On Our Way to Paris (Texas, that is)

We got up this morning, packed up, and took our final walk through the park. The sun was shining, the sky and the river were blue: it was an altogether lovely day and a very nice campground. We’ll certainly return if we’re ever back in the Little Rock area.

We hit the road at 10:30 a.m. but stopped at Lowe’s in Bryant, AR, half an hour later. We had to buy repair kits for our hoses the squirrels chewed up. We also realized when we were packing up that we must have left our smaller leveling boards at Defeated Creek, so we got some new ones, treated wood, and the nice young man cut the 12’ piece in two for us. The other thing we did is look at kitchen faucets.

We’ve decided to replace ours. It’s been flimsy and unsatisfactory from the start, and the brushed nickel finish became permanently spotted and streaked early on. I’d really prefer to have a single handle faucet with a pull-out handle too, like the kind I had in the house. We’re making a list of things to have attended to when we take Venture in for repairs in the Valley. The service person there said they’d be happy to install a faucet and we could buy our own.

We got to the Red River Valley Fair Grounds in Paris a little after 5:00 p.m. As we were setting up, our friends Hardy and Judy called to say they were about 20 miles out from the motel they are staying at. We went to the Roadhouse Family Diner for dinner with them.

We last saw them in mid-June when we went to Milwaukee to AACE with them. It was great to have a chance to catch up. They regaled us with the tale of their float trip with Steve and Jan, when Steve and Jan's canoe was tipped over by a tree that had fallen in the river. It was lucky they had Hardy and Judy there to chase their stuff that went floating down the river and to help them find the waterproof case which held Jan's wallet!

After dinner, we got to see their new car too, a Chevy Cruze. Their truck is at home, taking a break, and they are enjoying the great gas mileage of the Cruze.


We walked around the fair grounds and the neighborhood in the dark, so we didn't see too much! We'll do some exploring tomorrow.

I talked with Chris tonight. He was on his way to meet Shawn at the airport. She's returning from a trip to the French Riviera to visit art museums and paint with her art club. Chris will leave tomorrow for a meeting in Boise and go on from their to a NIH meeting in DC. Busy guy!