On The Road To Clarksville Through The Silver Bridge

You probably see a pattern here.  Every Thursday, we drive to Clarksville for Institute.  There is a clear almost completely freeway path from our house-2 miles to 540, up 14 miles to I-40 and then directly east about 60 miles to Clarksville.  It takes about an hour and 5 minutes if traffic is good.  (Bridge construction on I-540 has made that route terrible at the times we have to travel which motivated looking for alternative routes.  It is done now, but we are committed to trying every alternative route between here and there...within reason although some have been more adventurous than others. See last week on the dirt roads.)

This time, in planning a route, Gary saw a marker for the Silver Bridge. Knowing that I like bridges, he decided we would head on that road to Clarksville on Thursday.  So this time, we headed up I-540 and on to I-40, but then turned off at Mulbery and took a road on the north side of I-40 that headed most of the way to Clarksville.  The whole goal was to cross the SILVER BRIDGE!

And, unexpectedly, here it is!!!

A one lane bridge--not quite as Silver as we expected with a mix of dirt, rocks and asphalt for the road.  

It crossed a pretty creek....

I loved the stud and beam work on the bridge itself.

The bridge only had 7'9" clearance and had these yellow bars across both directions to make sure that nothing taller crossed.

and on to the dirt roads beyond the bridge...google maps doesn't tell us if the roads are paved or dirt.

Interesting things to see along the way--

the dead tree in the middle of a pasture....

Bales of hay lined up

I first saw the flag flying so wanted a picture of that, but as we got closer

it became even more interesting...a tiny white building with flags--dressed for the season.  On the right side is a black bell tower.  When you look closely at the photo, we found a small brown marker with "USA- 1940 WPA" so it was a part of the work done during the 1930s and 1940s to get people back to work.  But we still don't know yet what this little building is/was actually for.

Then ended up at the sweet Clarksville Chapel...

Another Thursday and another fun drive to Clarksville.  It is a different type of life we lead here.  We are busy at times and we keep busy at other times, but it allows us to slow down a bit and take different roads to the same place.  I love that!  Until next week, Clarksville!

Minor Foot Note

 to our Pioneer Day adventures--

On the way to the Memorial, we (along with the two sisters missionaries) were traveling down State Hwy. 64, when a small car drifted into our lane and sideswipped our car.  We had just mentioned that we were going to be about 10 minutes early to pick up the pizza in Alma when it happened so our first reaction after the surprise was to laugh and say, well we won't be early now.

The other driver immediately pulled over, Gary and he shared all the appropriate information, took pictures while we were in the car laughing at how quickly the guy gathered his information--we were speculating that he might be experienced in this type of thing. He was actually driving for Door Dash so was in a hurry to make his delivery.  Not much damage to either car.  I googled Arkansas laws while waiting about accidents and found that you had to call the police immediately if there was a death or injury and within 30 days if it was more than $1000 of damage--so no police needed to be called.  We aren't sure yet how much the repair will be.  The damage seems minimal--even hard to see on a photo--but these days it is hard to know what sensors might have been affected or what rare piece is needed for that particular repair.

This "new" car we got for our mission is really taking it for the "team."  Still not repaired from the malfunctions back in March despite a few stays in the repair shop.  Been waiting for parts for over a month this time.  And now it gets hit while heading to Institute.  The good thing is we are all fine and no air bags went off.

Pioneer Day At The Parley P. Pratt Memorial With Pizza

As someone pointed out that is a lot of Ps for one activity.  For Institute on Tuesday, we met at the Memorial and had dinner together and then a short program at the Memorial.  Although the weather was hot and humid, it was slightly less so than several days previously and a breeze and good shade made it a warm but pleasant evening.

They have a couple of picnic tables where we could gather and eat our pizza....

The fenced in Memorial GArden

James, Evan, Kevin and Christ

Jena posing by the marker

After dinner, we had a short devotional by the marker itself--

Jena led our opening hymn--The Morning Breaks    which was written by Parley P. Pratt and the words are actually included on the marker.

These are from Gary's phone which I took off our YSA Chat group.....

Evan, who is the EQ president, and who suggested this idea, presented a brief history of Parley P. Pratt and this area.  Then he sang "An Angel From On High," another beautiful hymn by Parley Pratt.  Even has a beautiful voice and it was a sweet moment as the hymn talks about the restoration of the Book of Mormon.

So we tried to get a group shot, but the sun was not in the right spot and the back side of the marker is blank which ruled that out as an option.

Front:  Sister Wassmer, Sister Cowley, Kevin, Esther, Jena, Julie Carter
Back:  Liz, James Chris, Evan-seated, President Carter, Tyler, Logan

We had sixteen people there (not shown are Gary and I and Sister Jean Davidson who is Easter's mom.)

And our night was just getting started.  After our devotional, most of us headed down to the Ft. Smith Stake Center to be a "practice" audience for the Workman Family.  Tim Workman is a member of the branch presidency of the YSA branch and also teaches music at the local university.  His family was going to perform some numbers at a barbershop convention in New Orleans so they wanted to practice before an audience together.

Tim Workman

Taft, their youngest son, who isn't perform yet with them
but sang a couple of songs with them at the beginning

the four kids--Tanner, Taft, Abby, and Anna

Sister Sara Workman, mom, sings with them as well

There were about 15 of us coming from the Institute activity and joined also by Gary Morris and Brooklyn plus the Workmans had posted on their Facebook page that people were invited to come.  They only expected 15 or so people and had over 30 so it was a good practice for them.  It was a fun evening being together and sharing their music.

Gary M. and Brooklyn had car problems so they ate their pizza in the kitchen before the concert...

