AR Part 1

Sunday, October 24, 1999: Gravette, Arkansas

After walking about seven miles into Arkansas, the first town I reached is called Gravette (pronounced grav-it) and lies in the very northwest corner of the state. I walked into town past a church that welcomed me in to attend their evening service. I am camping in back of their church tonight.

Here is a bit of local trivia for you. Someone told me that Gravette, Arkansas, was in the 1997 Guinness Book of World Records for having more churches per capita than any other U.S. community. There are approximately 1400 people with 14 churches to choose from.

Monday, October 25, 1999: Bella Vista, Arkansas

Bella Vista is a fairly wealthy retirement community with four lakes and seven golf courses. I walked here today and found a boat dock on Lake Anne where I stopped to read and write for a while. I guy named Lloyd came out on the dock to fish, and I spent the rest of my time on Lake Anne visiting with him. He gave me some more survival tips for walking through Arkansas, like what to do if I get bitten by a cottonmouth snake, as well as things to watch out for, like poachers who spotlight deer in the woods at night and shoot at anything that moves. He also shared with me some of his combat experiences in Vietnam and the things about the war that still bother him today.

The sheriff's department gave me the okay to camp in the woods next to a creek in Bella Vista. I couldn't ask for better weather for being this late in October, and the fall colors are extraordinarily beautiful. I am considering taking the day off tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 26, 1999: Bella Vista, AR

I decided to take the day off from walking today. I'm in Bella Vista, and I've just finished chicken-pecking my written travelogues for the past week into this mobile email device. My camp site is right next to a creek, and it just occurred to me that this is the first time I've camped next to a creek that wasn't brown since Colorado.

Wednesday, October 27, 1999: Pea Ridge, AR

Today's walk from Bella Vista to Pea Ridge was a long trek, but a good one, nonetheless. About five miles into today's journey, I came to a gas station and stopped to send some e-mails I had written the night before. A couple of guys (Dale and Jarred) drove up in their pickup, and after talking with me a minute, invited me to join them in climbing a fire tower to enjoy a look at the trees. Although a picture is not capable of capturing the type of view that we experienced on that fire tower, I took one anyway. Unfortunately, Dale told me that someone has purchased the fire tower, and they plan to take it apart and rebuild it somewhere else.

Dale and Jarred dropped me off back at the gas station where we met, and I walked about another eight miles to Pea Ridge. I arrived in Pea Ridge a very tired and rather stinky traveler; and because of the way that I smelled, I chose an outside picnic table at the Bee Bop Drive-in for dinner. My bathing needs were met an hour later when some local young folks asked me if I needed a ride anywhere. I mentioned that a shower was actually the most pressing need in my life at the moment, and they drove me to a KOA campground about four miles outside of town.

Thursday, October 28, 1999: Beaver Lake, AR

This morning I walked across Pea Ridge National Military Park, where in March of 1862, a battle between the Confederate and Union forces took place. Although there were about 16,000 Confederates fighting against 10,500 Union soldiers at Pea Ridge, the Union Army won the battle when the Confederate's ammunition began running low and they were forced to withdraw to the east. An estimated 6,000 men died in the two days of fighting that took place there, and I met a park ranger that advised me not to camp in the park because he said, "Some of those guys like to come back to relive their violent death here." It was still before noon; so instead of camping in the park, I walked east on a historic road trace which happened to be the same road that the remaining Confederate troops used to escape back in 1862.

Saturday, October 30, 1999: Eureka Springs

I finally made it to Eureka Springs yesterday. This town has been a temporary destination for me, as well as the reason why I have been continuing east instead of walking south the past few weeks. As I walked down Highway 62 into Eureka Springs, I saw a side road on my topographical map and decided to take it to avoid all the traffic on the highway. It turned out to be a private road for The Hidden Valley Guest Ranch, and I eventually met the owner (Jordan) who invited me up to his house for lunch.

After lunch, Jordan gave me a ride to the site of The Great Passion Play and The Holy Land Tour. With a typical tourist mindset of, "You only live once" and "It's not everyday you are in Eureka Springs," I proceeded to buy a ticket to the play for $15.25, as well as one for the Holy Land Tour at $7.50. I boarded the last tram of the day for the Holy Land Tour, and as it moved along past the not so impressive exhibits, I began to wonder where all of the ticket money was going. Don't get me wrong, the tour was interesting, but three dollars would seem like a more appropriate price for what I was getting.

The Great Passion Play also turned out to be not all that great. All of the dialogue has been previously recorded, and then it is played back on a terrible sound system while the actors walk around, lip-syncing the words, and speaking with their hands. The whole thing would probably best be described as fairly cheesy, although I will give them credit for having a pretty exciting ascension scene at the end with Jesus suspended on wires and rising up into the trees. The stadium for The Great Passion Play is outside and can hold about 4,000 people at $15.25 a person, and I guess what I am trying to say is that I really hope that someone, somewhere, is not just making a ton of money from a low budget Holy Land Tour and a cheesy production of the final days of Jesus Christ's walk on earth. That would be very bad. If you are ever in Ponca City, Oklahoma, around Easter, you can see a better performance of the Passion Play that is put on by a local church there, and it would be free.

Thursday, November 4, 1999: Eureka Springs

My stay here in Eureka Springs has been a most pleasant experience, mostly because of an extremely kind couple (John and Sharilyn) who have invited me into their home and their lives for almost a week now. Some folks that I meet on this journey really let me be a part of their lives while I am with them. I always enjoy and appreciate that so much when it happens.

John is an artist as well as a fine carpenter, and the house that he has built here in Eureka Springs is truly a work of art. There is an interesting story behind almost all of the materials used in its construction. The garage was made with stones that John picked up around the area. The framing was built with the existing trees that grew on the land where the house now sits. The beams that run across the ceiling were taken from a torn down shopping mall, the redwood on the sides of the house was salvaged from wood that had floated out of a lumber yard during the Midwest floods of '93, and an entire two-story wall of windows was taken out of a skyscraper in Tulsa. The house has been a project of John's for seven years, and as he is looking over my shoulder as I write this, he adds, "it probably will be for another seven." John also does blacksmith work, and the other night he fired up his forge and showed me how to treat tool steel so it becomes "harder than the hubs of hell."