October 21 – Eureka Springs! The Ozark mountains are really beautiful! I
thought Branson was hilly. It’s flat
compared to Eureka Springs! Oh my
goodness, steepest streets in a town
I’ve ever seen! We were glad we were in the car and not in the RV! The town was built in the late 1800's and it's amazing to think they could build a town right into the mountains like they have here! They have a wonderful
trolley system though that takes you all over the place, you decide on the
yellow route, the red route, the blue or the purple routes and go
accordingly. So we feel like we got to
see a lot of this quaint town, with its reputation as one of the top 50
downtowns in America. Lots of unique shops and cafes. I got a pretty set of chimes engraved with
the Serenity Prayer on the chimes, so looking forward to using those when we
get home.
We ate at a quaint restaurant that
was highly recommended by a couple of the locals we talked to, called Local
Flavors.
The most interesting place we saw in
Eureka Springs was the Thorncrown Chapel!
48 feet tall with 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass! It is
located atop over 100 tons of native stone and colored flagstone.
The winner of the American Institute
of Architecture’s Design of the Year Award for 1981 and the A1A Design of the
Decades. Voted 4th on the A1A
list of the top buildings of the twentieth century!
Our trolley driver quietly tipped us
off that IF the lady who serves as Minster of Music was there, if we’d ask,
she’d sing for us! So sure enough, she
was there, and is so elegant and soft spoken, but with a lovely soprano voice.
What a sweet spirit she had and was so delighted we were there.
Fascinating story of the builder, Jim
Reed, (E. Fay Jones, an apprentice of
Frank Lloyd Wright, was the architect) who when about half way through ran out
of money and it appeared his dream would never be completed. He felt shattered and admitted for the first
time in his life, he just fell on his knees in the chapel and gave it all to
God. It was a dream he felt God had
given him, but he’d taken it as far as he could in his own strength. He humbled
himself and prayed that if it was supposed to be completed, God would have to
provide. Within a few days, the money miraculously was made available, and the
work was completed. This is on the same property and is called a worship center, but is primarily used for conferences. They do have worship services up in the chapel every Sunday. I'd love to have attended one!
It’s a fascinating story, and if you’d like to read about
it just google Thorncrown Chapel. You
will enjoy it! The chapel has been featured in all the major magazines over the
years! It’s been on NBC Nightly News, the 700 Club, Time, Newsweek and Parade, to name a few.
It was very special to sit completely
surrounded by nature and contemplate the greatness of God. Built completely of
wood and glass, it is one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen.
More of Eureka Springs and the historic Crescent Inn....
This is the famous "Christ of the Ozarks" statue. Lovely and HUGE - we were a long way away, so you can tell it's really big. There is a Passion Play that is reputed to be outstanding here but we're not going to be here this weekend, which will be their final performance this year.
The rest of our time in Arkansas was
spent at Cloud RV Park ($30 night for our RVing friends) – actually a very
pretty park with a nice clubhouse, etc).
However the effects of bands of
weather due to Patricia made for a less than pleasant stay. Soaking rain that
made it extremely unpleasant to be out so we got caught up on lots of stuff and
did venture out during a brief window to do laundry. We cooked in the RV, and
had a marathon of NCIS DVDs and enjoyed our books of course.
Sunday we enjoyed the live streaming
of The Cross. It’s extra special knowing all our kids are there. We didn’t catch a glimpse of them this
time. Sometimes we do. Really getting homesick to see family!
Monday it was still a rainy dreary
day, but it wasn’t pouring rain, so we did go into Hot Springs to see the town.
President Andrew Jackson designated Hot Springs as the first federal
reservation in 1832. It is essentially America’s first national park, 40 years
older than Yellowstone. Interesting to see Bathhouse Row that we’ve heard and
read about. Today you can still soak in their thermal waters, as well as
receive spa treatments and massages on this reputedly world famous “row”. The town is famous for hosting some of the
most iconic figures in history. The naturally thermal spring waters that flowed
into these bathhouses were believed to have healing properties, which is why
presidents, outlaws, athletes and other celebrities came often to take
advantage of the special waters here.
Some of these buildings are turn of
the century and really beautiful, having been restored to their “glory
days.” Here are some of the more famous
ones – the Buckstaff Bathhouse, Quapaw Baths and Spa with their steam cave and
others….. if the weather had not been so awful and we weren’t getting anxious
to get home, we would have likely taken the time to have a spa treatment here.
We also had planned to visit the
Woodland Gardens, the 210 acre botanical garden located on Lake Hamilton. They
have a special Japanese garden, ranked among the top 10 in the nation.
Also we were interested to note that
Anthony Chapel is here, also designed by the same architect, E. Fay Jones, that
designed Thorncrown Chapel. The photos
we saw looked very similar.
However, with the exception of that
one street, we were rather shocked at the general state of the town, seemingly
a very depressed area. Lots of unkempt
properties, abandoned buildings, for lease signs all over and much of it in a
state of disrepair.
It would appear the
economy here has been seriously affected.
Not to mention the ROADS! Gracious, the vibrations and bumps and
potholes are just very surprising. Not
since Louisiana have we seen the roads in such poor condition. AND sales tax in Arkansas is 10%!
In looking over the literature we’d
gotten, the marketing of Hot Springs is either a little over the top OR we just
missed out due to the poor weather. I’d
be interested to come back some day to see if our impression is different.
Tuesday, we hit the road again, just
as happy to leave Arkansas behind us.
While the beauty of the mountains and the forests with the fall colors
was enjoyable, with the exception of Eureka Springs, I have no desire to go
back to Arkansas, unless we decided to have a “do over” on Hot Springs.
