Post by greenbeing on Oct 11, 2006 23:46:42 GMT -5
I know a lot of people here take short trips (and long ones), so I thought it would be fun to have a travelogue section where we can post our grand adventures.
This past week I was lucky enough to take a (free!) trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Arkansas, the land of people who talk funny (sorry, DD) and inbreeding and Clinton. Woopee, right? Actually, I had a blast. Camping (the wimpy way) for eight days, we spent five at a state park just um... west? (okay, they wouldn't give me the map, even though I ended up being navigator... so I actually don't know my directions there, though I know how to get around the region now) of Eureka Springs, in Forum. Gorgey park, huge trees, falling acorns (look out!). Full moons and howling coyotes (or were they poodles?), both of which were necessary, being October. The area is in the Ozark Mountains, just as the leaves were starting to turn. Giant rocks and little springs are abundant.
The town of Eureka Springs is pretty much built on these rocks. Some houses are built on top of a single rock, one hotel is built so when you go into the restaurant in back, it's inside the cave, the rock is actually one wall of the old hotel. Darling little town (I started looking at houses on-line when I got back, that's how impressed I was), and the weather is perfect for people like me. Winter is very mild, unlike Nebraska.
We spent the first couple days wandering around town, checking out the parks, eating, shopping, trying to figure out when to do all the stuff we wanted. We checked out the only grist mill in the country where the water goes underneath, making the grain grinder spin backwards. We took a train ride in an old-fashioned dining car for lunch. It's a glorified luncheon, my dad was disappointed because he thought we'd go further, but I thought it was nifty, as I'd never been on a train before, and the beef stroganoff was yum. 4.5 miles round trip in an hour, of course we're not going to go far or fast. Am I the only one who read the brochure?
Highlight of my trip? Okay, I actually did a little research for once. Normally I'm just along for the ride, the 'rents can do whatever they please, I won't complain (within reason).
This time I came straight from reading Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, and so was looking up roadside attractions online (roadsideamerica.com) and in Eccentric America, a book we got my co-worker for his birthday two years ago. So I had a plan. I wanted to see a cheesy roadside attraction. First thing we drive into Arkansas and I see the giant chicken and giant turkey outside some factory. Wasn't expecting to find them, as I didn't know where we were! Then found the McDonald's with the bi-plane atop it and Ronald with no parachute (don't try this at home, kids). So already I was pretty happy. Been gone about five hours, already saw a few things I hadn't expected to find.
The highlight was actually one that wasn't marked in the books. My very own very cheesy roadside attraction! My mom wanted to go to the Onyx Cave. We've taken many a tour of caves, but she actually wanted to just go to the gift shop.... I figured, okay, it'll be like normal, right? But it was much better! No tour guides on this trip! The gift shop is built on top of the entrance, which is in the back, like going into a dank basement. The man running it (Sorry I didn't get up, didn't get much sleep last night, got a pinched nerve in my back, gonna be 74 next month, I coulda retired if I hadn't spent all my money, you know, people get stranger every year, they need to fix all those degenerates so they can't procreate) was a hoot. And he had to flip on the lights in the cave, which made me laugh, then he handed us headsets, which made me laugh more. They're 1960s pale blue-ish-green, wireless, big honkin' headphones. And we had to go into the cave, self-guided, and follow the yellow stripe (follow the yellow brick road...) and push big glowing green buttons to get the narrative to start. The narrator sounded like one of those old junior high health video narrators. It was rather informative, and they haven't redone the narration since about 1960, so he was saying things like, "And plum dead ahead you have helicatate formations." My favorite was his ending, "And to the left of that you'll see some flint. Now you may be asking, what's flint doing in a limestone cave? But we can't tell you. That's the end of the tour, now feel free to go back the way you came and ask any questions in the gift shop, except that one." I laughed the entire tour, it was grand, highly recommend it. I'm already thinking of taking a trip back sometime and sharing the wonders of the Onyx Cave ;D
Acorns do explode! My dad and I had been trying for days to get them to explode. Camp fires every night (yum, s'mores and roasted marshmallows), we tossed in the small acorns, which wouldn't even smoke, but would turn red and glow. Rather disappointing. After a week, we'd pretty much given up. Then we moved up to Truman Lake in Missouri to go to the Renaissance Faire in KC, and found two kinds of acorns. Little ones with small hats, and biiiig ones with big furry-looking parkas, or Russian hats. Well, we ran out of firewood. And the parkas look woodish, so we thought they might burn, so we tossed in seven. A little smoke, a little flame, then nada. Well, sigh. Whatever, we had enough coals for marshmallows, so the warming acorns were forgotten. Until I was leaning over the fire toasting my first marshmallow of the eve and kapow! Flying red bits flew every which way!
