Eureka Springs

Back in 1998 Nancy and her sister Diane visited a wild animal compound in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  Nancy fell in love with that town, so we drove up into the Ozarks in the northwestern corner of the state to take a look.

Now I have to admit that when I think of "the Ozarks", the movie Deliverance comes to mind, with its inbreeding and grinding poverty (though admittedly Deliverance was set in Georgia).  But I was offbase; the quality of the roads was fantastic, and the countryside was beautiful and looked relatively prosperous.

We noticed an incredible number of churches in this part of the country.  It became a game for us on our drive to guess how many houses of worship we'd be able to count in each town we passed, based on population.  But we didn't see any mosques or synagogues.  And our RV park in Eureka Springs was on Passion Play Road, so named because a few blocks past our park there's an enormous amphitheater in which from May to October they present a dramatic recreation of Christ's last days on Earth.  Safe to say we were in hardcore Jesus country.

Believe it or not, Eureka Springs is on the Arkansas wine trail.  We visited Keels Creek Winery and learned that most of the vinifera grapes we are familiar with don't do well in this part of Arkansas, so they plant mostly hybrids.  We experienced a tasting, which was fun but didn't impress our sophisticated California palates.

Downtown Eureka Springs is picturesque and charming, with climbing and winding streets and lots of interesting shops.  On Saturday there was a Mardi Gras parade there, which sort of made up for the fact that we missed the one in New Orleans.  We caught a lot of beads.

On Sunday we drove to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, the rescue compound that had prompted our visit.  The refuge takes in abused, neglected, and abandoned big cats and bears, neuters them to prevent pregnancies, and takes care of them for the rest of their natural lives.  In spite of temperatures around freezing, we took a long walking tour and saw lions, tigers, ligers (lion/tiger crosses), and others.  It's quite an impressive operation.  They do good work.

During our exploration of the area we stumbled across a jaw-dropping structure called Castle Rogue's Manor, which looked like something out of Grimm's fairy tales.  We arranged to meet its owner, Smith Treuer, for a tour.  I think we've finally found someone crazier than me.  Smith designed the structure and has been personally working on it for over twenty years.  I'm impressed by the originality of his design and by the incredible amount of woodwork inside and out.  The first structure we toured was octagonal and several stories high and contained two gorgeous bedrooms and baths.  The other large structure features a Great Hall which reminded us of scenes in Game of Thrones.  Smith rents out the place for weddings and other events.  It turns out that he also the owner of Rogue's Manor Restaurant, where we had eaten a wonderful meal the night before.  So Smith is quite a guy.  We swapped castle-building stories.

Driving home, snow flurries began and dusted our RV park.  That was Super Bowl Sunday.  Nancy's brother in Pennsylvania is a diehard Eagles fan, and since Nancy and I don't like Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, or the Patriots, we adopted the Eagles and rooted for them hard.  Nancy was too nervous to watch the game and would only come to the TV set when I let her know the Eagles had done something positive.  Well, the forces of good triumphed, the Philadelphia Eagles won, and it was a perfect end to the day ... except that the temperature fell to 11 degrees that night.  Not only did the exterior water supply freeze up, so did the onboard water tank, so no washee, no flushee.  Life outside California is a little different from what we're used to.

Jesus, could you warm things up a little bit?