Re: Day trip/Mini vacations -UPDATED w/ RECOLLECTIONS
OK, Time for the update again. Got a wild hair up my a** and we loaded up the expi with 3 sets of clothes each, a small cooler, a credit card, and $61 in cash. No real destination except for the first. Figured we would look through brocures and find the next stop. We took as many backroads and out of the ways as possible. Went for the trip instead of the destination. First stop was in Shreveport/Bossier City. Got there late at night so just drove around and let the kiddos see the casinos. Got a bite to eat and went to bed. Next morning went to Lake Bisteano (sp?) state park for a few hours. Really nice place, swampish with spanish moss on the cypress trees and all. Time to load up. East to Ruston, La to see an old plantation house converted to museum. Closed when we got there and should have been open by there time. They are open 10-4 and it was 12....... North to Little Rock Ark. Capitol was closed when we got there too, about 5:15 and it closed at 5. Didn't matter, got to walk the grounds and tour the downtown district, very different and neat. West to Hot Springs Ark. Get a bite and go to bed. In the morning we go to the National park. Drank some of the hot water and let the kids splash it around. Toured the bathhouses. Went up the mountain as NONE of us had ever seen one before. That was very cool. Was gonna ride the Duck tour (amphi truck/boat) but we were the only ones signed up two tours in a row and they wouldn't take just the four of us. Oh well. West and South to Crater of Diamonds state park. Stopped at Caddo river on the way for a little while to see the small rapids and flowing water, made us Texans jealous. On to C.O.D. We never found anything of value but my oldest did find a few slivers. Not really too cool for adults but the kids like it. Beutiful scenery though this entire area. North and east towards Oklahoma. Pulled into Broken Bow at about 6pm. Didn't really look for much there as we were on our way home, just took a quick run through as we werevready to get home. Came through more back roads and got home at 11:50 last night. This is definetely the way to go. We all had a great time. Got to see alot of country on very little money. Total overall (food,gas, lodging, entrance fees, etc) amounts to about $325. The wife said we were thrifty, I say cheap bas*****
I also learned how much I like Texas. The everything in Texas is bigger thing is true. Our roads are twice as big. We have signs to tell you where you are going. We can actually drive 70 on our roads where as the average speed limit was about 50 in La, Ark, and OK, and this is on the bigger roads, not farm to market or county/parish roads. Total cops I seen in La,Ark, and OK was 7, and 3 of them were in state parks. I said we traveled back roads but did spend a lot of time on I20, I430, I630, and several others I can't recall. Very few cops at all. I would highly reccomend this type of trip. No offense to anyone fromthese states but I love being back home, ain't no place like it.
