Ouachita to Stuttgart

The old Regent Theater building in somewheresville arkansas

Let's just say you have been spending the last few days by a gigantic Ozark Lake. It is lovely there, you've been sunning, swimming and hiking. You might decide that you've had enough of that and it's time to move on. But where, where, where would you go? The woods of the Arkansas Ozarks are calling you to just lay back and rest a while, a little bit more, the same way the Appalachian Mountains called to Rip van Winkle to close his eyes and take a nap. But you resist. There are more things to see further along the road and they are calling to you too. Pack up the car, roll down the windows and begin the parade anew.

I too felt the beckoning and though the air and the water suited me fine it was time to move on and see more. I placed Lake Ouachita and the village of Mountain Valley in my rear view mirror and headed forward. East again, winding the back roads of the Arkansas Ozarks to new adventures ahead. The good map showed me a plethora of alternative routes along my way and I drove some of the thinnest lines on the map to enter into the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas from a point so strange that I was surprise to find myself so suddenly in a developed place. One moment I was on a tiny road surrounded by green and the next bend found me on a street with storied buildings on either side. When the buildings continued around the next bend I realized that I was in more than just a miniscule crossroads town. I was in Hot Springs. tin fuel depot

The tourist must love Hot Springs, Arkansas because Hot Springs, Arkansas clearly loves them. The town has been attracting visitors from all over for more than a hundred years and has gotten good at it. Filled with cafes, hotels and places to shop the stage themselves as a Mecca for people looking for the quaint and lovely ambiance this historic vacation spot has to offer. Hot Springs, Arkansas is well worth a google if you want to read more about them. I won't repeat all of that here.

My particular agenda isn't about the tourist thing. I was back in civilization again. The thing to do was to grab my email and move on. I found a wireless hot spot across from one of the municipal buildings. (Madeline's G-Spot was the name of the WAP I never figured out who Madeline was) There was four days worth of spam queued up for me, o-boy. With my Email current, I headed across the state. I had targeted a state camping ground on the eastern edge of Arkansas, it would be about a 200 mile drive. rusty tin hoppers

Two-hundred miles, not including pulling over for interesting shots and whatever as I moseyed along. Sundays in Arkansas seems to be one of the days where the state has lawbreakers sentenced to public service paying penance by picking up trash. Every county had a different way of drawing attention to these bad-deed-doers. From the demure bright orange construction vests to jump suits in international orange or lime green… one county even dressed these fellows in the traditional, horizontal striped pajamas that are the familiar attire of Carl Barks' Beagle Boys. There was no mistaking these fellows were not out for a casual Sunday stroll. Whatever their offense, the gents took their work seriously and did a good job. The roadsides of Arkansas are trash-free.

The highways became straighter, the roads flatter. I passed through managed pine woods. Miles and miles of trees, all of matching height. First there would be a mile or so of full-grown trees followed by a section of five year old trees and then a mile that had recently been harvested. An area of recently harvested trees always looks a wreck and like a wasteful destruction of a natural area, but if you live in a house built of wood, these are the killing fields from which the materials are drawn. Part of our economic cycle. They are managed now. Some acreage in it's third and fourth plantings. A much better idea than simply cutting and moving on, doncha think? Cooks Produce Market

The woods abruptly stopped and the agriculture changed from forest management to the production of food. Corn for a few dozen miles flattening out further into rice. Mile after mile of perfectly flat fields of rice. I suspected I was getting closer to the Mississippi, it was only logical. I was still driving the way-backroads. The tiny villages I passed through were shanty-towns with no visible economics. There was evidence of a past economy, abandoned, half-roofed warehouses standing mute as the Sphinx. Nowhere near as grand as the Acropolis, these are discarded and left behind, no value, not even as scrap metal.

The scale of farming has changed enough over the past decades that much of the unskilled manual labor is no longer needed. The two or three brick buildings that comprised their downtown were in horrible states of repair and the only sign of commerce in one of these crossroad blips seemed to be a working ice machine that was parked in front of what was once the a liquor store. Yet these towns were not forgotten and left behind. One that I drove around in had at least 70 to 100 families living there. How and on what I have no idea, but they do not have enough money to make painting and repairing their homes a high priority. I imagine food and fuel are the items that take up 90% of their budget. Humphrey Service Station

I was getting tired of driving. I decided to stop at the first town large enough to have a hotel. One of the drawbacks to driving the path less beaten is that towns with hotels are not at every crossing. And the towns I had been passing through seemed to have enough work just sheltering their own. I checked out the map, it looked like Stuttgart, Arkansas would be a likely place for a hotel. So I found the lines that would take me from where I was to Stuttgart and found my way there.

