I snuck off for a quickie at Bradley Park again. I quickly realized I had a flat tire. I went to the Jasper Feed Store (which also has a garage & tires etc) to change the flat tire, and to my shock one of the lugs broke off. The place wasn't yet open so I put the flat on (with the missing lug nut) & went ahead to Bradley Park anyway, looking to return in time for a quick fix.

Wife called & told her what was going on, I returned to get them while waiting for the mechanic to be free to fix it (he was working on another person's at the time). As he was fixing it (and he told me that the missing lug "stud" would not really be a problem so long as I wasn't too rough on the car), she spotted signs for a garage sale not far off. They went walking to do that (with us set to meet at Sharon K's Cafe) while I was with the car getting it fixed. As part of this they went to the Goodwill. As I headed to Sharon K's to meet them all Adrian wondered off from the Goodwill before they'd made it to either the Sharon K's Cafe or the garage sale. I knew none of this. I went to Sharon K's and set up waiting for them and went to the garage sale looking for them to no avail. At one point a policeman saw me & told me what was going on. Right then Jenifer & Helen showed up, and we learned Adrian had walked from the Goodwill to the Jasper Feed Store. Shaken, we went & got him and had a nervous breakfast at Sharon K's. (As usual, I had ham & eggs.)

After we settled down, we went to the hike Hammerschmidt (p 60 T), which is near Horseshoe Canyon--the one on ARK 74 with the zipline. That was trying at first in terms of having trouble finding the right spot and ending up on a bumpy gravely road which bothered me even more due to worries over the car. Finally a good Samaritan (nice lady in her 20s who helped me feel better as well) with her husband on the phone was able to tell us exactly where it was (naturally I saved the coordinates), it was on the other side of the road.

Wife liked it but I was still upset over the drama of finding it & the gravel road (especially with the car's condition), eventually I settled down. One of the light moments and more enjoyable was the kids finding these REALLY SMALL frogs in a mud puddle going down the trail very early. Those kids & frogs, I swear, that really makes me smile & laugh.

We followed through on the prior day where we went to the Ponca area via 43 from Harrison & saw some of the places near the Ponca bridge where you'd turn RIGHT vs LEFT coming from ARK 74. We ate at Ponca deli (Buffalo Outdoor Center, turn right vs left off ARK 74 onto 43). (Apparently I took no photos there? Man I MUST have been stressed.) We were considering other spots (can't recall which, Sam's Throne maybe?) we went to Lost Trail but instead of hiking it in its full length we simply took some good family photos in a spot I found not far from where we parked. While there I saw a young lady with a Canon SL2 D-SLR and struck a "photographer's" conversation, which was very pleasant and really helped me to feel better. (In fact they were from Dallas, they knew where Tyler was, and they were going to college in Fayetteville ARK.) We then went to Ponca bridge again.

After that tiring day instead of eating out we ate cooked chicken chunks noodles/rice on the Ozark Trail/Coleman stove for dinner, it actually was one of the more pleasant encounters for all of us & when it was done and I was outside alone I did a little recollecting of the trip & our life in general (how much older the kids were now vs 2012 and contemplating how much longer we would be still doing this).

Coordinates:
Hammerschmidt (p 60 W), park spot: 36.01868, -93.28971)
Lost Valley/Trail 36.01009,-93.37428
Ponca Bridge 36.01870,-93.35710