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in the Ozarks Mileage 313 miles
Little Rock – Springfield, Mo
We had a cooked to order breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn. The cook and the waiter were VERY friendly and we talked with both of them for a while. We left on I 40 and then drove on US 65. We saw a lot of trees and not much else. We did see some cypress looking trees in the middle of the lake and that was exciting. We drove thru PicklesGgap and saw the sign for Rotten’s furniture. I don’t think I would trust furniture from there. Our next interesting site was a large paved area alongside of the highway. Oh, that must be where trucks can pull off. Nope, “No Parking” signs every. Ok?????
We entered into the Ozarks and Susan was driving. She stated “I don’t even have to take the cruise control off in these mountains”. Really it looked like the piedmont rolling hills, NOT Mountains!!!
We continued with the not too much to see so we kept a watch out for ANYTHING. We saw a man in a bright yellow shirt pushing a Dollar General cart up a grassy hill towards the road. Was
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outside in the woods by Thorncrown Chapel he trying to make a “get away” from the Dollar General Store?? Or was he trying to get to the Amigo Loco store across the road? We passed by some farms with pretty barns and pastures but mostly we saw just some small rolling hills.
The road was a 2 lane road and we got behind multiple people trying to lead a parade of cars by going really slow. At times we were doing 45 in a 65. Susan was getting impatient. After passing the large town of Pindall (pop 112) we hit road construction. Well, they said it was road construction. They had cones on the road and it was now one way. There was a pilot truck that had to lead us thru the several mile section. Only problem? There was nothing going on. The worst thing we saw was a large puddle that was off the side of the road. Susan stated that the workers (3 – one driving the pilot car and 1 at each end of the closed section holding the stop/slow sign) were probably saying “when are the construction people going to show up?”
We passed thru many more small towns and
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Thorncrown Chapel finally made it to Eureka Springs. This area looked like a cross between Myrtle Beach and Gatlinburg TN. There were tons of small motels and restaurants. Our first stop was Thorncrown Chapel. We ate in the van in the parking lot and then walked the path to the chapel. The chapel is in the middle of the forest and you can hear the birds in the back ground. The chapel is made of wood and glass and is quite beautiful. Inside it is air conditioned and feels great. You see even though we are in the “mountains”, we are only at about 1900 feet and it is HOT and HUMID. Why would anyone come to the mountains in the summer to be that hot? Back to the chapel, the light shines in from all the glass. There is even some in the ceiling. This would be a perfect place for a wedding.
Our next stop was Downtown Eureka Springs. We parked in the visitor center parking lot and we all said that this really wasn’t what we expected from all the write ups. We still decided to get out in to the muggy (very hot) weather and walk the
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Inside the chapel. The light was beautiful town. We were glad we did. Even though that first street was well, not much, after we turned the corner we saw what we expected. There were old hotels, and lots of unique shops. In the first unique store we stopped in, Claire found a piece of glass that she fell in love with. The artist supposedly studied under Chully. They said they shipped and Claire pulled out the trusty plastic. She can’t wait to place it on the mantle at her house. Susan found some earrings at another shop and Pam bought some rocks. Yes, Tim, more rocks….
We hopped back into the hot van and headed to “Christ of the Ozarks”. Along the way we passed by “Magnetic Springs” but we decided to stop at it on the way back. The statue is 7 stories and they removed the feet because if they kept them on, the statue would be tall enough that it would require a red aviation light on the top of Christ’s head. We all agreed that was a good decision.
On our way back to the route we stopped at the Magnetic Springs. This was one of many springs in the area
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downtown Eureka Springs but it was the one that was the most popular. Back in the day, the water was said to cure ailments and drug addictions. Today the sign says ”the water is not safe to drink or for contact”. Maybe that is how it cures drug addiction – it kills you.
We got back on our route and Susan got behind another parade leader. He is even waving to all the cars going the other way and to the people along the road. He must be famous. He also didn’t have brake lights. We were behind him for a long, long time. Susan was getting very impatient again. Susan said “this is the ShowMe state. Show me 55, PLEASE”.
We passed by Table Rock Lake and it was pretty and shortly after that we pulled into Branson. Now Branson is a cross between Vegas and Myrtle Beach - tons of hotels, attractions, shows. None of us were interested in staying here. It was hot and crowded. But, we did see “Mt Rushmore”, a giant chicken, King Kong, a giant meatball and the Titanic. We missed the giant banjo and the large chair but we didn’t want to turn around
and try to locate them. We didn’t want to spend any more time in Branson so we headed back to the highway.
We finally made it into Springfield and stopped at FD’s Grillhouse for dinner. We did have to wait a few minutes and it was loud, but the food was good. After leaving, it was still light so we headed to the world’s largest fork to take pictures. It was a nice fork and well, this was the headquarters for the Food Channel. Next we found the Pythian Castle. It was closed even though the sign said it was open. We stopped anyway and took pictures.
Done with all our sites to see in Springfield, we headed to the hotel. We arrived and Claire headed in to check in and Susan started unloading the van onto the cart. Well, it turns out there are 2 Hampton Inns on this same road (only they are about 6 miles apart). Guess what, we were at the wrong one. Susan reloads the car and we head out. We arrived at the “real” hotel and Susan thought the van was in park but no, it was in reverse and we were
slowly going backwards. Pam and Claire said Susan??? Claire then headed in and missed the next bit. It seems Pam was pulling out her suitcase and hit her knee, causing her to stumble backwards into the luggage cart. In the process the tie on the back of her shirt got caught in the zipper of the suitcase and she was stuck and couldn’t get up. Susan had to rescue her. We all made it to the room and there was no refrigerator in the room. Claire called the front desk and they brought us one. Ok? This I strange.
As we were sitting around, Susan said she was going to text her friend Jill a picture of the area since Jill was from Springfield. Susan got a txt back “where are you???” Turns out Jill was only about 1 mile away. Little did we know that she was in town? She came over to visit and stayed for about half an hour. Susan stated “what a great surprise to be able to be able to see her ‘sweet hear’ Jill”. Jill was driving back to Lenoir the next day and thought it would be good that we could follow
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Christ of the Ozarks her until we told her we were heading to Denver.
Our hotel the night was the Hampton Inn and it was another points stay.
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