Saying Goodbye to Marcia & Joe

We had a really nice week visiting with Marcia and Joe and showing them as much of our area as we could with weather not being the best. They arrived Monday morning during a break in the rain we'd been having for several days.

Roger had been sure there was room for another big rig on our pad, but I wasn't convinced, so we met them at the corner store where they could leave their motorhome and come look at the space available. Joe said "no problem" so they proved it could be done--and with room to spare!

The clouds rolled in after we had lunch the first day and it didn't look good for doing much, so we went to the casino for awhile then found a Mexican restaurant that we'd never been to before because we have our one favorite for Tex-Mex and it's closed on Monday. Turned out to be a good choice, though, and no one left hungry.

Tuesday still wasn't a beautiful day, but we packed a picnic and headed out to show them some of the beautiful scenery within 50 miles of Fort Smith. First stop was Natural Dam, then to Devil's Den State Park. Between the two we had to cross a low-water bridge covered with water and saw a herd of about 5 deer. We had our picnic lunch under a pavilion at Devil's Den because it had started to sprinkle again by that time. We then proceeded to Lake Fort Smith State Park--this was for my benefit as well as Marcia and Joe's because it's brand new and I hadn't seen it yet--wanted to see where some of our Arkansas Tax dollars are going.

We ended the trip with a shopping stop at A to Z which is a HUGE "junk complex" about 20 miles from Fort Smith. Actually, it's a neat place with one big building of housewares, artificial flowers (my reason for going just before Memorial Day), and all kinds of "stuff". Another building houses all kinds of tools, a third is for clothing, one for sporting goods and still another for furniture--I guess it's a bit like a flea market except everything's new and it's only one owner.

I discovered when I got ready to post to the blog that the camera had been changed to such a high resolution that it would take FOREVER to load the blog if I posted all the pics that needed to go with our day trip as they are. So in order to get the blog updated today, I just placed a new folder on my "Links to More Photos" section of the blog--it's named "RV Site and Area Scenery".

Wednesday was a bit of a "down day" with only a trip to Hobby Lobby, Harbor Freight and lunch at Eunice's, one of our local eateries that serves down-home cooking and that most out-of-towners would never find. Relaxed awhile in the afternoon and then met our daughter Lisa, son-in-law Tom and granddaughter Amber at a new Bar-B-Q place we have nearby. After we ate we all enjoyed sitting around the campfire for awhile--even with the water-soaked wood, the guys managed to get a nice fire going!

This morning we sadly had to say good-bye to our friends--but they were on their way to meet some other buddies at Keystone Lake near Tulsa and today looked like the best "weather window" for traveling. We hated to see them leave so soon, but understood their need to go. We only hope they enjoyed their visit as much as we enjoyed having them!