Arkansas Bound With A Trunk Full Of Diapers!

[Team Honeybunnies]

Ahhh… Spring has sprung and the grass is rising. At least in Arkansas, and that has drawn us out for our spring vacation.

One of the nicest things I saw pop up in these forums over the last year was Trudy and the Beast’s travelogue of their experiences on Route 66, and since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I’ve decided to take a stab at it as well. Hats off T&TB, it was a great idea. Geocaching isn’t about numbers or hides, etc. It’s about the places it takes you, and sharing seemed fun.

We decided to head out Friday evening, knowing those few extra hours of driving would make the difference the next day. For us Bloomington, IL is about 5 hours away and that’s where we chose to stay. No caches for Friday night :wink:.

Saturday opened with temps already in the 40s, a positive sign as we set out early. Noah slept like a rock and had a great day for the times we did get out, absorbing everything like a sponge and enjoying the warm temps as much as us. Illinois and Missouri were all waysides and gas stops, picking up just a few before hitting the Arkansas border. We stopped in Blytheville for some late lunch and dined at the Dixie Pig, recommended by Dixiedining.com, a site with a good eye for the real deal when it comes to Southern food for all you travellers.

There’s a whole digression right there. We have fallen into the habit on vacation of trying to eat local. On the coast we try the seafood, on the plains steaks, and in the South it’s barbeque, washed down with sweet tea. Mmmm… Ah loves me some pig, and Dixie Pig served it up good. It’s kind of satisfying to be sitting in a little family-run establishment, listening to the cleaver hitting the block as they’re turning smoked pork shoulder into minced heaven. Noah loved this place and smiled at everyone, flirting with the waitress as only a baby can :wink:.

Everything is greening out down here, from flowers blossoming, to the small trees budding, to even a bit of color on the slower oaks. The smell of spring is in the air, even at an Interstate wayside.

After leaving I-55 for I-40 as we made the last stretch for Little Rock we made just a couple stops, including in Brinkley, “Home of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker”, at least on the billboard. Sorry Birdin’, none were spotted. But we did see the biggest flocks of sparrows here that I’ve ever seen in my life, blackening the sky near the interchange and filling the trees. I rolled down the windows for a couple minutes just to listen. Lovely.

The sun set before reaching our hotel, and the weather promises good things for tomorrow. Hoping to check back with another installment.

[zuma]

Hey, thanks for the travel details. Glad ya decided to copy Trudy and the Beast’s great idea. Really looking forward to the next installment.

zuma

[RSplash40]

HB’s – not sure your projected path, but there is a a virtual at a neat little out of the way spot where ARK-LA-TEX borders meet up. I was there back a few years before I was caching, stood on the rock that marks it.

Had I known I would’ve looked closer at the writing on it, but I wasn’t into caching at the time.

And if you get down to Shreveport you ABSOLUTELY have to look up Superior Bar and Grill – the biggest plate of fajita’s you ain’t never seen burned up and gallon sized margarita’s(sure seemed like it anyway).

Get the mixed plate, shrimp, steak and chicken, enough to supply meals for the rest of the trip home.

Enjoy the rest of the trip!

–

[Hotdogs_Off_Trail]

Looks like Team Hunnybunnies is caching through northern Arkansas from east to west. I got notification on the Gorilla Cache, oldest cache in the state. I checked and we’ve done a couple others that they’ve hit so far. Have a safe trip, and looking forward to an update.

[Miata]

You really need to use “depends” to keep my job safer you know….

[Gusty Winds]

@RSplash40 wrote:

HB’s – not sure your projected path, but there is a a virtual at a neat little out of the way spot where ARK-LA-TEX borders meet up. I was there back a few years before I was caching, stood on the rock that marks it.
–

My desk top at work is a photo of that marker and there is a photo hanging on my cubicle wall of the beast standing on that marker … like minds. 🙂

[Ray]

@Gusty Winds wrote:

@RSplash40 wrote:

HB’s – not sure your projected path, but there is a a virtual at a neat little out of the way spot where ARK-LA-TEX borders meet up. I was there back a few years before I was caching, stood on the rock that marks it.
–

My desk top at work is a photo of that marker and there is a photo hanging on my cubicle wall of the beast standing on that marker … like minds. 🙂

Here is our post from ’06: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=830d1795-dfcf-4282-9085-f39d7bd2e9de

This Cache, GC7EF5 is a little out of your way THB. The Virtual at OK-AR-MO looks a little nicer.

[Ray]

If you are coming home via St. Louis, We would heartily recommend Phil’s Bar B Que in Eureka, MO. The building is nothing fancy, but the food and service are great. Waitresses are properly sassy and Phil may pay your table a visit, slap you on the back and welcome you to his establishment.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Seth, You’re killing me with the Brinkley reference there! I was actually chosen to be on one of the Ivory Bill search teams for Cornell down there, but had to give up my place due to family stuff.

It’s one of those Big Regrets of life. If you see one…..get a good photo, okay? 🙄

Glad you guys are enjoying the greener grass of Arkansas. Gives us something to look forward to!

[cuoverthetop]

I have a cache in Arkansas in alittle town called Mount Ida, Quarts Crystal capital of the world. about 2 hours south of Little Rock. GC1MXDA

[Team Honeybunnies]

Hello again everyone. Well, I am regretful that I couldn’t keep up with the blog while on the road. Having to log finds in the evening took up what little energy I had left after dawn-to-past-dusk days 😳 . I’m going to post daily details in the spirit of the thing and hope it inspires others to share their journeys. Look forward to a string of posts recounting the days.

