Adjusting the plan

Adjusting the plan

I don’t know why I keep thinking of yesterday as going wrong. As far as I could tell, everyone had a good time and got to do what they wanted. But, it didn’t go according to plan.

Apparently, we brought the heat, all the way from Austin with us. It was 103* here yesterday. And, it’s going to be that hot again, today. So, we have to adjust our plans and we’re not that great at on the spot adjusting plans. Today, we get to plan to adjust the plan and that’s much easier for us.

The day started well. I had brought everything we needed for breakfast and we ate and went down to the big house to use the internet and to sign up for horseback riding. Then, we went to town. We went to a couple of antique stores on the outskirts of town and then, we met a man who delivered a sewing cabinet that I had bought over the internet. I bought the machine on ebay and he said he had the cabinet, but shipping was prohibitive. I looked at where he lived and he was right on our route to Eureka Springs. So, I bought the original cabinet that my 1940’s Kenmore machine came in and he delivered it to the outskirts of town.

After that, we ate at the most fabulous restaurant…you guessed it, on the outskirts of town. The restaurant was called Myrtie Mae’s and let me tell you that MM’s is most likely an overlooked wonder. They were high on the list of restaurants when I did searches, so they made it onto my list of places to eat. When we drove by, tho, what you see is a Days Inn hotel…a nice hotel, but a Days Inn nonetheless. And, MM’s is the restaurant for it. We decided to give it a try anyway and boy, were we glad we did. It looks like the restaurant that would be attached to a Day’s Inn. Plastic tablecloths, huge salad bar, staff in uniform. But what came out of that kitchen was pure homecooking delight. When Rob ordered the chicken fried steak, I was afraid it would be frozen. Same for my fried chicken special. But, not! Home cooking. And, good home cooking, too. When we were leaving, we ran into Judy, the innkeeper as she was going in. That proves you’ve picked a winner when the locals eat there, too.




Now, here is where the vacation day gets weird. Our plan was to come back to the cabin, drop off the sewing cabinet, and head downtown. The beast cries foul…too hot…don’t wanna do that. So, we’ve got 13 year old anger flying all around us like moths to a light (I’m sitting outside under a light, and the moths are banging into one another, trying to touch the sun). We drive downtown. Turns out, we’d only seen half of downtown the night before. What we thought was steep and winding was NOTHING compared to the places we drove yesterday, trying to find a parking place.

We’d seen the trolley system, but didn’t understand its importance. Downtown is built in the valley between steep hills. The streets run up and down the sides of mountains. Buildings are built with one end on 6 foot stilts and the other end where 6 feet of mountain were chiseled out. Beautiful, but crazy. Apparently, you HAVE to park on the outskirts of town and trolley in to get to shop. Or, you can pay for parking, but we can’t find a space in any of those lots. Okay. Maybe another day.

So, I’ve got the anger ball in the backseat and the stressed out man driving his great big red pickemup truck, up and down these steep, narrow streets, trying to park, so we can do something I wanted to do. I finally said…Why don’t we go back to the cabin. And, I have that stressed out look on my face.

Now, my man is a good man and he is a smart man and he immediately became suspicious that this was a request he would have to pay heavily for later. But, that wasn’t the case. It was indeed stressful and I realized that even though we’d done a bunch of research about the city of our vacation destination, we had not done enough. Or, maybe we just didn’t believe what we had read because it was so different than our Austin, “everybody brings they’re big truck and parking is easy” reality.

But, he also didn’t do what I asked. We just went places on the outskirts of town. We went to another antique shop and then we drove out to see the Christ of the Ozarks statue and the grounds where they hold the Great Passion Play.

Now, this is where Eureka Springs is weird. Downtown is littered with gay flags and they have three diversity weekends a year (one of which begins the day we leave) and there are big rainbow banners announcing it. Then, on the edge of town, there’s this religious enclave. A 30 foot statue of Christ, a play about his life, 25 churches lining both sides of the street. Religious hotels. But, somehow, in Eureka Springs, they make that work. I’ll try to ask Judy and see what she can share about whether there’s tolerance or acceptance.

Okay, so the 13 year old has got the whole sarcasm, eye rolling, being a pain in my ass thing turned up on maximum overdrive by this time. In the middle of a reminiscent story of my approximate 10 year old self being in this same place and remembering it and sharing it…right there, in front of a 30 foot statue of Jesus Christ, himself, I abruptly turned and told her to Shut the Hell Up. I figure Jesus was as sick of hearing it as I was and probably appreciated the break. Rob said that the power of the Lord was upon me to end the persecution of his people. So, when Jesus was 13, do ya’ think he drove Mother Mary crazy?

After that, we went to the small town grocery for things I didn’t want to haul 560 miles, like meat and vegetables. I expected to find roadside vegetable stands and eat fresh home grown, but didn’t. It’s been a long time since I shopped in a small town grocery store.

We got what we needed and came back to the cabin. Rob and Sydney went out and swam and I set up my sewing area and got down to some favorite hobby time. I’m making a quilt that I’ve had the pattern for a long time and just never had the right fabrics for it. But, I found a small collection from one of my shop hops a couple years ago and it’s perfect.

I fired up the grill…’scuse me, but where’s the knob for the gas? Oh…I have to actually build a fire? How butch. And, I did. And it worked great. Rob and I had a cocktail and I grilled burgers and scout dinners for another night. After dinner, we watched a movie and I sewed some more and then we walked back to the top of the mountain, just as the day was starting to cool off. Then, bed and restful slumber.

This morning, we’ve had our coffee and Rob’s been playing guitar while I wrote this post. So, this post is brought to you by cool mountain breezes, a strumming guitar, the tree frog and the finch that are just to my left in a tree and a gentle sunrise, just turning the sky blue.

Have a great Tuesday. Lane

Oh, and y'all keep promising she's going to grow up and not want to do stuff with us anymore. When? I'm ready.

Just kidding. So long as I stop her before she can get to me, we get along just fine.

Lane