Lake Greeson AR 2010

We made our first long camping trip of the year finally — returning to Lake Greeson [southwest of Little Rock AR] to meet up with some camping friends, either owners of or previous owners of “egg” [molded fiberglass] travel trailers.

We got started late Monday, April 26, so stopped for a late supper at Cassville, MO. Coming into town, the sunset was colorful under some ominous clouds. Although the day was mostly gray and gloomy, at least it didn’t rain like it had for the past five or so at home. Being rejuvenated from the meal, we decided to continue on in the dark — headed for Eureka Springs, AR.
We drove through Eureka Springs, AR years ago and wanted to see more of the town. It was just as interesting looking after dark as during the daytime. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anywhere in the dark to park for the night so continued to the next town (Berryville, AR) to park at Wal-Mart for the night.

We returned to Eureka Springs the next morning (before much was open) & got a good look around.  We have plans to return for a couple of nights (with reservations) to check out all the shops and attractions.

Tuesday we headed southeast this time to return to the Arkansas Little Grand Canyon along Highway 7. We drove this route last year returning home but didn’t take much time to investigate. This time we stopped south of Jasper AR at the Cliff House Restaurant overlooking one of the longest valleys in the area. The desserts and coffee were reasonably priced and tasted great.

Thankfully, we now have a GPS receiver hooked to my computer to tell where we are and how we want to get somewhere specifically. Initially, we were going to Hot Springs before Lake Greeson to snoop around, but decided to make that a day trip later in the week when the predicted rain comes. So, we used the GPS to go shunpiking [that’s staying OFF turnpikes and interstates] through the Arkansas mountains and arrived at Lake Greeson Tuesday evening around 4 pm.

With baited hook in the water, Jeff watched the moon rising while waiting for his first nibble. We camped at Kirby Landing, Weston Point, near five other “eggs” and a couple of previous egg owners who’ve had to get larger RVs. Had a FANTASTIC catfish fry and loads of good visiting.

I even got to take a pontoon boat ride to see part of the lake. The most prominent feature along the shore near the dam is Chimney Rock.

Jeff managed to get out in his canoe a few times, but didn’t catch anything.

However, the “jug” fishing produced over 300 pounds of catfish in a week.  Here’s one morning’s catch with the biggest of these three cats at over 18 pounds.

By Thursday night, the wind was howling & storms were rolling in. Friday was a perfect time to visit Hot Springs.  Although it stayed cloudy most all day, the humidity was very uncomfortable.  Nevertheless, we visited the University of Arkansas’ Garven Woodland Gardens, south of Hot Springs on Lake Hamilton. Fantastic place! Click on this photo to see my entire album of the waterfalls and flowers.

We left Lake Greeson Saturday, May 1, and headed for Ohio on a family matter. Unfortunately, that was the weekend Nashville got flooded with something like 15” of rain. We had two long delays due to water across I-40 between Memphis & Nashville, but the worst was the 3 hrs it took us to go 8 miles to the exit where everyone was forced off the interstate.

We returned home Monday without any more issues except to unpack the camper and rest up from our adventures.  We’ll be ready to go somewhere again soon.