My sister Marie has been here for a little over a week, taking some vacation time from her newspaper job and helping Jay with his recovery.  She took over for Mom, who was here for the entire month of May.  Today I took her to the airport.  Understand, Eureka Springs isn’t in the middle of nowhere—but you can see it from here.  The airport is called Northwest Arkansas Regional, symbol XNA.  It’s a few miles down some hick farm road off of I-540 north of the big town of Springdale.  All told, about 70 miles by road from Eureka Springs.  I don’t know who decided to build an airport out here in the middle of this weed patch, but there it is.  You’d swear, when you take exit 73 there from I-540, that somebody was playing a joke on you.  Ain’t no way anybody would put an airport out here, right?  I was worried that the airplane was going to be a Piper Cub and the airport a grass strip with a tin shed and a single gas pump.  Good thing I got good directions, too, because the signage is nearly non-existent.  I guess the area needed better air service, but you’d think they could have improved the Fayetteville airport.  Probably some county commissioner had excess land that he conned his cronies into having the public pay for.

Eureka Springs looks like a ’70s hippie colony that turned into a tourist town. For a town of less than 2,500 people, it has a surprising number of hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfast, and RV parks. There are many more trinket and curio shops than I remember Durango, CO having, and Durango is much bigger and easier to get to.

We went to brunch early this afternoon, and then my brother took us on a brief guided tour of the area.  Saint Elizabeth Catholic Church is unique in that you enter the grounds through the bell tower that’s at the top of the hill.  The sidewalk down to the grounds is flanked on one side by white marble statues of the 12 Stations of the Cross.  The grounds themselves are beautifully landscaped, with many statues placed among the plants.  The church is stone, rather small inside, but very nicely appointed.  It’s been a while since I was inside a Catholic church.  I was surprised and pleased that the figure of a crucified Christ wasn’t the central feature of the altar.

Thorncrown Chapel is a privately-owned glass and wood chapel in the hills just west of Eureka Springs.  The chapel is nestled among the trees a short walk from the parking lot off Arkansas highway 62.  Pictures cannot begin to capture the chapel’s beauty, and the feeling of sitting inside this building, listening to the quiet music and just contemplating…whatever.  The word “tranquil” comes to mind.  I will have to ride my bike out there in the morning when I have a little more time to sit and meditate.

Austin to Eureka Springs, Arkansas is approximately 550 miles.  That’s 550 miles of mostly nothing once you get out of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area.  There’s a lot of beautiful country, though, through central Oklahoma and western Arkansas.  Most surprising to me was that I had continuous digital phone service for the entire drive.  I had Sprint coverage until I headed east from Springdale, AR.  Here in Eureka I’m on digital roam, but have a very strong signal.

I’ll be here for two weeks helping out my brother while he’s recovering from his recent heart surgery.  My younger brother Jerry came along for the ride up, but will be taking a flight back to Austin a week from Monday.

Home at last!  We left Baton Rouge at 6:30 this morning and headed west.  We stopped once for food, another time for gas, and made it home before 2:00.  We picked up Charlie at the kennel and had the whole family home, unpacked, and relaxing before 4:00.  The trip was exhausting.  I’ll be happy to get back to work tomorrow so I can relax.

Debra and I both have been very disappointed by the level of service we’ve received in most places here in Baton Rouge.  Neither one of us is especially demanding, but we do like to be acknowledged and treated courteously.  Throughout our trip, though, service at restaurants has been markedly indifferent and sometimes downright rude.  And the hotel staff—with the interesting exception of the housekeeping staff—have done nothing to make me recommend the place to anybody else, or even consider ever visiting again.  If you’re going to Baton Rouge, find someplace other than the Radisson to stay.

One happy exception to all this horrible service was last night’s visit to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.  The service there was impeccable and the food was perfectly prepared.  I’ve been hearing about Ruth’s Chris for years, but never had visited.  After last night’s experience, you can bet I’ll be visiting the Ruth’s Chris in Austin.  The staff was friendly, courteous, attentive, and in good humor.  If all of their stores are this well staffed, I can understand why the chain has such a good reputation.

Debra entered her show plants this morning, and then we had the day to ourselves.  Since I didn’t make it to the USS Kidd exhibit yesterday, Debra and I went this morning.

The USS Kidd is a WWII destroyer that is now tied up alongside the bank of the Mississippi river in downtown Baton Rouge.  It’s a floating museum, and part of the Historic Warship and Nautical Center.  The Center has displays honoring Louisiana war veterans, models and descriptions of many ships that are part of Louisiana history, and a large display about the USS Baton Rouge—a nuclear attack submarine.  There’s even a replica of the USS Constitution’s gun deck although I’m quite sure that the USS Constitution didn’t look quite that good even when it was originally constructed.  Outside the center there are two static aircraft displays:  a P-40 painted with the Flying Tigers scheme, and an A-4 painted in the standard U.S. Navy gray.

