Vacation, Day 5

Vacations are awesome! Today, I got up early and took some more pictures of the cats. Loretta, the white tiger, was very cooperative, so I snapped several shots of her. Along the way, I met Tony, who lives in Gladstone, just north of the river from us in KC, MO. He and his family were staying in the blue room where Lynn and I stayed 3 nights ago. I thought it was great that they were here because he thought his daughter would enjoy it. We snapped some pictures together and shared our hopes for the upcoming Chiefs season before going our separate ways.
After a delicious breakfast we headed to Quigley’s castle. Quigley’s castle is the brainchild of one Elise Quigley, a focused woman who went so far as to tear down the house they were living in to force her husband to begin construction on the house he promised her. The most amazing feature of the house is that on three walls there is 4 feet of dirt around the inside of the house with plants growing up through the second floor. It’s really amazing! Secondly, Elise collected rocks, and when I say collected I mean it. She collected rocks from around the world through the mail as well as picking them up everywhere she went. These rocks are now on the outside of her amazing house, as well as throughout her garden in benches and numerous sculptures. The gardens were very beautiful. The house is now owned by Elise’s granddaughter. She and her husband live in the house which I found amazing as well. I wonder how it feels to have strangers traipsing through your house every day, to essentially live in a museum? Anyway I appreciate the opportunity to see this amazing home and would recommend seeing it if you’re in the area.
After Quigley’s we drove into Eureka Springs where we rode the trolley up to the top of the shopping district before making our way back down one side of the street, checking out the shops along the way before riding back up to do the other side of the street. Momma didn’t raise no fool, I wasn’t going to hike up that hill in 99 degree heat!
Along the way we found ourselves in some really interesting shops including Bone, which sells a hodgepodge of outdoor gear including a lightweight hammock intended for hikers and backpackers. We managed to escape without buying anything too touristy. As we boarded the trolley to go back up the hill, Lynn made a new friend—no surprise there—in a woman from New Mexico who is a spinner, she spins wool into thread and yarn. She was wearing a shirt that said, “From sheep to shawl” and that’s how the conversation started. Sheep to shawl is an event at which multiple spinners take wool freshly shorn from a sheep and spin it into thread for a weaver who weaves a shawl. The shawl is done in just over 3 hours from when they start spinning. Amazing! She’s been doing this event at the New Mexico state fair for years and was just as excited to tell Lynn about spinning as Lynn was to learn.
On our way back down we visited “Hats, Hides, and Heirlooms” where Lynn decided I needed a hat. None of them fit so Lynn told the clerk that I have a big head. I told the clerk it had 2 meanings which caused her to crack up. (If you don’t get it, sit with it for a minute and it’ll come to you.) The clerk asked the store owner who said the only way they could get a hat to fit me was to special order it because they don’t get that many people with big heads coming through. LOL! Maybe you had to be there. After the hat failure we visited Gazebo, a bookstore with a wonderful selection of books on green living and and social respoonibility. Lynn picked up a book on urban gardening and one on growing strawberries while I made a Library/Amazon list before we moved on. There was nothing else particularly exciting before we boarded the trolley to head back to our car.
As it was about time for supper we headed back to Berryville for more of Lily’s awesome Papusas and tacos at La Luna. During dinner we listened as a local woman described how she had been up until late the night before cutting down a fence her neighbor had erected on her property and how she was going after him with a shotgun if he put it back up. I offered her some sympathy and a sincere prayer that it wouldn’t come to violence. After dinner we received an impromptu lesson in tortilla making before heading to 302 on the Square. 302 is a restaurant run by the same folks who sold the cinnamon ice cream. (See day 3). This couple is undertaking the awesome project of restoring a beautiful old hotel building in which their restaurant and ice cream shop occupy the ground floor.
At 302 on the Square we had a lite 2nd dinner. Well, Lynn had ice cream while I had a sandwich—and enjoyed the hootenanny which occurs there every Friday night. What’s a hootenanny? I’m glad you asked. A hootenanny is, in simple terms, a bluegrass and folk music jam session. Since Lynn and I both grew up listening to this kind of music, we loved it. There were about 15 musicians there playing banjos, acoustic guitar, steel guitar, bass, hammered dulcimer, and fiddle, as well as a young boy banging away on a drum. It was great! Not only was the music good, it was beautiful to watch how the musicians worked together. Any musician was welcome so long as they played acoustically. They took turns choosing the song and singing. Someone would start off and the others joined in, sometimes switching instruments to suit the song. They even gave the little guy his turn, playing along with him and turning his efforts into beautiful music. Wish I could see that kind of cooperation and communal teaching on a daily basis. We stayed long enough for a fellow Appalachian to play a Ralph Stanley song for Lynn and then headed back to Turpentine Creek where we have a new neighbor in their RV. Well, I’m off to bed. Hope you all are having as much fun as I am.