Day 3

A nice sunrise over the lake greeted us and was a portend of sunshine for the rest of the day. We had stayed cozy all night despite temps in the low 30s. As the sun climbed so did the temperature. After a quick breakfast, we took the shortest of the three hikes that left from the same trailhead at the end of the campground. This one was called the Fall Branch Trail and was about 2 miles. It was rugged enough to make us glad we had on our hiking boots, but not as bad as the other two trials warned. It was a really lovely path beside a babbling brook that tumbled down the hill we were climbing. After we crested the hill we met up with another stream that was a little bigger and grew as it fell. We came to the waterfall about ¾ of the way along the path. It was about 20 feet high and 10 feet today, but looked in photos like it could be bigger at other times of the year. The stream and our path came out at Lake Catherine, which is a lake formed by a dam. The only point against the setting is a large plant of some sort on the shore across from the campground. Everything else is beautiful.

Having spent the morning in a natural setting, we spent the afternoon doing cultural activities. The GPS took us right to the Heifer International Headquarters in Little Rock. We explored the exhibits about the organization in the Global Village, had lunch in their “local” café, and then had a guided tour of their new LEED Platinum certified administrative building. It is very inspiring and bright with every desk benefiting from natural light in some way. From there we went to the William Clinton Presidential Library, which is right next door. We spent a couple of hours going through the extensive exhibits and replicas of the Clinton Oval Office and Cabinet Room. Next our GPS took us to Central High School, where the Little Rock 7 took their stand to end segregation. We just drove by and took a picture as it looked to be a very busy place. Then we drove by the Arkansas State Capitol, which is designed very much like the US Capitol; so much so that it is often used as a “stand in” for the one in DC. We were nearly out of time so, rather than touring it, we drove on to the Old State House, which an online guide had told us was more worthwhile. It was nice to see the renovated building which was used as the capitol between 1835 and 1911. Since then it has housed a medical school, WPA and other general office space, and other things before undergoing a complete renovation to be used as a museum. We were kicked out of there at 5:00 and headed back to the campground. Marv made spaghetti for dinner while I took a shower and washed my hair. The temperature, which had briefly reached 60°, had only fallen to 51° at 9:00. But we know that this warm weather is ushering in bitter cold temps and an ice storm tomorrow night, so we plan on breaking camp tomorrow and driving to Louisiana to avoid the worst of it and stay in a motel.