Weekend Walks

Saturday a.m. we left for a short camping trip in East Arkansas, not too far from Memphis. Despite our many state park trips, we've never visited Village Creek before. The acreage is huge, trail system is LONG, and we won't have time to see much of it but here we are. After arriving the small one and I get a driving tour of some of the park then we stop by the visitor's center to check in and chat. We pick up a soda for each then head to our campsite to get set up and cook some much longed for lunch. The park has quite a few caches hidden in and around so as soon as lunch settles we head right back to the VC to try the caches hidden close by. Ugh. One was labeled "night cache" and we couldn't find it in the daylight. We found the next one at the amphitheater then we walked over to the Big Ben trail for a cool one. 2 more in a recreation area across the park and we decide maybe we'd like to head into "town" to see what there is to do. We stopped at the pioneer memorial on the way out of the park to find a cache and the small one was fast asleep in the back seat. This one took us a while, it was well hidden. The small one was excited that there is a cache in a cemetary in town-I know it's strange but I like walking in cemetaries too. We never found the cache but we had interesting discussions about the people buried there and what their lives might have been like. All that walking and driving has worn us out so we head back, build a fire, play some UNO, roast some dogs and then...we watch a movie. Not something I usually encourage while camping but it's okay sometimes.
Easter morning I fueled everyone up with peanut butter chocolate banana wraps in tortillas and a few links of sausage. Good food makes my family happy. We met the new, and I mean brand new, park interpreter for a hike on the Military Road trail. 2 hours, countless steps, a swinging bridge and a bundle of frog eggs later we were ready to pack up and head out. After stopping for a quick lunch we went to Parkin. There is a museum park run by state parks and the archeology group on an ancient indian village site. Cool. We got to see many of the artifacts found at the site and walked through the museum about life during the time of the Mississippian mound builders. The story is that the first Christian service in Arkansas may have happened here at Parkin when DeSoto came through. There is a written record and a drawing of the cross raising in the village. hmmm. The newest part of the park is a restored school house that was built for the children of black lumber workers of the Northern Ohio company. The building was being used as a house and might have been destroyed if someone hadn't recognized it for what it was. An interesting combination of history here, Native Americans to Segregated Americans.
As usual it was nice to get home. I can't believe how tired I still feel when I know I spent all my time in a car or walking (not running). Time to get back to it.