Vaca Part I - Arkansas

We hit the road early on Saturday instead of leaving Friday night as planned in order to miss the storms. Oh the irony as you'll soon see. Our final destination was Lake Webster, Indiana to spend time with Paul's mom's side of the family. They've been gathering at the lake for 21 years, but more of that to come. Soooo, we decided to take our time and enjoy some spots along the way. Gerald & Vonda were kind enough to let us borrow their pop-up camper and my dad let us use his truck. The pair made for great traveling!

First stop: Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas

This is a GREAT place and we could've stayed several more days. They had tons of trails, a river, a great pool with water slides and a separate kids area, a cool playground, and a beautiful waterfall over their dam. A big shout out to the corps of engineers who developed that place!
Lucky for us, Saturday was a beautiful and sunny day. We took advantage of that and enjoyed the pool and our campsite. Little did we know that it was our last full day of no clouds - not to mention the rain. On Sunday, we took a hike through the rain, but it was really beautiful and kept us cool (and wet). Paul and Bethany went down into a cave to explore and we walked under a waterfall. Another cave was called "The Icebox" because of the temperature change inside. It really was pretty remarkable how much cooler it was (it is the foggy picture). All in all, we had a great stay at DD, but the rain wasn't going to let up, so we passed on our second night there and headed north.

Lou helping Paul set up the camper. She's still in her pj's from the early morning departure.

Checking out the campsite. It overlooked the river. Walking down to the dam.

Bethy sliding down to Paul

The start of our rainy hike to the caves and falls

The "Ice Box"