From Walnut to Walmart

As August faded into September, the junk mail increased in volume and the phone calls increased in frequency, offering everything from supplemental health insurance coverage to pre-need burial plans (no physical examination required) to magic buttons that summon help when I am unable to reach a phone because, presumably, "I've fallen and can’t…”  (You know the slogan.)  My birthday card this year was red, white and blue, and emblazoned with the word “Medicare”.

Mike decided a birthday road trip was in order and planned one that encompassed several of my favorite things.   Our route took us to Walnut, Iowa (antiques); Arrow Rock, Missouri (live theater); and Bentonville, Arkansas (art).  Along the way, we managed to find a few extras – some quirky, some historical, some just plain interesting and fun.

Organizers estimate that the spring Fathers' Day Weekend antique show draws some
20,000 to 30,000 people, swelling the town's population by as much as 3,340%

Our fifth wheel parked in a bucolic camp site at Prairie Rose
State Park, eight miles north of Walnut

The view behind our trailer - soybeans as far as the eye can see.  The dark
green lines in the field mark terraces on the hillside to prevent erosion

Walnut bills itself as “Antique City” not only because it has 18 antique shops in a town of 897 residents, but twice each year it hosts large antique sales that attract dealers from all over the Midwest.  The Fathers’ Day weekend show in June is the larger of the two, and nearly 18 blocks on 3 streets are set up with vendor booths.  The school, the VFW Hall and the AmVets Club are transformed into antique stores for the weekend.  Though the fall show and sale is much smaller (only one street closed to traffic, and the school isn’t used), I still managed to pick up a few interesting finds.

Granary Antique Mall.  The wagon in front of the store is loaded with Red
Wing Pottery, which was heavily featured at this fall's antique show

Fall was in the air, with most of the stores in town decorated with
pumpkins, mums and gourds 

The main road through Walnut is Iowa Highway 83, but inside the city limits it has
been re-named Antique City Drive.  This town is serious about its "antique" status 

A 20-minute drive down the road from Walnut, signs on the outskirts of Atlantic proclaim it “The Coca-Cola Capital of Iowa”.  True, there is a Coke bottling plant in town, but it is more than that.  Atlantic is the home of one of only three Coca-Cola Museums in the country (their statistic), started years ago when a group of enthusiastic memorabilia buffs held their first “Coke Collectors Convention”.  The group has been meeting in Atlantic for a quarter of a century, and much, if not most, of the museum’s display pieces have been donated by the collectors who attend the annual event.

The Coca-Cola Museum in downtown Atlantic, Iowa

The old Rock Island Railroad depot in Atlantic now houses the Chamber.
of Commerce.  It is a beautiful - and beautifully maintained - building

Luckily, while in Iowa we didn’t get any damage from several thunderstorms that brought nickel-size hail.  We headed off in the pouring rain to our next stop, Arrow Rock, where we stayed at the Arrow Rock State Historic Site Campground.  The entire town of Arrow Rock has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. Highlights include the George Caleb Bingham House (1837), J. Houston Tavern (1834), and the Lyceum Theatre (1872). The Lyceum Theatre was formerly a Baptist church but now houses a professional regional theatre.  We enjoyed the musical production of Beehive, featuring the music of “girl groups” from the 1960s.

Wind turbines dot the landscape everywhere you look in western Iowa

This will give you some perspective on how big the wind turbines really are.  We
caught up with this monster being moved on I-80 on a very rainy morning.
That is one of the three blades that are on every wind turbine.

The J. Huston Tavern in Arrow Rock.  The restaurant in the tavern is operated
under contract with the Missouri Department of Parks and Recreation

The Lyceum Theater, housed in an old Baptist church, offers first-class.
entertainment.  I went to college just 40 miles from Arrow Rock,
but didn't know about the theater until long after I graduated 

One day we visited and had lunch in Blackwater, MO, a town founded in 1887 close to the then-recently-completed Missouri Pacific Railroad.  Another day we drove to Marshal, MO to visit “Jim the Wonder Dog”.  Jim was a Llewellin Spaniel who lived from 1925 to 1937.  He gained world-wide acclaim due to his uncanny canine ability to obey instructions in any language and even Morse code.  When asked to locate “the woman in a red dress” or “find the man who helps people” (a doctor in the crowd) or find a certain license plate he was always able to complete the task.  Admirers can visit “Jim the Wonder Dog” Museum and Garden or his grave site in nearby Yerby Cemetery.  While there, take time to view the intriguing historic tombstones.

