Lake Charles State Park
Ya know – it gets better and better. These state parks are just beautiful. We picked another great site with a bit of a lake view. After a smooth sailing drive day, we enjoyed a cold one outside on our patio…we had a wonderful, relaxing stay.
We had no idea Arkansas had so many hundreds of miles of farm land. We saw a crop duster which we haven’t seen in forever……interesting how the terrain changes too. Mountains, lakes, rivers, and lots of wildlife. The cardinals are in abundance, and they LOVE to look at themselves in our TRUCK MIRRORS and peck at the windows Urrgggg….
Another storm rolled through while we were here so what do you do on a rainy day? Laundry……which in these VERY rural areas isn’t easy to find. You gotta do what you gotta do….drive 20 miles to the nearest laundry mat – LOL!!
When the weather cleared up, we took a nice pleasant 4 mile walk around the campground. Enjoyed seeing all the turtles sunning themselves on the logs floating in the lake.
But………..while doing laundry in the small town of Walnut Ridge, we stumbled upon Abbey Lane! Yep – that’s right – THAT Abbey Lane. Seems as though on 9/18/64, The Beatles finished a concert in Dallas. They made a brief stop in Walnut Ridge. The airport provided an ideal spot for the group to change planes before heading to Missouri – avoiding the crush of screaming fans because of the small town. Just after midnight, 3 local boys noticed the odd timing of a plane landing and raced to the airport to identify the unexpected visitors. To their surprise, the Beatles departed the plane and quickly boarded a small aircraft heading for Missouri. There were many false alarms that morning. Teenagers mobbed a local crop-duster mistaken for the Beatles’ plane. Little did they know that McCartney and Harrison had arrived at the airport an hour early and watched the spectacle from an old truck parked across the runway!
Suddenly, a small commuter plane with Lennon and Starr landed and taxied up the runway. The two left the plane, walking through a gauntlet of excited spectators. At the same time Lennon and Starr ascended the steps to the larger plane, the old truck that held Harrison
and McCartney pulled up next to it. All four Beatles quickly boarded and left for their last US concert of the year.
On 9/18/2011, Walnut Ridge unveiled a monument dedicating this event. Now each September the town hosts a “Beatles at the Ridge Festival”. Who knew??????