Now, when we got there, we found the camp host had suddenly vacated this perfect site with a nice view of the lake, and it seemed we knew why he had vacated that perfect site in a hurry without informing anyone he was leaving. We're sure it had something to do with all the oddities we found remnants of in the fire pit. Coils and wires and speaker covers and springs and tubes and who knows what else. I was sure something he had left had exploded. I'd forgotten all about our attempts to explode acorns, as we'd been trying long enough I KNEW without a doubt they do NOT explode. Except for the fact that we were missing one. We only had six left. Acorn shrapnel littered our camp site, but we were lucky, no one was injured. And my mom had the presence of mind to remind me to take out the other six while we still had our heads.
But it was soooo cool! Don't try it at home, but wow! They do explode! I was happy
In Eureka Springs they have the large Passion Play and the giant statue of Jesus who looks an awful lot like those new Little People, sort of square. We had trouble finding Jesus. How do you lose a giant 300 foot statue? It can be done! My parents sent me back for the car, because we weren't sure how much further he was.
I guess the height limit for aircraft and buildings is 321 feet or thereabouts, and the original designs had Jesus standing about three feet too high. They had too options, according to roadsideamerica.com. Either they give him a blinking red beanie, or they take off his feet. They took off his feet.
I had seen Jesus the night before from the bar/balcony/lounge at the Crescent Hotel. The Crescent was built in 1886, gorgeous old hotel, huge, up top of a mountain, and it's been on several ghost hunting shows on Discovery and Travel channels. I just wanted the tour of the hotel, but, it also was October, so the Ghost Tour sounded like fun. (Too bad we weren't there over the weekend, or I could have taken the tour of the entire town with stories about Jesse James et al.) My 'rents wouldn't come (well, Mum wouldn't), so I got to hang out in town, walk around the springs, then go on the ghost tour by myself. The history of the hotel/girl's conservatory/Cancer Cure Hospital was fascinating. We spent most of our time in the hallways, but we did get to go down to the spa, laundry room, storage/morgue/parts rooms as well. I'm still not sure if I believe in ghosts and nothing weird happened on the tour, which was good, 'cause then I didn't have to explain to my mum what happened and why. But the stories were fascinating.
And of course, though she hated the idea of the tour, kept grimacing, and wouldn't go, it was too funny when we got back, and the neighbor asked about our trip. That must have been the highlight of the trip for her--"My daughter did something I never would have done--she went on this ghost tour of this creepy old hotel." And she went on to explain it in great detail! Ha! Parents are funny. Must be why I get along with them so well we can still go on vacations together.
Well, those are the highlights of my trip. I saved an inchworm from imminent death in the fire the last night, got attacked twice by a stickbug, and once the stickbug climbed onto the flashlight and did elaborate shadow puppetry. And when I got back, my grandpa had raided my stuffed animal collection (I'm sure I've mentioned the naughty platypi collection?) and he had plats roasting elongated black-painted marshmallow slugs over my stove, and another group of plats gathered IN MY BED around an empty can with a sign begging for help finding the 6 or 7 slimy slugs they'd brought in from the garden. Thankfully one of my pet cows was on my side. My GP set her up in the library at the computer, looking up... slugs.com... no... gardens.com... no. Ah, here we go. Bottom link on foodchain.com. Good cow, helping me fight the never-ending battle!
My platypi are grounded, and I'm still worn out from the trip, so I need a nap. Instead, I have work to do.
