Mountain Thyme Bed & Breakfast was our first stop on our Honeymoon trip. We loved it so much we decided to return for our first anniversary. We were, of course, a bit sad to leave our wonderful camping spot at Lake Catherine but the scenery along the way and the thought of our home away from home was much anticipated. We stopped just outside the park to snap a few pictures of the park's welcome sign (the first image on the previous page). Like the one we saw at Queen Wilhelmina State Park, it was a largish base relief woodcarving. A really nice touch that Arkansas has done for a few of it's major State Parks. We had picked Lake Catherine in large part because it was near Mountain Thyme. We arrived well before the check-in time. Rhonda greeted us as we entered. I realized that our campfire must have been more than a memory. I didn't realize how much until I had taken a shower. Talk about reek. But it was a nice sort of reek. . . Perhaps it's not too uncommon for campers to visit Mountain Thyme. . .

Adjacent to the sign-in counter is a little display: A tray of fancy soaps imported from California. All the guests are invited to take a sample with them to their rooms. We selected one called "Ariel." It was your basic Sandalwood Aroma, though it looked like a pick of cake. It all looked good enough to eat. I tried to stand back a bit from Rhonda as we chatted, wishing to minimize my nose impact. Graciously she never even hinted that we . . . smelled. Since she was in the midst of preparing the rooms for incoming Guest, we ascended to our room: "Janie Lee."

Whomever Janie Lee was, she must have been noted for Roses, as that was the theme the room was designed around. It was just gorgeous. We thought the vase of roses were silk but they were actually real dried roses. The room even had a nifty little fireplace, unique in that it "switched" on and off with the flip of a wall switch. . . It was gas of course, but really very nice all the same. The first thing we did was shower off the camping smell. Carole was kind enough to let me go first. I didn't know that she wanted to polish some silver goblets that were given to us as wedding present by Daniel, Carole's son. It didn't take me long. I felt so much better! Since Carole wasn't in the room, I got out the Champagne Glasses Carole had bought us for a wedding present - lead crystal, engraved with names and date. We had brought a bottle of Champagne with us. It had been in the refrigerator at home for some time - for a special occasion. I pored some and waited. When she returned she displayed her newly polished goblets with a big smile, then noticed I had brought some too. I felt bad to spoil her surprise with my surprise. . . We toasted ourselves. Of course, we had to have a bit more in the Silver goblets too. . .

After our little anniversary celebration, we toured the Inn again - went outside and walked a bit. It was getting on in the afternoon so we decided to go eat dinner at the "Shack" - a noteworthy Arkansas diner. We arrived a little early, we came to discover, as after we were seated it seemed the whole town of Jesseville showed up. Fried Catfish was our preferred anniversary fare. It was delicious. We joked about it later because it's sound's funny as an anniversary treat. We could have driven in to Hot Springs, there were lots of the usual restaurants there. But The Shack was most excellent.

It was dark when we got back to Mountain Thyme. Rhonda had convinced Carole that she should read a "Harry Potter" book, so they searched until one was found. I got one of the extra TVs out of a common closet. Carole had most of that book finished by the time we left. And since then she has read all the other Harry Potter books. I think they must get pretty good reviews from her. . .

The next day we were up early and partook of the absolutely wonderful Mountain Thyme Breakfast. They're always rather gourmet; yet one still feels like they're at home. Then we went out for a little stroll. Of course everything was still in bloom. A bit past prime, we were informed, but still beautiful. We wandered up a little gravel road, which entered into a garden or nursery type place. I couldn't tell if it were associated with Mountain Thyme or not. It looked like many of the flowering plants that Mountain Thyme used around their place were grown here. There was one little circular garden with some sort of ornament in it center that was rather interesting. There was a house, nursery building, souvenir shop as well as the various patches of rows of flowers and ornamental leafy things.

Around noon we decided that we had to leave and head for home. We sure did have a wonderful anniversary. I hope we can do this every year. We stopped at Jack-in-the-Box in Sulfur Springs. It's sort of our finally-get-something-to-eat place on the way out of Dallas. We stop there on the way home too if the time is right. While there we saw this interesting cloud phenomena. It was a nice punctuation to end our trip. Our next camping trip will probably be in March 2000, perhaps to Devils Den State Park in Arkansas.