The weather was bad enough yesterday at Queen Wilhelmina that I decided to stay put. So, today, instead of taking off for Petit Jean, I decided to go to Ozark, Arkansas instead. A couple that I met at the lake, Ken and Barbara, told me about a Corps of Engineers park on the Arkansas River right over the bridge from Ozark. They told me that you can sit and watch barges go down the river and look at the beautiful lighted bridge at night. All of the sites are on the water. Well, that sold me! Not to mention that a little town by the name of Altus is only about 5 miles from Ozark and it touts itself as the Arkansas wine capital. The weather today was beautiful! The high was around 82 and the low is suppose to be around 55. Perfect.
The name of the park is Aux Arc Park. The origin of the name Ozark dates back to the 15th century when French explorers navigated the Arkansas River and called this area Aux Arc. So, there's your history lesson for the day.
This is a pic of the Arkansas River right behind my RV.
A shot down the road. All of these trailers back up to the river.
Out my back window
Home
After I got settled in, it was time to go do something. Being this close to the wine capital of Arkansas, what better thing to do than go visit some Arkansas wineries. If you have never had any Arkansas wine, you are missing something. The vineyards here grow a lot of their own grapes for their own special wines. They have muscadine grapes, Niagara grapes, concord grapes, Cynthiana grapes, and several more. Most of the wineries do not age their wine in oak barrels. They use steel barrels. So, if you like oaky, bold wines, you probably won't like these wines. Most of the grapes used here tend to make their wines more on the sweet side. So, if you normally don't like wine because you think it is a little strong and dry, you probably will like these. Alot of the wines here are very mild, smooth, and semi-sweet. Here is my journey this afternoon.
When I got back from the wineries, I went down to the lock and dam located just down the road from the park. As I was walking down a bridge to get closer to the water, 4 guys passed me with 3 loaded down stringers of channel catfish. When I say loaded down, I mean loaded down. I kept hoping someone was going to tell me where the fish fry was going to be, but sadly they didn't. :(
Right after dinner and around sunset, a tugboat pushing a barge came floating down the river. The bridge that goes over the river from the park to the town of Ozark is also lit up at dark. Here are a couple of pics of those 2 things. It is really very pretty here. I wish I had more time to spend here. Some of my future trips will take me through this area again and I think this will be a place that I will stay again.
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