Day 1 of Our Road Trip: Arkansas

Our first day is complete and the 2^nd is underway!  As I’m writing this, it’s 6:30am and I’m watching the sun rise over the lake while Cody sleeps a little more since he has to drive…I typically hate this time of morning but this chair is much more comfortable than the ground and my view isn’t too shabby either :)

Yesterday we left my house at 8:19am and headed west! Breakfast consisted of cookies from Cody’s mom and they were delicious…don’t ask me why I’m majoring in nutrition, haha. A little ways into Arkansas we saw a fire in the median, way too many 18-wheelers and a man carrying a 12 ft tall rolling cross down the shoulder of the interstate, headed towards Memphis. It reminded me of the verse…”Then Jesus said unto his disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me’” Matthew 16:24. It was humbling in the least. We stopped just outside of Little Rock and filled the cooler with drinks and some food from Walmart. I feel like we always have the funniest/awkwardest/strangest cashiers everywhere we go. Saturday night at dinner…”Are yall brother and sister?” Nope. Everytime we get asked that I regret not just saying yes for kicks and giggles or really creeping people out when they see us touch. And this time after buying chocolate, graham crackers, smores and other camping type things, the lady who was screaming because she had cotton stuck in her ears refused to bend over to scan water and cokes because ‘she had an ear infection and she hopes the cops don’t see her because when she drives, she looks drunk’ followed up with a “oh my gosh your eyelashes are sooo long.” I had to walk away to keep from dying of laughter because that is probably my favorite comment people make to Cody. It all started in 6^th grade (9 years ago) with Mrs. Kelley Powell…me:  “I don’t like him!”… "but Rachel, his eyelashes are sooo long.” Well, those eyelashes have kept us together for a long time…or something like that :)

 

About halfway there, Cody whipped out a little remote for his radio, trying to be cool like my edge or something…haha it made me laugh. Then we had a little picnic outside of a church in the shade where I may or may not have accumulated 19 mosquito bites even after using big spray. Guess I was extra sweet!

We made a random stop at Petit Jean State Park after seeing the sign because I had seen good things about it on the internet. After climbing a super steep hill aka Petit Jean Mountain in the mean machine we got to Petit Jean’s gravesite and a really pretty lookout over the mountain and Arkansas River.

Petit Jean was a French girl that disguised herself as a boy named Little John in order to go with her fiancé to the new world in the 18^th century, which ended up being this mountain. She didn’t even tell him she had come over with him until she was about to die shortly after getting to the mountain!! We went to Red House Cave at this park and climbed up and down lots of huge rocks looking for a waterfall that we never found.

 

We also went to a car museum…not to look at cars since it was $10 a person, but to use their restrooms and act interested in the gift shop! I love how Cody isn’t in a hurry and we can stop at random places…it makes the trip so much more enjoyable! After driving around and not finding any campsites on the water, we decided to go on to Lake Dardanelle about an hour west and I am so glad that we did! Late Tuesday afternoon we went swimming in the lake at a little beach, made another Walmart trip and made dinner. Well, Cody made dinner. Lasagna and a hot dog and it tasted awesome. He has so many cool little tricks and I’m completely lost because last night was my first night to go camping ever but I’m catching on! 

I'll write about the rest later...I'm about to board my flight home :(