Music
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Travel
      Bits of VA
      Wiggling the Adirondacks
      Washington
      Hey, Let's hit Idaho
      A Drive About (series)
          And We're Off
          more...
      West Highway 162
      A Jaunt to Nevada
      Coffee and Pie (series)
          Branson to Fayetteville
          Fayetteville to Lake Ouachita
          Mountain Valley Arkansas
          Ouachita to Stuttgart
          Stuttgart Arkansas
          Fooling About in Arkansas
          Drive to New Orleans
          My Brothers! Welcome to New Orle
          Evelyn's Place
          Hurricane Katrina
          New Orleans Second Line Parade
          Pictures of the French Quarter
          Pictures of New Orleans
          Leaving New Orleans
          Out of NOLA Two
          St Augustine Florida
          To Ferdinandina Florida
          Georgian Coast
          Through Charleston, SC
          Georgetown to the Beach
          Beach to Gastonia
          To Wainsborough NC
          To Jonesborough, TN
          To Charleston, WV
          To Gallipolis, OH
          To Elizabethtown, KY
          To Sikeston, MO
          To Springfield, MO
          to Booneville, MO
          To Kirksville, MO
          To Iowa City
          To Rock Falls, Illinois
          To Niles, MI
          To Newaygo, MI
          To Standish, MI
          to Onaway, MI
          To Wawa, Ontario
          In Wawa, ON
          To Schreiber ON
          To Ignace, ON
          At the Lone Pine Motel
          North!
          Sioux Lookout, Dryden
          To Kenora, ON
          Border Crossing
          To Grand Forks, ND
          To Valley City, ND
          To Aberdeen, SD
          To Pierre, SD
          South Dakota Badlands
          To Wall, SD
          To Rapid City, South Dakota
          Mt Rushmore to Bell Fourche, SD
          Belle Forche, SD to Devil's Towe
          Broadus, MT to Cohagen, MT
          Hell Creek, MT
          Glasgow, Montana
Misc

Coffee and Pie
Fayetteville to Lake Ouachita
May 17, 2006
When you leave Fayetteville you have a choice once again. I was heading south and had the choice of the interstate
Mountain Valley Arkansas
May 18, 2006
So there I was, right outside of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. The map showed the Lake Ouachita State Park campground was a blip over to the left but it showed no roads between....
  Ouachita to Stuttgart
Stuttgart Arkansas
May 23, 2006
Imagine yourself amongst the rice fields of Arkansas. Wide, open spaces, precisely leveled and flattened with an Ausburgian attention to detail. The carefully planted rice is short, looking like a bad hair transplant/
Fooling About in Arkansas
May 25, 2006
One of the problems with bonking about in Smalltown is that eventually you will need something that is not available in the local Walmart nor in the businesses that managed to survive the economic scouring that a new Walmart tends to give a community. I came  upon such a moment when one of my external hard drives took a data dump to that big supercomputer in the sky....
Drive to New Orleans
May 27, 2006
For many people Friday night and the phrase "complete abandonment" means excitement and wild activity. Along the main drag of Stuttgart, in the Springtime at least, it means the opposite...
My Brothers! Welcome to New Orleans - USA Open Volleyball Championship
May 30, 2006
"Ah, my brothers! Welcome to New Orleans!" The greeting almost overpowered the room. I thought I heard the wine glasses behind the bar clinking together.
Evelyn's Place
Jun 16, 2006
There are people and places who are anchors. Vortices. Around whom life swirls, drawing you in, inviting you to join the dance. Such people and places never happen by intent, they manifest by conditions unique in each instance; blooming spontaneously and offering all within their sphere an extra portion of life's nectar...
Hurricane Katrina
Jun 18, 2006
I came down to New Orleans, almost on a whim, to see my brother who was here for a week to play in a volleyball tournament. I figured, on the side, I could get some info on New Orleans, take some pictures of the Katrina damage and write some stuff about it, yadda yadda...
New Orleans Second Line Parade
Jun 28, 2006
Master percussionist Kufaru died the second week of June. Kufaru was a popular New Orleans musician who has recorded with the Neville Brothers, Emmy Lou Harris and others. He was a generous man who gave back to his community and was well-loved for it. In his honor his friends and family held a second line parade...
Pictures of the French Quarter
Jun 29, 2006
A selections of some pf the interesting artifacts to be found in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Doors, roofs,walls, odds & ends
Pictures of New Orleans
Jul 02, 2006
Pictures of New Orleans
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