Weight Lifting and Prancing

Today we are just playing in our yard - the Dweeb thinks he is super strong lifting that 150 kg dumb-bell....we just wont tell him what a dumb-bell he is for thinking a plastic toy weighs that much :) As for me - I was showing Mom some of my high stepping prancing moves - tail up, ear up, smile of the face - yeah that is the way to do it.

Captains Scrunchin and Crunchin

We had so much fun playing in all the fallen leaves today. The weather has turned cooler - only 60 degrees and it was so bright and sunny that we decided to have an extra long walk to enjoy it. Mom says we were running around scrunchin and crunchin like a pair of crazy things and best of all .......we even got to chase some squirrels and came with a tails length of catching one! Life just couldn't be better :)

Wordless Wednesday

Close to home

Mom has been having a couple of bad days so today we thought we would just stay to close to home and go to MY everyday park - and why not - look how beautiful it is! Can you believe it is the end of October and we still have temps in the low 80's !

Back to Hardy

Mom decided to take Dad (and us) back up to Hardy to see if the leaves were any more colorful (sadly they were more brown now) but Mom was super duper happy because the Pig "N' Whistle Pub was open. Mom went in and asked if we could get some goodies to go - and they said YES - so she placed our order and we had a quick walk down the main street while we waited for it. Can you believe what we found - A PUBLIC PHONE - when was the last time you saw a public phone - one that actually worked! This pretty little corner where the phone and gazebo are is a small memorial garden right there on the main street - about 4 stores down from the pub.

But back to the good stuff - we headed back to the pub and picked up our goodies. Dad got Bangers and Mash and Mom got Fish and Chips with real malt vinegar - the lovely people packed it up for us so we could go down to Hardy Cowspotdog Park and have a picnic.  We would show you pics of it but we all tucked in so fast Mom forgot to take pictures. Mom ordered an extra 'banger' for ME and I got to share some of Mom's fish too! After much tempting - Dweeb even had a little nibble of fish too! Mom also noticed that they had a whole bunch of English Chocolates for sale at the pub too and she bought a bag full of them! After our picnic lunch we went for a nice walk through MY Hardy Cowspotdog Park. It was a totally pawsome morning!

A Jaunt to Jacksonport

Today we headed South East to the town of Jacksonport - population 212. It is about 40 minutes from where we live and is also home of  MY Jacksonport State Park.  In the 1800's  Jacksonport was a very busy paddle boat destination as it is where the Black and White rivers meet. Jacksonport was also one of the main mustering points for the Confederate army in Arkansas. Throughout the war both armies fought for possession of this strategic port. At the end of the war, General Jeff Thompson, "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy," surrendered over 5,000 troops at Jacksonport.

Now one of the things we found odd about the old court house (which is now a museum) is that it is identical on all 4 sides - everything is the same, same windows, same doors and same steps. (There is an annex on one side now that they added on to allow wheelchair access) but apart from that - identical - even the second floor with the doors and balcony!

After having a wander along the river at Jacksonport we headed back to the bigger nearby town of Newport and Mom did something she hardly EVER does. She went and got some takeout from Long John Silvers so we could have a picnic next to the river. Now Mom doesn't normally eat fish - but for some reason she likes the mild taste of LJS fish and the fact is doesn't have bones. We then went back to a little park we saw on the White River and sat on this dock to have our picnic. It looks so peaceful but in reality the main road was quite near by and the traffic noise kind of took away from the tranquility of it.










MMMMmmmmm Mom even shared some fish with ME - although why she removed all the batter I don't know - she won't even eat that herself! Dweeb of coarse being the Dweeb won't eat when are out and about so he missed out - SCORE ..... all the more for me! We did have a little walk around the park but we couldn't really see much of the river because as usual the river's edge was people's back yards and Mom said they would grumpy at us if we walked there. We did find this one pretty spot to take a picture so that made Mom happy.

Wandering down to Weiner

We have been having some beautiful weather - clear bright blue skies, temps in the low 70's and just perfect for exploring. Today we decided to wander down to Weiner  a tiny town with a population of 780 about 30 minutes south of us.  It is in the middle of a large rice growing area and is a center point for collection of the rice. If you ever buy Riceland Rice - then you know where it comes from now. Needless to say about the most interesting thing there are the silos and the sign welcoming you :)

About another 10 minutes down the road is Lake Hogue. It is a very pretty lake and one of the few that is open to the public but is is used mainly by fishermen as there are no paths to walk around it or places to have a picnic. There are only really two places to even take photos, one is the boat ramp and the other is from dock they built for fishermen without boats.













