Joe Don's Art and Fort Smith Arkansas

Bryn: We started the day saying good-bye to our dear friends Rebecca and Joe Don. We had giving of gifts. Here are matted prints of some of Joe Don's paintings, plus some coasters featuring some of his other works. We'll add a link to his website or blog as soon as we can.

Bret: Today was fun, we went to Fort Smith Arkansas. I wouldn't want to go on the gallows. At first I thought that when you fell it would tear your head off, but it usually just breaks your neck. I learned about the Trail of Tears, and there was a prison there. And we went to Harry's Hamburger Barn for lunch, and I had the best thing on the menu, a French dip sandwich.

Reed: I had an Elvis burger, very Elvis-like with bacon and 'Blue' cheese, but no peanut butter and no bananas. At the Fort, we heard the Ranger tell us one of the convict's last words, so I came up with last words of my own. They would be: "Last words? Yeah, I'll tell you next year!"

Bryn: The boys earned Junior Ranger badges at Fort Smith National Historic Site. Ft Smith is a delightful town with three museums in addition to the fort, it would have been nice to stay over. The Ozark Mountains are covered with lush trees but seem like gentle hills and not mountains. There seemed to be more pieces of tires and re-treads here than any other place I've seen on a road trip. As in Texas and Oklahoma, we see dead armadillos here and are hoping someday to see a live one.
We had to have a change of plans for today, we badly misestimated the time and mileage to get to Murfeesboro from Bartlesville. We had to drop our camping plans for Crater of Diamonds State Park. We came into Little Rock instead amidst a huge thunderstorm which Reed likened to the crash of artillery.
Randy: We had a good dinner at Jordan's BBQ and Catfish, a little place in Little Rock.
Bret: Then we went swimming at the hotel's indoor pool, Reed and I played catch and then we played a game where Reed was a bunny, and if you touched him, he went rabid. The hot tub was called a whirlpool.
Reed: We attempted to make a whirlpool in it.