Ozark scenes I'm sure to see . . .

My wife, Sun-Ae sent me a few more photos of our kids frolicking in water, though no crawdads this time. In her own words:

I'm sending some photos. They are all about Sa-Rah and En-Uk in the water: Salem River [i.e., South Fork River], and Norfork Lake when we went . . . on Sunday with Gaye and on Monday with [Uncle] Cran & [Aunt] Gay. It's so hot here that [the] kids can only be in the water to avoid the heat. Anyway, you can put them in your blog if you want but don't cite me this time. I didn't write anything worth to be quoted.

Oops . . . I wasn't supposed to cite her. Well, too late -- you've all already seen her words. Let's move on and hope that she doesn't notice.

In the picture above, you see En-Uk and Sa-Rah wading waist-deep in a swimming hole on the South Fork River where I used to cool off during the dog days of summer . . . or after any hot day spent hauling bales of hay from sun-scorched field to stifling barn.

You also see our two kids in the photograph below, same swimming hole, but with the concrete launch for canoes and flatbottom boats now visible. Still looks as primitive as when I was a little boy.


At least this launch makes for convenience in wading into the water. You see below the onset of small rapids, which present an irritant for fishermen floating the river during dry summer months . . . though the river enjoys a more constant large flow further downstream as numerous springs feed into it.


In this next scene, we move away from the South Fork River, which flows through my hometown of Salem, Arkansas, to Norfork Lake, some twenty-five miles distant to the west. En-Uk and Sa-Ra have either discovered the skeletal remains of a spider crab that perished in this Ozark lake's fresh water, or entangled themselves in an unexpectedly surviving tree limb from the days before the lake waters inundated a valley to form this bay some seventy years ago. Or whatever.


The kids still gamboling in the same bay, apparently, which I don't yet recognize.


Here below can be seen a covered motorboat dock in the distance, and further off a bridge, so I think maybe I begin to recognize this area. Henderson Bay? Or is it Bidwell Point?


Anyway, Aunt Gay -- my Uncle Cran's wife -- has the right idea! Cool off by moving the seats directly into Lake Norfork!


We see below a picture of what looks somewhat like Sa-Rah taking a picture of En-Uk. My boy near a buoy.


And that's all from the Ozarks until I arrive there in three days or so . . .