Eureka Springs

The only other time I've ever been to Eureka Springs was in 1971.  I was 16, traveling with my mom & dad, and my little brother and our granny, who we called Mommy Owens.  I remember a quaint little town.  Already a "tourist trap" - but in a good way.  I remember little shops on the side of the road, selling locally handmade baskets and other "mountain" crafts.  In fact, I still have a basket I bought on that trip.  It's been in constant use for 41 years, and still just as sturdy as the day I bought it. 

My impression of the area in 1971 was also that it was a very Jesus - centered place.  I guess because of the world famous statue, Christ of the Ozarks, and the Passion Play. 

It all seems so different today.  I expected growth and the traffic that comes with it.  I did not expect so many liquor stores, lingerie/sex toy shops (in the downtown historic district, no less!), and so many businesses that cater only to folks on motorcycles.

I really don't have anything against alcohol, sex or motorcycles.  I'm just saying - this is not the Eureka Springs that I remember!  And yes, I'm disappointed.

I had just started dating the Cowboy when my family dragged me away on that road trip.  I didn't really want to go, but the charm of the place quickly won me over.  I didn't want to come home. And I was touched by my parent's obvious delight in showing us a place they had been to and loved 20 years earlier.  I wanted to share this special place with the Cowboy. 

I know, it's really no tackier than Branson.  And we had a great time in Branson.  But it wasn’t  what I remembered or expected.

We did go see the statue today, and it was just as awesome as ever.  But now instead of simply the statue and the play in the ampitheater, there are several offices, museums and a dinner theater included on the grounds.  Seems  sort of commercialized and overdone.

Well, enough of my whining.  We still had a nice day.  We even got some rain this afternoon, and right now the temp is a wonderful 76 degrees.

Heading east tomorrow. 

Branson!!!!!

I know.  I use way too many exclamation points.  But...we went to Branson, ya'll!!!! We just saw one show, but it was a great one!  We saw a group called Six.  They are six brothers who sing, using no instruments other than their own voices.  But they sound like a full orchestra!  It was awesome.  But my favorite part was when they sang The Lord's Prayer.  I've never in my life heard such a beautiful version of The Lord's Prayer.  You can check them out on YouTube.  I think this link will take you there:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3ia5ug5qE

But just as much fun was the stop we made the College of the Ozarks yesterday morning on the way to Branson.  It is absolutely the prettiest college campus I've ever seen.  We went to Ralph Foster Museum on campus.  Three huge floors of everything you can imagine, but with a heavy leaning towards Ozark history and music.  We saw Jed Clampett's truck from the Beverly Hillbillies TV show, and stuffed polar bears, and beautiful art, and depression glass, and gem stones and Native American artifacts, and vintage clothing, and - well, the list goes on and on.  Here's just a couple of photos.

Our son and the mission team he is with should be headed home today if all goes well.  I stole this photo from one of his team members on Facebook.  Son didn't take his computer with him, but I've been able to keep up with their activities a little bit by Facebook "stalking"  this other guy.  Please keep praying for the work the team has done to bear much fruit, and for them all to make it home safely. 

Omaha, Arkansas

We just can't get away from this heat!  I am so thankful for travel trailers with air conditioning, and thankful that ours works so well.  Makes "camping" such a joyful experience.  We've had fun tent camping with our kids when they were young, but I'm just not up to Turner Falls in August (over 100 degrees) or Galveston at Thanksgiving (below freezing!) any longer!

We worshipped at Grove First Baptist on Sunday.  They have a beautiful church building, one of the prettiest and most comfortable I've ever seen.  From what I gathered, it is a fairly new building.   With seating for 794, it seemed almost empty with the 200 or so who were in attendance on Sunday.  I saw in their bulletin that they are searching for a new pastor, but the interim preached a great sermon from Proverbs.

Yesterday, we left Grand Lake of the Cherokees, and headed east to Omaha, Arkansas.  We are about 15 miles from Branson, and about 40 miles from Eureka Springs, 2 places I've been to before, but Cowboy never has.  I've been trying for  40 years to get him here! 

We're staying at a little RV Park called Ozark View.  It's a real homey little place.  The new owners are newlyweds, and they are fixing it up.  It definitely needs some work, but it has a great view, just like the name says, and it's very quiet and peaceful.  My phone's camera just couldn't capture the beautiful hills in the background, but maybe you can get some idea of the peacefulness here.

We had an exciting time just getting here, though.  Google maps sent us through southern Missouri, on the twistiest, turningest road I've ever seen.  I've never been on banked turns, like on a race track.  Those banked turns, combined with the up and down hills, and hairpin turns, made the whole 130 mile drive feel like a roller coaster.  A roller coaster pulling a 5th wheel. 

But the beautiful scenery more than made up for it.  Oh my.  Our God is such an amazing artist!

Flexibility

Sometimes the best thing about life in a 5th wheel travel trailer is the flexibility.

I've always been a planner.  Family vacations were few and far between when our kids were young, and short in duration.  So I often spent as much as 6 months to plan a 5 -7 day vacation, down to the last detail.  Of course, this was partly because I'm just a natural born researcher.  I love to ferret out the best places to eat, free things to do, even (maybe especially) the history of the area we'll be traveling to.  Of course, we always deviated from the plan (it's never easy anticipating the needs and wants of 3 other people), but at least it was there to fall back on. 

