Rogers, Arkansas day -- Roger that!

"Roger that" is a phrase used when communicating via two-way radios, and it means that the message has been received and understood.  Do you "Roger that"? When we woke up to gusty winds, we were glad that we had kayaked and did our lake activities the day before. This would be a windy day filled with land activities instead of water activities. So we headed to the nearest town--Rogers, Arkansas. "Roger that!"

On our last bicycle ride, Mark's back tire had a blow out. We were in the middle of mountain bike country, and can you believe we couldn't find a replacement tube? The problem was that we were looking for a narrow townie tire, and this was mountain bike territory. So today we took turns riding Denisa's bike.

Denisa took the first turn, riding the 1.8-mile loop around Lake Atalanta in Rogers.

Another man-made lake built in the 1930's, it was a busy trail even on a Thursday morning.

It was windy, but biking was a nice way to burn some calories. Denisa walked another lap to get another couple miles of exercise. She took a picture of Mark riding her bike on the second lap.

She also took a few pictures of the local flora and fauna that were tough to see on a bike. First the flora--some beautiful yellow water irises in bloom. We find all kinds of beauty when we wander God's wonders. "Roger that!"

The only fauna was a line of turtles that were trying hard to ignore the camera by keeping their noses in the air and looking the other direction.

Besides a nice mostly-level paved trip around the lake, Lake Atalanta Park also features dirt mountain bike trails that thread their way through the surrounding Ozark mountains. We couldn't see those trails because of all the trees, and our foldable skinny-tired bikes had no business being up there.  Denisa on a skinny-tired fold-up bike on an aggressive mountain biking trail would be a recipe for disaster! "Roger that!" 

But we could walk up to the second floor overlook to watch the bikers on the Railyard Bike Park. We had a bird's eye view of the jumps and bumps that challenge the pros. In the bottom right corner they also have a track for the little pros on balance bikes.

The next stop was historic downtown Rogers--home of the Daisy BB gun museum. Here in Rogers, they've been making the Red Ryder BB guns made famous from "A Christmas Story" movie. They also made the world's largest Daisy BB gun and displayed it downtown. That's one big Red Ryder! "Roger that!"

Another downtown stop was the fresh harvest store--with lots of samples of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegars. After hearing how they make their products, and tasting how delicious they were, we walked out of there with a couple bottles. Those were pretty expensive free samples. "Roger that!"

So we headed to another free stop--the Rogers Historic Museum--hoping not to spend quite so much money. We got a free private tour of the Hawkins family home, built in 1895 and once again outfitted in period furnishings. Then we walked across the street to see the displays of early Rogers history including transportation. "Roger that!"

We made a stop for groceries and another try for a new bike tube, before we headed for a special dinner stop. On our way to our camp site yesterday, we saw an unassuming little cafe in the middle of no where with a big sign with the phone number to make reservations. Why would a little place in a remote location need reservations? Probably because according to several sources, they serve the best fried chicken in Arkansas?!? We used that phone number to make a reservation earlier today, and we watched as car-loads of people streamed in when they opened at 5:00. Only those with reservations were seated. We can now say that Monte Ne Inn Chicken was the best chicken we have eaten in a very long time! "Roger that!"

On our last night at Horseshoe Bend Campground on Beaver Lake, we had to spend some time monitoring the weather. Mark took a screen shot of the radar map with storm alerts posted at 3:00 a.m. We were the blue dot on the map below, with lots of lightning and high winds. We were glad that the tornado stayed north of us. "Roger that!"