Bob and Paula's Winter Adventure

---

(For those of you who've already seen these photos and read our story, please excuse me for sending it again. I wanted to get this on TravelBlog so that around 30 other people could see it. And it's hard to mess with the list of people receiving this blog.)
______________________

Dear Friends -- These of some photos of Bob's and my recent Christmas adventure. We both wanted a little cold and perhaps a sprinkling of snow this Christmas, being northerners at heart, so we decided to drive to Arkansas' Ozark Mountains as the location wasn't too far from home and we thought the mountains might help in our cold/snow search. Where we stayed was only 100 feet lower than the highest point in the state.

Well, "be careful what you wish for," as they say. We arrived at Queen Wilhemina State Park, in west central Arkansas almost at the Oklahoma line, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Christmas Day it started to rain, which then turned to sleet, then snow. It snowed for almost 24 hours, producing around 14" of snow. It also turned very cold, around 12 degrees Christmas night with a wind chill of 0. Considering the high winds that went along with the snow and cold, the media called this a blizzard.

We were the only people in the campground, although there were always some staff at park headquarters and they would drive by each day to make sure we weren't frozen yet. I'm sure they were puzzled by us and would say things like, "Can you believe they're from FLORIDA? Everyone goes TO Florida this time of year . . . "

Thankfully, we always had electricity so we had heat and TV, both very important considering the weather and the isolation. A whole bunch of people in Arkansas weren't so lucky with the electricity, having to wait as much as a week to get it back on. Bob spent a lot of time over a couple of days unthawing things that water went through -- pipes, hoses, etc. -- and I boiled many a kettle of water. But mostly we chilled (figuratively and literally) and enjoyed our own company and the beauty of the snow and ice and mountains. And the wonderful light. And the peace.

For six days the weather never once got above freezing on the mountain. We took a couple of rides to the nearby town of Mena in the truck and drove around the park some to take photos. But the mountain road was just too icy to risk towing the camper down that road. After six days, though, the road had been sanded and scraped and we thought we'd try to make it. We did, no problem, and we drove home in the rain.

We had such a wonderful time! I hope you all had wonderful holidays, too.

Best wishes,

Paula and Bob

---