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Grand Adventure

Dawson first camping trip with Nana and Papa

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

December 6^th, 2018

Dallas with Daddy

First stop!

We left Port Allen after picking Dawson up at his Meme’s house. He helped carry his luggage to the truck and we loaded up. We went by Port Allen and hooked onto the camper and headed west on I10. We took I49 towards Dallas and made a quick overnight outside of Shreveport, Louisiana. The next day we landed at Shady Creek RV Park, north of Dallas. We meet our son Dylan and his girlfriend Courtney and Dawson went to spend a few days with his Dad.

We meet them for dinner at the Mystery Time Machine restaurant where each table has a different theme or time period. Each member of the wait staff is dressed as a different character, our waiter was Nacho Libre, with his ukulele strung across his back. Dawson loved the over the top characters, having one make him a balloon hat with blinking lights and private performance by Nacho.

Dawson with Dylan and Courtney at Mystery Time Machine

Ozark Bound

Leaving Dallas behind, we headed to northern Arkansas with an overnight at a state park outside of Hot Spring. Lake Catherine is a really nice State Park that we were so lucky that we stumbled upon. We pulled in and setup at a site overlooking the lake. The next morning, we woke up to a chilly morning that was a bit overcast. We had some time so we decided to take a hike to a waterfall in the rocky tree covered foothills that were in the late stages of fall foliage. We had seen some very light snow flurries earlier, but as we got Dawson bundled up, they had stopped. We collected our trail map and headed out on the two mile hike on the Falls Branch Trail. As we started walking the snow flurries increased, looking like fairy dust gently falling through the forest.

We passed several waterfalls and as we approached the water fall that feed Lake Catherine, that was created by Arkansas Power and Light built the Remmel Dam in 1924. The falls were a nice cascade with an 8-foot main drop over massive boulders that Dawson enjoyed climbing on. The snow flurries increased as we continued up the trail, steadily gaining elevation.

We really enjoyed our one-night layover and JoAnn found out that her brother had planned to purchase property on this lake before he passed away unexpectedly. She was really glad that fate had placed us in a spot that she could get to see another part of her brother Charlie that she never knew.

Branson

Wanting to share Silver Dollar City with Dawson, we headed north to Branson, Missouri the following morning. Silver Dollar City was a special place for me as a boy and I was sure Dawson would love it at his age. What we didn’t expect was that Silver Dollar City was decorated for Christmas and boasted over 6.5 million lights and was in full swing for the season!

Dawson loved a place called “Grandfathers Mansion”, a funhouse of sorts with slanting floors and whacky mirrors. He went through it three or four times! We drank hot chocolate, the Fire in the Hole roller coaster and rode the train that went by a magical Christmas story time. To our surprise, Dawson enjoyed the Christmas on the Bayou musical show the best, which featured musicians from South Louisiana playing Zydeco music. We happened to be in need of a break and decided to have a seat at the open-air theatre. One of the musicians, a blonde hair Cajun from Lafayette tried to get Dawson to dance with her on stage, he was having no part of that! We only lasted for a few songs but later when Dawson heard the accordion again he asked if we could go back! Guess we don’t need a DNA test to verify his Cajun roots from his fathers’ side.

We finished off the night watching Rudolph’s Holly Jolly Light Parade, a light parade through the main part of the park. We kept prodding Dawson to call to the floats to throw something…… he was just amazed at it all!

The next day we decide to take in a show and looking down the list for something Dawson wouldn’t normally be exposed to and we found the Shanghai Acrobats show. We got popcorn and drinks and took our seats on the front row where the acrobats were almost within arm’s length. We saw the Asian acrobats perform tricks that were beyond belief. He was captivated the entire time.

The campground we picked happened to be on Cooper Creek and had a boat dock and trout fishing. Several mornings we took Dawson and setup gear and tried our hand at fishing several times without any success. We ended up putting the fishing pole down and doing some Geocaching in the area where Dawson traded one of his hot wheels’ cars for a GOLDEN coin from Silver Dollar City. He was so proud of his coin. He ran back to the truck to tell Nana about the GOLDEN coin. The cache was on the creek deck of a fly-fishing shop that had the record trout mounted on the wall. I at least had the chance to show Dawson what sort of fish we had been trying to catch.

Cajun Band preforming at Silver Dollar City

Dawson's favorite place at Silver Dollar City

Steam Engine & Train at Silver Dollar City

Dawson on the train at Silver Dollar City

In Grandfathers Mansion at Silver Dollar City.

Christmas Parade at Silver Dollar City

Dawson and Nana riding Lucky’s Dizzy Dogs

Dawson, Papa and Nana waiting for the Christmas Parade at Silver Dollar City

Blanchards Caverns

Dawson had been asking when we were going under the earth since we left Baton Rouge. We told him that the cave was one of our stops on our camping trip and he couldn’t wait! This is one of the nicest caverns I have been in! The cave has a nice walking trail, was more than 200-foot underground and was ranger lead with some of the best cave formations I have seen anywhere. It boasts the longest curtain formation in North America. Every time the ranger would ask if anyone had a question, Dawson’s hand would fly up, he was quite interested in where the bats were. The ranger was very patient and started calling him ‘HotRod’ because he had some many questions and was so excited the whole time. The bats were in a closed section of the cave hibernating for the winter. That section is closed from Labor Day until Memorial Day. It is estimated that 150,000 endangered gray bats live in the cave.

The cave was discovered in 1922 on John Blanchard’s homestead. He ran a grist mill with the water from the spring. While clients were waiting for their grain, they would go to the vertical shaft opening to enjoy the cool breeze. In 1960’s some researchers from the university came and with the help of SCUBA made entry into the main chambers of the caverns.

Largest Flow Wall in North America, Blanchard Caverns

Dawson had a great time and proved to be a great traveler. He didn’t mind the long travel days and would help Nana setup the camper once we arrived. He had a chance to understand the where those post cards came from and how they get to his house. He sent several to his Mom while we were traveling.

What we Learned: That Pre-K has homework, lots of it. Math, addition and subtraction using numbers up to 10. Sight words and some phonics but not as much I would expect.

Flurries of snow in the sunlight can be magical.

Grandchildren are the best and your reward for raising your children. He was so precious and the memories from this trip will always be special in our heart. Thank you to his Momma for letting him travel with us for so long of a trip, we know that wasn’t easy and he was missed.

Next Stop: After we reconnected Dawson back to his Momma for Thanksgiving we plan to stay in town for a week and enjoy family during the holiday. From Baton Rouge we plan to head to Mississippi to check on our property. We are planning on staying in a camp ground that I remember enjoying with my parents and friends as a child.