Petit Jean State Park; Morrilton, Arkansas

Good morning, my friends. We've moved along to Petit Jean State Park in Morrilton, Arkansas. When I plan trips, I'm using this book to choose the best state parks in a given state. 

Originally, I had one other park selected (Mt. Magazine), but decided against it when this trip got too darned long. There's always so much to see on a road trip like this one, and never enough time. We're here for two more nights. It's supposed to start raining around lunch time, and so we're going to try to get out early to see 95-foot Cedar Creek Falls. There is a 2-mile hike to the pool below. The trail descends steeply down, and so we'll have to take a look at it before deciding if we're hale and hearty enough for something like that. Also, if it starts raining, all bets are off.

Before leaving Hot Springs yesterday, I spent some time on the Kitten block. The body and head of the kitten are finished now.

Just the tail remains. I should be able to finish this up today if there's time to work on it.

When we'd killed enough time, we headed out. Our plan was to visit a quilt shop...check!

I'll tell you about the quilt shop in a separate post. 

From there, we did our grocery shopping before heading for Morrilton...77 miles down the road. The journey started with trees lining both sides of the road. When we were farther north, the views opened up to some scenes that were more pastoral. We saw yellow wildflowers growing in little tufts.

We saw more than a few barns. Sorry for the blur on this first one.

We drove some backroads that made us wonder if we'd start hearing someone strumming Dueling Banjos.

I almost missed this one. 

We passed by many ranches...or maybe they're dairy farms. Hard to tell by looking at the cow.

Eventually Petit Jean Mountain came into view, and we traveled up and up and up...

Until we reached this very nice campground.

And this is why I love the state parks. They are always much more scenic and quiet than the private RV parks. This one happens to have full hook-ups.

Well, Smitty took one look around, and then nothing would do until we got him out for a good walk.

He likes this Bark'nPaw grass.

I didn't notice many wildflowers right by our RV, but there were a few buttercups.

So, we've had our breakfast. We'll probably get Smitty out for another walk this morning. Also, I want to bake some cookies for two to enjoy with our afternoon cup of espresso. We're going to try to see the waterfall before the rain starts up (forecast to begin around noon). Tomorrow is supposed to be a better day, and I have my eyes on an interesting hike. 

For now, Sadie is blissed out and warm in her cocoon of quilts. 

Smitty is enjoying the morning on his catio. It's a slow morning, and we're enjoying the peace and quiet of this place.

Next, I'll bake some cookies, and then spend a little time on my slow-stitching. We'll get out early to see the waterfall. You might want to bring your rain gear. In my experience, bringing rain gear is the best insurance policy against rain. Conversely, leaving it behind pretty much guarantees a drenching downpour. Choose wisely, my friends.