--GB
This past week I was lucky enough to take a (free!) trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Arkansas, the land of people who talk funny (sorry, DD) and inbreeding and Clinton. Woopee, right? Actually, I had a blast. Camping (the wimpy way) for eight days, we spent five at a state park just um... west? (okay, they wouldn't give me the map, even though I ended up being navigator... so I actually don't know my directions there, though I know how to get around the region now) of Eureka Springs, in Forum. Gorgey park, huge trees, falling acorns (look out!). Full moons and howling coyotes (or were they poodles?), both of which were necessary, being October. The area is in the Ozark Mountains, just as the leaves were starting to turn. Giant rocks and little springs are abundant.
The town of Eureka Springs is pretty much built on these rocks. Some houses are built on top of a single rock, one hotel is built so when you go into the restaurant in back, it's inside the cave, the rock is actually one wall of the old hotel. Darling little town (I started looking at houses on-line when I got back, that's how impressed I was), and the weather is perfect for people like me. Winter is very mild, unlike Nebraska.
We spent the first couple days wandering around town, checking out the parks, eating, shopping, trying to figure out when to do all the stuff we wanted. We checked out the only grist mill in the country where the water goes underneath, making the grain grinder spin backwards. We took a train ride in an old-fashioned dining car for lunch. It's a glorified luncheon, my dad was disappointed because he thought we'd go further, but I thought it was nifty, as I'd never been on a train before, and the beef stroganoff was yum. 4.5 miles round trip in an hour, of course we're not going to go far or fast. Am I the only one who read the brochure?
Highlight of my trip? Okay, I actually did a little research for once. Normally I'm just along for the ride, the 'rents can do whatever they please, I won't complain (within reason).
This time I came straight from reading Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, and so was looking up roadside attractions online (roadsideamerica.com) and in Eccentric America, a book we got my co-worker for his birthday two years ago. So I had a plan. I wanted to see a cheesy roadside attraction. First thing we drive into Arkansas and I see the giant chicken and giant turkey outside some factory. Wasn't expecting to find them, as I didn't know where we were! Then found the McDonald's with the bi-plane atop it and Ronald with no parachute (don't try this at home, kids). So already I was pretty happy. Been gone about five hours, already saw a few things I hadn't expected to find.The highlight was actually one that wasn't marked in the books. My very own very cheesy roadside attraction! My mom wanted to go to the Onyx Cave. We've taken many a tour of caves, but she actually wanted to just go to the gift shop.... I figured, okay, it'll be like normal, right? But it was much better! No tour guides on this trip! The gift shop is built on top of the entrance, which is in the back, like going into a dank basement. The man running it (Sorry I didn't get up, didn't get much sleep last night, got a pinched nerve in my back, gonna be 74 next month, I coulda retired if I hadn't spent all my money, you know, people get stranger every year, they need to fix all those degenerates so they can't procreate) was a hoot. And he had to flip on the lights in the cave, which made me laugh, then he handed us headsets, which made me laugh more. They're 1960s pale blue-ish-green, wireless, big honkin' headphones. And we had to go into the cave, self-guided, and follow the yellow stripe (follow the yellow brick road...) and push big glowing green buttons to get the narrative to start. The narrator sounded like one of those old junior high health video narrators. It was rather informative, and they haven't redone the narration since about 1960, so he was saying things like, "And plum dead ahead you have helicatate formations." My favorite was his ending, "And to the left of that you'll see some flint. Now you may be asking, what's flint doing in a limestone cave? But we can't tell you. That's the end of the tour, now feel free to go back the way you came and ask any questions in the gift shop, except that one." I laughed the entire tour, it was grand, highly recommend it. I'm already thinking of taking a trip back sometime and sharing the wonders of the Onyx Cave ;D
Acorns do explode! My dad and I had been trying for days to get them to explode. Camp fires every night (yum, s'mores and roasted marshmallows), we tossed in the small acorns, which wouldn't even smoke, but would turn red and glow. Rather disappointing. After a week, we'd pretty much given up. Then we moved up to Truman Lake in Missouri to go to the Renaissance Faire in KC, and found two kinds of acorns. Little ones with small hats, and biiiig ones with big furry-looking parkas, or Russian hats. Well, we ran out of firewood. And the parkas look woodish, so we thought they might burn, so we tossed in seven. A little smoke, a little flame, then nada. Well, sigh. Whatever, we had enough coals for marshmallows, so the warming acorns were forgotten. Until I was leaning over the fire toasting my first marshmallow of the eve and kapow! Flying red bits flew every which way!
