Hello All,

I hope this post turns out to be more story telling than complaining. This has been quite the adventure and it is at least worth the tell.

5:00 AM

Wake-up time. My fiance and I spent the night at her aunts house in a sleepy little town called Calico Rock. We decided it would be a great idea to wake early and catch the sunrise, so I got up and ran myself through the shower before waking up sleeping beauty. Around 5:40 once we were properly washed and caffeinated we grabbed a camera and went to City Rock Bluff where we watched the sun slowly peak his perky little head up over the city off in the distance as the twinkly street lights started to make their way to bed. The White River wandered into town as the cattle yammered on and the roosters exclaimed the return of day once again. What a beautiful time to reflect as the hawks swooped off their roosts over the waters and played in the thermals. What a wonderful day.

7:00 AM

We came back to the house and asked my fiance’s aunt to breakfast at the town diner and enjoyed a morning of pancakes, bacon, sausage, egg, tortilla, peppers, and hash browns. While we ate we talked over such things as the town stories and what sort of advice her aunt wanted to give to two young’ns thinking about the future. When the last traces of breakfast disappeared off the plates, we headed out for some errands.

10:00 AM

After a few small purchases, the bags were packed, the trunk was loaded and we made off into the day for more adventure. Up, over, down into the valley we went. Traveling along the Ozarks we graced many a small town with a brief glimpse of a silver car that was most certainly not from around these parts. Rather, it probably fit in more than most vehicles that passed through and therefor went unnoticed.

12:00 PM

The great Buffalo River comes into view along with a brief tour of an abandoned biker’s paradise/convention center. Just beyond the Buffalo was Horseshoe Canyon, our midday, midway destination. As we crested the rim of this remote utopia we saw what can only be described as an amalgamation of Old West and Modern Hippie, though I can’t quite figure out where zip-line fits into that description. The canyon opened up onto a goat and horse ranch with rock slabs supporting the sides of the massive horseshoe outcropping. Of course, we were only there for one thing. The rock climbing. This unknown little treasure held some of the best rock climbing in all of Arkansas with a spread all the way from “beginner” to “advanced but not quite professional.”

As we toured this valley, the sun beat down on us as the waves of an ocean beat against the rocks and we had no choice but to abandon the exploration attempt for a future date. After hydrating at the local all-purpose outdoor shop we decided that this little hole in the Ozarks will definitely be a vacation/adventure spot for the early summer or mid fall when the grass is not so crunchy and the rocks don’t sweat. Then we jumped back into the adventure wagon and trundled back up the slope and out of Jasper towards home. Whichever direction that was…

2:00-ish

After asking direction from a few local tourist shops we managed to find a clear path home pointed the vehicle in that direction.

4:00 PM

As the heatwaves shimmered about the blacktop, something small came into my view. While we approached it, I remember thinking to myself, “That looks like a rock… I should probably try to avoid it.” Apparently I didn’t try hard enough. This rock had no idea we were coming and by the time it realized it was in the way, it was all out of options.  I hit it with the full force of a 2000 Nissan Altima “Luxury” Sedan and broke off its cute little face. Unfortunately it also tore 2 silver dollar sized holes in my sidewall and bent the edge of my rim. “Not to worry!” I say to my fearless fiance, “I’ve got a spare!”

Well

Little did I know, when you purchase a used car, you should always check to make sure that the spare matches the vehicle. After a short while some of the locals made it out to help us and we tried every spare tire we could find. Not one would fit on the oddly unique and troublesome little adventure wagon. We managed to get ahold of one of the towing companies in a town not far from where we were planning to end the adventure and they came alookin. It took them until 7:30pm to find us so during the wait period my fiance made friends with the family that was helping us and got to play with their beautiful little puppies. I got to go greet one named Bulldozer and immediately fell in love with it. We, unfortunately, decided that neither of us would be able to support raising a dog with the way our work and class schedules were so we opted to leave the fluffy balls of sunshine with their family. The tow truck loaded up the mishap wagon and we headed off into the hills again. We arrived back at the apartment around 10:30pm and took showers to wash away the grime of the day and made our way to our rooms for bed. Never have I had such a mixture of wonder and mishap all in one day.

How often do we get a mixed bag of good and bad events and wary ourselves with the bad events? Just writing this story makes me feel a lot better about the events of yesterday.