To Mena And Beyond

We had our last apartment inspection on Friday, September 29 in the morning in Mena which is about 70 miles south of Ft. Smith.  We had toyed with the idea of heading further south when we were done to go to the Crater of the Diamonds State Park which is about 45 minutes further south.  This is the one place in the US where diamonds can be found near the surface of the ground. People can pay to spend the day digging and looking for different minerals and diamonds in the ground.  However, that Friday turned out to be very hot--in the high 90s and we decided that digging in the sun was not what we wanted to do.  Gary had found some back roads to try so off we went for another adventure....

hard to see but a pumpkin head "child" on a swing in a tree

Signs of fall are starting to appear even down here.....

We had to circle back to get a picture of the skeleton family swinging on the swing set!  Even with the "Mom' watching from her chair.  (If it was me, I would have a book in my hands.)

The grasses are getting a rust color on their tops which looks cool especially in a field or long span along the road....hard to capture it in a photo...

I am not sure how Gary even caught this one as the yard and house are somewhat behind trees.  They have a yardful of stuff, but it is definitely put together with planning and purpose.  I don't understand it but find it intriguing.

The details make this so interesting-- Welcome--it says.

The house and part of the yard

From Mena we went south and over some dirt roads and very rocky roads--so we decided to backtrack and take a more conventional route.  Gary had found a bridge over the Small Missouri River that he was aiming out but hoping we could find some other things along the way.

Once we were back on a real road, we headed into a state park area towards the Little Mo Falls....we didn't know how far up the road the falls were, so we stopped the first place we could hear some falls.  Not the right spot, but it was a series of little falls which made a glorious falling water sound.  I even recorded it in case I needed it for something in the future.  I love that sound of running river water.

A few minutes later, we came to this sign which confirmed that we were on the right road but that we hadn't past the Little Mo Falls.

And actually the MO referred to Missouri.....

Once there, we parked and headed down the trail to the actual falls.

It was a nice walk through the forest ending with steep stairs down to the actual river and falls.

Small falls this late in the season, but people especially kids loved climbing up and around the rocks and enjoying the weather and the cold water.

Downstream.......

A swimming hole in the river.....

my selfie as I wandered closer to the water

This tiny wall had captured a leaf.....the world is really a beautiful place--rocks, water, trees, leaves--it all is a pretty mix of textures, colors, and movement.

And we can't forget the insects--this was an unusually nest for wasps, I think, which was on the back of a sign at the Little Mo Parking lot.

We headed east through towns called Albert, Langley, Lodi, skirted Glenwood to Caddo Gap, Norman, Mt. Ida (where a boring bridge was), Story, Danville, Booneville, Greenwood and home.  Look on a map and see the circle we took.

Lots of fields with the second or third harvest of the hay all baled up. 

In Caddo Gap, we accidently found this statue which honored the Caddo tribes who lived near here and fought battles to keep their lands from the every increasing numbers of settlers coming to the area.

the stone was so dark that it'
is hard to see the features of this cool statue

I had seen a sign for a "Swinging Bridge" which sounded like it was worth checking out.  It was in circling back that we found the above statue.....

and then we missed another turn and crossed a bridge and Gary could see the wires for the swinging bridge, so we turned around again and headed to a parking spot near by the river.

Trust me--there are signs of a swinging bridge in this photo

Another very short walk to the river side.....

and we found the Swinging Bridge, although it doesn't look like it has been swinging for a long time.

Disappointing but still fun--that is how these unplanned adventures go!

A small town up the road had a library drop in front of the town gas station.  I thought that was smart for these places which are far from the actual county libraries.

The bathroom of the above gas station was "all dressed up" with a western theme.  It surprised me so I decided to take a picture.  Never know what you might see on a road trip in Arkansas.  I love it!

We left at 9:00 am and got home around 7:30 pm.  It was a lot of driving but a wonderful day!!!