May 11, 2024 - May 26, 2024 -- Lake Ouachita State Park to Blowing Springs Campground in Bella Vista, AR
Written By: Wendy
We swapped out one gorgeous tree lined campground along a lake for another at Lake Ouachita, AR. Lake Ouachita State Park provided us with one of the largest campsites we’ve had so far. We could have fit 2 of our trailers in our spot plus plenty of room for our clam tent, which we often don’t have room for at some of the tighter campgrounds. Even better, our campsite was within walking distance of the lake, boat docks, playground, two trailheads, and the visitor center that had various activities. We were there for Mother’s Day, and we spent the morning out on the lake on a boat tour lead by one of the rangers. It was a boat full of older couples, probably hoping to enjoy a quiet and relaxing morning on the lake. Scott and I had been reading a book about the importance of exposing kids to different environments that kids are not always common in, so we decided a quiet morning boat ride would perfect for this. Sounds like a good idea, right? Right?? Luckily, the kids did great! Parker soaked up all the information about quartz in the area and made plans to go on a treasure hunt when we disembarked from the boat. Caroline liked looking for all the birds and feeling the wind blow against her face. The afternoon was spent hiking along the lake, and then I read in the hammock while Scott and the kids cooked dinner. It was a lovely Mother’s Day.
The rest of our time at Lake Ouachita State Park was slow and relaxing. Scott spent a lot of the time working on trailer projects and getting stuff done for 50 Pies while the kids and I explored the trails and went to the ranger animal programs offered at the visitor center. One day we ventured into Hot Springs to go to Hot Springs National Park. We had low expectations for this park, as we’d heard from several people that it was their least favorite national park. As usual, though, we were pleasantly surprised. (Side note, Scott and I reflected that this often happens to us, and we are more often than not surprised to find what a nice place somewhere is that others had said wasn’t all that great. I guess we're just easily pleased!) Anyway, it was true that Hot Springs is not the best park for young kids since they couldn’t go into any of the bathhouses but there was an interesting museum about the history of the bathhouses, miles of hiking trails, and a brewery inside the national park. We enjoyed our day, and topped it off with a stop at a nearby playground in order for me to have a work meeting in an area that was clear from trees so that our Starlink would work. One the main problems with beautiful tree covered campgrounds in the woods is that our Starlink will not work, so we have to get creative with work meetings.
Our next stop was Bentonville, AR. We had heard from several other travel families that Bentonville was there favorite place in all of the USA. All I could think was, “Arkansas, really??” I knew it was mountain biker Mecca and where Walmart started, but still it was in Arkansas, how good could it be? Not offense Arkansas, but Scott grew up in Colorado, his parents now live in Summit County, my parents live in Durango, and we are from Washington State. We are consistently in amazing places where the views are awe inspiring and people flock to. Nonetheless, we knew we had to check it out, and we were excited and curious to see what the hubbub was about. Well, all I have to say is that everyone was right, and we were not disappointed. We had high expectations, and we were still blown out of the water. Bentonville was amazing and our favorite place, at least so far.
Bentonville was made even more amazing by the fact that we met up with our travel buddies, the Herd family, for a week while we were there. They pulled into their campsite right next to ours shortly after we arrived, and they were once again met with whoops and hollers of joy from all four of us. We had had a lovely, quiet, and relaxing last two weeks, but we were ready for some socialization! We hit the ground running, and had a pizza party right out of the gates to celebrate Ooni Day. We didn't know anyone else at this campground, and there were no group messaging systems like at some of the KOAs and Thousand Trials campgrounds we've been at to get the word out. We had to make pizzas and pies, though, so we put out a sign that we'd have free pizza and pie that afternoon. When 4:00 rolled around, no one showed up. Hmmmm, what to do with all this pizza and pie? Luckily, Parker and I have no problem with strangers. I gave him and his little friends a stack of our business cards, and we walked around the small campground, inviting anyone who happened to be sitting outside. We just so happened to come across two separate groups of people who were about to go get pizza for dinner, but we convinced them that eating our free pizza was better. Before we knew it, we had a small gathering and a couple other stranglers wandered in and out to grab a slice or two. We were able to sit and chat and learn each other's stories. We swapped mountain biking stories and travel itineraries. No one else there traveled full time, and they all thought we were crazy to do be doing it with our young kids, but all shared a love of the outdoors and campgrounds. Before we knew it, we cranked out 20 pizzas and pies. Another successful party!
