We decided to head toward El Dorado, which was about 15 miles southwest of Champaignolle.
Back in the car we turned up the heat and began to thaw out.
After getting back on the main road and proceeding about 1 mile, we saw a road sign for Crain Road and a lock on the Ouachita River. So we turned off to the left and drove to a park with about 25 parking places and a ramp to put boats in the Ouachita River.
We walked down the ramp to the river. The Ouachita was up after all the rain we had experienced and I couldn’t believe how wide it was. It was over 400 yards in this section of the river.
I could imagine the commercial barges traveling down the river with lumber, cotton, corn, and sorghum for the markets in New Orleans and coming back up river to Camden and Little Rock with boats full of dry goods to sell.
I even fancied that a few paddle wheelers also traversed the river with all the other boats giving them a wide berth as they carried the rich landed gentry to their destinations.
We made another video before we left to show how wide the Ouachita was. Then we started out again for El Dorado.
