Sunday, August 19, 2012
I finished reading Lives of the Circus Animals by Christopher Bram. I began it while traveling and have read a few chapters each day. It is about a group of people in New York with most of them involved in theater. It's well written, and it is a nice bedside book with most chapters being only a few pages long. Bram also wrote the book that was the basis for the film Gods and Monsters. I gave Circus Animals 3 stars out of 4.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Monday, August 06, 2012
Closing the Loop/Returning Home
Sunday and Monday, Aug. 5 & 6, 2012—Arkadelphia
to Hope to Texarkana to Boxelder to San Antonio
I knew that Bob and Judy Maroney would be
at church in the morning, and I didn’t want them to have to worry about lunch
for me, so I told them I would be at their home in Boxelder in the early
afternoon. I stayed at the motel for a
while and read the newspapers on the computer.
Then I slowly drove their direction.
I pulled off the expressway in Hope, Arkansas and drove downtown. I walked up and down their major streets just
to get some exercise.
I arrived in Texarkana Detroit
To get more exercise and delay my arrival
further, I went to the local Central Mall and walked up and down its pathways. It’s a small mall, but quite adequate for the
size city Texarkana Altus , Arkansas
I got to Boxelder about 13:30. We visited inside because of the heat,
talking about books, politics, the university in Corpus Christi
In the evening, we sat outside on their
patio. There was lightning in the
distance, but it never rained. Finally,
a small breeze developed which made it more comfortable. We could hear the sounds of an owl in the
distance, frogs near to us at the pond, etc.
Monday morning, Bob and I sat outside
having coffee and watching the hummingbirds, the herons, the turtles, etc.,
until Judy was up. She made us a
breakfast of bacon, eggs, zucchini bread, melon, and jams. It was delicious.
After that, I excused myself. I knew they had chores that needed doing, and
I had a long ride home. I left there at
10:00. With a quick stop for a kolache
in West around 13:30 and another one for gasoline in Waco
a few minutes later, I arrived in San
Antonio
I tried to get onto the computer, but
couldn’t connect to the Internet. When I
tried calling ATT, there was an announcement that they had a major DSL outage
that was affecting service. Therefore, I
wrote this up on the computer and saved it.
I’ll probably go to a nearby McDonald’s to see if their wifi (also ATT)
is working or not so I can post it.
Steps Walked: 9330 (2 days)
Miles Driven: 583 (2 days)
Trip Expenses/Distances: I was gone on the trip for 6 weeks and 1 day—43
days. During that time, I spent a total
of $3282.33 for an average of $76.33 per day.
I drove a total of 7414 miles (11,929 km) for an average of 172 miles (277 km) per day.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Meandering through Arkansas
Friday and Saturday, Aug. 3 & 4, 2012--Bentonville, Van Buren, Altus, Clarksville, Conway, Little Rock, and Arkadelphia
Mike, my high school friend who drove up to join me, and I decided to drive back to Bentonville to see two museums we missed Thursday because of their closing hours. After breakfast, we drove back up there and stopped first at the Walmart Visitor Center which opens at 6:30!! There's not a lot worthwhile to see, but it was interesting seeing the old advertisements from the newspapers, following the progress as the company expanded, etc. NOTHING was said about Gibson's Discount Centers, yet it was quite successful with the same concept for years before Walmart. My guess is it is much like the fact that the Walt Disney Corporation never admits that Walt Disney's 1949 visit to Tivoli Gardens (with its rides based on Hans Christian Anderson characters, it's very effective use of space by having sections backed up to others, etc.) in Copenhagen is what caused him to have the idea for Disneyland rather than his own unique talent to come up with the idea. I'd bet that Sam Walton saw what Gibson's was doing and just duplicated it in a bigger and better way.
From there, we went to the Museum of Native American History. It's rather interesting with LOTS of displays of arrowheads, spearheads, axe heads, etc. It also had wonderful exhibits of headdresses, beaded work, etc. It wasn't obvious who was paying for the museum or why it was there, but it is worth seeing if someone is coming for Crystal Bridges (which we saw Thursday) and the Walmart Visitor's Center.
We returned to Fayetteville where Mike got into his pickup to return to Oklahoma and I left for more wandering. My first stop was Van Buran, an older town in western Arkansas. I walked the streets seeing the old bank, the old opera house, and the various stores.
