After an overnight stop at Tulsa, we encountered occasional heavy fog as we followed the Arkansas River for a mid-day arrival in Memphis.
Our nephew, Jud Finley's house in Memphis. Jud is a professor in the Geoarcheology department at Univ. of Memphis.
Jud took us to one of the most popular barbeque restaurants in Memphis.
All three of us enjoyed our full rack of ribs, served Memphis style with a heavy dry rub, and sauces on the side. Delicious.
After our early dinner at the Rendezvous, we walked a few blocks over to Beale Street, the birthplace of the Blues. We hope the following pictures give you a sense of the atmosphere of this district of about four blocks on the street.
This is the "old" Daisy Theater on Beale Street. The new Daisy is across the street, but isn't as photogenic.
The old Daisy was booked that evening for a wedding, with appropriate showbills in the window cases.
We ended up enjoying a beer at the Irish pub with the diving goats. The three of us agreed the lady who sang the blues was better to listen to than watch.
After our night in Memphis, we crossed back over the Mississippi River into Arkansas. Our Ozarks adventure begins.
Cotton Field in Southeast Arkansas
Getting into the Ozarks now
The White River is the principal river in the Arkansas part of the Ozarks
This is our cabin at Calico Rock
We had the cabin for five nights and used it as our HQ for sortees in every direction.
This photo by Jim captures the autumn colors and so we made it the cover photo for our slideshow.
More pictures from around our cabin
Until we had merged our photos into one slide show, I had selected this as my favorite of the leaf photos. - Denny
We drove to Blanchard Springs on Monday. This is the HQ for the park operated by the National Forest Service and the entrance to the beautiful caverns.
The following series captures a fantastic array of stalactites and stalagmites
There are a lot of caves and caverns available for exploration in Arkansas, but Blanchard Springs is managed by the national forest service and is of great importance ecologically with a major bat population.
This formation has had several names over the years but its most obvious name is Titanic.
Couldn't resist the holly when we emerged from the cavern.
Near the cavern is this roaring stream fed entirely by Blanchard Springs. We loved the springs and the waters and it was one of our favorite adventures on our trip. Many photos to follow in this segment.
This rock bridge and many of the man-made features at Blanchard Springs were built as part of a CCC project.
We found an abundance of moss growing on rocks and trees.
The cavern is the sole source of the waters of Blanchard Springs When the water table is higher in the cavern, the springs flow from higher points in the cliff.
We didn't identify this mansion or hotel, but we will always identify the landmark as overlooking the gas station which we were very fortunate to find as we were running on fumes.
Picture of the White River near our home base of Calico Rock.
Peppersauce Alley, also known as East Calico, is a ghost town contained in the living town of Calico Rock.
This railroad trestle crosses Calico Creek and is near Peppersauce Alley.
It was pouring rain when we arrived at the Calico Rock Trout Dock for our 4-hour guided fishing trip.
Jim and Jim (Jim was to be our guide on the water)
The rain never let up, but we're tough, and decided to make a go of it.
Our guide would frequently have to bale rain water from the boat, and he would have us lean to one side so the water would puddle and he could scoop it out.
Despite the conditions, we fished for four hours. Jim and I together caught a total of about 30 rainbow trout of a pound or more. Most of them were released, but we kept a few for our fish fry later.
Shooting through the rain rendered some very interesting photos.
Back to the dock.
Bill Terry, the operator of the fish dock is on the right. The fellow in the red coat in the middle is one of guides. The man on the right is one of the cronies from town who is a wildlife photographer, has a small lodging and a couple of other businesses.
Bill Terry, the operator of the fish dock, fried up our trout while Jim and I huddled around a propane stove.
Bill fried up a nice batch of potatoes and he brought fresh baked bread and a salad for us to enjoy with our fish fry.
This lady and her husband were the only other people fishing that day, and they made their own fair contribution to the fish fry.
On Wednesday morning we drove a nice loop west out of Calico Rock and stopped to enjoy the Buffalo National River.
Unless it was the shed at the rear of the lot, we had no idea what the Big Flat Senior Center.
We spent Wednesday afternoon at the Ozark Folk Center State Park near Mountain View.
The Ozark Fok Center features many trade and crafts people making dulcimers and other instruments, blacksmithing, sewing, turning wood, making dolls, jewelry and many other crafts.
There are a lot of gardens throughout the folk center, and Jim caught some beautiful closeups that afternoon.
Jim and I enjoyed this afternoon show at the folk center, and Clancy, an 11 year old fiddler, singer and clogger, captured our hearts.
They have shows most afternoons at the Folk Center, and we both fell in love with little Clancy, who fiddled, clogged and sang her heart out.
At the Ozar Folk Center, all of the music performed must have been composed before 1941 on acoustic instruments only. You hear traditional tunes featuring instruments like the fiddle, mountain dulcimer, autoharp, and guitar.
The three musicians behind Clancy were all very accomplished, and the fiddle player on the right is considered one of the country's top dance fiddlers.
This is Clancy's friend who was off stage. We learned she is a champion clogger, and she got up to join the fun.
All four of the palyers in the group were part of the evening's concert as well.
After the afternoon performance, the two of us went into Mountain View and had dinner at a local cafe that we had enjoyed earlier in the week. We returned to the folk center that evening for the evening concert. We didn't take pictures of the evening performances, but we wished we had, as it was a lot of fun with something like seven or eight different acts.
The next series of photos is of victorian houses and hotels in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
We drove through the town, but the streets were hilly, narrow and crowded with tourists, so we didn't get much opportunity for composing photographs. These pictures give you a feel for the history of the town, but we hope to return some day and take more time to enjoy Eureka Springs.
War Eagle Mill is a working grist mill near Rogers, Arkansas. The mill was the last place we visited as we left the Ozarks on Friday.
Gavin is a scary dragon!
We arrived at Dan and Kelly''s house in Wahoo in time for Halloween.
Kelly and Dan treated several hundred kids that night, going through more than 20 pounds of candy.
Jim shows Dan his new camera before we head west to North Platte.
Maureen's sunset at North Platte
Mack's Duck
