Queen Wilhelmina State Park

We drove from Hot Springs Arkansas to Mena Arkansas on 16 April 2025. Our good friends Carl and Michele met us in Mena for a pickleball "lesson", then we all went to hang out at our campsite at Queen Wilhelmina State Park. We had an easy dinner of hamburgers and fries, then Carl and Michele headed home to take care of their new chicks. They have chickens and goats on their farm.

The next day we awoke to dense smoke. So we thought, until Steve went outside and said it was fog. It turned out we were both wrong. It was a cloud that had set on top of the mountain where we were. As soon as we started driving down the mountain, it cleared right up. In our defense, we had seen controlled burns going on when we drove up the mountain the day before, so we thought they were at it again. We drove to Carl and Michele's place and stayed in the cabin on their property for 5 nights. We've stayed with them a couple of times since we've been traveling and it's always relaxing. Carl and Steve met in 4th grade school and realized they've been friends for 60 years! They always have lots of laughs and enjoy hanging out.

We attended the vigil mass at their local church, St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Carl and Michele have been members of this church for many years and they know many of the parishioners. We met Mack and Sandie after church and it turned out they were going to the Easter brunch at the Lodge at Queen Wilhelmina State Park, so they drove by our camper and told Carl and Michele to let us know Site #11 was fine. We appreciated that since storms had come close to Mena and even tornadoes (Hot Springs) in some spots. It was a relief to hear our home was untouched.

St. Agnes Catholic Church Mena Arkansas 19 April 2025

Us with Michele and Carl before Easter Vigil Mass

St. Joseph Catholic Church Mena Arkansas 19 April 2025

Michele and I walked most mornings we were there. Michele walks 3 miles every morning and I like to join her. We get to catch up and give the dogs a good long walk too. Steve and Carl get into projects Carl could use a hand with and they go out to the pond on Carl's property to fish. One afternoon the four of us went out on the ATV's for a couple of hours. That was fun.

Carl with the Kentucky bass he caught

Catfish from the pond

This plant was very fragrant. We noticed it on our ATV ride.

Thor was very attentive the morning we were leaving...

On 22 April, we drove down the mountain from Carl and Michele's place and then up to Queen Wilhelmina State Park to our campsite. After putting things away and washing the truck we went for a walk in campground and checked out the on the Spring Trail and Spring Loop at the campground. It was a nice trail and we saw lots of flower blooms, as well as a beautiful bird with dark grey on most of its body and bright yellow around the eyes, like it was wearing yellow rimmed glasses. Steve looked it up when we got home and it was a Male Hooded warbler.