From Lake Hogue we drove west for about 15 minutes until we came to MY Lake Poinsett State Park. At least here there are paths we can go walking on. Dweeb had Mom and I gawoofing like crazy though - there we were walking along and came across a branch on the path, Mom stepped over it and I jumped over it and we kept going - then Mom suddenly realized Dweeb wasn't with us. She turned around and there he was - way back on the path looking all worried and still trying to figure out how to get over the branch! Mom had to walk all the way back and show him how to step over it - doh!













When we finally reached the lake there was a special surprise just for Mom - MY wonderful park staff have installed a swing right there next to the water. Mom LOVES LOVES LOVES seat swings and we sat there happily for half an hour just enjoying the view and watching the ducks. Can you believe Mom said NOT to chase them - of coarse we didn't listen and chased them anyway :)

Poking Around in Pocahontas

Today we headed 40 minutes north of us to the small town of Pocahontas which is located on the Black River. It has a population of around 6000. Mom had noticed a park right along the edge of the river  when she looking on Google maps so we thought we would go and check it out. It is quite a small park but does have some nice walking paths and this pretty little gazebo. There was also "supposed" to be a statue of Pocahontas there but we guess she got tired of standing around and has wandered off somewhere because we couldn't find her anywhere. We did like that the park had these "doggie waste stations" located along the paths - although it would of been nice if they had also put some trash cans right next to them too!

The Black River is quite a big river and very wide but right next to the park it is in a horse shoe shape so it was hard to get any great pictures of it. After 2 laps of the park which took about 12 minutes, we decided to go and check out a lake a bit further down the road.  Sadly Baltz Lake - like so many around here is mainly private. There was just one small area the public could  look at the view from. Mom gets so annoyed when you have such pretty spots that only the 'privileged few' can enjoy. She mumbled and grumbled all the way home about it and said it is no wonder smalls towns are dying as there is no where for people to stop and enjoy them.

In Search of Color - Part 4

On the way home we thought we would stop at MY Davidsonville State Park to see if there was any color there. This park isn't in the hills so it is still fairly green but we didn't mind at all as it was just another chance to sniff and explore. We headed up though the forest first (Dweeb was pretty tired by now so he was staying close to Mom) but not me - I had my second wind -"Come on you slow pokes!"













Coming out of the forest we headed around the lake and there was some pretty gold color to be seen and Mom loved how it was reflected in the water. We were just happy to lay down and have a bit of a rest.













Check out this one tree that was beautiful bright yellow/orange and remember those building shapes we showed before of the old town buildings - look how nicely they are rusting now. Can you believe we did all of our search for color in just 5 hours - it is amazing what you can find if you spend a little time exploring what is within a few hours of you.

In Search of Color - Part 3

One of the things we forgot to mention about Hardy is that it is in what they call the Ozark Boothills. We are not sure why they call them 'boothills' maybe because they are bit bigger than hills but not big enough to be mountains. Either way - they are still lots of fun to drive though and on our way back home we came across this pawsome water wheel. It doesn't work anymore but it was so neat to see.













We also saw a series of bridges and breakwaters to slow the river down which was pretty neat too. The little bridges were sadly in bad shape and Mom wouldn't let us go near them. There was actually 3 of them - each one about 200 feet apart. What puzzles us - is who built them as they are just 'there'. There is no houses, businesses or stores nearby and it doesn't look like there ever was. Mom with her ever pondering mind wondered why they were built but is glad they were because it is such a pretty spot.













And YES - finally - we got to see some real color. As usual Mom has a pet peeve about this too. Driving through the boothills was so pretty but there was not a single place to stop and enjoy the views. Some of the colors we saw were so amazing but we couldn't get photos of them. There is just one spot right on the edge of the boothill where they have built a liquor store (in the middle of nowhere we might add) that we could stop and take a picture. Mom just doesn't understand why American roads (at least around here) don't have 'way stops' as the Aussies call them. Now 'way stops' are not the same as rest stops - way stops are just normally little areas you can pull off away from the traffic. Back home in Australia the truckers use them a lot to just take a quick nap or rest up for a while and they are popular with travelers as they are usually placed in a scenic spot. Where Mom lived in Australia there were 'way stops' about 20 miles.













When we finally come out of the boothills we came to a tiny town called Ravendale - population 248 and one giant bird! We had to stop and get a picture of it - The Ravendale Raven. Denny was too scared of it to even get out of the car which is why you don't see him in the pictures - what a Dweeb! I guess he was pretty sinister looking. Oddly enough we did see a lot of ravens in the area - although Mom is pretty sure they are big old crows and not ravens - but the English who first settled the are probably thought they were ravens - hence the name.