So on we went and drove out to their "old home place" as they called it, and I don't think I've seen more dirt/rock roads in my life. I was getting worried we would have to buy some new tires by the end of the day. After all the arguing over whether the old house was on the left or right and the new house was on the left or right side of the road, we got there and the pre-tornado house was on the left, and the new house that the Red Cross built for them was on the right. I'm not quite sure who won that argument because I heard both Memmie and Midge say both options that day... So the story is that way back whenever, there was a massive tornado that ravaged the farming community and completely destroyed their house. They all blacked out and don't remember anything but that they all woke up huddled together in a corner. The Red Cross built a new home on the other side of the road for them to live in.
The owners now have changed some things such as added on more rooms and moved the front porch, it used to be over on that right side of the house apparently. Behind this house is a giant hill, and back behind where I was standing was a big hill going down to a creek.
This is the side of the road where the pre-tornado house was. You can't see anything because of all the overgrowth of trees and bushes. Oh well...
Here are some more photos of the area around their old home.
Memmie walking down the road towards the creek where they used to get their water from:
After the lovely tour, we headed back to the house because Memmie, Midge and Bill were going back to that infamous gas station to go see their friends and hang out for lunch, because that is apparently the thing to do. Well I was not having any part of that so mom and I decided to head to Eureka Springs with Vivian, whose house we were staying at, to grab some lunch and explore the town.
Well lunch turned out to not be so fabulous as Vivian had prepared us for.
1. It was a restaurant inside a Best Western.
2. Not many options, but had a decent looking salad bar, which is what I opted for.
3. I did NOT opt for the LIVE moth that would be swimming around in ranch dressing on top of the lettuce on my plate.
Ok, I know it seems like I'm complaining a lot, but I really did have a great time. There were just some not so hot moments that are pretty funny when you think about it.
It was pretty freaking hot in Eureka Springs and there were TONS of people roaming about. We drove around looking for places to park and walk around, but there weren't many options and Vivian's knee was hurting so we just drove around all 3 levels of the town looking at the neat places. On the drive back to town we saw this little road leading up a tall mountain and Vivian says "hey you want to go see where my granddaughter got married?" We were like yeah!! It was at Thorncrown Chapel, a very famous piece of architecture. It has won awards for it's design. The AIA named it #4 on its list of top buildings of the 20th century. It is definitely worth stopping by and walking down the wooded path to see its glory. I took tons and tons of photos and they all turned out amazing. Here's a few of my fav's.
This is along side the path the whole way leading up to the chapel:
After the chapel, we headed back to the house to get ready for the "meet and greet" at the school gym. Depending on how hot it was in that gym, or how boring it was, me and mom left the option open on leaving and going to do our own thing. Well it certainly was hot, and the heat really bothers mom, so after checking in grandma, Midge, and Bill, we headed out and decided to drive around for a bit. Actually, we were in search of somewhere decent to eat dinner and not have gas station food or nasty bug-infested food. Success! We drove to the next town called Rogers and there were tons of places to eat! One place caught our eyes, Catfish John's. Yeah fried, but hey, it was delicious! Got tons of food for cheap too. We probably could have split one child's plate we both got. After eating, we headed back to Garfield and drove straight into a huge storm. It was raining so hard I could barely see the road in front of me. I almost pulled over, but it lightened up some and I kept on going. That rain dropped the temperature about 20 degrees making it super nice outside. When we got to the house, we saw Vivian and her husband outside in the garden picking blueberries for the cobbler she was going to make! Me and mom headed over there and helped out. The blueberries we so sweet and delicious!
Soon after starting to pick the blueberries, here comes that storm we drove out of. We ran to the porch and decided to sit relax in the cool weather and watch the rain. The cows seemed to enjoy the weather too.
And that concluded our 2nd day in Arkansas. I'll blog tomorrow about Day 3 with more pictures!