Now, when we got there, we found the camp host had suddenly vacated this perfect site with a nice view of the lake, and it seemed we knew why he had vacated that perfect site in a hurry without informing anyone he was leaving. We're sure it had something to do with all the oddities we found remnants of in the fire pit. Coils and wires and speaker covers and springs and tubes and who knows what else. I was sure something he had left had exploded. I'd forgotten all about our attempts to explode acorns, as we'd been trying long enough I KNEW without a doubt they do NOT explode. Except for the fact that we were missing one. We only had six left. Acorn shrapnel littered our camp site, but we were lucky, no one was injured. And my mom had the presence of mind to remind me to take out the other six while we still had our heads.
But it was soooo cool! Don't try it at home, but wow! They do explode! I was happy
In Eureka Springs they have the large Passion Play and the giant statue of Jesus who looks an awful lot like those new Little People, sort of square. We had trouble finding Jesus. How do you lose a giant 300 foot statue? It can be done! My parents sent me back for the car, because we weren't sure how much further he was.
I guess the height limit for aircraft and buildings is 321 feet or thereabouts, and the original designs had Jesus standing about three feet too high. They had too options, according to roadsideamerica.com. Either they give him a blinking red beanie, or they take off his feet. They took off his feet.
I had seen Jesus the night before from the bar/balcony/lounge at the Crescent Hotel. The Crescent was built in 1886, gorgeous old hotel, huge, up top of a mountain, and it's been on several ghost hunting shows on Discovery and Travel channels. I just wanted the tour of the hotel, but, it also was October, so the Ghost Tour sounded like fun. (Too bad we weren't there over the weekend, or I could have taken the tour of the entire town with stories about Jesse James et al.) My 'rents wouldn't come (well, Mum wouldn't), so I got to hang out in town, walk around the springs, then go on the ghost tour by myself. The history of the hotel/girl's conservatory/Cancer Cure Hospital was fascinating. We spent most of our time in the hallways, but we did get to go down to the spa, laundry room, storage/morgue/parts rooms as well. I'm still not sure if I believe in ghosts and nothing weird happened on the tour, which was good, 'cause then I didn't have to explain to my mum what happened and why.
But the stories were fascinating.And of course, though she hated the idea of the tour, kept grimacing, and wouldn't go, it was too funny when we got back, and the neighbor asked about our trip. That must have been the highlight of the trip for her--"My daughter did something I never would have done--she went on this ghost tour of this creepy old hotel." And she went on to explain it in great detail! Ha! Parents are funny. Must be why I get along with them so well we can still go on vacations together.
Well, those are the highlights of my trip. I saved an inchworm from imminent death in the fire the last night, got attacked twice by a stickbug, and once the stickbug climbed onto the flashlight and did elaborate shadow puppetry. And when I got back, my grandpa had raided my stuffed animal collection (I'm sure I've mentioned the naughty platypi collection?) and he had plats roasting elongated black-painted marshmallow slugs over my stove, and another group of plats gathered IN MY BED around an empty can with a sign begging for help finding the 6 or 7 slimy slugs they'd brought in from the garden. Thankfully one of my pet cows was on my side. My GP set her up in the library at the computer, looking up... slugs.com... no... gardens.com... no. Ah, here we go. Bottom link on foodchain.com. Good cow, helping me fight the never-ending battle!
My platypi are grounded, and I'm still worn out from the trip, so I need a nap. Instead, I have work to do.
--GB
You haven't ever talked to me in real time, so you wouldn't know that I don't sound quite like the Arkansawyers. I'm a transplanted Texan, by way of New Mexico, Virginia, and Iowa. 
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