Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Day 4: Crystal Bridges

After hearing praise from John, we knew we had one last stop to make before leaving Arkansas.

So, after bidding adieu to our little home away from home…

…and grabbing breakfast, we were on our way.

No, not there, although Ben did get a great cut from Robert.

I’m talking about Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

I mean seriously, who knew such a fabulous place would be found in rural northwestern Arkansas?

We met up with JP ‘n Earl and were joined by Erik shortly after arriving, who took our picture…

Of course, while waiting I couldn’t help myself but take a couple sneaky pics.

Several 18th and 19th century pieces caught my eye:

But I really liked the 20th century pieces…

I also got some shots of the man I love…

And someone tried to molest me…

I could’ve spent way more than the 2 or so hours we were there. We didn’t even get to explore the grounds surrounding the museum; something I’d definitely like to do.

After saying our goodbyes and grabbing some lunch, we started our journey home.

2 comments

Posted on

Day 3: The Main Reason for Going to Arkansas

Today was the day for which we came to Arkansas: I was getting inked by Erik!

But that wasn’t scheduled until after noon, so John, Ben, and I grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonalds and headed to beautiful downtown Bentonville to wander and catch a bit of the local ambiance:

If the store had been open, I so would’ve thrown my credit card balance to the wind and bought this…

We also went through the Walmart Visitor Center. (Hey it’s a small town and there wasn’t much else to do to kill a couple hours.)

Walmart has a visitor center, you ask? Indeed. From the website:

Visitors can look, touch and explore through a series of family-friendly, interactive displays. All the exhibits are designed as giant scrapbooks that tell the story of Walmart through words, images, artifacts and interactive displays like our virtual tour of Sam Walton’s old office and our map featuring information on customers, stores, suppliers and associates from around the world. We’ve even got Mr. Sam’s trusty old Ford F-150 parked in the gallery.

In other words, it’s a veritable warehouse of pro-Walmart propaganda.

The funniest things I saw were two items in the “returned merchandise” exhibit. Both pretty much sum up the entire stereotype of Walmart shoppers:

It was still way too early to head over to Erik’s studio, so we killed some time at Grounds for Thought and did what geeks do: we got coffee and brooded over our laptops.

We grabbed lunch at Gusano’s Pizza and then headed over to Odyssey Tattoo, Erik’s salon. John left early because his appointment was first, and he was already in the chair by the time we arrived:

Soon Calvin & Hobbes were frolicking on his arm:

I was next.

John had his return flight to catch, so shortly after I sat down in the chair, he was off. It was a great visit and Ben and I can’t wait until we see him again. Maybe next year a trip to the east coast is in order.

The good Doctor and his Tardis were a bit more involved, so it took a while longer…

Three hours later, it was finished!

It was everything I’d hoped it would be. Thank you, Mr. Rubright. I can never say that enough. It is amazing.

From there, Ben and I went back to the hotel room for a bit and then met Erik at Grub’s. Added bonus: JP and Earl were in town as well and joined us shortly after we arrived!

A great vacation got a little bit better!

I’d never met either of the guys, but had been following JP’s blog for some time. Like Erik, he’s exactly the same in person as online and we had a great time. Unfortunately, after three hours of getting poked, I was beat, and shortly after dinner Ben and I bid our adieus and headed back to the hotel.

We did make one stop on the way first, however. Andy’s Frozen Custard…

…and bug watching.

Yikes! Are you supposed to put a saddle on and ride that thing? It looks like something that crawled out of The Mist. (Mmm…Thomas Jane.)

But I digress.

 

3 comments

Posted on

Day 2: No Respect for Historic Sites

Day 2 took us from Wichita to Rogers via Oklahoma.

You may be wondering why we took the “back roads” route instead of taking the much faster I-70 route direct from Denver.  This is why:

Yes, these two fat kids planned their trip around a hamburger joint. If you don’t have Whataburger in your location, I feel sorry for you. We had them in Phoenix, but we don’t have them in Denver, and while I got to partake when I was in Arizona earlier this year, Ben had no such opportunity. So naturally we had to go.

We arrived in Rogers mid-afternoon and immediately met up with John, who had booked a room at the same Microtel we did. None of us had stayed in one before, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how nice it was—and I have to say that of the three places we overnighted on this trip, the Microtel was the best. (Avoid the Days Inn in Lawrence Kansas!).

One of the things we’d wanted to see on our trip was the Pea Ridge Military Park; not necessarily because of any great interest in the Civil War, but rather simply to get our Park Service Book stamped!

I’ll say this: it was beautiful. Arkansas is green. Erik told us it was very unusual for this time of year, but it was still amazing. In fact, that’s the one thing I noticed the most after we got off the highway and out of the brown fields of Oklahoma. And the green here was different than the kind of green we have in Denver. Deciduous versus coniferous forests, maybe?

Anyhow, we made our way through the park and stopped along the way to grab some photos…

Even though John and I had never met in person prior to that day, I felt an immediate kinship. Some people have no respect for historic sites:

Absolutely no respect:

(Although I’m sure it’s not the first time any of this had been done…)

And sometimes I happen to snap a few photos where everything just seems to come together:

Later, after heading back to the hotel to freshen up, the three of us joined  Erik and his husbear Robert at Frank’s Hickory Inn for dinner. Afterward, we headed over to the infamous JJ’s for some adult beveraging.


The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Okay, maybe just one. You pick.



This One Turned Everyone’s Heads

1 comments