Well,
we woke up in a place called Fort Smith with the temperature at 54
degrees. Now, I don’t mean the temp in
our hotel room. That’s what it was
outside. I understand they have a word
for it up here. Fall. Very odd.
And to top it off, both of us were really sore in the calf muscles. That would be our downhill ache-ers.
We
went over to the historical Fort site first.
And lots of history there was.
Trail of Tears, Civil War, western settlers, all passed through the
fort. Chris and I used this cool
opportunity to take a long, romantic walk alongside the Arkansas River. It was not a hike, though. Just a walk.
Across
the street from the fort was the Fort Smith Historical Museum. It amounted to a wildly random collection of
… stuff … from many different periods of history. Old World War uniforms, an old, horse-drawn
fire engine, an old printing press, an old Model T Ford, an old … well, the
list goes on and on. The display wasn’t
all that organized, and they were still working in a lots of areas. It was like walking around at a huge,
semi-organized garage sale. Fascinating.
Speaking
of the Civil War, next we headed to the Pea Ridge Battlefield site. On the way we casually slipped off the
Interstate and got on one of those motorcycle special, wind-y roads. It was not as crazy as the Devil’s Tail one
we did over in Tennessee, or wherever that one was, but there were a lot of
motorcycles. In Rogers, Arkansas,
amongst the motorcycle, we saw a gigantic tiger head (It was advertising that law firm that targets motorcyclists who have
been involved in wrecks with 18-wheelers) and yet another huge metal
chicken. I got a picture this time.
So
the Pea Ridge battlefield. It was set up
kind of like Gettysburg and Vicksburg. A
self-guided tour by car over acres and acres of land with Civil War era fences
and cannons strewn about. We did take
one short hike to a viewing area. Chris
said it was officially a hike, no matter how short. Why? Because
now I have a walking stick. Yep… Just
like Moses.
We
left there and took some more back roads to the nearest hotel to our next
national park site in Diamond, Missouri.
The roads were wild and crazy and curvy and … mountain-y. I was driving this time, so Chris wouldn’t get
out of control excited like she did on the Devil’s Tail and drive too
fast. She did “help” me on occasion,
though. Always appreciate the
assistance.
As
we pulled into our hotel, what should be printed on the bottom of the hotel
sign? Ready for this one? “Precious Moments Hotel.” Wait.
What? Come to find out, we are
just a mile or so from the Precious Moments chapel and museum. Guess how we’ll be starting our day?
But
first we had to eat. We chose some local
color. Iggy’s Diner. Shiny silver on the outside. Inside felt like the 1950’s. Photos of Elvis on the walls. Period music playing (Songs that we actually recognized).
Red booths. Soda fountain. Chicken fried steak and sweet tea and rocky
road pie. Decadent. But remember, we did hike earlier …
Psalms
103:11 says, “For as high as the heavens
are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.”
Father,
thank you for the opportunity to see some history in several different
forms. Amen.
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