A visit from Gunnar

We are so glad that Leon's grandson, Gunnar, has stopped by to visit. He is returning to California after getting out of the air force in New Jersey. Fall is in the air and roasting marshmallows in the back yard seemed to be in order.

We are taking advantage of the nice days before cooler weather sets in.

Gunnar is even getting in on the shed construction and kitchen remodel. Leon and I are sure happy to have his help.

Some time is spent spiffing up his car such as getting the muffler welded back on and getting new brake pads. Notice the little gadgets inside the wheel even have a new coat of red paint.

The first really chilly day found us in the Ouachita National Forest visiting with our geocaching friends for the chili cookout and bubblegum blowing contest. Gunnar was honored for his service in the military and got to go first in line for chow!

He also found his first geocache and now knows what a cypress tree looks like. Lots of hunters were camping on Lake Nimrod as it is deer season. Geocachers wore blaze orange to keep from getting shot by the deer hunters.

 Lake Nimrod with still a little fall color showing.

When Gunnar joined the air force I believe that Leon was the taller of the two, but not any more.

Door Disaster

At last I have acted on my desire to replace the front door on my house. Good idea! Bad choice of installer! Actually the installer choice wasn't mine as I bought it at Lowe's. They send the installer. It is no wonder they insist you pay first.

 The installer left in such a hurry that only after he was gone did I begin to inspect the work.  Hmmm..I can barely shut the dead bolt.

On his return visit I suggested he drill out the hole a little more. Alas, the dead bolt shuts properly.

As I walked away from the door I noticed a little light coming in underneath. I would guess that little bugs and cold wind would also.  He had merely put about 1/2" of caulk under the door base plate. When he returned he put in a couple of shims. That helped but while he was up the hill, supposedly fixing my son's storm doors (not), I called for him to come back and add some more shims. Well it keeps the light out but still the threshold gives when I step on it. What gives with that? 

 

The top half of the storm door was left with no screws. When he returned he took care of that once I went to the utility room and found him some screws to use. He offered to come back and paint the tips to match the door! Nah! I don't know what he is doing with all the leftover screws as on both the storm doors he installed at Jeff's he only used two when there should have been four.

 

Then there is the gap between the wall and the storm door. So he squirted some more caulk underneath to stop the flow of air and disappoint the bugs.  But what is with the little shim of wood inserted between the door and facing? The door doesn't align properly and I have to pull on the handle to get it to shut! Certainly not the way Wilson's left it when they it installed it less than a year ago.

It was obvious he had no clue where to reattach the safety chain. This was his second try. I don't think I want it hanging down in front of my new door! I told him nevermind. I will fix that as he has already left four screw holes!

 

I chose a nice handle for the outside of my door and what does he do but install it backwards.  That is when it all became humorous! The blessing was that he failed to install the bottom screw so when it was turned around and this handle put on the outside of the door it did not leave a screw hole in the back of the door. 

And as for where the threshold doesn't meet the flooring he suggested I go to Lowe's and get a little piece of wood to put there.  Had he mentioned it before he installed the door perhaps we could have used a little strip of flooring that I have left over and even added some under the door. Perhaps then the threshold would be more solid and he would have saved some caulk and shims.

 Finally after I complained to several people at Lowe's, I talked to Larry and he sent Brad over. What a professional installer! He went right to work and corrected what he could both here and at Jeff's. Why could I not be fortunate enough to have him the first time!  It is two days short of a month since the first visit and still nothing has been done to correct the storm door other than to add my screws to it. Guess it is time to give Larry another call.

On the road again

We left Jonesboro fairly early in order to pick up three geocaches on our way to Helena for the King Biscuit Blues festival. Music was already ringing out over the river and we were running late!  First stop was Lake Poinsett State Park where we found the cache, copied the code and moved on. Here I finally spotted the obvious difference in the flat delta land to the east and Crowley's Ridge. It is not so steep but just a natural land division that runs for many miles through northeast Arkansas.  Cotton appeared quite ready for harvest throughout the region.

Parkin was is one of several archeological state parks with informative little museums in this part of the state. There was also a guided tour which we did not take the time to take. They offer all sorts of programs at these parks; not just displays of arrowheads and pottery. 

Fall is definitely in the air.

At Village Creek State Park we had a wonderful hike in the lush green forest. Yes, I did trip over a LARGE root that crossed my path. It was my first time this year to wear my hiking boots and I guess I just didn't get it up high enough. Village Creek is on the Trail of Tears and Old Military Road. When we left there we found ourselves between Forest City and Wynne and had lunch at Colt.  

After Parkin we finally located the newest state park. Mississippi River State Park fooled us as it is located in the St. Francis National Forest. Since it is too new to be on our old maps we just knew it would be outside the national forest but alas, they have a special use permit. We finally located the little park with a nice campground located on the shores of the lake. It appears there are a couple more campgrounds and perhaps when the visitor's center is complete we will return and learn more. Many of these state parks are on little lakes and I guess it is a good thing I left my pole at home this time! We went to all of the state parks on this map except for the three to the west of 25. That is another trip.

While we were having lunch in Colt the rain began. I did slip and slide while looking for the last cache and Leon finally climbed out of the van and located it. We decided at that point that we did not want to stand in a cold rain to see Bonnie Raitt or anyone else at the King Biscuit festival and that we would try it another year. Home again, home again..jiggety jog.

Remembering Johnny

We were out geocaching in northeast Arkansas and realized we were only twenty miles from Dyess. Since we were in the area to go to the concert at ASU that was organized to help raise money to restore Johnny Cash's boyhood home there, well - away we went! The GPS sent us across a dirt county road and we bounced along amid the fields until we finally arrived in downtown Dyess. I treed to picture what it once looked like.

