Vacation, Day 3

What a day! Got a great nights sleep despite the Turpentine Creek Cat Chorus. We lazed around a bit this morning, then I went out ant took pictures of the cats while Lynn enjoyed a good soak in the oversized tub. As I approached the pen across from our room, I was reminded that these are wild animals as a tiger sprang up and charged at me. Believe me, you’re not really comforted by mere fences when a 450 pound cat with 3 inch canines and claws bigger than a pocket knife is charging at you. Awesome! It reminded me of my favorite depiction of God as a Lion in C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia”. One of the Pevensie children asks if Aslan, the God figure, is a tame lion. The answer she receives is, “My heavens, no. He’s not a tame lion, but he’s good.” I think sometimes that we treat God like some of these animals were treated, as if we could make a housepet of God, and eventually we discover otherwise. She’s not tame, but she’s good. The feminine gender is just a little reminder that God isn’t contained by our human categories of male and female either.
As I continued around the compound, I watched as a young black leopard, stalked a little girl of 2-3 years. He circled around until his den—a concrete box—was between him and the girl, then he would raise up to peek at her over the top, then leap onto the den and lunge at her through the fence. He repeated this 4-5 times before being distracted by a ball floating in a tank of water in his pen. It was amusing to watch him play with the ball even to the point of dunking himself in the water, which he didn’t seem to mind at all, despite the fact that one of the staff said leopards usually don’t like water. I hope the pictures turn out.
Check out was at 11, so we packed up the car and ate an early lunch. On a whim, Lynn asked if we could camp at the refuge. We were told we could, for $25 a night. This might seem high, but the total amount of our lodging goes to caring for the cats, so we didn’t mind. However, we’d made reservations at Withrow Springs state park, so we headed south about 14 miles to set up camp. Imagine our surprise when we found that our campsite was right off the side of state highway 23. Seriously, I’ve seen interstate rest stops where you could get farther from the road. Call us picky, but when we think of camping, we generally imagine being surrounded by trees and, if necessary, fellow campers, without a highway, or even a main road in sight. After learning that the park didn’t have any sites further removed we called some campgrounds and finally decided to return to Turpentine creek, where we set up our dining fly to hold our spot—we had our choice of five of the seven sites—before heading out for the day. We stopped to ask if there was a camera shop around—the clerk didn’t know of one—and Lynn had the bright idea to call local photographers to ask where they bought their supplies. The only lead we got was a Radio Shack in Berryville—It seems that Eureka Springs consists largely of hotels, RV parks, and restaurants, aside from the historic business district and the Passion Play which are the main tourist attractions—so we were off to Berryville again. We found the Radio Shack, which was also an auto parts store and machine shop, and were excited to find the correct battery for our good camera, a Nikon 6006 which my wife purchased in college—she was an art major. After leaving Radio Shack, where we also learned the merits of Hex Bugs, we decided to check out the Berryville town squarewhich Lynn had read about in a tourist magazine. Wow, were we glad we did! On the square in Berryville we discovered two wonderful used book stores, one of which had an eccentric owner and Spanky, a terrier with a Mohawk, as it’s mascot. Best of all, we discovered Las Lunas, a hole in the wall restaurant with incredible food. We had authentic Guatemalan drinks, the best papusa we’d ever tasted, 2 tacos, beans and tortilla chips, all for less than $8. We’ve had more than a few Papusas, we promise! We also found an ice cream store with cinnamon ice cream that tasted like home made apple pie. Hmm-mm!
After leaving Berryville, we stopped to see the sites on the way back to Eureka which included Cherokee Mountain Gallery—closed, (bummer!), Onyx Cave—a lttle off the beaten path, but well worth it, and Sleepy’s Log Cabin Décor. On our way back through Eureka Springs, we stopped at the Natural Foods Market for some snacks, and decided to drive around a bit again. It was about 5:30 and the town was pretty much closed up, which was nice because we didn’t have to fight traffic. Our wanderings took us off the main shopping street to a nice little area at the top of the mountain, over the mountain past the magnificent Crescent hotel and numerous beautiful houses, to the Grotto Spring where we had an impromptu picnic dinner. On our way back through Eureka we stopped at a gallery… Well, to tell the truth, we stopped beyond the gallery and I backed up the street blocking traffic and creating a general snafu. Lynn—remember, she’s the art expert—declared this a wonderful gallery and the only one she’s seen that successfully mixed a wide range of styles. She also found an artist she really liked, a very rare occurrence; and, even more rare, I agreed with her. Sean Mitchell is a photographer with a unique way of seeing the world that comes through very clearly and engagingly in his work. Unfortunately, the price was well beyond our means, even with a 15% discount that the gallery owner mentioned repeatedly, somehow managing to do so without it being obnoxious. It helped that she obviously knew what she was talking about given her conversation with Lynn. Our daylight reconnaissance accomplished, we headed back to Turpentine Creek, set up our tent and retired for the night since it was about 10pm. My last thought of the day, with the concerto of cats in the background, was that there’s nothing like the idea of an escaped tiger visiting your tent at night to remind you of your mortality.