"Bill's Excellent Adventure!"

4/1/07. Palm Sunday, right? I've lost track. anyway, I am very tired tonight so I may finish this post in the AM.

Left Memphis this am about 7:45 and drove for almost 7 hours to get to Eureka Springs. The landscape was quite flat for most of this leg of the trip. Found myself sitting behind a 12 wheeler as he sloooowly pasted another rig...must have taken him 10 minutes to pass. Their speed limit signs have a comment on them about "No Tolerances", I guess referring to the practice of people traveling 9 miles over and not getting tickets. Supposedly those days are gone here. Well, almost. More people passed me doing 85 and 90 than I have ever seen before in recent years.


Ran across this sign for a place called "Frog Spit"! I just had to remember that one!

Part of the time it took me to make today's drive was taking a "short cut" by design this time! I took I40 to the other side of Little Rock and past a town called Conway. Instead of following I40 to AR23 to go to E Springs (another 45 minutes) , I opted to cut north on AR95 and take that route to a small town called Clinton. From there I headed northwest for probably 100 miles before getting to E. Springs.

On the way to Clinton, I was presented with windy roads almost the entire way. Reminded me of the drives I took with my parents in West Virginia. On some stretches, there were hills that I could not see over that literally lifted my car off the ground as I hit the apex of the crest of a hill! Felt like an amusement park ride! Ye Ha! However, I was awarded with some really spectacular views as valley after valley opened up with some incredible panoramic views of entire valleys with high ridges on either side.

Also quite unexpected were the literally hundreds of cattle ranches through this stretch. One really big producer is apparently some family called McCullock. Pasture after pasture had his name on them with hundreds of cattle of various breeds.

Well, made it to Eureka Springs about 3 pm CST and drove around a little, I am not sure what the main attraction is here yet, but they certainly have more motels per 1/4 mile I have ever seen! There are some caves and Caverns in the general area that I am sure are part of the attraction. This place is only about 50 miles or so from Branson, MO so it well could be this area has benefited from Branson attractions.

Well, got myself checked in at Kettle Campground and Cabins and it took me about an hour to get that damn tent put up! It had been a good six months since I last had it up and there are soooo many poles and connectors for the poles that I just took my time, made a couple mistakes, but eventually got it up! Got some electric going, logged on through WiFi and I am now in hog heaven!

Chatted with a fella next to me for about half an hour. Offered him a cup of Java. He is a logger from the coast of Oregon and gave me all the skinny on where to camp there as well as in Montana. He was not too impressed with the Ozarks though. His wife, three kids under 3 and a pack of dogs and cats made up their campsite. Anyway, gave him my card and told him how to get to my trip site. He came me his name and number and the names of a couple of department secretaries in Montana state government that know the best places to camp, etc. Said to just let them know "Rob sent me."

I went out to get a new air mattress (old one keeps leaking...had enough of its behavior). Rob had just a an hour before set up his tent. Got back after Wal-Mart and Pizza Hut to find they had pulled up stakes and left! Who knows...perhaps they were worn out by the dogs and kids and decided they needed to find a room someplace.

Any way, think that's enough for now. I probably need to find a chiropractor to adjust my back though. I seem to have a pinched nerve in my right leg up by my hip. It's really quite bothersome. Can't hardly keep my leg in any one position will driving without a shooting pain coursing my leg and hip.

Bill