Crystal Bridges

One of many reasons for our visit to northwest Arkansas was to visit Crystal Bridges. This new museum of American art in Bentonville is first class and well-worth a visit. We met Will there and all enjoyed the art, the architecture, and the outdoor trails that wind among the gardens.

Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter is quite popular. The art is arranged in chronological order from colonial times to contemporary.

This was day one of a new trial for the floating dock that would support the window washers while they cleaned the many windows. It was working nicely.

An overview shows how water is incorporated into the setting. It amazes me that a bicycle trail begins one block from the square and how much land (120 acres) was involved in building this.  Alice Walton,  daughter of Sam, has made it all happen.

The dogwoods, azaleas, and many other plants adorned the woodland setting.

Both inside and out you will find sculptures such as this silver tree at the entrance.

I love the humorous signs found in the parking garage such as this one and then you will find Pinocchio inside. 

Even if you can't make it to the museum where your entrance fee is sponsored by Walmart, do go visit the website and see to what you have to look forward.

It seemed logical to go to the square in Bentonville afterwards where we toured the Bentonville 5 and dime store, now a museum, on the town square. It is one of the cleanest town squares I have seen so we even sat on the park bench and visited while I gave my feet a quick refresher in the fountain. Afterall, it is Arkansas.

Pea Ridge and War Eagle

It amazed me there are so many places that I have never been so close to home. We stopped at nearby Pea Ridge Battlefield and enjoyed a tour of the small museum and then a drive around the seven mile trail. 

We stopped and visited with a quite knowledgable volunteer at the reconstructed Elkhorn Tavern along the trail. He explained how this battlefield did not have trees but was an area covered in grasses on which pea vines grew.  Most interesting to us was the 97 year old man we met the next day in the Walmart parking lot in Rogers, who asked us directions to Pea Ridge. He had come from Okalahoma to see where his grandfather fought in the Civil War.

From Pea Ridge we went to see where so many people go annually for an arts and crafts festival at War Eagle. I had no idea where it was even located and just had to see the place. I do like an old gristmill and was also looking forward to some freshly ground products. We found it all! It is amazing that this mill was built in 1832 in this valley alongside War Eagle Creek.

The bridge adjacent to the mill is over one hundred years old. It seems we see fewer and fewer of these old bridges. Wooden planks provide a safe crossing over War Eagle Creek.

I bought my corn meal, whole wheat flour, bulgar, biscuit mix, etc without having to contend with crowds and we were off back up the winding roads across the mountainside.

Beaver Lake

While we were camping at Crystal Springs it dawned on us that we were 20 miles closer to northwest Arkansas than if we were at home, so we decided to take off and travel west for some more camping. Site 6 at Lost Bridge north was a perfect spot for us and available!  What a nice view of Beaver Lake.

While geocaching on a nearby hill we were provided a fantastic view of Beaver Lake. 

Before long we were off down a winding country road to visit our friends Becky and Ed. Becky greeted us from the deck. 

It was a treat to see her beautiful flowers blooming profuesly on "the Property." What a fantastic home they have and we are so glad they now live in Arkansas! We spent many hours visiting and had weigh too many meals with them but enjoyed every second of it!

Back at the lake I enjoyed watch this heron near our campground. He would stretch his neck as he called for some company! 

We did make a trip to Fayetteville to visit with Will. He shared a leaf from the nearby tree so Leon could feed the goat. Needless to say Niles the dog wanted some leaves also.

We did not have so many fires at Beaver Lake as the evening had warmed considerably but we did have a few for roasting marshmallows. Is that a look of excitement. They go great with chocolate covered mint cookies!

Yes, we will return to Lost Bridge and hope to get this same spot. It was named for the bridge that was built nearby to cross the White River before the lake was built. The county on the opposite side of the river chose not to connect a road to the bridge and it became known as the lost cause bridge. Or so the story goes. This was certainly no lost cause for us.

Bluebonnets!!

At last I am in Texas at bluebonnet time. We moved over to Somerville Lake north of Brenham to see what we could find blooming. We were quite pleased with our camping spot on the lake.

 I did the happy dance as we were riding our bikes and geocaching along a trail in the Corps of Engineers' park.

We drove into Somerville and inquired in the flower shop as to where we might see bluebonnets and she suggested we ride out towards Independence. What a fantastic suggestion. I had no idea we would visit the original location of Baylor University.

The old buildings in the area just amazed me and yes, the bluebonnets and other wildflowers were prolific and blooming in all their glory!

Nearby is the old homeplace where Stephen Austin once lived as well as some other historic buildings. I was one happy camper! Such history in this area.

I do look forward to returning to Independence and exploring even further.

I would be ashamed to admit how many photos I took of this old building. A priceless treasure in my opinion.

Corpus Christi and the coastal bend of Texas

We arrived in Corpus Christi and settled in at the Moose Lodge (or was it the Elks) just in time to locate a block party at Cassidy's Irish Pub, so we were off to celebrate. My shamrock glasses were a big hit as I guess Walgreens did not carry them there last year.

On our first attempt to drive out to North Padre Island and the national seashore we turned back due to the heavy amount of spring break traffic. Early in the day was not so bad as we ventured out another day. We did not drive very far down the beach but instead went north to explore. 

This mobile home park caught my eye. I believe his mobile home is pretty stationary now! Some of the coastal towns such as Aransas Pass still have the fishing village feel to me. 

Here we had a fun tour out on a boardwalk to view the marsh and wildlife. This is the only gator we saw though!

Shrimp fishing is a way of life in this part of Texas.

After staying in Corpus a couple of days we moved up to Magnolia Beach near Indianola. This is a great free camping spot alongside  Matagorda Bay where you will always come across winter Texans from Canada in transit. We arrived in quite a storm but I guess into each trip a little rain must fall. The winds were something else!

It seems we parked in a low spot as the water kinda puddled at the door of the trailer. Most big rigs pulled out and went to Walmart. I guess they did not want to drive down the beach to leave when the road flooded but it was hard packed sand and no problem.

These Canadians were in a cluster down near the water where they didn't have to walk so far to fish!

A new day dawned and we left in search of bluebonnets after we had spent a day exploring the area. Indianola was once a thriving little seaport where many of the German immigrants arrived in Texas but two hurricanes in the latter part of the 19th century devastated the town and after the second one they never rebuilt.

San Antonio

I can't get anywhere close to San Antonio and not stop for a visit. The Elks Lodge in Sequin provided us a place to park and we headed to the market along with many others on the Friday before St. Patrick's Day. Several bands were playing on the outdoor stages throughout the market.

Leon managed to weave through the crowd where folks were busy buying food from the many vendors.

With decent food and drink, music and people to watch all we needed was a place to sit in the shade and enjoy. 

We eventually hopped the trolley over to the Alamo area and descended to the riverwalk where we found more crowds, food, music, and beverage.

We thought we would have to return on St. Patrick's Day to watch the river turn green but they did it two days. I guess we were still recuperating from such a busy schedule in Austin as we hardly even walked the river and decided to move on to Corpus Christi for St. Patrick's Day.