Saline County Courthouse on the square in Marshall, MO

The exterior wall of the Jim the Wonder Dog Museum

Statue of Jim in the garden adjacent to the museum

Jim's grave.  Officials said he couldn't be buried in the town cemetery
so he was buried outside of the stone wall.  Years later, the cemetery
was enlarged, and Jim now rests in the cemetery proper.

This monument marks the graves of two brothers, John Austin Dennis (1843-1921)
and Davis Dennis (1834-1918) who both served as officers in the Civil War, one
for the Confederate Army and one for the Union Army.  The rider's uniform
depicts a combination of both armies' insignia, as a tribute to both brothers.  

 Should you decide to visit Van Meter State Park while in the area, beware if your GPS tells you to turn left on Coon Hollow Road.  Coon Hollow Road does get you to the park but it is a meandering gravel road that takes you through the “corn and bean field scenic route” and probably 15 miles out of your way.  There is a paved road that leads to the park.  We found it on our way out, after one of the rangers told us that, yes, some GPS units do take you the long way around. 

Van Meter Park contains the American Indian Cultural Center which highlights the presence and importance of the Missouri Indian tribe.  Missouri Indians came to the attention of Europeans through the accounts of Louis Jolliet and Father Marquette in 1673.  The last full-blooded Missouri Indian died about 1908.

Chiefs of the Missouri Indian tribe, and a costume worn for dances.and special
occasions The Missouri did not call themselves by that name - it is a name that
was given to them by other tribes and later picked up by European explorers.

It looks like it will be a good harvest in Missouri. The bins are apparently all full and
corn is being piled on the ground to await shipping. Though you can't tell from this angle
the pile is almost half the size of one of those bins, and corn is still being added to it 

Continuing southward, we headed to Bentonville, Arkansas.  We were impressed by how lively the town square was in the evening as well as during the day.  Of course, a stop at Mr. Sam’s original Walton’s Five-and-Dime Store – now the Walmart Museum - on the town square is a must.  There are dozens of restaurants in the area.  We enjoyed dinner at the Flying Fish.  We were back on the square the following morning for the Saturday Farmers’ Market, with scores of handmade items as well as arrays of colorful fresh vegetables.

Sam Walton's original five-and-dime store.  Walton originally had a Ben Franklin
store here, but his franchise was pulled when he started Walmart,  This building
and the first floor of the building next door now house the Walmart Museum

"Mr. Sam's" office, circa 1953.  The office was re-created in the museum from
photographs, but the furnishings are all actual pieces from the original
office, which were still in use or in storage.

"Mr, Sam" always drove a pickup truck.  This was his last truck, a 1979
Ford F-150, with a tool box and a cage for his hunting dogs in the back.
Sam Walton died on April 5, 1992

If you have one of those annoying singing Billy Bass novelties from about twenty
years ago that you can't sell or even give away, bring it to the Flying Fish restaurant
in Bentonville.  They'll "adopt" it and put it on their wall, along with your name. 

The Saturday Farmers' Market on the town square in Bentonville attracts big crowds

Chrystal Bridges Museum of American Art has made a major impact on the region and is very community minded.  The museum has a full calendar of activities from yoga to pre-school art classes.

The 201,000 sq. ft. museum, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, is a series
of connected pavilions, two of which function as bridges over a man-made lake.
The museum opened its doors on November 11, 2011

Louise Bourgeois designed and sculpted the giant spider, entitled Maman,
that looms over the entrance to the museum.  This photo was taken from
the second level of the parking garage.

Founded by Alice Walton and funded by the Walton Family Foundation, Walmart, and scores of other companies and individual donors, admission to the museum is free, although there are usually charges for special exhibits.  Chrystal Bridges Museum of American Art has over four hundred works by major American artists which are chronologically presented.   From now through January 1, 2018, there is a special exhibit by Stuart Davis, a leader in American modern art, whose work was greatly influenced by the Jazz Age.  A highlight of our visit was the “Chihuly in the Forest” exhibit.  More than a dozen breathtaking blown-glass pieces by Dale Chihuly were installed along walking paths through the Ozark woods.  The Chihuly exhibit runs through November 18, 2017.