From there, I headed toward nearby Ft. Smith. I knew little about the city, but I guessed that it had not grown much over time and had, therefore, a depressed economy. The neighborhoods seemed to fit my assumptions. Downtown was more alive than I expected; they've done a rather good job of keeping stores in the buildings and in enlivening the area with loft apartments. Heading to the local Sam's Club for gasoline, I got in a MESS. It's the highway that goes to the former Ft. Chaffee and also has all the present-day shopping facilities. It was one big traffic jam at 12:45!!
I took a back road out of Ft. Smith, because Bob Maroney had suggested I go to Altus, the wine producing area of Arkansas. It's a small town near a lake. The area is atmospheric. I found signs for 3 different wineries. One, when I tried to follow the sign, took me a direction I didn't want to go, and I turned around after about 5 miles. But I found two of the wineries just to the east of the town side-by-side. Although they have other grapes, like most wineries in this part of the country they mostly use muscadine grapes which produce a somewhat sweet wine.
I rejoined the main highway in Clarksville, but I drove through the town first. It is another older town that I wanted to explore, but it wasn't as nice as Van Buren.
I spent the night at a Days Inn in Conway. It's a college town with one state university (University of Central Arkansas) and two private universities (Central Baptist College and Hendrix College). It was HOT, so I just stayed inside my room for the rest of the evening.
Saturday morning, I drove by the campuses in Conway before heading out. They gave the town a bit of the atmosphere of Abilene in Texas. The Baptist campus was quite small, but the other two were nice.
My main goal today was to visit Little Rock. I parked near the Clinton Presidential Library and visited there. It was fine, but I will never go to a Presidential Library again. They are all really just propaganda museums. Although I voted for Clinton, there was no need for me to re-visit his presidency, to see the gifts that were given by foreign leaders, to see another reproduction of the Oval Office, etc. (I was once at the Lyndon Johnson Library and saw all those things there, too.)
Downtown Little Rock is attractive. There is an old warehouse district between downtown and the Clinton Library that has lots of shops, restaurants, bars, etc. It backs up to the river through town which has been landscaped nicely and has good trails used mostly for biking. I went to the Saturday market which was nice. I happened by their Peabody Hotel (built by the Memphis hotel) just 15 minutes before the march of the ducks (a tradition at all Peabody Hotels where ducks come out of the elevator, walk along a red carpet, climb steps, and then hop into a pond in the lobby where they spend their day). I went inside to see the event and visited with some members of the Wall Family which had 400 people there for the family's 100th anniversary reunion.
Next door to the Peabody, I toured the Arkansas State House Museum which is in the original capitol building. Built rather cheaply, they had to eventually abandon it and build a new one in the early 1900s. This one has been restored and has various exhibits now.
Although it was warming up quickly, I walked to the present capitol building and toured it. It is much nicer and bigger than the older building. It is also much simpler than most of the capitol buildings I've seen on this trip. It has an understated elegance rather than an overstated one like most capitol buildings. It is pretty, however.
I had one last stop to make from there--the Arkansas Arts Center. It's must interesting exhibit was art produced by tattoo artists. It wasn't their tattoo art; it was prints, photographs, paintings, etc., they had produced. It's obvious that people who became tattoo artists have great talent.
It was too hot to do anything else by the time I left town at 13:30. I stopped at Sam's Club and bought gas. Then I drove to Arkadelphia where I had a reservation at a Super 8 motel for the night. After staying in the room for a a couple of hours, I went into town to see the downtown area, the state university (Henderson) and the Baptist university (Ouachita). Both have nice campuses, although I found Ouachita to have a more impressive one.
Steps Walked: 22,855 (2 days)
Miles Driven: 391 (2 days)
Mike, my high school friend who drove up to join me, and I decided to drive back to Bentonville to see two museums we missed Thursday because of their closing hours. After breakfast, we drove back up there and stopped first at the Walmart Visitor Center which opens at 6:30!! There's not a lot worthwhile to see, but it was interesting seeing the old advertisements from the newspapers, following the progress as the company expanded, etc. NOTHING was said about Gibson's Discount Centers, yet it was quite successful with the same concept for years before Walmart. My guess is it is much like the fact that the Walt Disney Corporation never admits that Walt Disney's 1949 visit to Tivoli Gardens (with its rides based on Hans Christian Anderson characters, it's very effective use of space by having sections backed up to others, etc.) in Copenhagen is what caused him to have the idea for Disneyland rather than his own unique talent to come up with the idea. I'd bet that Sam Walton saw what Gibson's was doing and just duplicated it in a bigger and better way.
