Arkansas...the rest of the story

Day 2...

I was "supposed" to cook breakfast after Seam returned from fishing but...well...it didn't happen. He woke up fairly early to go fishing and returned home after my 3rd cup of coffee. He wanted to go canoeing, I wasn't "thrilled" about this but, believe it or not, I wanted to go. I had considered a hike, picnic lunch, fishing and the like...but CANOEING was apparently already in order. So we headed to the office to "book" our little canoe trip. Afterwards we walked towards the bus with our supplies...cooler with some sandwiches, drinks, etc, and, OF COURSE, fishing equipment. Ok, this was a problem...the BUS, if you can call it that...looked brokedown and resembled something you would find in a junkyard. However, the driver arrived via ATV and asked us to get in...FORESHADOW...his name is Pancho and is a good ol' Arkansas hillbilly. He drove us to our launch point aka under a bridge...FORESHADOW #2...and got our canoe ready for launch. Ok, so we get in this little "boat" and the FIRST thing I notice is...OMG I HAVE TO BALANCE MYSELF AT ALL TIMES!?!?!?! It was immediately awful, I was looking (kinda) forward to a peaceful trip...I should've known.



We head down the river, I was expecting beautiful bluffs and forest from The Natural State. Yeah, no, we might as well have been canoeing down the creek near my parent's house. I mean it was ok, it was pretty by all accounts but not what I was expecting. "Balance Kevin!" I kept telling myself...yep, paranoia was the name of the game. We continued and I swear, half the time, we were having to get out of the canoe, pick it up and carry it over the lower levels of water...irritating (sort of). I mean the ACTUAL lower levels resembled a mountain stream, so that was nice BUT, when we got to the giant boulders in the water and all we had to stand on were those huge rocks (with the water otherwise up to 5ft on either side) THAT pissed me off lol. Basically not only were we teetering on the canoe BUT the rocks as well then having to get back in the canoe was a chore! Anyway, ultimately it was ok, but I swear we started looking religiously for that tent (aka pick up point) about a mile before we made it there. I've never been so happy to see an Arkansas hillbilly next to a broke down bus in my life!

Day 3...

Late that morning, we headed for Hot Springs, just to sight see and check it out. I've been there once as a teenager but only briefly, I think we primarily drove through it. It was nice, a little ghetto, but Hot Springs Township was nice. We had lunch at a fairly nice Italian place and then drove around sightseeing. Seam was a bit confused, he thought we'd be able to hike to an actual "hot spring" and go swimming; however, I had to let him know...nope, those "hot springs" are fed into the bathhouses along the main road in Hot Springs National Park. Sorry but "bathhouse" brings to mind VERY dirty conditions, in more ways than one, but I'm sure it's clean...I mean it IS a national park, right? So that was a let down for him. Anyway, that afternoon, we headed back to Oden, AR aka Deliverance. Seam went fishing...again...while I stayed at the cabin. We were going to grill out Ribeye's and any fish Seam caught plus baked potatoes and salad...sounds good right?

Well this is how it all played out...

Seam arrived at the cabin and attempted to clean the fish he caught, then went to start the grill. I had already seasoned the Ribeye's and they had been begging for the hot fire of the grill for a couple hours...yum. Charcoal to grill, flame to charcoal...then a sudden and incredibly loud sound! It sounded to me like a gunshot from our roof, so much so that I almost hit the deck...LITERALLY. I then noticed that the trash can lid on the front deck had been removed (incidentally earlier that afternoon, I saw that it looked halfway open so I closed it, it WAS closed) and was laying on the deck....trash bag inside shredded. Of course, I know that a raccoon was most likely the culprit BUT it was the last straw for Seam. He said, "Let's go home tonight!" I replied with, "Are you serious? We paid $150 just for tonight! Plus we still have to clean the cabin and we have food ready to cook." "I don't care! I'll lose the money, I don't care! Let's go!" he defiantly responded. So we packed quickly and cleaned up as best as...well ok...as best as I could in that short period of time and headed out. Originally we had considered staying in a hotel in Texarkana, but decided to just drive the extra distance home. We arrived in Plano around 3am. I was informed..."NEVER AGAIN!"...we'll just see about that lol. I mean I understand and respect his fears (forests to be precise) but we were in a crazy place even by my standards. Ok, well whatever lol. So yeah, at least this little weekend getaway solidified our trip to Walt Disney World in November!!! WOOHOO! At least SOMETHING good came from it! lol