Arkansas Jungle 5-17-14

My sister and I had a double date with our dad today. I took them both to a waterfall I had been to before, Funnel Falls. I had been there in the winter however and now, almost summer, it looked COMPLETELY different. It looked as if we were hiking down into a some kind of time warp that was sucking us back into the prehistoric days. Ferns and greenery where every where, it was magical. The waterfalls where running pretty good too. I even made it out of there without a single tick attached! My sis and dad loved the experience and we all had such a good time.

This was the trail we followed down to the falls.

The Adventure of Family 4-5-14

This morning we headed our towards Compton, Ponca, and Jasper Arkansas with two cars full of my family. I had attempted to plan a day trip to go see some waterfalls that my family could get to fairly easily. So our first stop was in Compton, AR down a bumpy dirt backroad. We landed at Paige Falls and Broadwater falls area. We walked down to Paige falls (first picture) and to our delight the falls were flowing with lots of water. The falls fell into an emerald pool with beautiful moss covered boulders to the side. As that water spilled out from the pool it cascaded down to Broadwater falls. It was beautiful. The Fleet kids loved it and it was Wesley's first time to do any kind of hiking, he did great! We all had our fun and took pictures and just a general merry time at these falls. Then we hiked back up to the car. We all got into the cars, one of them started right up, the other one did not. Mind you, we are 2 miles down a crazy Arkansas back road in the middle of nowhere with three kiddos and one dead car. The guys tried and tried to jump my little polly (yes my car has a name), but to no avail. Her battery was dead. Dustin and dad took the car that worked and went back up the crazy road in search of the nearest auto store to buy a new battery. The closest place was back to Harrison, AR where we had passed through about 35 min earlier. In the meantime the rest of us, the three kids, Dave, Corinthia and mom all had lunch by the creek that feeds the falls. I took the girls hiking both up the creek and back down to the falls. The guys got back and put the new battery in the car.We all got back into our two cars. Dad turned the key in the car and it started right up. Dustin turned the key in the CR-V, and........nothing. It wouldn't start!!!! At first I thought he was kidding, but nope, he tried it a few more times and it wouldn't start. What are the odds!!!! We just got one car working again and then the one that had driven to get the part to fix the other one wouldn't start! We let the CR-V set for a few minutes and it eventually started. We got to the falls at about 12:00 and didn't get to leave the area until about 3:45. I planned to go see another waterfall but we decided that the road down to that one would be just too much adventure for the day.

After we got out of there, we went to an old homestead along the Buffalo River, enjoyed the scenic drive (while singing along with Disney songs) and had dinner with a beautiful view of "The Arkansas Grand Canyon". All in all it was a pretty good day.

Paige Falls in Compton, AR

Broadwater Falls in Compton, AR

And our lovely car fiasco.....It just wouldn't be a family adventure without something unplanned right??

Already tried to jump it by this point, Dustin is checking the
connections trying to see why it's not charging.

Our little picnic by the creek while Dad and Dustin drove the CR-V to
Harrison from Compton to get a new battery for my car.