Buckle up, sit back, relax, and experience the happiness I felt in Arkansas!
Day 8:
I had set my alarm for 6:25 in the morning but was woken up at 6:20. I gotta say-- I like the feeling of being awake before my alarm starts to ring. I got out of my bed and started my day.
School was a lot of fun since I did not have to do much work in any of my classes, and I also did not have much homework.
During my normal music class period, I had a band lesson, which was pretty exciting. We practiced playing different holiday tunes like “Winter Wonderland”, “Feliz Navidad”, and “Frosty the Snowman”; it was a blast getting into the holiday spirit!
The rest of my morning-classes. came and went pretty quickly, and I started my lunch break at 10:36! The perks of being in a different time zone than your school!
This was about the time when we got the vehicle ready for driving, and we were off to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. As we drove, the scenery changed quite a bit; it started off as dense forest all around, and all of a sudden became open farmland. It was really a sight to see and drive through. Additionally, while driving I noticed that there were almost no cars on the highway compared to trucks -especially when we entered Arkansas.
I joined my Math zoom and reviewed different types of transformations; I felt relaxed as I packed up my school supplies and called it a day (for school at least). When I was sitting at the table, the motion of the RV was greatly increasing the weight of my eyelids, and I went up to my bed and took a nap.
I woke up again when we were close to making a quick halt. My stomach grumbled hinting that it was time for some lunch; I ate some potato stuffed bread and then took Bullet out and observed how cold it was outside. Never thought it’d be so cold this far south of New Jersey.
We got back into our recreational vehicle, and were off yet again. At last, we pulled into a large RV KOA campground at the foothills of Hot Springs National Park. It was a large RV park, but there were not many RVs actually staying there. Kind of nice; it’s like we have the whole place to ourselves.
Once we hooked up, we all decided to go for a little walk since we had been sitting all day. We got to a spot with a bunch of different platforms, and chased Bullet around so he would jump up and down heights of up to four feet high. Can’t believe this is the same dog who whines when he has to jump out of the trunk.
After playing around a bit, everyone was tired, so we all went back in and showered. Udon noodles were being prepared while my brother and I took Bullet out for a walk. At last, food was served! The noodles were amazing, and I was really full after eating.
In the end, my eyes got heavy once again. I hugged my blankets and travelled to bed.
Here’s to another great day.
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Day 9:
My day began at 6:25; it was a harder day when it came to waking up and getting out of bed, but -nonetheless- I managed to do so, and I changed pretty quickly.
For breakfast, we had some hot tea with some biscuits. I ate simultaneously while logging onto my laptop. When I went into my French class, I opened up my notes document from yesterday and recapped some things we learned: Il pleut = It’s raining. I moved on to my Social Studies zoom. It was incredible how realistic the Renaissance art looked; comical how the Middle Ages’ art was nowhere near as good as the Renaissance's.
Same as usual, science class was next, and we went over a worksheet that was assigned a couple nights ago. Sooner or later Language Arts rolled around, and we started preparing for our end-of-Pigman test.
I had a lunch break, and I took time to get some school-work done. Today was what my school calls a “Wellness Wednesday” which occurs every other week, and means that teachers are not allowed to assign homework on that night, and students were to take some ‘wellness’ time for themselves and spend time with family. It is an amazing concept that all the students love -but I am sure some teachers could say otherwise!
I logged back on after lunch and quickly made my way through my afternoon classes. I sighed as I packed away my notebooks and computer; another school day complete!
As soon as school was over, we went out for a nice long walk to experience Arkansas. After walking for a couple miles, my brother and I hung out at the RV while my parents walked some more. I decided to work on a friendship bracelet that I am in the process of making, and it was -luckily- coming out well.
When my family was back together we started up a bonfire and all relaxed and warmed up.
It was chilly outside -there was a slight wind in the air, the sun was hidden by the greying clouds, and I could see my breath as I exhaled. As the land around slowly got darker, the fire grew, calling for the perfect campfire experience.