[Team Honeybunnies]

Well, it’s no secret now that our Arkansas sojourn involved the DeLorme Challenge there, so a bit of detail about that. Sunday the 22nd was our most difficult day of the trip, logging the entire top row plus a couple others for a total of nine pages. We didn’t get back to the hotel until nearly midnight, and this was the only day of the trip that we resorted to fast food for sustenance. For all the rushing though, there were highlights.

We found a cache on the Cache River, somehow a must-do, no? This was in the northeast part of the state and in what I would call Delta country, though I don’t know the real boundaries of the region. Flat, flat, flat, but still pretty, more signs of greening everywhere. If the Ivory-billed woodpecker still exists, the Cache River is as good a place as any, just the views from the road being incredibly dense and overgrown.

We also did part of a power trail in the middle of kind of nowhere, doing 17 caches in about 45 minutes. A pretty little area, but not very satisfying in the end. The caches were all placed by caching members of a family to highlight their home town.

Gorilla Stash GC1B, is the oldest cache in Arkansas, and surprisingly an urban P’n’G. Noah chose to snooze at this time, so missed meeting Buttercup 😉 . Still a nice cache, in a very scenic town, Mountain Home. Hotdogs_off_trail can attest to that.

We hoped to make Eureka Springs based on recommendations from Zuma, but only made Berryville before finishing after sunset. This would be the only day where we truly bit off more than we could chew.

[Team Honeybunnies]

Monday the 23rd we cleaned up the last of the pages north of I-40 in the morning, then headed for Mt. Magazine, the highest point in Arkansas for the afternoon. The apple, plum and cherry blossoms really added wisps of color as we drove along the south bank of the Arkansas River on the way there.

Even for another easy grab, one of the most memorable caches was GCZKV1 – Hippy Hill. A VW bus in psychedelic colors, and an ammo can where the engine once was. Groovy, baby. Groovy.

Another very nice one was GCR8FQ – Brides Vale Falls, not my spelling. This was a great little 40′ fall fed by a little creek, and the bed was shallow and flat enough that you could walk right along the lip, which made for some cool pictures. Kind of a neat hide too, you actually had to stand in the stream bed to find and retrieve it.

GC11X3P was a very old graveyard, and the first place we saw multiple Confederate veterans, from Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi, all cavalry. The whole cemetery was tall grass, and many of the graves were covered with big slabs of river stone, kind of crypt-like. We spotted a REALLY big snake slipping into one of these, but I wasn’t fast enough to get a good look, and while I have an admittedly foolish relationship with snakes, I don’t go poking either.

Dinner was at Cracker Barrel, not my first choice, but right next to the hotel. They do have boiled turnip greens though. Yum.

We had chosen to get a centrally located hotel outside of Little Rock and radiate out in spokes every day to see the state and get those all important pages. This worked well for this trip, as we still had some concerns about it being too cold for Noah (unfounded), and it meant not having to tear down the pack n’ play every morning. If all goes well we’ll be able to return to our tent camping ways this fall’s trip. Maybe Noah can make the campout.

[Team Honeybunnies]

Tuesday the 24th was an all-Delta day, beginning with a drive over to Helena, then down the river to Lake Chicot State Park.

First destination was Louisiana Purchase State Historic Park, site of the initial survey point for the entire Purchase. It’s in a headwater swamp, what I would call bayou, and has a boardwalk out the entire way to a stone marker commemorating the spot. The weather was forecast to be awful later, and we had incredible wind here, the trees clattering together on the walk. A couple snakes put in an appearance, swimming along, but they were camera-shy. We hoped to see an American Alligator, making a comeback in the area, but never had any luck.

Next was Helena, known for its Victorian homes,which it indeed had, but it also had some neighborhoods as threatening as any I’ve adventured through. Not where I wanted Noah, and we didn’t linger. We didn’t need to visit Helena for the page, and the big attraction for me was that General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, CSA is buried there on a beautiful hilltop among his comrades. Cleburne was an Irish immigrant and pharmacist. When his adoptive state seceded he felt it was his obligation to enlist. He would earn the nickname “Stonewall of the West”, and is also remembered for his idea to arm the slaves in exchange for their freedom, still rejected at that stage of the war.

We continued south from here, stopping at Arkansas Post, first settled by the French in 1686, the oldest European settlement in the Mississippi valley, and the scene of Revolutionary and Civil War battles. Another beautiful place in what is now a backwater, and despite the choppy waters a couple egrets put in appearances.

Further south yet the winds got really epic, ahead of the storm finally arriving. The weather people were calling it a “significant weather event”. I’m not sure if that means “Holy crap! Batten the hatches!” or if it’s just another opportunity for ad revenue at the Weather Channel. Regardless it never got too spooky, despite driving home in driving rain.

[Team Honeybunnies]

The 25th was a day of pretty unremarkable caches in the densely-pined south-central portion of the state. We had run into some vehicular trouble and had to have brake work done before getting a now-late start for the day. The heaviest rains of the trip hit us at the last several caches and into the evening, but thunderstorms are better than snowstorms in my mind.

We also dipped down into Louisiana to pick up our first LA caches.

Dinner was back to barbeque, as it should be 😉 . Fat Boy’s in Arkadelphia was the destination, and no frills, just good smoked pig. I had the bones, the missus had the brisket, and Noah had pureed chicken,rice and vegetables.

[Author]

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