The best laid plans of mice and men (and campers)...

Those of you who follow Hope's postings on Facebook already know that our long weekend camping trip did not come off as planned. Things started very well--we had beautiful sunny weather, got to our first night's campsite just fine, and made a nice visit to Pea Ridge National Battlefield in extreme northwestern Arkansas. The picture above is of Kenny and Beth posing next to a cannon at the visitor center, and they are picture below outside of Elkhorn Tavern, site of some of the pivotal fighting in the Battle of Pea Ridge:

Pea Ridge was an early Union victory, and one of the few successes the Union had west of the Mississippi River. Although small relative to the engagements further east, this 1862 battle basically allowed the Union to secure control over Missouri for the rest of the Civil War. Below, Beth hides behind a large oak leaf she found while we hiked along a trail at the park:

After registering and dropping off our camper at the campsite, we had driven straight up to Pea Ridge (it is about an hour past our site). Because of other plans we made in the Fayetteville area that evening, we knew we wouldn't get in before dark, so we saved our adventures at Devil's Den State Park for the next morning. Here is a picture the following morning of our pop-up (note it is extended for use--more on this later) at this campsite:

Devil's Den State Park is located in a rugged part of the Ozarks just south of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and is noted for its interesting rock formations. They also have a number of interesting hiking trails, and below is a picture of Hope and the kids by the most popular one:

Here is one of the major rock formations--a large crack in the sandstone with many dark crevices and caves:

At one point along this trail, you walk beneath a small fall of water (it doesn't show up very well in this picture--the white area on the ground next to Kenny is where the water is splashing on the ground):

Just around the corner is the pretty waterfall shown below, with a fair amount of water flowing over it because of the wet year we've had so far:

This trail also extends along a larger creek, and we strolled along its rocky banks for a while, looking at the rocks. The limestone boulders in the bed often had small but visible fossils:

A little further along, we came across the ruins of a historic homestead, now partially fallen into the creek channel:

So far, so good--the trip was going exactly as planned. After our hike, we returned to camp, finished packing the campsite, and headed towards our next campground. We did have one small glitch--we couldn't get the propane fired stove in the camper to work. We decided to swing into the RV dealer we had bought the camper at, since they were along the way, and while we ate lunch, they fixed the gas problem--a plugged gas line covered by the warranty. Apart from the short delay, we were still feeling good about our trip. We drove a couple more hours and arrived at DeGray Lake State Park near Arkadelphia, Arkansas (a little west of Little Rock). Our plan was to camp here for two nights while attending a Civil War reenactment at another nearby state park. We arrived at our site just about at sunset, and figured we'd be able to get set up and cooking dinner (hot dogs over a campfire) shortly. We leveled the trailer and then I went to jack up the top, but when I turned the crank, nothing happened. We tried and tried to figure out what was wrong, and how we could fit it, but to no avail--part of the mechanism responsible for lifting the top had stripped out, making it impossible to lift up. No popping-up, as it were. Facing darkness and no place to sleep, we decided to drive the three hours back to Monticello and stay at our own place Friday night. The kids were disappointed, and we were too, but we didn't have an option.

Saturday, given that we weren't camping, I returned to that archeological site near Little Rock that I'd been volunteering at, and I put in another full day there. Here is the rim of what appears to be a pot that I uncovered while digging a feature:

Hope worked the phone and tried to get the closest dealer of the RV we bought (an operation in Pine Bluff) to fix the pop-up problem, but we were told we'd have to go to the dealer we bought it from to get it fixed. So, Hope and the kids drove up to Russellville (about a 3 hour drive) and had the problem repaired. We were disappointed in how the camping weekend fizzled on us, but we learned some valuable things about our camper, not all of them bad (for example, the beds in the camper are a LOT more comfortable than our air mattresses). Our day in the Ozarks was a lot of fun, and we look forward to our next big camping adventure.