Did You Know There's A New McDonalds in Hope, AR??

Monday, September 21, 2009 - Petit Jean State Park

Well, today started with the sound of a helicopter....then another.....then another......then another.....I think we're over the flight path of the helicopterport or something.....but we seriously had helicopters going over every 5 minutes for an hour or two.  No idea why.....

Then we headed out on the bike to what was suppose to be "The Grand Canyon of the Ozarks" according to MotorcycleRoadsUS.com.  THEY LIED.  Not that Hwy 7 wasn't beautiful; it was......but I guess we're just comparing "The Grand Canyon of the Ozarks" to....well......The Grand Canyon and that it wasn't.  But we did ride to Hot Springs, had ice cream, and then headed back a different route.

While in Hot Springs, we were enjoying our double dip waffle cone ice cream when we noticed out the window that there were people checking out our trike.  Now, we get this all the time.  We hardly ever go out when people don't come up and ask us about the trike....but this time, we noticed they were taking pictures of each other in front of the trike.....then as a couple in front of the trike.....then thumbs up in front of the trike.....we just sat there and enjoyed the show.  They finally moved on and we finished our ice creams and headed out to the trike.  Along comes another couple.......now, I'm going to try and be sensitive here when I say they were a little "simple" (see attached picture).  They were super nice; asked if I had been in Hope, Arkansas lately (why Hope, Arkansas.....I don't know) for which I said we had driven through there yesterday on our way to Petit Marie State Park.  The guy just said, and I'm not making this up, "Shucks, I guess you know about the new McDonalds then."  Well, I told him I didn't know about the new McDonalds but was that where they were from?  He said, "Nah, I'm from San Diego."  Turns out, she was from Memphis and he now resides in Oklahoma and they just got married last Saturday.  They were on their honeymoon.   But I'm so glad I now know about the new McDonalds in Hope, Arkansas.  I bet my friends Troy and Carla didn't know about the new McDonalds in their hometown, though.

Once we arrived back at the campground, Murphy and I decided to head out on the trike in search of a waterfall hiking trail........which we found.....only after a two mile hike.  A LONG two mile hike......  I discovered I'm clearly out of shape when an elderly grandmother and grandfather and their three small grandchildren pass me by on the trail.  That was humbling.....  But Murphy did great...quite the good hiker....it must come from all the exercise he gets body slamming his Senator John McCain doll......

They're predicting rain tonight and tomorrow......I wonder if it will ground the helicopters????