April 20th

We are now in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  It's a lovely small city.  Home of the Razorbacks - "Woo pig, Sooie!!"  Red hogs abound.

More on Fayetteville in later post.  Prior to Fayetteville we spent a couple nights in Sallisaw, Oklahoma.  We decided to bypass the cities of Tulsa and Oklahoma City to kayak in the Hog Pen area of Sequoya National Wildlife Refuge.  We knew we would have to schedule said kayak trip on the one day it was not supposed to thunder and lightening.  We had a preview of the thunder and lightening Saturday night.  Wow, scary loud.  Both dogs ran over and sat with me, shivering on the couch.  We heard later that a tornado was trying to develop but it was many miles away from us.  There was also golf ball sized hail.  We just got the edge of that storm and some heavy normal sized hail.  On the news tonight there was video of the damage people suffered to their homes and cars because of that hail.  Amazing - just shredded sheds and made the side of one woman's house look like she has been strafed by machine guns!

There was a small window between storms on Sunday so we decided to head out to tour the refuge and decide where to put in.  It was a lovely area.  It's actually farmed just to provide a feeding area for migrating birds.  We saw some unusual ducks but not the huge flocks that congregate here in the fall,  Apparently it's a favorite stopping point for snow geese at that time.  There is water everywhere.  Several short hikes with paved paths which were great since the ground is like a wet sponge right now.  At the boat launch near the Hog Pen there was a kind fisherman who gave me valuable information.  He told me that area had once been filled with oak trees.  As silt comes in from the Arkansas River it kills the trees - he doesn't even boat out in it anymore.  That concerned us since we have inflatable kayaks.  His next piece of information was a little more concerning...cotton mouths, water moccasins.  I asked if we should be worried about them because my kin hail from areas where these poisonous snakes live.  He confirmed my fears - not only are they out there, he had just seen one swim by his fishing area.  He said they were very territorial.  Paul and I both already knew (he from personal experience as a kid in Virginia, me from my parents stories) that these snakes can hang from trees sometimes.  Well, we decided the kayak trip was off because of the snags and snakes...not worth the concern and FEAR!!!  The very area we wanted to explore was a potential danger area.   Sighhhhh

No kayaking in Sallisaw but we did go to the Walmart!  :)  It's a very small town with a very large Walmart.

Sallisaw Ok down in the valley

More pics to follow of Sallisaw.

Lots of oaks and hills around this part of OK - that was a surprise

We decided to move on and maybe kayak in Fayetteville!!  We shall see.