I still love to make plans, and they are even more detailed now that we have the internet.  I love google maps and all the various websites I can access any time of the day or night.  But, now, we can change our plans, and make a new plan right on the spot.

Which is what we are about to do.  We are presently in Grove, OK, in Bear's Den RV Park on Grand Lake o' the Cherokees.  Current temperature - 106.  Tomorrow's forecast - 108; Monday - 111.

It's time to move on. 

Don't get me wrong.  This is a lovely place, and I'm sure there are lots of fun things to do here. I know we will be back many many times. Maybe in October.

So unless something changes pretty quick, we will attend a local church tomorrow, then spend the afternoon storing loose items and planning the next leg of our trip, then pull out Monday morning.

Before it reaches 111.

Here's a couple of photos I've taken this week.  The first one is of Sailboat Bridge over Grand Lake, heading into Grove.  The second one is a little fishing lake here at the park.  This really is a pretty place, but you can see from the second picture that they have lost several trees from the horrible drought, last year and this year.

Easing on down the road...

We left Texoma Shores yesterday, and drove on up to Lake Eufala.  We're spending a couple of nights at Terra Starr RV Park.  Believe me, this park is nothing to write home about, so I won't .  But we're only here for one more night.  Just long enough to do some laundry and play in the pool a bit.  Too hot to do much else anyhow, although Tim does have plans to bike a couple of miles down the road to pick up a geocache later.

Back at Texoma Shores, we made another  trek into Denison to view Eisenhower's birthplace.  The lady there was so nice, and seemed very knowledgeable about everything Eisenhower.  I learned that the reason the Eisenhower family moved there was because his daddy went bankrupt back in Kansas, so he moved the family to Denison because he got a job with the railroad.  While in Denison, they lived in a very modest 2 story house on the "wrong side of the tracks."  They lived there for about 3 years, then moved back to Kansas.

After our tour, we ate lunch at Devoli's Italian Restaurant in downtown Denison.  Looks like that area was recently a bustling little place with lots of cute shops and restaurants.  However, many of the buildings are closed and boarded up now.  Sad.

Sunday we worshipped with Little City Baptist Church, just down the road from Texoma Shores.  Their pastor,  Seth Pester, preached a very good sermon, the choir sang the old hymns we love, and the pastor's wife sang a special that I had never heard before, but it was lovely.  My only little complaint about the place is that they took one look at us and put us in the oldest Sunday School class they had! I mean, these folks were ancient! But then I remembered just how old I am since that last birthday, and I figured we fit right in.  It was a very lively class, and we enjoyed it very much.

Tomorrow morning we'll head up to Grove, OK to Bear's Den RV Park.  Wonder if there's really bears around there?

I have a couple of photos I wanted to add today, but the internet is, again, really sketchy here.  Maybe I can add them later.

Our Normal Day at Texoma Shores

Our  normal day at Texoma Shores:

Take Charlie for his morning walk.

Eat peaches we bought at a local fruitstand.

Sit outside in the shade and read.

Eat watermelon for lunch.

Nap.

Read.

Swim.

Eat more watermelon for supper.

Read or watch TV.

Sleep.

Do more of the same the next day.

Tim would like me to tell you that he went fishing this morning and caught his daily limit of the biggest sand bass he's ever seen (in just two hours!)  We ate all we could (with our watermelon) for lunch, and stuffed the rest in the freezer.  Yum!

On The Road Again

I wrote this Tuesday, before I realized just how spotty the wifi service here is.  My Verizon card only has one bar, and the RV Park's wifi is down for repairs or an upgrade, or something.  I am posting this as soon as we get back to civilization!

Wow. I really didn't think it would be so hard. Every other trip I have ever been on in my life, I've started dreading going home as soon as we left the house. I'd always think, why can't every day be a vacation? Well, for the next four months, I finally got my wish. Now if only I could get my kids, my cousins, my brother, Cowboy's brothers, our friends, and all our church family to get RV's and hit the road with us! Wouldn't that be cool! We'd be like a traveling circus! (If you know my family, you'll agree about the circus part!)

Anyhow, we hit the road around 2:00 yesterday afternoon.  GrandGirl #1 got her braces off yesterday morning, so we couldn't leave until we saw her beautiful new smile.  And let me tell you, it was certainly worth the wait!  Gorgeous!  In fact, both girls were looking exceptionally pretty yesterday, in their new boots and matching chambray dresses.  So cute.  So hard to say good-bye. *Sob*

 

And this is where we are now.  On the north side of Lake Texoma, at Texoma Shores Resort.  "Resort" actually being a fancy word for RV Park and fishing camp.  This place is slap-dab in the middle of No-where!  But it is really pretty, and peaceful.  I took the next picture while we were walking Charlie this morning.

After breakfast, we drove back across the Red River, into Denison, TX, to make the obligatory first day run to Wal-Mart, and to get the truck inspected.  Ooops...yeah, we forgot that little detail before leaving home.  It's all taken care of now, though. 

Speaking of Denison, though...did you know President Eisenhower was born there?  Yeah, you probably did.  We hope to get back there sometime this week to tour his birthplace.  It's only about 40 miles away.

We beg for your prayers - for our safety, of course - but mostly for the folks back home, for their safety, health and happiness.  Also, for our son, who is leaving for Romania next week on his long-awaited mission trip. 

I never know how to end these things, so I guess I'll ....just....trail .....a w a y....... . . .    .     .        .