The Ozarks

Even though our primary plans for October-December were to visit Midwest cities, we've spent our time since Kansas City visiting the Ozarks in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. It's an area we'd not been to before. After spending time in the Rockies and Sierras, and even the Appalachians, we'd be hard pressed to call these the Ozark "Mountains," but it is definitely hill country.

We first visited the Lake of the Ozarks, a large man-made lake which is one of the most popular vacation spots in Missouri during the summer. However, it's "lightly-visited" as winter approaches - the state park campground we were in had maybe 10 of its 200 campsites occupied.

The fall colors were in their final throes as we visited, and we were treated to the sight of a leaf-storm one morning.

If you'll remember, when we left Virginia to drive back to Sioux Falls, Jeannette was limited to this footwear due to breaking her right big toe at the end of September.

Six weeks out, she had healed well enough she could get into regular shoes, and we were able to start some modest hiking again.

After our time at Lake of the Ozarks, it was on to Branson, Missouri. Branson is a cross between Las Vegas, Nevada and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (the tourist town outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park). There are many music venues with permanent acts (some share a single venue) as well as plenty of amusement parks, shops, restaurants, and other schlock draws including an entertainment themed "Mt. Rushmoor". No casinos, though (it's God's Country down here!).

We decided to approach the town with an open mind, and definitely enjoyed ourselves. We took in six shows over three days. Two we would definitely recommend (if you happen to come to Branson) are family acts: the Haygoods (5 brothers and a sister who play about 30 instruments between them and sing a large variety of songs) and Six (6 brothers who sing acapella - one is a beatboxer who provides the rhythm). We also went to a "decades" tribute show with songs from the 50s through the 80s), Dolly Parton's Stampede (heavily horse-based), a program at the Andy Williams Moon River Theater featuring the Lennon Sisters now in their late 70's/early 80's sporting stiletto heels! (took us back to our childhood watching Lawrence Welk on TV - oops pardon us our age is showing!). We also took in Sight and Sound's production of the "Miracle of Christmas" complete with animals of all types and angels "flying" above the audience. The Christian themed theatre is a spin-off of the original in Lancaster, Pa.

We have to say that the average age in the audience was 70-80 (due in part, we suspect, to the time of year and the fact that we were there midweek) with lots of seniors coming in on buses. And even though it was still first half of November, every show had a significant Christmas element.

One other place we visited in Branson was the Titanic Museum, with artifacts from the wreck, recreations of staterooms and the Grand Staircase, and a lot of history about the ship, passengers, sinking, and rediscovery. It was pretty nicely done.

We then moved on to the town of Bentonville, Arkansas, most famous as the headquarters of Walmart and the place where Sam Walton started off a single 5 and 10 store.

The original Walton 5 and 10 cent store has been converted to the Walmart Museum. Since we've been shopping at Walmart a lot on our travels, we enjoyed learning about the company's history and growth. The world headquarters is also located in Bentonville, and as you would expect for a company that is always looking for ways to save customers money, it's quite modest considering that Walmart is the world's largest retailer. It looks like a high school.

Bentonville is also the home of two other world-class museums (both free) which we visited during our stay. The first, the Museum of Native American History, traced Native American history from prehistoric times through about 1900. They had an extensive collection of flints, spearheads, arrowheads, axes, etc. which were very well explained through the free audio tour. One large flint piece was amazingly thin - something that modern flint-nappers have been unable to reproduce (see the 2 pictures below).

The other museum in town is the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a world-class institution founded by Sam Walton's daughter Alice and opened about 8 years ago. The building is architecturally stunning and the collection is extensive.

Finally, we traveled to Little Rock, which sits on the Arkansas River at the edge of the Ozarks. We were fortunate to find a centrally-located campground and got a site right on the river.

The Bill Clinton Presidential Library was directly across the river from us, accessible by an old railroad bridge that had been converted into a pedestrian walkway. We spent an afternoon there. Time goes fast - it's been 27 years since he was first elected in 1992. We've been to several other Presidential Libraries and this did not disappoint. It was organized as much around themes from Clinton's presidency as it was chronologically.

There is a reproduction of the Oval Office, set up as it was during Clinton's presidency, and Doug was able to sit at a reproduction of the Resolute Desk (you can get an "official" picture at the desk, but you have to pay for it - photography is prohibited in the room so the photos below were taken through the doors).

One thing that struck us during our visit was how each President exercises a lot of control in how their history is presented in the museum portions of these libraries. For example, see this characterization of the Ken Starr special prosecutor investigations (the highlights are in the exhibit):

It made us wonder what will be presented in future presidential libraries.

Another day we headed about an hour west of Little Rock to Hot Springs, Arkansas, home of Hot Springs National Park. The springs were a favorite soaking and vacation spot for Native Americans for thousands of years, and for settlers starting shortly after the Louisiana Purchase. The Federal Government took over the area in the 1830s to protect it from developers, establishing the Hot Springs Federal Reservation. Woodrow Wilson converted it to a National Park in the 1910s.

The area preserves not only the springs (one of which is open to the air with the others capped with concrete to protect the 700,000 gallons that flow daily) but a series of fancy bathhouses built in the late 1800s. A couple house museum exhibits illustrating what it was like to "take the waters" in the 1800s, and a couple are still in current use - we indulged in a hot soak and couples massage at the end of the day, after we'd hiked to the top of Hot Springs Mountain, with its panoramic view of the area.

We started another day with a visit to the world headquarters of Heifer International, a 75-year-old non-profit dedicated to eliminating hunger, sustainable farming, and protecting the environment. They work with farmers to create "integrated farms" which, in addition to good crop and animal management, include water conservation and energy production. The kids in our church raised money for Heifer a few years back. We spent time at the Heifer International visitor center, joined by several school groups.

We moved on to visit the Central High School National Historical Site. The school, built in the 1920s and named at the time the most beautiful (and expensive) high school in the country, came to the national stage in 1957 when President Eisenhower called in the 101st Airborne to escort nine African American students who wanted to attend in the wake of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court. The school is still actively used today, so most of the exhibits are in a visitor center around the corner.

We finished off our day with a visit to the Esse Purse Museum, housing a private collection of handbags. The museum is organized by decades (from 1900 on) so you can see not only what kinds of bags were in style, but also what women were likely to be carrying in them. There was also a special exhibit about hats and hatpins.

After a "down day" where we listened to rain pouring down onto the RV's roof, it was time to move on. Next stop: a week in Memphis, where we'll be staying at Graceland (no joke - actually the RV park on the grounds). More about that in our next blog entry!