Our day today (get ready... it's long)

We had a full day today. Let me start by saying that Keith has been having an awful time at work and has wanted nothing more than to get away from the house and people all together. We were supposed to go camping this weekend, but I really didn't want to, so Keith woke us all up before the sun and piled us in the car. None of us knew where we were going, so we just started driving. We decided to have a mini brown sign trip (for those of you who don't know, when I retire, I want to drive the country for no purpose other than to stop at every historical marker, state or federal park that we pass- brown signs). We decided to drive south and ran across a sign for Jenkins ferry state park. It was more of a historical marker for a civil war battle site. We stopped and played for a bit, then hopped back in the car.



Then we ran across a sign for White Oak Lake State Park, so we decide to go and see what it was all about. They had some trails, so we took one of them. I don't think very many people visit this park, because the trails and trash cans were consumed by spider webs. On the way, Derek got a huge feather (probably vulture) and pretended it was his pirate sword through the whole hike. We also got another badge for Keith's walking stick.




After we left, we ran across 2 beautiful lakes. One was full of Cypress tress and cranes. The other was infested with water lillies as far as you could see. I never knew that lillies were so big! Some of them were as round as tires and the lilly carpet spread out forever. I was hoping to see an alligator, but no luck.





The next place we hit was Poison Spring State Park. It was another civil war memorial. We found out that the road we had been traveling was the original road the soldiers took. I thought that was pretty cool. There was also a picnic table that just about got folded in half from a tree. Derek thought it was fun to pretend that he broke the table with his muscles.



On our way home, we ran across Reader railroad.It is one of the few places that has steam locomotives that still work. Of course we had to stop so Derek could see the trains. We got a tour from one of the trainworkers that looked just like Willie Nelson. He informed us that these trains were very famous. They have starred in North and South, There Will be Blood, 3:10 to Yuma and Appaloosa which will be out in August. Derek's favorite part was ringing the bell and the train jail. He got to stand in the jail that Russel Crowe got locked up in. (I love the new 3:10 to Yuma so this became a big deal to me too). Afterwards, he was covered in so much soot that I had to get a picture.





Finally we stopped at Lake Degray State Park because I'd never been there and it was on the way home. We didn't do much because the kids were pooped. When I woke up this morning, I was not expecting to have as much fun as I did. I think we'll do brown sign trips more often. No expectations, just alot of fun!