From there, we went to the Museum of Native American History. It's rather interesting with LOTS of displays of arrowheads, spearheads, axe heads, etc. It also had wonderful exhibits of headdresses, beaded work, etc. It wasn't obvious who was paying for the museum or why it was there, but it is worth seeing if someone is coming for Crystal Bridges (which we saw Thursday) and the Walmart Visitor's Center.
We returned to Fayetteville where Mike got into his pickup to return to Oklahoma and I left for more wandering. My first stop was Van Buran, an older town in western Arkansas. I walked the streets seeing the old bank, the old opera house, and the various stores.
From there, I headed toward nearby Ft. Smith. I knew little about the city, but I guessed that it had not grown much over time and had, therefore, a depressed economy. The neighborhoods seemed to fit my assumptions. Downtown was more alive than I expected; they've done a rather good job of keeping stores in the buildings and in enlivening the area with loft apartments. Heading to the local Sam's Club for gasoline, I got in a MESS. It's the highway that goes to the former Ft. Chaffee and also has all the present-day shopping facilities. It was one big traffic jam at 12:45!!
I took a back road out of Ft. Smith, because Bob Maroney had suggested I go to Altus, the wine producing area of Arkansas. It's a small town near a lake. The area is atmospheric. I found signs for 3 different wineries. One, when I tried to follow the sign, took me a direction I didn't want to go, and I turned around after about 5 miles. But I found two of the wineries just to the east of the town side-by-side. Although they have other grapes, like most wineries in this part of the country they mostly use muscadine grapes which produce a somewhat sweet wine.
I rejoined the main highway in Clarksville, but I drove through the town first. It is another older town that I wanted to explore, but it wasn't as nice as Van Buren.
I spent the night at a Days Inn in Conway. It's a college town with one state university (University of Central Arkansas) and two private universities (Central Baptist College and Hendrix College). It was HOT, so I just stayed inside my room for the rest of the evening.
Saturday morning, I drove by the campuses in Conway before heading out. They gave the town a bit of the atmosphere of Abilene in Texas. The Baptist campus was quite small, but the other two were nice.
My main goal today was to visit Little Rock. I parked near the Clinton Presidential Library and visited there. It was fine, but I will never go to a Presidential Library again. They are all really just propaganda museums. Although I voted for Clinton, there was no need for me to re-visit his presidency, to see the gifts that were given by foreign leaders, to see another reproduction of the Oval Office, etc. (I was once at the Lyndon Johnson Library and saw all those things there, too.)
Downtown Little Rock is attractive. There is an old warehouse district between downtown and the Clinton Library that has lots of shops, restaurants, bars, etc. It backs up to the river through town which has been landscaped nicely and has good trails used mostly for biking. I went to the Saturday market which was nice. I happened by their Peabody Hotel (built by the Memphis hotel) just 15 minutes before the march of the ducks (a tradition at all Peabody Hotels where ducks come out of the elevator, walk along a red carpet, climb steps, and then hop into a pond in the lobby where they spend their day). I went inside to see the event and visited with some members of the Wall Family which had 400 people there for the family's 100th anniversary reunion.
Next door to the Peabody, I toured the Arkansas State House Museum which is in the original capitol building. Built rather cheaply, they had to eventually abandon it and build a new one in the early 1900s. This one has been restored and has various exhibits now.
Although it was warming up quickly, I walked to the present capitol building and toured it. It is much nicer and bigger than the older building. It is also much simpler than most of the capitol buildings I've seen on this trip. It has an understated elegance rather than an overstated one like most capitol buildings. It is pretty, however.
I had one last stop to make from there--the Arkansas Arts Center. It's must interesting exhibit was art produced by tattoo artists. It wasn't their tattoo art; it was prints, photographs, paintings, etc., they had produced. It's obvious that people who became tattoo artists have great talent.
It was too hot to do anything else by the time I left town at 13:30. I stopped at Sam's Club and bought gas. Then I drove to Arkadelphia where I had a reservation at a Super 8 motel for the night. After staying in the room for a a couple of hours, I went into town to see the downtown area, the state university (Henderson) and the Baptist university (Ouachita). Both have nice campuses, although I found Ouachita to have a more impressive one.
