Having learned from past experiences, we are clearer about our preferences. The sea of tacky billboards attempting to lure us to Branson, Missouri had the opposite affect. Literally every mega-sign for miles along the highway exhibited things that had absolutely no Oddasee appeal. We avoided that particular neck-o-the tourist crap-o-rama.
Upon leaving Springfield, we hit another one of those cycles where our target sites were either under-whelming, gone or never found. So off to Arkansas we ventured. Immediately we noticed the change in terrain as the bumps became actual hills and the roads where anything but straight. Aiming toward Eureka Springs, we passed through many beautiful little villages and recreation zones. The area is filled with "attractions" but most seemed to be more tasteful than those of the Panama City or Wisconsin Dells.
Along the way we found a couple of worthy stop-overs:
1) Ralph Doss Lanning -- sculpture park. The directions we had were not good and by this time, Madge/Jane had all but succumbed to her brain tumor; she was more hinder than help. We did some serious winding around and the U-turns were racking up but eventually we found our quarry. More accurately we found what was left of it in Republic, MO. The property is for sale, the house vacant and many of the pedestals were empty. Below are some photos of the remnants.
2. "The World's Largest Tuned Musical Windchime" -- makes us wonder if there's a larger non-tuned musical windchime somewhere. This curious attraction was found by accident and it was actually an "art car" that first got our attention. We were looking for some sites on our list but one had been removed and two others were closed. So, we were glad to find something worthy of note. The wind/hurricane powered instrument was.... well, large. There was a box for the $1 charge for human assisting/powering the behemoth. The music was... well, large.
The car sits out in front of a store that sells.... windchimes. It was hardly on the level of the rolling wonders we saw at the art car parade in Houston (which, according to signage, this vehicle had attended during it's obviously long ago glory days) but proved to be much more photogenic.
That's it for days 94. We are glad to be in Eureka Springs; looks to be a fun place to explore and just do a bit of hanging out before we head west with earnest.
Love and a new GPS -- we are calling this one "Clark". He sounds uptight, officious and yet insecure just like Clark Kent but as we know, he has secret powers. On Clark on.....
Rodney Olson and Susan Lane
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