Snipe Hunting

(By Steve) We had the chance to meet up with our good friends from Texas, the Gordons, over Easter weekend.  When we were in Texas, Greg invited us to join them on the Buffalo River in Arkansas at his coworker's place, an annual Easter weekend adventure.  I was a little hesitant at first, but then I remembered that one of our mottos is to "Say Yes, unless you have a very good reason for saying No."    In other words, let "Yes" be the default response when opportunity arises.  So we made plans to meet near the town of Ponca, right on the Buffalo River.

Jake during one of his better moments that evening. Unfortunately, he was still feverish & cranky.

On Friday the 6th, we drove up from Russellville and stayed in a little RV park near Harrison.   The park was small, but we fit the pull through sites.   The people that run it are super nice, and we enjoyed our stay there.   With Passport America, it was only $13 a night!  That evening we drove the 22 miles to the property of Greg Speer, one of Greg's TI co-workers.  The trip from the RV park to the driveway is 18 miles, but the driveway is 3.5 miles back into the woods and includes crossing a creek.   The driveway was hold-on-to-your-dentures rough and takes about 15 minutes to get down.  Definitely an experience...Genna kept saying, "They should not have a road this bumpy!"   We were glad that our truck is a 4x4 even though you can make it without, depending on how much rain they've had recently.   

Alison posing in from of this old Dodge 4x4 they used for running around the property.   I had the pleasure to drive it and it was fun! Definitely a blast from the past.

That evening we met lots of people we didn't know, but everyone was very welcoming!   One fun thing that I did for all the kids was to take them for their very first snipe hunt. We didn't catch any, but we sure had fun hunting!  The kids all had snipe sticks to bang on the trees, and of course bags to catch the snipes when they run down the trees. They also practiced making the "hoo-choo-a-dooo" sound, which attracts the snipes.  I almost got one, but I was holding the bag on the wrong side of the tree ;)

Come on down snipes!

Team effort

Alyssa and her best friend Zaynah hanging around the campfire