ONE OF OUR PRETTIEST PARKS......

I thought I would share this photo with y'all...this is our path we take on our daily walk..It used to be a road, but was closed when they added more campsites...They had a fire here, as you can tell by the now brown pines..
Of course, I have to give you a little history of Texarkana. It was named for it's location on the Texas/Arkansas border in the extreme northeastern corner.There is some debate about how it was named. One tradition said it was named after a steamboat known as Texarkana, which traveled the Red River in 1860. Others claim that a man named Swindle (whatever), who ran a general store in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, manufactured a drink called "Texarkana Bitters"...and another story claims that when St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railroad built it's line through here, the name was coined by a Col. Gus Knobel, who erected a large sign at the site. At any rate, what they called The Great Southwest Trail, which, for hundreds of years, was the main line of travel from Indian villages of the Mississippi River country to those of the South and West, passed by a Caddo Indian village on this site. There are seventy indian mounds within a radius of thirty miles of Texarkana..cool, eh??
There is a road, called State Line Road (for obvious reasons) which runs directly through Texarkana on the state line. We know, because we have to cross it into the Arkansas WalMart to get wine and beer...the Texas side is "dry".. This city is commercially one city, but it has two separate municipalities, aldermanic in form, with two mayors, and two sets of councilmen. They do share a joint fire department. The Federal Building here has the distinction of being the only building of it's kind, situated between two states...Whew!...did ya learn anything??? I just did!!!I need to go back to my high school typing class!! Enough knowledge...here are some cool photos...Last Easter weekend was busy here..This is one of the many cooker/smokers people were cooking on.....note it is built on a wagon and the smoke stack goes out through the roof...thus, rain does not bother it..!
We noticed that they had built some new little cabins on the edge of the lake this year..They are really nice and have a little deck overlooking the lake..Here is one of the 3 new ones....
This next photo is a campsite that they have built a deck on...We took note of the number, because it is reservable, but up in a different loop.....maybe next time???
About 2 campsites from us,they had a big Easter get together...and this is their cooker..
..I really WANT one of these cookers!!
And here is yet a few more bird photos...This is my new little friend, the Ruby Throated Hummingbird...
...isn't he just too cute???
Well, I have bored you enough...I may blog one more time, if I have anything new to say...We leave here next Tuesday....headed North. I just may have one more blog in me...later...maybe.