Thursday From Sunup To Sundown

When I sat down this morning to download my pictures for the week, I was thinking that I really didn't have that many.  Well, 131 photos is not a record, but more than I expected.  The bulk of those were from Thursday of last week when we:

1.  Got up at 6:30 am to leave at 7:15 to get to Springdale by 8:15

Sunrise in Arkansas

This is while we were traveling over the Arkansas River.

2.  For ZONE CONFERENCE.  (with three other zones)

It was wonderful.  We talked about a variety of topics related to missionary work, especially the importance of teaching about Jesus in all of the lessons we do.  I can do that in teaching Institute.  The principles apply.  We also talked about "enduring"--how and why we are instructed to endure?  President Collins stated that "It (enduring) is a state of being--until we get there (back to our Heavenly Home.):  Christ is the author and finisher of our faith.

It ended by 12:30 and we took some pictures and talked to some of our "old" missionaries assigned to other zones.

Jena, Sister Moesinger, Sister Burnside, Sister Wassmer, Sister Madden
Elder Hernandez Rojas, Elder Miller, Elder Jensen, Elder Judd,
Elder Smythe, us, Elder Campbell, Elder Heiner, Elder Hunter,
Elder Boyles, and Elder Lindsay

Sister Madden, Elder Heiner, and Elder Hunter

Elder Hernandez Rojas and Elder Miller (our new district leader)

Now Thursday evenings, of course, we teach in Clarksville.  So we decided rather than driving back to Ft. Smith, waiting an hour and then head to Clarksville, we would do some sightseeing between Springdale and Clarksville.  Someone had told Gary about the Grand Canyon of Arkansas so we decided to head there and then mostly south to Clarksville.  So we grabbed some lunch in Springdale and headed east---all on paved roads this time to

3.  The Grand Canyon of Arkansas--

Views along the way

Found an historical marker although this talked about recent history of returning 120 elk to the area to repopulate this former grazeland for Elk along the Beaver River in 1980.  Slowly the population of Elk is increasing.

The grade was about 11% according to another sign.  This wasn't the worse spot.  We passed another sign that indicated crooked and steep for the next 37 miles, but the road was too --you guessed it--crooked and steep to get a picture of that sign.  At least the roads were paved today.

It amazes me how they keep the forests back along the electrical wires through the hills.  That must be a big job to keep them trimmed and mowed.

And here is the "Grand Canyon of Arkansas."  but it seems to be missing "the canyon part".  We were a bit disappointed although there were still pretty views of the valley below and they say that you can see Missouri in the far north distance which is about 40 miles from this spot.

There is a view area up the stairs on the left.

This sign says that it is the deepest canyon in the Ozarks because Mt. Judea where we are standing is 2162 feet above sea level and the Buffalo River which flows in the bottom is at 1414 feet above sea level. 

We are getting used to wearing our missionary clothes to view areas and on country roads.

We headed south on the scenic byway of Hwy. 7 and liked the view to the east of the same canyon/valley area.

I love seeing trees growing for the rocks.  Although the biblical story tells us that stony ground isn't good for the seeds--some trees can make it work by developing strong roots into the ground for nourishment and water. Probably a lesson for us somewhere in that....

Another view area to the west---the hills keep going and going (unless they are over 2000 feet then they are little mountains.)

Gary says this was the top view of our whole trip on Thursday.  We actually circled back to get pictures.

We had a bit of extra time before getting to Clarksville so we took a slightly different route and went straight down on Hwy 7 to Russellville so that we could cross two more bridges across the Arkansas River.  This is slightly east of our mission by a few miles but it was for a good cause.

The "bridge" on I-40----boring but there is the river which actually has an area called a lake as well-Lake Dardenelle!

A mural as we transitioned off I-40 to go across the river on Hwy. 64.     

And actually another boring bridge on Hwy 64, too.  I guess I am old fashion but I like my bridges to have things over them in cool designs and colors.  This one was really more like a causeway most of the way across.

View across to the bridge on I-40,,,,,

Another interesting thing we learned about was that to the west of Russellville is the Nuclear One--a nuclear power plant that produces electricity for the area.  It has been working since 1974.  Growing up in Richland, Washington, nuclear power isn't that big of deal to me, but I don't remember big puffs a smoke like this one was spitting out.

I had wondered why in Clarksville they had these blue signs along the city streets.  Now I know, although the internet reports that they have never had an accident.

So the bridges weren't exciting but the river was beautiful!

The Clarksville Chapel had a herd of deer eating their grasses when we pulled up.  We sat and watched them for awhile since we had some extra minutes.  The two little ones were the last to decide they needed to head away from the yummy grass of the yard.

Sunset on the same day leaving Clarksville.

A day in the lives of Elder and Sisters Hall!!!!