Pretty Good Times Around Texarkana
19 March 2014 | Texarkana, Arkansas
Jill
We needed something to do with Adler. He was off school on Spring Break for a week. Jamie is up to her ears in work and studying and can use every extra hour of free time we can give her. So we made a couple of plans.
On the first Saturday of his vacation Grampa and Adler went fishing. Some men Bud had talked to told him the fishing should be good off a bridge that crosses one arm of Wright Patman Lake just south of the little town of Redwater. When we got there we saw quite a few others already fishing. Bud set up Adler and himself and they started to fish. Nothing much happened until a nice couple near them suggested they move to the other side of them, so they'd be near the channel under the bridge. Almost as soon as they moved a fish hit Bud's line. He gave his pole to Adler to reel in and Adler caught his first fish, about an eight-inch Yellow Bass. They brought it to the car where I took a picture. We dumped our golf balls (we buy used ones 50 at a time- that's the kind of golfers we are) into a plastic bag and used the empty plastic container for the fish. Bud and Adler went back to fishing and I sent a text to Jamie about Adler's fish. I walked back out on the bridge to tell Adler his Mom was proud of him, and by the time I got out there Adler had caught 4 more fish. These were all caught with his pole, with Grampa only giving assistance getting them off the hook. Bud was so busy baiting Adler's line that he never got a chance to fish with his line. But he wasn't complaining. Altogether Adler caught 9 fish, we brought 8 home; one flopped back in the lake when Bud got the hook out of its mouth. Adler chose the picture here as his favorite, this is him with Grampa, the nice lady who advised them to move, and fish number 5.
The next day Bud cooked them and they were delicious. Adler was thrilled to have caught them, but had no interest in eating them. He couldn't even be talked into tasting a piece.
On Monday we took Adler camping. It's spring here, but early spring, and there are still cool days. Bud and I are not ready for tent camping anymore, and we didn't even want to try an unheated cabin, but four of the state parks in Arkansas have RV trailers for rent. We rented the trailer at Cane Creek State Park in southeast Arkansas for two nights.
Monday evening we made a campfire and tried to have s'mores. Adler wanted to try just a plain toasted marshmallow first. He couldn't handle the long toasting forks the park provided, so I toasted and he tasted. He decided he liked his marshmallows and chocolate separate and raw, so I ate the s'more. We sat on the picnic bench near the fire and took turns telling scary stories. Adler is a pretty good storyteller for a four-year-old.
Tuesday was a beautiful day, sunny and breezy with a high about 70. In the morning we all went fishing in a little rented boat. It only had a five-horse engine, but that was more than enough, because the lake, created by damming Cane Creek, was so full of stumps, many just below the water line, that unless you knew where the deeper channels were you had to pick your way along. We putted about and Bud and Adler tried fishing (Bud now has both Texas and Arkansas fishing licenses) but no fish were caught. Adler enjoyed "paddling" while Grampa motored the boat slowly along. In the afternoon Bud went fishing again and Adler and I drove over to the levee where there was open space and flew his new kite. The breeze was perfect and he launched the kite himself. We probably could have let all 500 feet of string out, but I didn't want to have to wind it all back in. Adler, as I anticipated, tired of kite flying after about 20 minutes and we wound it in.
Adler and I also walked about a half-mile to the playground and on the way back found the trail that paralleled the park road and hiked along that. He enjoyed everything and was generally a delight.
The people who worked at the visitor center were very nice. Adler chattered away with them. The man let Adler pet the baby alligator they had in a tank. One of the women brought him a box of crayons and gave him an activity book, some guide books, a Frisbee and a lunch bag to hold everything. When we got back Adler dictated and signed a Thank You card for her.
All in all it was a good week. I've put other pictures in a new album, Texarkana 2014.