The next day, we were all itching to get on our bikes, so we decided to bike to an Airship Coffee in Coler Mountain Bike Preserve. Bentonville and the surrounding area has miles and miles of dreamy wide paved bike paths, so it was a no brainer for us to bike the 8 miles there instead of drive. There are even frequent options to hop on a single track trail for a while that runs parallel to the paved path. This was perfect for our group since Scott and I prefer the single track on our mountain bikes, while our friends prefer the paved paths on their e-bikes. We enjoyed a lazy late morning at the coffee shop while letting the kids wander around the area. The coffee shop was in the middle of the bike preserve on the bike path, so the only way to get to there was by bike or foot, not car, so we were able to let the kids roam free without any danger of cars. On the way back, Scott and I decided we wanted to try out some of the single track within the Coler Mountain preserve, turning our roundtrip bike ride into a 25 mile day. We were beat when we got back, but in the best possible way. We finished out the day with a relaxing dinner just down the creek from our campground at the Gear Garden. We listened to live jazz music and watched the kids splash in the creek and chase after borrowed boats while we sipped on our locally brewed beers and munched on an assortment of food truck goodies. The temperature was perfect in the shade of the trees with cool air coming up from the creek, the vibes were calm and relaxing, and the view of the jazz band up against the rock cliff stage was stunning in the waning sun. I took a deep breath to soak in the moment and feeling and knew that this will go down as one of our overall favorite travel days. It was pure bliss.
The rest of our time in Bentonville was spent in about the same way. We biked as much as we possibly could, especially since everything was so bikeable. The trails always seemed to have a constant stream of people on them, but no one was cranky or rude. Everyone was so kind, genuine, and happy. We decided that everyone must be so happy because they are all so active and get so much exercise. It is seriously easier to bike around Bentonville than to drive a car. "And endorphins make you happy, and happy people just don't shoot their husbands." (Who can name that quote?!)
One morning Scott and I were able to sneak away for a date while the Herds watched our kids. We were able to mountain bike exclusively on a bike path, either paved or single track, from our campsite to the door of a different Airship Coffee shop. I had a lavender earl gray latte and cardamom bun. It was perfection. Another highlight was going to the Crystal Bridges museum. It is a free art museum that was created by the founder of Walmart's wife as her gift to the community. The kids took in the artwork, for about only as long as 4 small children can, but then we headed to the kids room that was filled with toys and kid appropriate art activities. We were able to see a Frank Lloyd Wright house that had been moved onto the property, and we explored the many outdoor trails that were filled with various sculptures. And it was all free!
After the Herd family left, we still had a few days left in Bentonville by ourselves, and it was Bike Fest weekend. We spent the morning doing a family mountain bike ride and then biked in to Bike Fest. Once there, we wandered around throughout the different vendors' booths and gawked at the bike races and bike stunts that were taking place in the different areas. It was a hot day, and by the end of it we were all tired, but we still had to bike back. Scott and I were skeptical that Parker would make it on his bike (Caroline was on the shotgun seat on Scott's bike, so no effort required for her). We discussed options of Scott going to get a car, but we decided to just go for it and see what happened. Parker was inspired by all the bikers he saw that day because he biked back without any complaints, even after he crashed into the curb and fell off his bike. He took a break for a minute, but got right back on and finished out the bike ride in high spirits.
We went to bed on our last night in Bentonville worn out from the big Bike Fest day and a little sad that we'd be leaving but with contentment in our hearts from all the fun we'd had. Unfortunately that contentment did last long, as we were woken up in the dead of the night to torrential rain, high speed wind gusts, and a tornado warning blaring on our phones telling us to get to shelter immediately. In a panic, we grabbed our sleeping kids from bed, threw on raincoats, and sprinted in the pouring rain to the laundry room. It was pitch black outside except for the frequent bolts of lightning that spread out across the sky and lit our path as we raced to shelter. I was completely drenched and could hardly catch my breath as we reached the laundry room. I yanked open the door and stumbled into a quiet and crowded room full of other scared people, still half asleep in their pajamas. The only noise came from a TV that was turned to the weather channel. We sat in that room with our campground neighbors for 45 minutes at 2:00am until the warning had passed. The storm seemed to be calming down outside, and we breathed a sigh of relief and stumbled back to bed as the light rain drizzled down on us. We would come to find out the next morning that the tornado hit just 14 miles south of us. It destroyed multiple buildings in the town of Rogers, tore through an RV park, flipping RVs along the way, and killed 8 people. We were so lucky that we just narrowly missed the eye of the storm.
The next morning, we pulled our groggy selves out of bed and packed up camp. We were heading north to spend a week at the Herd's hometown of Columbia, MO. We left later than we wanted, but it was still only supposed to be a 4 hour drive, so we'd be fine on time and making it well before sunset, or so we thought. What we didn't know was that this would turn out to be our worst travel day. The midwest storms were not done with us yet. But all that happened in Missouri, so you'll just have to read our next post to find out what happened.