Honeymooning in Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas

Ahh married life! The wedding was so fun with all our wonderful friends and family and our honeymoon was the perfect escape to quiet Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas. No cell phones, no traffic, no NOTHING! It was so quiet and peaceful - but we're excited to be back and back to work. Next on our list is buying a home so we'll be busy doing research. You never know - Blake and Sarah Roder may be your new neighbors! There goes the neighborhood!
Here are some pictures from our honeymoon in Arkansas. It was pretty cold when we drove in Saturday night and that cold snap lasted through Monday. Monday just so happened to be the day we paid for a guided fishing trip along the White River (number one trout fishing river in North America) so we FROZE. Other than that we had the most gorgeous weather and had a great time being lazy, hiking, biking, fishing, and antiquing.

Here we are about 5 minutes north from where we were staying - Turkey Mountain. It's the tallest peak in the county or something. An Arkasasonian told us to go check it out so we did.

All bundled up! We weren't very prepared for the cold weather, and Horseshoe Bend isn't a shopping mecca so we had to do with what we found in Wal Mart and gas stations. Our matching beenies are the latest fashion in all the gas stations. We're all dressed to fish (unsuccessfully) on the lake we were staying on and to explore the Crown Point Resort (where we stayed.)

Condos that Crown Point has on Crown Lake - we stayed in cabins further up the hill.

Who's that? Mrs. Charles Blake Roder! :)

View of Crown Lake - all of our shots are taken using the timer on our camera. There was never a lot of people around to take a pic for us. I'm telling you - it was QUIET!

By the end of the week everyone knew who we were! 'Here come the newlyweds!'

Monday morning of our fishing trip with Bill Terry. It was around 42 degrees and when you're cruising on a boat it feels like -15. We both were wearing panty hose, pajama pants, jeans, two pairs of socks, the kitchen sink... you get the idea.

BRRR!!!

Blake ready with his pole! On our trip we caught fish in the morning, ate them for lunch, and then what we caught in the afternoon Bill cleaned for us and we brought them home. We prob caught 60 fish total that day. We threw a lot back.

Here I am with the biggest catch of the day - a 15'' brown trout. There's Bill Terry, nicest guy EVER, in the background. I sat next to him and he baited my hook and took all my fish off the hook when I caught one. This was the only time all day I touched a fish. PERFECT!

Pretty pretty Arkansas.
Lunch! Here fishy fishy fishy!
Bill preparing our shore lunch - homemade bread, salad, ranch beans, fried potatoes, and fried fish. He's a good cook!
Dam at the top of the river. They have been getting a lot of rain and BAD floods - usually the dam isn't completely open like this.

Here we are hiking (more like walking a paved sidewalk) at Blanchard Springs in Mountain View, Arkansas.


Replay of me walking down the aisle. Let's get married again!




Blake - I better never see you without that ring!!


All the dogwoods were in bloom - we decided to uproot one to bring back with us to plant in our new home. That way every April when it blooms we'll remember our wedding! Now we just need a house...
Dam along Blanchard Springs - we're still 'hiking'.
On our way home we decided to take 'scenic' Route 9. In Arkansas scenic means life-threatening. This road had so many sharp twists and turns - it took us like 40 minutes to go 15 miles. Pretty views along the way tho!

Here we are hiking again (on Wednesday), but this time we're for real hiking along a 10 mile trail in Blanchard Springs again. We saw some deer and thankfully - no BEARS.
My view the whole hike.

There's our blanket from REI that Tahira gave us! :)

Hanging out along the spring

On our way to the truck - kissing on a bridge - HOW ROMANTIC!
Here's Blake squirrel whisperer shots - we were feeding squirrels from our patio.

Our porch

Antiquing on Friday in Hardy.

Blake with his purse.
It's Friday - last day of the honeymoon so we had to get our dogwoods to take home!

That's it! Thank you to everyone that has helped us celebrate by attending the shower, crawfish boil and wedding. We're so blessed with such loving family and friends and we really have been overwhelmed with everyone's genorousity with the gift-giving. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect wedding either. Thank you to everyone who braved the Houston traffic and helped party down with us. We love you all! I'll post the link to the photographer's site when she tells us the pics are up!