September 24 Road Trip

With my hiking stick

Today was a real sightseeing day. We were headed to Arkansas to the Pea Ridge National Military Park. We weren’t 10 minutes on these up and down and curvy Ozark Mountain roads til I was feeling rather nauseous. I put the seat back, loosened the waist of my pants and tried to just close my eyes. Well, it wasn’t working. The road got curvier and I got sicker. I finally had to ask Bill to stop so I could lie in the back seat. By about the time we arrived at the park, I was feeling rather green but managed to get into the park and went and washed my face and felt better. They have a nice movie there about the battle and battle strategy at Pea Ridge, another Civil War battle. I got another 2 stamps in my book, one of the battle and one of the Trail of Tears.  The displays were also very good. One that I read all the way through was a listing of excerpts from diaries and journals of various soldiers on both sides. They described the cold weather (the battle was in March), the exhaustion, the feeling of watching friends die and even how the area smelled from the bodies and pile of amputated hands, arms and legs. I just can’t imagine. Once again the dead and wounded for both sides totaled over 2,000 after the 2 days of fighting at intervals. At one point the Confederates had taken control but then due to “human” error and poor judgment of the commanding officer, the Union gained control on the second day and kept it. So not good for the Confederates as this victory gave the Union control of Missouri, even though the battle was in Arkansas. We did get to see two does on our drive.

We did the driving tour and they have an excellent overlook of the entire battlefield. The park service has also restored the grounds to just like they were at the time of the battle, including fields and tree areas. When we got to the Elkhorn Tavern, which was where the overtaking took place, we stopped and had our picnic lunch in the truck, then completed the tour.

The first Wal-Mart

The Walton 5 and Dime

We were not far from Roger, AK, where the first “Wal-Mart” store was built, 4 miles from Bentonville, AK, home of Wal-Mart. The store is no longer a store as they built a Super Wal-Mart just down the road from it. It is now a claims center for Wal-Mart. I wanted to see how old Sam got it all started so we drove into downtown Bentonville to the old town square where the Walton’s 5 – 10 was. It was turned into a Wal-Mart Visitor Center but is currently being refurbished so the temporary one was just around the corner. Of course, I had to go and check it out. It has memorabilia such as items the store carried in the 40’s, lots of photos from then and the history of the town, information on the Walton family and a timeline of the growth and development of Wal-Mart. We left after purchasing some postcards, magnets and 2 mini Moon Pies, but they don’t have marshmallow in them, thank goodness.

We asked directions back to the road we wanted to go home on and the lady didn’t give very good ones, as we thought we were lost, well, not lost, but not exactly where she said we’d be. We stopped and asked and ended up only ½ mile from the road we wanted, which was good but not how we had planned to get there. Once again the road was really curvy and up and down so I immediately laid my seat back, loosened my pants waist, got my pillow and closed my eyes. Bill said I missed seeing Eureka Springs, AK and that it was a really neat town, but I have no problem passing on it. Once we got to the main road (a different way than we came) it was 4 lane and nice so I sat up and talked to Bill on the way. Still wasn’t feeling my best but way better than the drive down.

We didn’t get home til 5 so Xena was really ready for a walk. We had a notice on the door that we had mail so we stopped by and picked up the mail packet from Kam. She sent the missing kitchen knife that I wanted and several sets of debit/credit cards, and of course bills. Ugh! Can’t get away from them.

We had leftover venison, leftover potatoes and fresh glazed carrots for dinner. After dinner I baked a small peach crisp for tomorrow night as we are heading back to AR in the morning. Will be sure to take the better road this time. I paid the bills, and wrote a couple of cards to mail. Did a load of wash and I’m pooped!

September 22 Show Time

Not sure what time we got up but we left at 8 so we could be sure to on time at the Dodge dealer for our 8:30 appointment to get our key made. Well, we were early, which was OK. Then we waited 45 minutes for them to tell us the got in the wrong key. We were told to come back around 1:30 as their parts delivery from Springfield would be here by then. No problem as we were heading north to Wilson Creek National Battlefield and didn’t know how long we would be.

