Taking the back roads

Friday was definitely the day for visiting history.  First it was the Crater of Diamonds, to find precious and semi-precious stones.  Then it was a trip to the historic town of Washington, AR and the state park to see how things looked from 1824 to 1889. http://www.historicwashingtonstatepark.com Washington , AR is a lovely museum village that preserves and interprets the history of the 19 th century town.  At that time Washington was a major commercial and professional center in southwest Arkansas .  It was the home of the Bowie Knife and a major stopping point for travelers heading down the Southwest Trail as well as serving as the Confederate State Capital of Arkansas from 1863 to 1865.  The town is being fully restored so that it shows what life was like in the mid 19 th century of the south. As we drove into town we could see some beautifully restored building and some with scaffolding around it in the process of being restored.  There are many historic homes, buildings and

Diamond hunting… now who’d-a-thunk that was possible just an hour from the house.   Well, Jenia and I found out on Friday when we went to Crater of Diamonds State Park a few miles from Murfreesboro , AR.   http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com Just the drive there was quite beautiful.   When I think of Arkansas I kind of think of shacks in the rural parts and not much else.   But when you travel the back roads, as we did on Friday, you become entranced with the beauty of the countryside.   Sure, there are the rural shacks and the cars scattered in the yard, but when you look at the other side of the road you see some beautiful countryside with huge trees and the occasional small stream.   I commented while we were driving that this trip surely qualified as part of my blog of “back road traveling.” Fortunately the Garmin GPS took us on the round-about roads and that was fine with us because we got to see so much of the rural area. Had we taken the interstate and then the county ro

Spring is different in different parts of the country, obviously.  After reading my friend Judi's blog, http://www.beautybreadsierra.com  about spring in the lower Sierra’s, North Fork , CA , for example… I wanted to show how things look in the south, Texarkana , AR , for example. One thing I never knew about this part of the country is how the pollen sits on the ground, all over cars, and blows in an open window so it sits on the window sill.  I don’t think I’ve ever really “seen” pollen.  I always knew it was around when I lived on the east coast and also in So Cal because I would always have allergies at this time of the year.  But to actually see pollen is a bit on the strange side.  This is what it looks like sitting at the end of the driveway just before heading into the garage.  With the little dip in the driveway, water sits in this spot and this is dryed pollen just sitting there Pollen is a fine-grained powder with just a bit of grit to it.  It gets over everything