A Beautiful Fall Road Trip

Since we had a whole free weekend, we decided to checkout the Talimena Scenic Drive in Southeastern Oklahoma. We'd heard it is beautiful in the fall when the leaves are changing.

I actually was able to leave work early on Friday so we left about noon and made it to Poteau.
When we were checking into a hotel room, we found out we had made it just in time for the annual Poteau Balloonfest. The lady at the hotel also informed us that there was a real-sized fair too, like the one at the state fair, not just with kiddie rides and stuff. Too funny! So we went Friday night to check it out but it was freezing and windy so they didn't do the balloon glow show and there were about five people there riding the full-size rides.

We did get to check out the World's Tallest Hill:

(The view from the top- it was really hazy)

We found this gorgeous waterfall up near the hill:

We got up early Saturday to head off to Talihina to start the scenic drive:

Kev went into the woods to take a few shots and came back with a friend:
(This actually happened twice!) I'd never seen a Walkingstick up close before.
And I took a hasty shot because I was afraid it was going to jump on my face.
Did you know they can fly? Freaky little creatures.
And we were off. The whole trip looked like this and prettier...

We got to the end of the Byway in Mena, Arkansas and couldn't decide what to do.
We saw that Hot Springs, AR was just about an hour away and headed there.
It was such a gorgeous little mountain town. My batteries ran out of my camera so I don't have pictures. We stayed at the Arlington Hotel and got to bathe in the hot springs at the spa there. I've never been in natural hot springs before- it was amazing.

We also found a cool little stone store on the way to Hot Springs called the Crystal Seen. I got some neat crystals and an amethist. We talked to the lady there for about an hour- she was very cool and knowledgeable.

This was a gorgeous lake on the drive back:
All in all, it was a great trip. I love spontaneous weekend trip.
I have some fibery pics to post soon!