Steps Walked: 22,855 (2 days)
Miles Driven: 391 (2 days)
Thursday, August 02, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Eureka Springs
Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012--Harrison to Eureka Springs
I had noticed last night that there was a doughnut shop on a pad site in front of my hotel. Well, when I went downstairs for breakfast this morning, there was a tray of assorted doughnuts!! It was so nice to have something different. I ate one with strawberry frosting and another with lemon frosting. I also made myself a waffle.
It didn't take long to reach Eureka Springs, but it took a while to find the Travelodge where I am staying. I drove by it FOUR times without seeing it, mainly because I thought I recalled it looking brown in the photos at the website. Instead, it was a a bright blue (as it is on the website)! As I did all of that driving, I realized I shouldn't have made a reservation. There are lots of cute motels that look very clean and have signs displayed with vacancies at $39 per night for two. So I spent too much money on the room I reserved. Although it was early in the morning, the lady was able to let me check in.
I left my room at the hotel and walked to town. Eureka Springs has one main road that goes through the center of town, and it is too narrow for parking. Parking is a premium in the entire town. They run a shuttle bus system for $5 per day so that people can leave their cars at the motels and ride it. But as I was driving around town, I watched out for it. It was obvious to me that they weren't coming around often enough. So I just walked into town, around town, and back. It was only difficult at the end when I had to climb a very steep hill to get back to the motel. It still wasn't a big problem for me, though.
I walked down one side of the main street downtown looking in the shop windows and continued onward through a nice old residential neighborhood with homes from the 1800s. Then I turned around and returned on the other side of the street. I found the neighborhoods to be more interesting than the shops. The shops had the usual choices for tourists like you find in Fredericksberg and other tourist towns. Even though there are lots of art galleries here, I didn't see a single one with art that would appeal to me; therefore, I never did enter any of the galleries. By the time I got back to the motel, I had been gone 2 1/2 hours and it was HOT.
I spent much of the afternoon in my room watching the Olympics, reading, and catching up on things on the computer. Then I went back out again planning to see the Thorncrown Chapel, but it was closed. I'm sorry to have missed it, but I feel as if I have been there from all the photos I have seen of it.
I finished reading We Disappear: A Novel by Scott Heim. It was an interesting story. I gave the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4.
Steps Walked: 12,432
Miles Driven: 95 (2 Days)
I had noticed last night that there was a doughnut shop on a pad site in front of my hotel. Well, when I went downstairs for breakfast this morning, there was a tray of assorted doughnuts!! It was so nice to have something different. I ate one with strawberry frosting and another with lemon frosting. I also made myself a waffle.
It didn't take long to reach Eureka Springs, but it took a while to find the Travelodge where I am staying. I drove by it FOUR times without seeing it, mainly because I thought I recalled it looking brown in the photos at the website. Instead, it was a a bright blue (as it is on the website)! As I did all of that driving, I realized I shouldn't have made a reservation. There are lots of cute motels that look very clean and have signs displayed with vacancies at $39 per night for two. So I spent too much money on the room I reserved. Although it was early in the morning, the lady was able to let me check in.
I left my room at the hotel and walked to town. Eureka Springs has one main road that goes through the center of town, and it is too narrow for parking. Parking is a premium in the entire town. They run a shuttle bus system for $5 per day so that people can leave their cars at the motels and ride it. But as I was driving around town, I watched out for it. It was obvious to me that they weren't coming around often enough. So I just walked into town, around town, and back. It was only difficult at the end when I had to climb a very steep hill to get back to the motel. It still wasn't a big problem for me, though.
I walked down one side of the main street downtown looking in the shop windows and continued onward through a nice old residential neighborhood with homes from the 1800s. Then I turned around and returned on the other side of the street. I found the neighborhoods to be more interesting than the shops. The shops had the usual choices for tourists like you find in Fredericksberg and other tourist towns. Even though there are lots of art galleries here, I didn't see a single one with art that would appeal to me; therefore, I never did enter any of the galleries. By the time I got back to the motel, I had been gone 2 1/2 hours and it was HOT.
I spent much of the afternoon in my room watching the Olympics, reading, and catching up on things on the computer. Then I went back out again planning to see the Thorncrown Chapel, but it was closed. I'm sorry to have missed it, but I feel as if I have been there from all the photos I have seen of it.
I finished reading We Disappear: A Novel by Scott Heim. It was an interesting story. I gave the book 2 1/2 stars out of 4.
Steps Walked: 12,432
Miles Driven: 95 (2 Days)
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