Today's photos are taken with my phone

Wilson’s Creek was a Civil War battle a bit southwest of Springfield, MO. There were over 2,500 casualties and most were on Bloody Hill (the after war name) on a farm owned by the Ray family. They took shelter in their root cellar while the 6 hour battle took place. Then their home became a field hospital. Although the north had more soldiers, the south won. Yee Ha! There were a number of mistakes made, one being that both sides were not totally distinguishable by the color of their uniforms. Both sides had many in gray and navy uniforms, so that caused one big problem. Can you imagine a small farmhouse whose 80 acres cornfield was now strewn with dead and dying soldiers and no real medical supplies or help to begin taking care of them. At that time each side pretty much took care of their dead but many were decaying rapidly with maggots and flies on those hot August days. Eventually after the war a National Military Cemetery was established in Springfield, but it was done by the Union so they moved their dead first. Then the Confederates established another cemetery to the SOUTH of them and moved their dead. Later they were unified as one military cemetery. Don’t forget that in addition to the people dead that day there were many horses and animals too, so the stench had to horrible for quite some time. This battlefield was not secured by the park service for over 100 years after the battle so it had been scoured numerous times by “collectors”. Surprisingly though the park service continues to find relics of the war with archeology groups from the University of Missouri. We started our tour at the visitor center to view the movie there and the various displays. Then we drove the 5 miles loop tour of the battleground and saw the house of the Rays along the way. We did a ¾ mile hike loop to see the monument marking the general area of where Union General Nathanial Lyon died. He was the first general to die on either side during the Civil War. Along the way I spotted a long snake skin too. Down the road from the visitor center is a Civil War Museum that is also part of the park service and it was really nice. We could have stayed longer there as the displays were of other battles also. Due to short staffing they have to close up at lunch time and so we had to leave. This is a really nice park for Civil War buffs, but it’s way back in and you have to really want to go to get there. It’s not off the main road at all. It’s actually in Republic, MO.

We thought by the time we got back to Branson it would be about time for the key delivery so we went straight there. No luck, the key wasn’t back yet so we sat in the truck in the parking lot and ate our picnic lunch. Tried again, but still no key. I had wanted to go to the Petco I had found at the next exit up the road so we decided to go and get Xena’s unscented salmon oil. They had it so we accomplished one goal. It was also in the same plaza as Wal-Mart so I thought we might as well get our milk and few other items on the short list. You can’t store much in the little fridge so we stop for fresh items every few days. When we were in the line at Wal-Mart they called to say our key was in and if we wanted to come in it would only take about 30 minutes. So we headed back and true to his word, it was only about 30 minutes….and $213 later we have a replacement key to the truck.

I find I’m having more time to sit back and enjoy a glass (or 2) of wine each evening and am on my 3rd bottle since leaving home. I brought 4 with me and bought 3 more so far, so I’m good for a few more days. I want to go to the other winery in Branson before we leave. Tonight I would have to pass as we were having a buffet dinner at the theatre before seeing Ray Stevens. We didn’t have much time once we got back so walk the dog, put things away, shower and get to the theatre. We had to pick our tickets up there so we leave the RV about 6. There’s no really direct way to get there but the camp managers told up to go north, then west, then cut back south. You really have to be here to understand the layout. We had no traffic that way so we were earlier than expected, picked up the tickets and were able to get into the buffet sooner than scheduled. The buffet was OK. Not much of a salad bar and the meats were baked chicken, pot roast or lasagna, over cooked veggies except for the green beans. Mashed potatoes and 2 gravies, corn, plain white rolls. The pies were thawed frozen ones and the cobblers were frozen baked ones, so no, I was not impressed.

My new best friend



Bill and Larry



After dinner we checked out the bronze statue of Lawrence Welk and his personal golf cart and some of his memorabilia and the gift shop. Then the show…. The Ray Stevens show more than made up for the dinner. The place was almost full and he did 2 segments. The first half was patriotic and very political. He’s very anti-Obama and the audience seemed to be 100% behind him. He did some new songs and brought back some old ones that related to the current situation. The second segment was almost all the old favorites, The Streak, Mississippi Squirrel, Ahab the Arab, Gitarzan and the list goes on. Bill doesn’t like for me to sing along, but that’s half the pleasure of the concert for me. He is also pretty impressive on the piano. He hawked his CDs, etc but they all do that. I made my own of my favorites and keep them all on my computer.



We got home around 10:20 and wound down watching TV a bit, then reading and then it was really bedtime.

