Sunday we packed up after a great week in Hot Springs, AR at the Catherine’s Landing RV Resort on Lake Catherine.  It still felt like a campground in many respects, but there were some new twists–at least for us novices.

One one side of the complex is an open-air pavilion that covers probably two acres.  In addition to a bathhouse that takes up a small bit of one corner, it has a host of picnic tables, and some large fire pits.  Since we had rain pretty steady for several days, it turned out to be the perfect place for the kids to ride scooters and meet other kids.  The resort included a frisbee golf course, which the kids also loved!

One evening my youngest and I shared a campfire with the Walker family from southern Arkansas.  Mike is the principal at Star City High School, and gathered with wife Jennifer and kids Emily and Caleb for a spring break gathering with family.  My youngest developed his first crush, on Miss Emily.

Can you guess what the assembled are up to here on a field in Murfreesboro: The Hunt ? We journeyed on a day trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park to stake our fortune.  Midway through it rained,  hard, so happily we’d not done the week’s laundry yet.  When the boys got bored panning for diamond chips, they moshed in the 37 acres of muck.

We wandered through the Fordyce Bath House Visitors Center in Hot Springs National Park and “quaffed the elixir.” Touring the basement for some reason reminded me of scenes from the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining.

On Saturday, the first sunny day, we loaded up the fishing gear and lunch on a pontoon boat out of Lake Catherine State Park.  Jen was our captain, without complaint in the morning cold, until we realized she was frozen to the boat’s wheel.  Can you spot the turtle on the log behind Jen?

We are now in Dallas.  At 10:30 this morning, we are touring a place that I’ve known about since I was almost ten years old, but never seen in person: the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.