but it was close to the showers. The showers were very old and rundown. We were thinking about using them on the way out but maybe not. The walk back didn't take me as long because it was mainly downhill. It was a workout. When I got home I finished doing my steps in place. I ended up doing 28,400 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group. 

After doing my steps I baked chocolate chip cookies. We spent the rest of the night reading.                   

Friday 4-8 Cold Windy Day

We had a cold windy day. We started the day at 40 degrees with a strong wind. The wind stayed around all day. By 6:00 p.m. it was 51 degrees and the wind went down. The wind stayed down but by 9:00 p.m. the temperature dropped to a brisk 41 degrees, it is supposed to go down to freezing tonight.

We didn't do anything but hang around the Minnie. We kept bundled to keep warm with a book. Larry read a couple of short books. I did my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I moved on to the Event: Spider Mini of 5 games. It took me 11 minutes and 25 seconds to complete, which put me in 6th place in my group. 

After playing my games I continued reading the 10th book in the Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon. About 1:30 I went for an hour walk around the park. Before leaving I put on a lite jacket and a winter coat and gloves to make sure I wouldn't be cold. Today I decided to do the second half of the park that I hadn't done before. While walking I met a gentleman and his dogs and a saw a beautiful woodpecker. By the time I got back I was sweaty, I guess I was over dressed. 

After dinner I went for two walks around the campground for an hour each. On my second walk I met our neighbor and we walked together for a few minutes. By the end of the night I had done 26,000 steps which put me in 7th place in my group. I may not have done all my steps but I got a good cardio workout because I had to go up and down steep hills.

Working out by walking

 

Thursday 4-7 Crystal Bridges Museum & Walmart Museum

Windy Day 

We woke up to 40 degrees and a strong wind out of the north. By 3:00 it was only 56 degrees and the wind was really blowing. Then the temperature started to drop. The wind changed directions it was coming out of the west. It was cold all day.

Today we got a little culture by going to the Crystal Bridges Museum of fine arts. It's located in Bentonville, it was only 12 miles from our campground. It didn't open until 11:00 so we did a little grocery shopping at Walmart. Afterwards we went to the museum.

When we arrived Larry wasn't sure where to park so he drove to the entrance of the museum. A gentleman said we could park at the park and then catch the shuttle from the temporary gravel parking lot. We ended up parking in the gravel parking area because there was a lot of parking. When we were here in 2013 we parked closer but that parking area was under construction today. There was a lot of construction going on because they are building a medical facility. We had lunch before touring the museum. 

As we were eating we saw a group of students dressed up in suits and dresses. They were performing in the facility. After lunch we walked over and caught the shuttle. The ride was very pleasant, a museum exhibits planner was going to work and told everyone about the museum and the exhibits. There were two other people on the shuttle besides us. 

Crystal Bridges Museum is beautiful facility on 120 acres and admission is free. They do have special exhibits that cost to see and it changes periodically. The exhibit right now was The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Cultural and the Sonic Impulse. It is there from March 12 through July 25. Some of the exhibits we saw when we were here before have been changed out. We really liked the self portrait by the artist but it wasn't there. We walked around the museum for about an hour and half. We went through all the sections: Modern Art, Contemporary Art, Early American Art, Light Fantastic Exhibition and other exhibits in the hallways. It was an amazing place.

Self Portrait by artist

 

Alexander Hamilton 1792 by John Trumbull

 

Politics in the Workshop by Thomas Waterman Wood 

 

An eagle

 

Narcissus Garden by Yayol Kusama

 

A giant spider sculpture

 

A bear eating a fish

 

There are many trails that go around the grounds. As you walk the trails there are art sculptures and exhibits. We walked the first set of artists trails that took us to the downtown. There is a beautiful town square with shops and restaurants. We stopped in to revisit the Walmart Museum. Bentonville is where Walmart/Sams Club began. The corporate offices are still there. Before walking around the museum we checked in with a young gentleman and gave him the state were from. The tour was free but they wanted to keep track on how many people visit the museum and where they were from. Before looking at the exhibits we watched a movie about Walmart and the founder Sam Walton. They added a few new exhibits in the museum. It was very interesting to learn about Walmart. We exited the museum into a ice cream parlor. We shared two scoops, chewy brownie and salted caramel. They were big scoops and very good. The ice cream parlor has changed a little bit. The workers weren't wearing hats and they added a jukebox. They only sell ice cream. Before leaving we went back into the museum and bought some candies: a couple cherry mash, banana taffy, Goo Goo cluster and Mallo cups (marshmallow chocolate cups).

Walmart Museum

 

Ice cream we shared

 

Candy we bought

Larry had read about Bentonville Art Museum/Hotel and we had walked by it earlier. On the way back to Crystal Bridges Museum we stopped in. They had some nice art exhibits in the lobby and restaurant. It was a beautiful hotel.

