Well folks, here it is at last....the long-awaited, highly-anticipated,
final installment of our great summer roadtrip. Almost brings
a tear to
your eye, doesn't it? ;-)
DAY 17: 7/9 (continued)
After leaving the City Museum in St. Louis, we set out for Eureka
Springs, Arkansas. This city is known for its quirkiness.
On our first night
there, Aliece did some shopping and bummed around the cute little
downtown area, and I went to the Palace
Bath House. This is a health spa
there in the downtown area. I had made an appointment there because
I thought it looked very interesting, and it most definitely was.
First they
drew me a warm mineral bath. Then I got to do the eucalyptus
steam--
basically you sit in this barrel-like situation and it is HOT HOT HOT.
I loved it.
(As some of you may know, I am a big fan of very hot jacuzzis, steam
rooms,
and showers or baths.) I was in there about three to five minutes,
and the
attendant stopped in and asked if I was doing alright. I replied
that I certainly was.
She said that most people don't last that long in there. I stayed
about five or ten
minutes more (I lost track of time), and then she came back in.
She said that I had
stayed there the longest of anyone she had known. (Awwww yeah--setting
records
in Eureka Springs! Well, maybe not a real record, but you get
what I mean.) I went
from the eucalyptus steam to my massage, which was fantastic.
After my spa visit was over, I met up with Aliece and we went to our
hotel and checked in.
We bummed around that area of the town a little, then went on to
sleep.
DAY 18: 7/10
The plan for today was to tour the many attractions on the grounds of
the Great Passion Play.
There is a lot to do there, except on Wednesdays. Guess which
day we went? ;-) (This is
part of the logistical nightmare....City Museum in STL closed on Sunday
before we could get
there and was not open Monday. So we had to go Tuesday.
That put us getting to
Eureka Springs too late on Tuesday to do the Passion Play thing then,
so we had no other day
to do it BUT Wednesday. Has your head exploded yet? Mine
did.) Anyway, there was
enough to do there on a Wednesday to keep us occupied.
First we did the New Holy Land tour. We had a ticket for 9 a.m.
and had to arrive by 8:30.
The people at the Passion Play had re-created some of the key places/scenes/stories
from
the Bible. It was fascinating. The people on the tour were
mostly Jewish or Christian, but there
were others as well and all seemed to enjoy it. Where measurements
and descriptions were
available from the Bible, they reproduced everything to scale. Otherwise,
they used descriptions
from other ancient sources to recreate the various scenes.
After the tour, we were getting kind of hungry, so we thought we might
get something to eat at one
of the snack bars. Too bad it was Wednesday and none of them
were open! Fortunately the gift
shop was open and had some crackers and chips, and there was a vending
machine where we could
get sodas. So with our make-shift lunch in hand, we went to a
picnic area on the grounds and ate.
We also went to view the portion of the Berlin Wall they had there,
the Christ of the Ozarks statue,
a Bible museum, and a museum of Sacred Art. All were very interesting.
Of course, we did not get
to see any of the special shows or presentations, or the Passion Play
itself, since it was Wednesday. =)
At about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, we had finished with our time there
and went back to downtown
Eureka Springs. We visited many of the downtown shops and ate
dinner in a place called "Local Flavor."
We then hit some shops closer to our hotel. Afterwards, we went
back to the hotel, where I spent some time
in the jacuzzi (not nearly as hot as the eucalyptus steam, but enjoyable
nonetheless) and then crashed for the night.
DAY 19: 7/11
Not a lot of fun stuff today--this was mostly a driving day. We
checked out of our hotel at about 9 a.m. and
headed to our last stop in the Eureka Springs area: Thorncrown
Chapel. If you have never seen this place, it
is amazing. We hung out there for a while and took some pictures,
and then set out toward Birmingham, Alabama.
Much of the drive through Arkansas reminded us of West Virginia in
that it was really pretty and there was
just NOTHING. Of course after we passed through Memphis, we had
to drive through Mississippi, which also
has nothing but is not that pretty. Once we got out of MS and
closer to Birmingham, our drive was made
longer by the fact that the highway we used (78, which cut from Memphis
to Birmingham) was undergoing
construction and there were several detours we had to take. We
didn't know WHERE we were toward the
end there. But we managed to make it to the hotel anyway.
=) By that time it was pretty late, so we just
ate and went to sleep.
DAY 20: 7/12
We looked at some things we wanted to see in Birmingham. For Aliece,
this mainly consisted of an art store
called Naked Art. Now
don't go jumping to conclusions--it is not called that because the art
involves nudity.
It is called that because the owners want visitors to be able to appreciate
the art with the naked eye and
not have to search for hidden meanings. They featured many different
kinds of art made by local artists.
Most of it was "functional" stuff--such as tables, chairs, lamps, bowls,
&c. A lot of it was really neat,
and it was definitely unique, but we didn't buy anything because it
was a little too costly for us (especially
coming at the end of the trip).
We then wandered around downtown Birmingham and ate at a cute local
place down there. After lunch,
we visited the campus of Samford University, since a friend of ours
had told us it was a really nice campus.
It was a lovely campus, and we went into some of the open buildings
and looked inside. Also, our friend
had told us that the whole campus was done in the Georgian Colonial
style, and it had been a joke that if
they ever built a parking deck, it would be Georgian Colonial.
Well, he told us he found out they HAD
built a parking deck and it was indeed Georgian Colonial. We
just thought this was hysterical, so we
definitely wanted to see it. However, we had a bit of trouble
locating this parking deck, and ended up
passing the entrance area many times in our quest to find it.
There were some guys mowing the lawn who
just kept staring at us every time we drove by. (They probably
thought we were doing something weird,
like driving around a college that neither of us attended just to look
at a particular parking deck.)
Anyway, we did find the parking deck and it was indeed Georgian Colonial.
It was totally worth seeing--
we laughed for at least five minutes before moving on.
After our adventures in Birmingham, it was off to Scottsboro, Alabama.
We explored a little bit when we got
there, but pretty much just ate dinner and retired for the night.
DAY 21: 7/13
This is the last day of our road trip....can you believe it? We
awoke at a decent hour (maybe 9 or 10)
and made our way to the Unclaimed Baggage store. (Yes, this was
the reason Aliece wanted to go
to Scottsboro.) This store is like a giant yard sale featuring,
you guessed it, items from the
unclaimed baggage of people the world over. Apparently the airlines
have to search for the owner for
at least 90 days before they can turn the baggage over to the store
(or do whatever else they're going
to do), but after that the store can get it. They had some interesting
things here, and each of us bought
a few items. (I was especially pleased that they had a few penguin
things and served Starbucks coffee in
their cafe area.) Check out their website
if you want to learn more about this place.
After making our purchases, we got some lunch nearby and then headed
on home to Atlanta! We had
a pretty uneventful trip and made it around 6 p.m.
Well, folks--that is it for the chronicles of our trip. I hope
you have enjoyed reading these little commentaries
and looking at the pictures on the site.
In conclusion, I would like to say that we both learned a lot about
ourselves, each other, and some parts
of our country that had previously only existed in pictures, news reports,
stereotypes, and other people's
stories. Aliece did not end up finding herself in this trip,
but she (and I) did learn about things that were
much bigger than ourselves, our family, our city, or our state.
(For the record, the day after we got home,
Aliece left for a two-week camp and says that she found herself there.)
Our list of places we would like to visit again is extensive, and our
memories and stories are abundant.
Thanks for letting us share them with you!