7th Leg: Bentonville and Eureka Springs
After parting ways with Mel in Little Rock, I had two days ahead of me to travel solo before meeting up in the Ozarks with another Texas friend, Thuy. For my solo leg, I opted to bypass the super touristy "Hot Springs", and instead stay in historic Eureka Spring for two nights....more on that in a bit. On on the way to Eureka, I wanted to stop for lunch and see two museums "musts" in Bentonville. Yep, Bentonville. First, I was drawn to visit the "Wal Mart Museum". Really, it's the first "Walton's" store opened in 1950 by Sam Walton. The town square had been a livestock watering area in the 1880's, but over time, had become more of the meeting spot for citizens as merchants sprang up and grass was planted. The whole square area is something straight out of the 50's scenes in "Back to the Future". Quaint. Perfect in that nostalgia kind of way. The Walmart Museum is kind of a visual walkthrough advertisement for how awesome Sam Walton was as a person, and to his employees, and to all the animals he apparently hunted from his big beat up pick up truck, also in the museum. what a guy. Museum was free and kind of weird to see people excited to learn more about Walmart, whitewashed as it was. But they did have the flag they flew at half staff when a white supremacist killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019. So there's that bit of reality injected into the displays. I had picnic lunch in the park square...enjoyed "foodie" tacos (sriracha cauliflower!) from a food truck instead of buying from the 1950's soda fountain added on at the end of the tour in the WalMart Museum...because, you know, I'd rather "buy local". My little picnic in the perfectly manicured square was well worth it. (I should probably also mention, despite the fact I traveled in June/July in the Deep South, I've had some surprisingly cool weather). below: my picnic in front of Walton's, waiting to see Marty McFly roll by... And then, because I heard such wonderful things about it, I visited the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It's cool. Like really cool. Like why is this in the middle of Arkansas? Bucket list this if you ever find yourself in the state Arkansas, although you will need more than the 2 hours I spent there. An amazing museum focused on “Americana” and displaying art by only American artists, it's unbelievable in how everything is laid out. They have all the famous artists (Pollock, Hopper, Rothko, Lichtenstein, Chihuly) and many not so famous works. They even had a Frank Lloyd Wright house shipped in from New Jersey to tour! Truly amazing place! The museum was spearheaded by the daughter of Sam Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie (of the Montreal Habitat building fame!!). Some fun facts I learned was that it's the first major art museum to open since 1974 in the USA, over $317 million of the project cost was donated by Alice Walton. Every year costs are paid for kids from all over Arkansas to come visit too. More on how rad it is, click here. For photos from my day in Bentonville at both the WalMart museums, click here! | above photo: the very out of place and sophisticated in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas, Crystal Bridges Museum As for Eureka Springs, I stayed at one of the hipster old motels, renovated...well, at first, I had a "not renovated" room, and disappointed the pool they billed was drained (my arrival there was very "Vacation" movie like). I complained (a rarity for me), and got an upgrade! So happy I did as it made my 2 days there very relaxing. This town is quirky. I'm embarrassed to say I'd always wanted to go here pretty much just to see the giant 1966 Christ of the Ozarks statue and Passion Play location. So weird. Some Jesus people on a big pilgrimage were super excited I was there to take their group photo. "Smile and say the devil made me do it!" There's also a chunk of the Berlin Wall there...a marker explaining how THAT happened tells the story. Attempted to jog in the morning around the downtown, but...stairs! So many stairs. And so steep! So I instead walked and explored for a couple hours. This downtown was like frozen in 1890 or something...just not like any other town you'll see in the United States. The healing springs! The balm of water! The weirdos! The houses built into the cliffs! It's really like no other place I can think of in the United States. The Frank Lloyd Wright-like (but not) Thorncrown Chapel was another place to stop. I did church, in a pew and everything. Check. And a visit out to Lake Leatherwood, too chicken to jump in. Later on my last evening, I went to hear the live band at my motel and met a nice man selling crystals and discussing how NW Arkansas is the country's "best kept secret". Then he told me he is getting very rich on silver on August 15th because fiat money is gonna disappear. The world is going to change that day. He also told me "antifa" tried to blow up the Christ of the Ozarks Jesus last January by putting bombs under it. They did not succeed. Antifa wants Arkansas because of all the caves and healing waters. There are more guns in Missouri and Arkansas than in the rest of the country...which is a good thing because oh yeah...Trump is being reinstated on Aug 15th and Arkansas will help to defend this glorious day. Do y'all think he's onto something? For photos from Eureka Springs and all its weirdness, click here! |