Arkansas Civil War 150- Gaze and Graze 17

These pictures were taken at the Confederate Cemetery in Fayetteville.  It was well cared for.

 After a quick lunch, Andrew and I made our way to Pea Ridge.  In all the reading that Andrew and I have done about the Civil War, all the books recommend a trip to Pea Ridge National Park and I agree. Everything is well marked and laid out in a very understandable way.  They have a movie that explains the battle so that when you drive around you have a basic understanding.  They also have a CD you can buy and listen to as you drive around the park that tells you about the battle.

They have fabulous light boards in the visitor center! The lights show how certain troops moved.

Here is the beautiful view of part of the battlefield from the visitor center

zoom in on this picture, please notice the horns on top of this building.  This is the Elk Horn Tavern.   Major fighting took place all around here.

I took this picture for my brother, John, and my children.  This path looks like a path we would walk with my mother at Kennesaw National Park, in GA.

there were some beautiful trees!

by now, we have taken several of our trip shots so we got a little silly and are now saluting!

The trip after we left Pea Ridge was beautiful.  We set the coordinates for our supper destination and off we went.  We went on some interesting roads.  One road looked like the base trail at Pinnacle Mountain.  I was outside of my comfort zone to the max and then...

We came to a sign that said 'One lane bridge'. I thought it would be a short bridge that is just part of the highway.  Oh, my!  If I was in my happy place when we were on the road that looked like the base trail , when I saw the bridge I really had to go to my happy place!!  IT MOVED!!!!  IT WAS ABOUT 150 FEET LONG!!  We made it, whew!

Then we ate supper at Gaskins Cabin.  Can you say yum. Andrew and I both had steak. It was wonderful.  The atmosphere was fun plus the clientele was most interesting.  There were some newlyweds, bikers, real dressed up fancy folks and then some average joes, like us. 

We stayed the night at a cabin on the Buffalo River.  We stayed in cabins that were built in the 1930's under the New Deal plan by Roosevelt.  They are the only cabins in the National Park.  They were nice but I am not an outdoorsey girl AT ALL.  So when I saw a couple of things flying around inside, I was a little uneasy.  There were two beds in the cabin.  One in a small bedroom and one out in the main living area.  I took the bed in the main living area because I wake up so early and then I wouldn't disturb Andrew.  

A few weeks earlier, Kaitlin bought glow-in-the-dark fingernail polish.  She tried it out on my toenails.  It didn't glow.  We were disappointed.  WELL, come to find out we just didn't have it dark enough.  Ask me how I know????  It is dark enough, in a cabin, on the Buffalo, for your toes to glow-in-the-dark.  I almost had a heart attack. I got up to go to the bath room in the middle of the night. When I came back and looked at my feet for some reason.  I just knew some of those things that were flying around, had landed on my feet, maybe even a glow-in-the-dark luna moth and they were moving too.  Just before I screamed for Andrew, it dawned on me what it was.  I calmly got back under the covers and went back to sleep.  I was worn out.