Today was Jane MO to Harrison AR.
Daylight brought clouds this morning, some dark and ominous. But, we only got drizzled on a little early afternoon, not a problem. The clouds meant the sun was not so hot which was good. I think it might have gotten up to 90 today, but it was oppressive. Morning scripture reading was Isaiah 44 "I have formed you, you are My servant...I have wiped out your transgressions...."
Breakfast was what the motel offered, waffles and biscuits and gravy. Quite good, actually. From the motel we went into Belle Vista and found a friend of Lloyds and Keith's, a man named Art. Art has a house hear in Arkansas as well as a house in Minnesota. He travels back and forth a lot. Art was very friendly, offered us a tour of his property, coffee and water and some good advice on which roads to take. His first suggestion was a very good one to take State hwy 90 to Noel, MO. This was a great road, nicely paved and a lot of fun curves. Thanks Art!
From Noel we circled back around to Belle Vist and then headed into the Ozarks. Our first stop was at the Pea Ridge National Military Park. This is where the largest Civil War battle was in this area. The battle was primarily about keeping Missouri in the union. Over 3000 soldiers died in the battle. The park HQ was very well laid out and very interesting.
From Pea Ridge we headed east on US 62 to the Mountain Chapel. This is a very scenic small church overlooking a great vista of forest, hills, valley and lake. Also a very interesting place to stop at.
Our next destination was Eureka Springs, AR. But before we got there we headed up an interesting looking side road called State 187. At the top of this pass through the hills we found a fascinating little town called Beaver, AR. One thing really interesting is the one lane suspension bridge which has wood planks as a driving surface.
After taking many pictures of this bridge we headed back down the "mountain" (really just tall hills) to Eureka Springs where we found an interesting little restaurant in the historic downtown area called The Cat House. It was now quite late in the day and we hadn't had a real meal yet. So, we called it lunch/dinner and enjoyed the meal and fellowship. We met a man and wife biking duet and enjoyed talking to them about their and our adventures to date.
It was now 5:30 PM and time to head across to find our motel in Harrison. It was a busy road over to Harrison but we made it just find and settled into our rooms. I (Wayne) still wanted to hit some more twisty roads before dark but none of the others were interested so I headed off on my own adventure. I found a nice loop north of town up state hwys 7, 281 and 14. Again, nice roads, great scenery.
After my excursion we all headed over to the local Sonic for late night ice cream. After that, time for our bible study. Romans 12:4-9, we are all part of Christ's body and have unique giftings.
Tomorrow we zoom around on some more twisty roads and will find a different place to spend the night.