The Dyess Colony Resettlement Area was established in 1934 to help impoverished farmers. 15,000 acres of uncleared bottomland in Mississippi County; a fertile, swampy, snake infested area, was purchased and families could clear twenty to forty acres of land and homestead it.  Johnny Cash and his family became one of the best known residents. This is the administration building.

Johnny Cash once worked in the Dyess theater. He had fond memories of his boyhood home as reflected in his later video of a visit there. 

Arkansas State University in Jonesboro has bought the old Cash homeplace and is in the process of restoring the house. The concert we attended at ASU was the second they have had to raise funds for the project. After seeing last year's concert on PBS I knew I wanted to go this year. 

The Cash family farmed cotton but no doubt, they could farm most anything on this land.

Not far from Dyess we finally found a shade tree and parked here to fix a sandwich. This is a typical view all over that part of Arkansas.

This year's participants in the concert were Willie Nelson, Roseanne Cash, The Civil Wars and Dierks Bentley. Needless to say we enjoyed a fine time. It poured rain throughout the evening but we went early, found a parking space ten vehicles from the front door, and decided rather than going out to eat we would just cook there.

Since it was still raining at 11:30 when the concert was over we decided we were in a fine spot for the evening and indeed it turned out to be. The 43 degrees were no problem once I clicked on the little heater. All the comforts of home. The next morning was chilly but refreshing and we were on the road again! 

Along the mighty Mississip

We left the comfort of our Jonesboro campground early to go pick up another state park cache. This one in Manilla honored Herman Davis for his service during World War I.  The Arkansas farm boy and war hero was 4th on Gen. Pershing's list of 100 heroes of WWI.

Harvest was evident throughout the northeast part of the state where agriculture reigns. 

Cotton and rice are probably the two major crops in the area. 

At Wilson we were treated to a display of artifacts that Dr. Hampson found on his 5,000 acre farm from 1927-1941. There were a lot of red and white Nodena pottery and effigy vessels. The Nodena was a subculture with specific archeological traits such as the red and white pottery. They were part of the Mississippian cultural period that extended from 700-1650.

The property was covered with old cypress trees that we couldn't resist. Oh and there was a geocache at the Hampson museum state park also! Why would I lie there with a smile on my face?

Who wouldn't when you look up into the graceful cypress trees.

Leon was enthralled with the large round bales of cotton down the road. He had never seen cotton baled in rolls.

After wandering the backroads we visited the nature center in Jonesboro near our campground at Craighead Forest City Park. There is quite a nice display provided by Arkansas Game and Fish.

Click on some of these links and pretend you were riding along with us!

Jonesboro area geocaching

Fall is finally in the air and it is time to go geocaching. There are 52 state parks with geocaches and on this trip to northeast Arkansas we will get a few. On the way to Jonesboro we stopped for our first cache at Jacksonport State Park.

I love these old county courthouses. This one was built in 1869.  We started to take the small tour inside but the folks were ready to go home.  Jacksonport was once a thriving river port in the 1800s but it declined when the railroad bypassed them. The county seat was moved to Newport in 1891.  They have a nice little campground here where we stayed once before but this time we were headed to Jonesboro.

In Jonesboro we were delighted with Craighead Forest City Park. The $10 fee was suitable and the people were really friendly. Within ten minutes the host pulled up with a load of wood for us. Now that is a first! The large park has nice jogging trails, bike trails, fishing on the lake and so much more! 

The next morning we began another state park loop. Leon stepped on a weak branch and nearly did a roll into the lake at Lake Charles State Park. The picture doesn't show what a steep incline he was on. He did find the cache but not right there! A nice hike along the Mockernut Trail was our first in quite some time!

Not far down the road we arrived at Powhatan State Park. There were several old buildings around the courthouse. John Randolph came to Arkansas from Virginia and the town Pocahontas was named such because he was a descendant. Well if we check our history we learn that Chief Powhatan was Pocahontas' father. This restored 1873 courthouse was the center of a busy port on the Black River, a major shipping and distribution point for northern Arkansas.  

The displays inside tell about the history and culture of early Lawrence county and this steamboat and ferry landing. I never really thought much about making buttons from mussel shells.

We stopped by the Black River for our peanut butter and jelly picnic before venturing to more parks on the list.

Blogging from the iPad

I love my iPad, don't get me wrong, but in some instances it just really frustrates me. I have been totally spoiled by my magic phone, as I call it, ever since I got my first iPhone. Would one not expect iPad to do all it can do and more, but sometimes that just isn't the case.

I just knew as I traveled I could keep my blog current with just this handy tablet in my lap, but that has not happened. I have just learned about and downloaded the blogpress app that just might allow me to do that in the future. Learning to use it will surely be one more step towards avoiding alltimers by keeping my brain active.

I have several blogs and had always used in-the-right-lane for our travels, but for our treks from the dead end lately I pretty much just add them here these days. Most of what we do while at the dead end of the street winds up on Facebook anyway.

Now for the key: adding photos. So I have used my little camera connection gadget and uploaded a photo of a butterfly in the back yard. I was so delighted to see my butterfly bush blooming again once the draught ended. I sit nearby in my little arbor and just drink in the aroma! Seems it makes the butterflies pretty happy too. Oh! Back to blogging. This seems to be working nicely and I am pretty excited as I sing the chorus from Hallelujah! Now that I am home back to the big Mac!




-Susan