September 12 If it's Seafood, It Must Be New Orleans

Apparently I really needed some rest as I slept 12 hours last night, from 10 to 10. I could not believe it was 10 when I got up. I thought Bill was playing with me and changed the wall clock. I knew I had been tired for the last month and then with the driving but would not have thought I needed that much rest. Needless to say, I felt pretty good all day!  To thank Bill for letting me sleep (and because it is Sunday) I made Canadian bacon, toast, fruit and eggs for breakfast. By the time we ate, showered and left it was almost noon.

First stop for today was Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery, which is actually part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park. The city of Chalmette is just east of New Orleans so it didn’t take long to get there. It was SO hot today that just getting from the car to the visitor’s center I was soaked. The original visitor center was destroyed 5 years ago by the hurricane so a new one is almost complete. In the meantime the visitor center is in an old plantation home on the property called the Beauregard House. It was built in the 1830’s and has survived several hurricanes and the Battle of New Orleans, which was actually in Chalmette and was the battle that won the War of 1812 for the US. It’s really a very good story. The battlefield isn’t terribly impressive, just a canal and embankments but great strategy on the part of Andrew Jackson.

From observation deck at National WWII Museum

From there we headed into New Orleans to the National WWII Museum. By now we were pretty thirsty so we stopped in the coffee shop adjoining the museum so I had a frozen Granita and Bill had a coke and we both had a scone. I guess it was a mini lunch as we ate so late. We were at the museum til it closed and they told us it was time to leave. Bill really enjoyed it and learned some new info about WWII that he didn’t know. That surprised me since he reads about it and watches so many movies on it, I thought he knew it all. We found out that the Allied Forces used inflatable jeeps and boats, etc as decoys to make Hitler think we were going to invade elsewhere. Also we didn’t know how important various animals were in the war. I must say a lot of the photos were a bit gory for me. Then I get all emotional about it and thinking of what those families went through when their sons were never found. Then there’s the family who had 5 sons all enlist and serve on the same ship and none survived.

Ready for dinner

Bill really wanted beignets so we drove back down Peter St. and he dropped me off in front of Café du Monde and while he circled the block I got beignets to go. Only waited a couple of minutes on the curb for him to come back for me, then we headed to a suburb called Metairie to eat dinner at a seafood place called Deanie’s. There’s one in the French Quarter but we decided parking was easier and it would be less crowded there. Our landlord recommended it. No problem getting there but from the signs on the building it was a seafood and bait store. I waited in the truck while Bill went in to make sure there was a restaurant and the one half of the building was a nice restaurant and bar. Bill was happy the TV was on and there was a game to watch! They brought way too much food. Instead of putting bread on the table, they brought a bowl of red skin new potatoes and butter. The “thing” is the potatoes are cooked in something spicy and boy, are they good. We each ate 2 and brought home the other 2 in addition to half of Bill’s baked potato and most of my dinner. He had crab au gratin and really liked it. Not being much of a seafood person he is pretty picky on seafood, but he thoroughly enjoyed it. I had the Crawfish Quartet. I ate my dab of slaw, passed on the huge pile of fries and got right into my crawfish etoufee, yummy! Then I nibbled on some of my fried crawfish and brought the rest home with all of my crawfish au gratin and 2 of my crawfish dressing balls. They kinda looked like hush puppies but were crispy on the outside and kinda mushy in the middle. Guess I have my dinner ready for tomorrow.  The beignets were our evening snack.  They'd have been better fresh.

On the way back we stopped at the RV to get Xena to ride with us to Wal-Mart. I truly did need to get AAA batteries for my mouse, spray paint for my cactus, a scoop for the cat food, but what I really needed to get was a supply of Hubig pies. I was beginning to think the decadent coconut Hubig pie was going to elude me, but Wal-Mart had 4 racks of pies, mostly apple and lemon. I hunted through them all and was victorious with 6 pies. I will have to carefully ration them to one a day. Might find room in the freezer to squeeze one in for a really stressful day ahead.

Back at the RV, Bill hooked up his nasty hose and drained everything for our trip tomorrow. I should be putting things away but since I’ve gotten it down to a science, will wait til morning. Too bad it won’t be another 10 AM wake up, it will be 7 at least. Ah, sweet coconut dreams….