Endangered Species Portfolio (1983) by Andy Warhol  (1927-1987)
Silkscreen prints.  Two of the species - the Bald Eagle and the Pine Barrens
Tree Frog - have since been removed from the "endangered" list:  

Depression Bread Line (1991) sculpture by George Segal (1924-2000)
The life-size figures were all cast from people in Segal's life; the artist
himself is the second man in line.  This piece really spoke to Mike

Jimson Weed (1936), oil on linen,
by Georgia O'Keefe (1887-1986) 

Landscape With Garage Lights (1931-32) oil on canvas by Stuart Davis (1894-1964)
Davis began as a student of the Realist style, but European modernist works at the
New York Armory Show of 1913 fired a passion in him for abstraction

Boathouse 7 Neon (2016), neon and acrylic, by Dale Chihuly (1941-   )

Campiello Barbaro Chandelier (1996), blown glass and steel,
by Dale Chihuly (1941-   )

Fiori Boat (2016), blown glass and wooden boat, by Dale Chihuly (1941-   )

Sole D'Oro (2017), blown glass and steel, by Dale Chihuly (1941-   )
This was Yvonne's favorite piece in the Chihuly exhibit

An added bonus is that an original Frank Lloyd Wright House is situated on the museum grounds.  The house, known as the Bachman-Wilson House, is one of sixty Usonian homes built by the great architect. The house was built in 1954 along the Millstone River in New Jersey.  Chrystal Bridges acquired the house in 2013 from the owners, an architect/design team, Lawrence and Sharon Tanratino, who feared repeated flooding of the river would threaten the house.  A ticket is needed for admission to the house, with self-guided tours conducted via recorded narrative on a hand-held device.

 

"Usonian" was Frank Lloyd Wright's term for his concept of creating houses
that were tailor-made for his clients and their individual needs, while also
making them practical and functional.

Almost butting up against an ever-expanding Bentonville is the town of Rogers, one of the sites of the Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally, which was being held the weekend we were there.  The rally is really centered in Fayetteville but since this is the fourth largest motorcycle rally in the United States, it has an impact on and spreads out over the entire region.  Rogers calls their participation Bikes on the Bricks, a reference to the cobblestone streets in the historic downtown area.  Downtown Rogers is also the site of the Daisy Airgun Museum.  Daisy BB guns are manufactured in Rogers, and since the debut of the 1983 film A Christmas Story the Daisy “Red Ryder” BB gun is even more an iconic symbol of Americana.

The Daisy Airgun Museum.  Daisy was founded as the Markham Air Rifle Company
in Plymouth, Michigan in July 1886.  In 1895, the company changed its name to
"Daisy", the name of the gun that it had been manufacturing for nine years.

The Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model was the
 BB gun that 9-year-old Ralphie Parker wanted for Christmas, 1940,
despite everyone admonishing him that "you'll shoot your eye out, kid."

The history buff cannot miss a stop at Pea Ridge National Military Park.  The battles here have been described as having saved Missouri for the Union and had a decisive impact on the outcome of the Civil War.  On the day that we visited, Civil War re-enactors clad as Union troops were demonstrating a cannon barrage, using a battery of four cannon.

Pea Ridge was a decisive victory for the Federal Army, even though they were
outnumbered and out-gunned by the Confederates.  According to the National Park
Service, Pea Ridge is the most intact Civil War battlefield in the United States.

For two days, March 7-8, 1862, 23,000 troops clashed repeatedly across the
4,300 acre Pea Ridge battlefield.  From the ridge, you can look down on the
battlefield and see the spot where some 10,000 Federal troops were amassed.

It is rather surprising how much art and history can be experienced in just eleven days.  So, the pre-need salesmen might just as well not call.  There are too many more things to see and experience - - too many more Road Stories.

As we rolled out of Bentonville and roll into October, signs
of the harvest season abound.  Happy Autumn, everybody.