Vera was wonderful and baked us a full breakfast casserole and we sat with Phyllis and her to eat a very hearty breakfast with fresh fruit and fresh coffee and a lovely conversation. They then took us over to Linda's, we got to take a photo all together, and then John and I went off with Linda to explore the local wonders.
This is a cute little one-lane bridge that they like to nickname their "Golden Gate Bridge". It's actually all-wood planks, which had been recently updated, and it was actually a lot of fun to drive over. You just had to look to see if there was anyone coming the other way before going on, but anyone on the bridge had right of way.
This is Rogue's Manor, owned by an eccentric local who had put a lot of time and money into the place, and was trying to sell it for a few million dollars with no takers. It's gorgeous, huge, and half the windows were missing from the tops of the ornate towers. There were huge planks from old old trees in the yard being finished for possibly outdoor table tops or enormous accents.
It was super interesting that there were signs all over the entrances to the property saying Do Not Enter, but there were people all in the front yard and we just drove in and wandered about a bit.
The Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs is this gorgeous bit of architecture designed by E Fay Jones, who was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and is very much in that Prairie School of architecture. The expanses of glass looked out on the Arkansas hills all around, with the native flagstone reflected in the foundations of the building itself.
What was even cooler was that there were daffodils along the path to the chapel that were in full brilliant bloom. Spring has definitely gotten here.
Linda also took us around Eureka Springs showing us the find old, haunted Crescent Hotel, with the lovely view from the top, as well as driving us all around the crazy curvy streets through down and explaining how she'd spoken to nearly everyone there. It was fun hearing the accounts of all the people she was so connected to and this region she loved so much. That was really wonderful!! We got our hugs in and had to leave a bit after noon, and we headed east and south through Little Rock, ending up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
One of the odd and interesting things that happened as we moved through the state was that the land changed again, more and more toward the kind of land and highways we'd seen in Biloxi, i.e. four lane divided highways with more and more wetlands along the side of the road. There would be stretches of clearings and stretches of dense forest, and then we happened along a fire-licked "clearing" where the fire was still eating away at the thickets of trees. It was a relatively controlled fire they were using to clear the land for farm or other usage, and they were doing it through the simple expediency of fire. NOT something that would ever be done in Colorado, we don't have the trees, and the idea of having enough water to not worry about a fire going out of control is inconceivable in our part of the country. Here, though, it seemed like it was the tool for the job.
After asking the lady at the front desk of our hotel where we should eat, she'd first named off the closest chain restaurants. John said, "We'd like something more local." And she lit up and named first a Mexican restaurant, but then Leon's for catfish and shrimp.
We ended up at Leon's, and it was amazing. The catfish all had this super crisp, light cornmeal crust and the fish itself was tender as could be. The boiled shrimp was cold, but well doused in seasonings that made me cough when I ate them. John's fried shrimp were covered in a super-light fluffy breading that wasn't hard and the shrimp were still juicy and tender underneath, not overcooked at all! The hush puppies were satisfyingly hearty.
My tooth is still kind of acting up... it's just not quite happy, yet, but I'll keep dosing it and giving it time to heal, and we'll see if there's a dentist in New Orleans willing to give it a try when we get there. It's bad when I can still feel that the bite on that side isn't quite right even with the steroids. But we're having good adventures even so.
One of the things is that after a few weeks' worth of road trip adventures last October and December, John and I have figured out a system for our nightly hotel stays, a new place every night. We bring our own pillows, we each have a clothing bag, a laundry hamper bag, and a shared bathroom bag along with an electric cooler that can be plugged into the car or into a wall socket, so we just get a cart, get it all into the room at once, and are pretty much set for the evening. There's a box of food supplies, like our evening tea and morning granola (to go on the fresh blueberries and Greek yogurt in the fridge) that we raid a bit depending on what the hotel can or can't provide, and we're comfortable, well fed, and content nearly no matter the circumstances.
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