Rainy weekend in Arkansas
This weekend we drive down to Arkansas to stay in my Mom's timeshare (she had some points she needed to use up). The place is called Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay (click for TripAdvisor link). Friday night we drove most of the way, stopping overnight in Branson, Missouri. Wow, I had forgotten how horrible it is. We took over half an hour to go two miles on the main drag at 10 at night. Ugh. Personally, I would rather spend a week in hell than a week here, but, hey, if you like it, go for it. To each his own.
The next day we drove the rest of the way. It rained pretty much the entire drive, often extremely hard. At one point we went through an area near Clinton, AR which was hit by a tornado on February 5, 2008. They were still cleaning up, and the damage looks to have been severe.
Since we couldn't check into the timeshare until 4, we had some time to kill. We ended up going to a huge antique store called Antique Warehouse in Botkinburg, AR. They had a lot of furniture, some of it pretty nice, but I personally thought the prices were outrageously high. Of course, I am cheap, and know nothing about antiques, so maybe they were fair. They certainly have a huge selection. Neither of us are really big into antique shopping, but there was really nothing else to do, so that's what we did.
We had lunch at a very good Mexican restaurant in Clinton called La Rosita. The food was really good, but even better was the awesome picture they had painted in the entry. To my regret, we didn't take a picture of it, but it is reproduced in the menu.
It shows an Aztec warrior with a beautiful maiden in his arms. Imagine this five feet tall in full color. Like I said, awesome.
After a while we could check in to the condo. We had a two bedroom condo, and it was pretty nice. It has a stone fireplace (although no wood)
and a nice deck that overlooks the golf course. Neither of us plays golf, but I did have a good cigar on the deck and watched a couple of golfers go by. Fortunately it had finally stopped raining by this time. The master bath had the largest hot tub I have ever seen inside (although I am by no means familiar with such things).
It's hard to get a sense of scale from this picture, but it is literally seven feet or more wide. We didn't use it because we felt stupid wasting the 150 or more gallons of water it would have taken to fill it.
The resort was not that great for us, but I think part of that may have been the weather and also the season. I suspect the resort would be better in the summer, when something might actually be open. If you liked golf and/or playing on the lake, it would probably be a great resort, at least in the summer.
We awoke Sunday morning to pouring rain. We decided to just head back, since we had to head back that day anyway. We had intended to go geocaching, but we aren't hardcore enough to do it in the rain, so we decided to just get a head start on the trip home. However, but the time we got packed, the rain had stopped, and we decided to try to hike one of the nature trails at the resort.
We selected Indian Cave trail. It started at a cool log cabin near the country club. The cabin contained a small museum, but of course it was closed. The trail went past some cool, moss-covered rocks.
It was still very foggy, as you can see from this picture.
The trail soon passed Edgemont Shelter, also known as Indian Rock House, also known as 3VB6. The site is a large rockshelter that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was a very cool site.
One of the cool things were the petroglyphs, which were pretty extensive.
Also cool was a carving by the person who homesteaded the place in 1900.
You want an arty picture? Here you go.
We looked around here for quite a while, and then headed on down the trail. We intended to find a couple of geocaches that are in the area, but it started to rain hard, and we started hearing thunder, so we headed back. Since the rain showed no signs of stopping, we had a great brunch at a local restaurant we had seen, and then turned the car towards home.
The next day we drove the rest of the way. It rained pretty much the entire drive, often extremely hard. At one point we went through an area near Clinton, AR which was hit by a tornado on February 5, 2008. They were still cleaning up, and the damage looks to have been severe.
Since we couldn't check into the timeshare until 4, we had some time to kill. We ended up going to a huge antique store called Antique Warehouse in Botkinburg, AR. They had a lot of furniture, some of it pretty nice, but I personally thought the prices were outrageously high. Of course, I am cheap, and know nothing about antiques, so maybe they were fair. They certainly have a huge selection. Neither of us are really big into antique shopping, but there was really nothing else to do, so that's what we did.
We had lunch at a very good Mexican restaurant in Clinton called La Rosita. The food was really good, but even better was the awesome picture they had painted in the entry. To my regret, we didn't take a picture of it, but it is reproduced in the menu.
It shows an Aztec warrior with a beautiful maiden in his arms. Imagine this five feet tall in full color. Like I said, awesome.After a while we could check in to the condo. We had a two bedroom condo, and it was pretty nice. It has a stone fireplace (although no wood)
and a nice deck that overlooks the golf course. Neither of us plays golf, but I did have a good cigar on the deck and watched a couple of golfers go by. Fortunately it had finally stopped raining by this time. The master bath had the largest hot tub I have ever seen inside (although I am by no means familiar with such things).
It's hard to get a sense of scale from this picture, but it is literally seven feet or more wide. We didn't use it because we felt stupid wasting the 150 or more gallons of water it would have taken to fill it.The resort was not that great for us, but I think part of that may have been the weather and also the season. I suspect the resort would be better in the summer, when something might actually be open. If you liked golf and/or playing on the lake, it would probably be a great resort, at least in the summer.
We awoke Sunday morning to pouring rain. We decided to just head back, since we had to head back that day anyway. We had intended to go geocaching, but we aren't hardcore enough to do it in the rain, so we decided to just get a head start on the trip home. However, but the time we got packed, the rain had stopped, and we decided to try to hike one of the nature trails at the resort.
We selected Indian Cave trail. It started at a cool log cabin near the country club. The cabin contained a small museum, but of course it was closed. The trail went past some cool, moss-covered rocks.
It was still very foggy, as you can see from this picture.
The trail soon passed Edgemont Shelter, also known as Indian Rock House, also known as 3VB6. The site is a large rockshelter that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was a very cool site.
One of the cool things were the petroglyphs, which were pretty extensive.
Also cool was a carving by the person who homesteaded the place in 1900.
You want an arty picture? Here you go.
We looked around here for quite a while, and then headed on down the trail. We intended to find a couple of geocaches that are in the area, but it started to rain hard, and we started hearing thunder, so we headed back. Since the rain showed no signs of stopping, we had a great brunch at a local restaurant we had seen, and then turned the car towards home.
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