Once we started to get hungry, we ate some Schezwan noodles — they were extremely delicious, and I was so full after the heavy meal! After dinner, I was craving some dessert, so I had some peanut butter-cup ice cream, cozied up, read a little, stretched out, yawned, and shut my eyes and went to sleep.
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Day 10:
Today was a day off because there was a decent snow storm back home. A snow day with no snow — oh the irony! My family took advantage of this free day, and we decided to wake up early and hike to Hot Springs National Park which was not to far from where our RV was parked.
I woke up at about 8:45, brushed my teeth, and got ready, while breakfast was being made. I went outside to give Bullet his food, and wipe him up because he was being a little devil and got himself dirty by playing in the soot near the fire-pit.
After cleaning and feeding Bullet, I went back inside and saw steaming tea, buttery avocado toast, and some sunny-side-up eggs laid out on the table-
-it was magnificent. My mouth was watering as soon as I saw the food, so I quickly washed up and started to eat with the rest of my family. There was also some bacon, which was the perfect addition to the fantastic meal.
I ate a lot of food, and I was quite full afterwards - perfect timing for a nice, long walk.
We all got out of the RV, and took a look outside; it was a sunny day, and the sky was clear. I heard a woodpecker on a tree, but I couldn’t spot it. I took a winter-hat and a pair of gloves, and was thanking myself because it was quite chilly outside. There was a stronger wind, and the temperature itself was around the mid-forties.
We began our walk at about 11 o’clock, and it was exciting. We exited our KOA, and made a left towards the highway. Obviously, we weren’t planning on walking on a highway, so we bypassed the highway by a street going under it. We walked through the town, and passed many houses; all of which seemed to have two to three dogs! Every time we would pass a house, there would be a chorus of barks from other dogs who were trying to communicate with Bullet. At the end of this specific street, was a small house with a large, fenced off backyard. The yard was for a horse -and as we passed the house- Bullet appeared to want to ‘attack’ the giant animal. I wonder if Bullet realizes that the horse can seriously hurt him with just a step! Bullet needs to understand how big he is and how big the horse is! It was hilarious watching Bullet try to talk to the horse, but it was also scary because I felt like the horse could just jump over the fence if it felt like it -and start chasing us down the road!
When we were well into Hot Springs National Park, we had walked about four miles, and we decided to hike up a little mountain. While hiking, we saw deposits of water flowing down from the springs. They were a sight to see; steam rising from the hot water and luscious greenery growing all around (from the moisture of the spring water).
At last, we reached the top of the mountain, and there was a tower at the peak, overlooking the entire town below. It was wonderful, and I felt on top of the world. We were so high up, and the view felt like a hard-earned achievement.
We were all starting to get hungry, so we found a picnic table (still at the top of the mountain) and ate some Schezwan noodles from the night before, that had been packed in the hiking bag we brought with us. After we completed our little lunch-break, we continued our excursion back down the mountain and went to a fill-up station for water. The crazy thing is, the water from these taps come directly from the hot-springs themselves, and it is entirely clean for the human body! Also, there were two stations: one for hot-spring water, and one for cold-spring water. It was eye-opening to watch all the towns-people come and fill up large containers of water, as that is their source of clean drinking water.
Once we filled up our water-bottles, we continued walking back towards our RV, and my parents made a quick stop at a local store to pick up some hot sauces for tonight’s dinner. We had to make sure to wear our masks and keep distance between others because we wanted to stay safe.
Slowly but surely we made our way back to the RV to unwind and relax. My family sat outside around a campfire, while I was inside recording for my virtual choir performance.
After I finished recording, I packed away my things, and went outside with the rest of my family. I ate some tea and chocolate-chip cookies, which were super tasty. Bullet was sleeping like a log because we had walked/hiked about ten miles total, and he was exhausted.
We sat around the fire for a couple hours before freshening up to have burrito bowls for dinner. We sat sown together and had a spectacular, fulfilling dinner, and were all craving some bed-time.
Finally, we separated towards our respective beds, and dozed off easily. What a day!
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