Couples Getaway!

Neal is awesome and secretly arranged for Kira to come spend some time with her niece and nephew while he took me away for a long weekend for two. He told us a few weeks before the date and we found out that Kira broke her ankle when she slipped on ice soon after. She worked hard to heal and Neal set up reinforcements asking Opa and Oma to assist as needed for our get away. It all worked out and everyone helped to make it a reality. So grateful to the loving family and friends that did more than their share to help out with transportation and caring for our kids.

We took off to Watson, OK. Where did you say? Yes, the middle of nowhere, beautiful Watson, OK. We stopped at Beavers Bend State Park to check things out and got a picture by Broken Bow Lake. Then, because he loves me a whole lot, we stopped at a nearby cemetery to photograph gravestones for Billiongraves.org before continuing on.

The cabin was gorgeous and remote and had thankfully no TV, a double shower, and bath with great view. We settled in and took in a couple of short trails on the property. Gorgeous wildflowers all the way during the drive and on the hike. Made a quick dinner because we knew there was nothing in town and enjoyed our evening. Sat on the back porch, played games, napped, read and chilled all weekend except when we were hiking.

Amazing fungi!

Friday we put dinner in the crockpot and took off to the Ouachita Mountains in nearby Arkansas.  We took in Lover's Leap trail in Queen Wilhelmina State Park for this amazing fogged in view! 

As a side trail we took in a bit of the Ouachita trail which was gorgeous and green but we learned a bit too technical given our abilities and footwear so we headed back.

Things cleared up as we tried Earthquake Ridge trail and we really enjoyed this hike. It was gorgeous and had some rolling up and down with a good variety of flora to enjoy.

We took in about 4 miles total this day, with a quick stop at a small cemetery in Mena. We also stopped at a park there to take in some local history and learned from a memorial there, of T. Texas Tyler, a old singer, that was known for a song called Deck of Cards. Neal said he was familiar with it, that his mom, Susan had played it. So we sat down on the bench near a fountain and listened to it on his phone. Love the style of some of those old songs.

The next day we got going pretty early for a long day hike we felt challenged to do. It was a great hike, again. It was challenging at 9.7 miles, the first 2.5 being uphill to the crest of a mountain, then lots of downhill and then lots of creek crossing. We never stopped for more than 10 minutes to rest, eat, or put our shoes back on, and it took us 6 hours and 45 minutes. We hiked up the gravel road to the Buckeye trailhead up the mountain and eventually made our way down to the Caney Creek Trail to make our way back to the car.

Nice hike because it had a nice climb with views here and there, lots of flowers, varied trail- from rocky to smooth to roots, and it had a little waterfall, lots of shade the whole time. Hurt our feet crossing the creek and was a pain to take off our shoes 4 or 5 times. Ran out of water with about an hour left but it wasn't overly hot. Ran out of food too but we had enough energy to make it to the car. Saw one little snake we found out was a red bellied snake later (7 inches), clusters of butterflies, and the occasional lizard.Only saw one other 2-person party on the trail all day. Loved it but it was looong. At the very end, we weren't sure if we took the right path and said a little prayer feeling that we were probably okay and were really glad to see the minivan quite awhile later. We just trudged through the creek where the car was parked. We were done hiking for the trip and had sandals in the car.

We were happy to eat at a mediocre restaurant for dinner and because I love Neal we did not stop to document any gravestones on the way back to our cabin.

The last morning there, we checked out the river that went through the property and packed up. Hit one cemetery when we got into Texas and were happy to see our kids and here about the fun they had with Aunt Kira and Oma and Opa.

We got to spend another day with Kira hitting some shops and playing some games, as the kids returned to school, before we had to say goodbye to her.

Neal said this get away was my mother's day, birthday, and our anniversary wrapped into one and I think he did a great job! Loved being with my man and doing fun things together in a beautiful place.