Booger Hollow

Finally we had started getting enough rain to get waterfalls flowing again! It was even raining that day as I drove out towards the Ozarks. I turned north onto Hwy. 7 from Russellville, and the tops of the mountains were covered with thick fog. I tried to find a good spot to take pictures, and ended up at the Moccasin Gap Recreation Area. I got a few pictures (and didn't see any moccasins for people wearing clothes from the Gap).



From there I passed by the ruins of the old Booger Hollow Trading Post. This used to be one of the landmarks along Hwy. 7, but it's abandoned now. The parking lot is now filled with overgrown weeds, and the buildings are in various stages of decay.



The Booger Hollow Trading Post opened in 1961, and signs along Hwy. 7 would beckon travelers to stop at the quirky attraction with the population of "7....countin' one coon dog." The store sold stuff like soap, jams and a wide selection of hillbilly-themed souvenirs and doodads. It had a restaurant, the Boogerhollow Chuckwagon Cage, where hungry travelers could dine on a "boogerburger."



But Booger Hollow permanently closed in 2004. Some of the buildings are gone now, including the two-story outhouse (where the upper level was closed "until we git the plummin' figgered out"). The remaining buildings are fenced off, far removed from the passing traffic along Hwy. 7. It was eerily quiet when I was there, the only sound was from a dog that appeared out of the fog and stood in the middle of the road to bark at me.

Barns!

I took the scenic drive on the way home from Collins Creek, which followed a few different country roads. And along those roads there were a few barns, which I dutifully stopped to get pictures of.







This old barn is in the small town of Pangburn, just across the street from a Dollar General and an abandoned building that used to house a "Tobacco and Tackle" store.









Just south of Searcy I stopped by this field again, and got a few more pictures:





And then one more barn, just down the road:

Collins Creek

It's finally prime waterfall season here in Arkansas. But there's just one problem - we've barely had any rain this year. Most of the state has been classified as being under a drought, which isn't ideal for waterfalls. But luckily there is a place that is guaranteed to have water running year-round, even in the most driest of conditions. So a few weeks ago, I headed up for a quick visit to Collins Creek.

Along the way there were some neat barns, so of course I had to pull over and try to get a few pictures:









And then I finally made it to Collins Creek, which runs year-round because water is piped in from nearby Greers Ferry Lake. The constant flow of water helps serve as a habitat for trout, and as a playground for landscape photographers.







One the way out, I stopped by the overlook by the dam that creates the lake. The concrete dam was completed in 1962 and was dedicated by President Kennedy on October 3, one of his last major public appearances. The park here is named in his honor.



And one last shot, of a bridge passing over the Little Red River. There were a few people out fishing in the river nearby.

A Searcy Sunset

We had spent the day in Searcy visiting family, and it was time to head back home. But we didn't make it very far, I had to pull the car over just south of town as the sky erupted in the golden colors of sunset. Of course I didn't have my big camera with me, but the cell phone camera did a fairly good job at capturing it all.

Tindall Dryer

It's easy to spot the Tindall Dryer as you drive south from Stuttgart, as it prominently stands tall against the flat lands of the Delta.



I was there with Deepak Kumar, a photographer who excels at astrophotography. While we were waiting for it to get dark, I had some time to take a quick peek inside the old rice dryer. The interior was filled with the random flotsam that seems to accumulate in places like this - haphazardly stacked pieces of wood, plastic buckets and broken glass. Next to a window sat this old cash register, completely covered with a layer of rust.



The rice dryer was probably built sometime around the 1950s. And it worked by somehow drying....the rice? OK I admit I'm not an expert on it. But it must have been a really busy spot at harvest time for several decades. And it probably stopped being used as more modern rice facilities were built in Stuttgart.





A bunch of wildflowers were already growing in the grass surrounding the dryer:



On the way home we stopped to get pictures at another old rice dryer, which was lit only by the light of the full moon. We weren't the only ones out there, we were quickly surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes (it seemed too early in the year to have to be dealing with mosquitoes!).