Village Creek State Park Lake Dunn Trail

The Village Creek State Park Lake Dunn Trail begins -you won't be surprised to hear- at Lake Dunn. Before you get to the trail's true beginning you pass fishing, boating, and picnicking areas:

The brochure specifically mentions the "popular swinging bridge". We watched for signs of the bridge as we walked.

No sign of the swinging bridge, but hope springs eternal.

Enjoying the hike though we were, we still looked without success for direction signs to the one attraction noted in the brochure. We did come across this remarkable creature:

which I promptly christened The Venerable Beded One. But no swinging bridge. Forging ahead...

Along the way I enjoyed the various fungi

And back to the beginning

with no sign of a swinging bridge. Strange. We saw deer, turkeys, many different kinds of birds, but I couldn't get video. I did get a video of an armadillo:

Colby's Cafe

We stopped for lunch at Colby's Cafe in Wynne, Arkansas, on our way to Village Creek State Park for our vacation. We didn't know what to expect from Wynne and were pleasantly surprised by the number of our choices here. This was a nice lunch spot.

I loved the bright interior with all the windows. You order at the counter and they bring the food to your table. You can view their menu here, but they don't seem to have a website of their own. I had the club sandwich and onion rings and Pepsi:

It was too much to eat, which was a shame because it was delicious. Service was attentive, which we don't really expect when we order at a counter. We'd go back if we lived around there.

We didn't explore Wynne, but the town's website lists their library as an "attraction". I find that an endearing feature.

Please join the weekly T Tuesday blogger gathering. Share a link to a post with a drink in it and visit some new friends.

Meanwhile, back home in Memphis, it has snowed. Again! And it's 14 degrees F!

Lies

Henri Matisse: Interior at Nice (Room at the Beau Rivage), 1917–1918

At NYBooks.com you can read a short story by J.M. Coetzee. I've read and enjoyed a couple of his books. This story is Lies and begins,

Dear Norma,

I am writing from San Juan, from the one and only hotel here. I visited Mother this afternoon—a half-hour drive along a tortuous road. Her condition is as bad as I had feared, and worse. She cannot walk without her stick, and even then she is very slow. She has not been able to climb the stairs since returning from the hospital. She sleeps on the sofa in the living room.

I pray I won't refuse to recognize the truth if I come to such a pass.

Village Creek State Park

We took a little vacation to Village Creek State Park, about an hour west of Memphis, and had a wonderful time. The picture above is of the exterior of the cozy cabin.

Here's the view from the back:

Inside is comfortable:

It was January, but the weather was warmer than you might think. Highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s made hiking quite pleasant. We also enjoyed time in the cabin.

There's a little Discovery Room up at the Visitor Center:

I had never been to this state park, though my family camped at nearby Crowley's Ridge when I was a child. Mosquitoes would keep me from ever vacationing in this area when those insects are active, but the autumn color would be glorious and the winter weather made for a quiet and undisturbed vacation.

There are several trails here that begin at the Visitor Center, and I walked the Arboretum Trail before we even checked out the cabin.

Definitely a lovely place to spend time in nature.