The USS Kidd is tied up in the river just outside the building.  Reading how they manage to keep the ship in the same place throughout the river’s annual 22-foot change in level is quite interesting.  Walking onto the ship, an employee gives you a map and you take a self-guided tour of most of the spaces.  I’ve always understood that space is at a premium on a warship, but seeing it is something else entirely.  Spaces are tight, and there are bunks in some quite unlikely places.  Walking the ship and reading how the crew lived, and the exploits of the many men who served on the ship was quite enlightening and gave me a better appreciation of the people who serve and have served in our military.  It’s well worth the $6.00 entry fee—a pleasant morning’s outing.

The LSU Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge sits on the 450-acre Burden Research Plantation.  It provides insight into the largely forgotten lifestyles and cultures of pre-industrial Louisiana.  The museum consists of a barn filled with displays of 19th century tools and other artifacts, and about two dozen buildings from all over the state:  a pioneer’s cabin, a church, assorted barns and houses, a family cemetery (licensed and still in use), and about a dozen buildings arranged in a “working plantation” configuration with slave’s quarters, overseer’s house, sugar house, etc.  Plaques on the buildings explain some of the different ways that the buildings were constructed, and how some of them were used.

Adjacent to the Rural Life Museum are the Windrush Gardens and Burden Home—a 25-acre expanse of semiformal gardens designed and planted by Steele Burden, a renowned landscape architect.  The Gardens has winding paths and many different examples of plants representative of the 19th century plantation gardens.  However, it appears that the gardens haven’t been well maintained.  Some of the more formal areas are quite nice if a bit overgrown, but much of the 25 acres has obviously been neglected for quite some time.  Even so, there were some beautiful southern magnolia trees, crepe myrtles, and numerous other plants that Debra could identify.  Walking around the Gardens was a pleasant way to spend the morning.

On the way out, we stopped by the Burden Rose Garden, which has an impressive collection of different rose varieties—hundreds of plants—all of which were in bloom.  Unfortunately, none of the pictures that I got do the garden justice.  It was quite beautiful.

We drove to New Orleans this morning to spend the day in the French Quarter.  I don’t really know what I was expecting (the only other time I’d been there was during Mardi Gras back in 1992), but I was faintly disappointed.  I had hoped to see the cathedral, but it apparently isn’t open except for services and scheduled tours.  Jackson Square was pretty enough, and wandering around the French market was amusing for a while.  We took a horse-drawn carriage ride tour of the Quarter and then had a late lunch on the patio while listening to some live music.  It was a relaxing day except for all the walking.  I parked almost a mile away because I didn’t think I’d get a spot closer.  The French Quarter is a pretty dull place during the day when no major festival is happening.

Misuse of the language has been bugging me recently, mostly because the people here in Louisiana seem to quite adept at it.  For example, I lost count of the number of misplaced apostrophes in “its” and in plurals on permanent signs or advertisements.  But the thing that really puzzled me was a sign in the Crescent City Brewery (a restaurant that brews its own beer) that read “Beer only at bar.”  That could be interpreted to mean “The only place you can get beer is at the bar,” or “The only thing you can get at the bar is beer.”  My understanding of the rules of usage would favor the latter meaning.  I chewed on that one for a bit before I asked the hostess what it meant.  Sure enough, they meant the former.  That was disappointing because I had hoped to sit in the restaurant and sample their beers along with lunch.

We enjoyed ourselves, though, walking around hand-in-hand like a couple of newlyweds, fussing over Tasha the poodle and laughing at the trinkets and baubles that people buy in the market.  Do people actually buy those tacky souvenirs for themselves?

Debra registered for the convention today, but nothing really happens until Wednesday when she attends an all-day judging school.  Thursday starts the conference sessions and plant entry for the show.  Today we visited some of Debra’s family—an uncle that she hasn’t seen since she was 4 or 5 years old.

Visiting with family can be exhausting, especially when it’s your spouse’s family and you have absolutely no knowledge of the people they’re talking about.  Fortunately, I got along well with her cousin and we sat around drinking beer and talking.  A couple of Debra’s nephews were there, too, and I took the opportunity to introduce them to juggling—a skill I picked up 20 years ago when I was working the night computer operator shift at a bank.  Too many people walk away from juggling after only five minutes of attempting it.  That’s unfortunate, because most people can pick up the basics after just an hour or two of concerted effort.  It’s a great way to spend idle time, and it’s a good conversation starter as well.  I hope the kids will continue practicing.

MapQuest says it’s 548 miles from Austin to Baton Rouge.  Why does MapQuest always insist on routing you along Interstate highways?  Had I followed their directions, I would have spent an extra 90 minutes in the car between here and Houston.  I can understand avoiding minor roads, but good state highways ought to be considered.  Funny thing, I seem to remember MapQuest doing a better job a few years back.  Maybe they just hid the “give me the shortest route” option.

I-10 in Louisiana, from the border to Baton Rouge is terrible.  There are potholes, uneven areas where the potholes have been filled in, and rough pavement along the entire 150 mile stretch.  There is also a lot of construction equipment in areas where they’re working on the roads.  Signs along the route advertise the amount of state and Federal funding that’s going into road improvements.  They’re spending $50 million on repairs over that stretch of road.  I realize that roads are expensive, but over $300,000 per mile for repairs seems excessive.