Crystal Bridges

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012--Eureka Springs to Fayetteville/Bentonville

My hotel had only a mini-breakfast this morning.  I had a raisin bagel with cream cheese, a bowl of cereal, a muffin and orange juice.  While eating it, I visited with a couple from Holland.  They are driving around this area for 4 weeks.  Next, they will head to Louisiana for some cajun music.  They were surprised that I have traveled so much (the typical European reaction to Americans they think work all but 2 weeks a year) and were amazed that I was able to retire at age 53 (because it is almost impossible for anyone to do that in Europe).  They were a nice couple, and I was able to tell them about some of my travels in their country.  They hadn't expected that a tourist had been anywhere other than Amsterdam.

I drove through the Ozark hills to Fayetteville.  When I arrived, I parked next to the University of Arkansas campus and spent 1 1/2 hours walking around the area.  The campus is in a mess because of construction right now, so I had to deal with getting around it.  They are taking out streets that went through the campus to create a walking spine which is now popular with university campuses.  Also, they are remodeling many older buildings.  The campus has a number of new buildings.  The older ones have the most character, however.  In terms of campuses, it was somewhat ordinary looking in my opinion.  It's not a big university, so the campus is not very big.  UTSA has about 7000 more students than the University of Arkansas has.

After touring the campus, I walked down Dickson Street which is the business street serving the campus (and essentially connecting it to downtown Fayetteville).  It is lined with businesses, but 1 out of every 3 is a bar.  They had some fantastic happy hour promotions going.

At noon, I went to the hotel and checked in.  Mike O'Neal, a friend from high school who now lives outside of Norman, OK, was driving here to meet me so we could see some of the tourist sites together.  He arrived at 13:00.  We immediately headed to Bentonville to tour the Crystal Bridges Museum, a museum of American art established by Alice Walton and the Walmart Corporation.  It's about a 30-minute drive north of Fayetteville.

The museum was very nice.  The architecture is interesting, the setting is nice, and the art was worth seeing.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours there.  After going through it all, we went through again looking for places to take some photos.

After the museum, we headed downtown to the Walmart Visitor's Center which consists of the original Walton's 5 & 10 store.  Unfortunately, it was closed for a special event.  Normally, it is open until 21:00 each day.  That was a disappointment.

We returned to Fayetteville, and I drove around the outer edge of the university campus so that Mike could see it.  It was too hot to try to walk around.  My car showed it to be 104 degrees F.  Then we drove out to a restaurant I had found via research--Mama Dean's Soul Food.  It is a small place operated by a black family.  They have a set price for a meal that includes 1 meat, 2 sides, and 1 dessert.  I had fried chicken (a huge breast and a wing), purple-hulled peas, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, hot water cornbread, banana pudding, and iced tea.  The portions were very large.  It all was wonderfully tasty.  I was way too full when I left.

Mike wanted something to drink, so we went by Sam's Club and bought a bottle of white wine to drink in the room.  We caught up on visiting about various topics while drinking the wine.  We also spent some time trying to figure out what each of us will do tomorrow.

Steps Walked:  12,352

Miles Driven:  122