(from Gary's camera)

Sister Cowley photo bombing....

Sister Wassmer staying out of the photo bombing....

So lucky that our lives have crossed paths with these sweet sisters, the young adults, and the people of Ft. Smith stake.

Ft, Smith Little Free Library

I had gotten a few books to read and once I was done with them, I really didn't have a place to keep them and I know I will have no room to take them back to Utah (well, a few will have to fit somewhere).  Anyway, I decided to check and see if there were any little libraries in Ft. Smith and there were 5 or so.  This one is near by the Church so I dropped off four books this week and grabbed three more to read.  They have children's books in the lower library.  Cute!
 

Baptism For Brooklyn

We were very lucky to be able to attend the baptism of Brooklyn yesterday into our Young Adult branch.  She is a loving and warm person and will be a great asset to the branch and to the Church.  Gary got to speak at the service on the Holy Ghost and did a wonderful job.  I didn't take any pictures but she and the missionaries took some important ones with each other and with Brooklyn's family.

It was the only baptism that I can remember that the water was TOO hot.  Brooklyn had said the day before at game night that she just didn't want the water to be too cold!  The sister missionaries promised it would't be too cold, but apparently they went overboard the other direction.  Gary Morris who was baptizing her stepped down the steps but as soon as he stepped into the bottom of the font, he stepped back up the steps and said it was too hot.  They added cold water and after a few minutes, proceed with the baptism.  Little moments that won't be forgotten on this important day for Brooklyn.

Looking forward to her being set apart today at Church.

Sidenotes:  Gary says he is now ahead of me giving talks-- 5-4 so I get the next one......good thing he is not in charge of that.

What Else Do We Do As A Senior Missionary Trio?

So when we are not preparing lessons, preparing food, attending meetings, playing games with the young adults, going to baptisms, supporting the young missionaries...........................

Gary:  He mainly works on adding some grave markers to Billion Graves and then adding them to familyserach.org and trying to make sure they are tied to their parents, siblings, and other family members.  He basically takes their family lines forward as much as possible to make it possible for their live descendants to find the information easily and to have accurate information.

He has also done research on membership records for the Ft. Smith ward to help with a need there. He handles the computer work for our institute classes, marking attendance, etc. 

Jena:  She makes cards and notes for birthdays and other reasons for young adults or missionaries here or away from us.  She also helps a lot with laundry and household tasks such as sweeping.

Me:  I do the typical household things which are easier in a small apartment.  I feel like I go to the store every other day in preparing food for different events plus feeding us.  I try t support Ben and his treatment team. In my free time, I read books--some silly mystery books that I like and others are non-fiction books about local history.  I recently finished one about the Trail of Tears and waiting for one to arrive about the Butterfield Trail (history of the stage coach in the area).  I am also sorting and cleaning out my digital photos with plans to write some of our family history pre-blog time.

Together, we watch movies and favorite old sit coms, enjoy road trips, and are silly.

We took time this week (mostly Gary) to do this Father's Day puzzle.

We lead a fairly simple life and while it can be a bit lonely at times for me, it is also refreshing and peaceful and brings us a lot of joy.

A New Way To Clarksville

As we had a bit of extra time on Thursday, Gary decided to take a new route to Clarksville.  Usually we have been taking the State road 22 as I have mentioned before.  And that is how we started off which worked for me since I wanted to take a nap on the way.  Then, Gary makes an unexpected turn--first into a parking lot because he had missed his desired turn on to Kalamazoo Street--then he circled back, turned north on Kalamazoo.  It was a pretty road going by pretty, big houses, farms, and fields.  Gary said he had mapped it out and would still get us to Clarksville in plenty of time.....

..that was before we hit the dirt road.  And then we started a fun adventure of seeing places we had never traveled by before.  It was a delightful trip from beginning to end, but I didn't get my nap in because it had "not to be missed" views---

hitting the dirt road--again.  It has happened even WHILE
following our car's mapping.  Gary promised it wasn't shown
when he planned the route earlier in the day.

Field corn lined one or both sides of the road much of the time.

There was another crop which looked like it was planned in fields that may have had corn last year.  We didn't figure out what crop it is...maybe peanuts???

I loved this large wooden water tower, but not sure the purpose of the red building in front

Close-up of the other crop...

It was a humid and very hot day and there were areas that even the sky looked dull and heavy.  Here is a row of the rows of baled hay.....

At one point very near the Arkansas River, the dirt road headed up on the top of a berm.  While driving their, this yellow grasshopper jumped on for a ride.  There were hundreds of bright yellow grasshoppers jumping from both sides of the road as we drove along this road--which apparently didn't have much traffic.

A view of the river from on top of the berm....

The growth in the middle of the road brushed the bottom of our car on most of this part of the trip.

Our grasshopper was still with us about 5 minutes later, but then he got brushed off by the grasses on the side of the road.  Bugs and birds of all kinds were flying around before us and behind us as we brushed the bushes and grasses.

This is a small branch of the Arkansas and this is a gate that they can open and close to control water.  This part of the road is called Pump House road for that reason.  However, I am not sure if this gate is still in use or not.

The Pump House.....

This was the highlight of the trip--especially for Gary who loved covered roadways and this one was gorgeous!  Pictures (with my phone camera) don't do it justice with the balance of the light and the dark, the greens, yellows, and blues, and the calmness of the place.

I hoped you enjoyed your trip through our little tree tunnel.

I forgot to take a picture when we arrived in Clarksville when our car was really covered in dust from our trip, but you know it is bad when you have to use the window shield wipers to see out the back.  We have dust in all of our door frames and inside the car as well.

 It was a wonderful drive.