Basketball goals exhibit at the Bentonville Art Hotel

An exhibit in the lobby

When we got back to the museum we walked the artists north trail, which was about 1.5 miles. There were some cool exhibits: a giant deer, a sculpture of boats, floral boat and more. The trail took us back to the Minnie. By the end of our walk we had walked around for three hours and we were tired. We got the Minnie ready to go back to the campground.

Three People on Four Benches by George Segal

 

Turquoise Reeds and Ozark Flori

 

Floral Boat

 

Standing by a deer

When we got back to the campground I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of  Solitaire and Mahjong. The I did the Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 42 seconds, which put me in 11th place in my group.

While I played games Larry read.

After dinner I walked around the campground for 45 minutes. I cut it short because it started to sprinkle. I ended up doing 21,000 steps because I was tired and it was too cold to do anymore. I came in 5th place in my group with 85,252 for the week so far. I'm still 15,000 steps behind but that's ok.

 

 

            

Wednesday 4-6 Daisy Airgun Museum & Rogers Historic Museum

 

Awesome Day

When I went to bed last night at 12:30 a rain storm came through. It rained hard and steady for an hour or so. In the morning it was gone. We had a beautiful day with wind and sunshine. 

We were going to stay another night at Lake Fort Smith State Park but with last nights rain the hiking trails were going to be muddy so we decided to move on. Larry knew where we were going next, there were three different Corp of Engineer campgrounds in the area, he made reservations for Prairie Creek Campground on Beaver Lake. 

We got the Minnie ready to go. Prairie Creek Campground was only about 70 miles away. Larry thought I would like to stop and see some sites on the way. First was Fayetteville's Historic Downtown. He didn't know that it was right next to the University of Arkansas campus, the streets were narrow some were very steep and scary. It was very busy and we could not find anywhere to park the Minnie. We finally gave up, on the way to our next stop we found a shopping center with a large parking lot to stop in and have lunch. While Larry was programming our next adventure into the GPS I went to Eisenstein Brothers Bagels and bought a half dozen bagels. It has been a long time since we had their bagels. I made both of us a sandwich using a bagel for the bread.

As we were going through Fayetteville headed to Rogers Larry pointed out there were turkeys going down the road in the back of a big truck. When we got to Rogers we parked the Minnie on the street by the Daisy Airgun Museum. We had been here in 2013 and decided to revisit it. It was very interesting to read about the history of the Daisy Airgun Company. There were 29 displays and you had a couple of ways to do the tour. They was a hand written book, a hand held recording device, or you could scan codes in via your cell phone. We used the book. It took about an hour to go through. Due to some recent donations of items they had added a few new displays. The tour only cost $2.00 each and we received a token celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Daisy Museum. Outside the museum there was the biggest Daisy Airgun. It was a very nice museum. 

Turkeys going down the road

Token celebrating the museum 50th anniversary

Standing by the largest airgun

50,000,000 Air Rifle

 

Some of the 1900s, 1910s & 1920s rifles on display

 

Entrance to the Daisy Airgun Museum

Next was Rogers Historic Museum, it was just down the street from the Daisy Museum. It was free to tour. It was about the history of Rogers and had very nice displays. They had a special exhibit on aprons. It was cool to see the different aprons. I don't wear one when I cook and I should because they would prevent me for staining some of my clothes. Then we went back to the Minnie.

Local shops

 

A 1930 friendship quilt on display

 

An old tractor and corn sheller

 

Some of the aprons on display

Our final destination for the day was Prairie Creek Campground, it is located on Beaver Lake and only about 6 miles from Rogers. We drove around the campground and found our site. It wasn't level so Larry had to get the blocks out. Once we were level we set up the Minnie for a few nights. There's no hiking trails but the campground is big. 

An hour before dinner we went on an hour walk. Larry walked with me for a half hour. We walked to the day area and group pavilion. The road around the campground will give you a workout because it goes down to the lake and then you have to walk up a steep hill. They have a big boat ramp, which is six lanes wide and have a couple of nice docks for loading and unloading people. The parking area is big. They have a gorgeous building, that is as weigh station for fishing tournaments. The day area is right by the lake. It has a beach, a swimming area and a life jacket loaning area. There are covered picnic tables and grill for each table. There is a beach volleyball court. It's very beautiful. 

Camping at Prairie Creek

 

The marinia

 

Boat ramp

 

The weigh station for fishing tournaments

 

Boating on Beaver Lake

After dinner I went on an hour walk. I walked around the campground and to the entrance gate. Then I finished my steps at the site by stepping in place. I ended up doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 6th place in my group. When I finished my steps I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I did the Event: Hard Road Adventure of 16 games. It took me 1 hour, 31 minutes and 49 seconds, which put me in 3rd place in my group when I went to bed

We had a super day.