THE HILLS OF ARKANSAS

Friday
Arkansas is called The Natural State. Start with 600,000 acres of lakes, add 9,700 miles of streams and rivers, & 2.4 million acres of national forest and you understand why. Knowing this encouraged our enthusiasm to get back on the road. We finally had made it out of Hot Springs Village and were traveling North on state road 7. The road twists and turns through grassy hills and valleys peppered with small farms. We passed towns where our Jetta looked quite a bit out of place surrounded by pickups and tractors. Then as we aproached interstate 40 something strange happened. Out of no where our locked roof cargo box popped open and we could see in the mirror a tan garmet bag fly out. Now for you who know what is soon to come in our itenary you'd see our immediate concern. We are soon expected in Jackson, WY for our friend Brenna's wedding (and Nikki's a bridesmaid). Inside that garmet bag is Jeremy's suit, Nikki's rehearsal dinner dress, and most importantly the bridesmaid's dress! All of that now lay rincled inside a plastic bag sitting between the 2 lanes of this busy highway. We quickly parked on the shoulder and ran back to where it had flown out. Once there the fast traffic kept us at bay for another 2-3 painful minutes. As each car buzzed by we'd shield our eyes from the possible distruction of our formal wear. But don't worry Brenna, we recovered the bag without any harm done. So now the garmet bag sits safely behind the passenger's seat.

With that over with we got back on the road, exited 40 at Fort Smith and drove a long and curvy dirt road through the hills of Devil's Den state park. This eventually brought us to our evening's destination, Wattle Hollow. We parked and began exploring each cob hut in search of someone... anyone. To our surprise we were all alone surrounded by castles of cob. We knew which room was ours from the earlier arrangements and set at making ourselves at home. Our room had a double bed set back in the clay and straw. The sculpted walls were alive with texture, organic shapes, and stained glass. The sliding glass doorway looked out over terraces of herbs and perrinials that leads down to a pond. Above the room is a large balcony and common room with an adjacent kitchen. All of this looks out across the pond and beyond to views of neighboring hills. We ate our dinner and drank tea watching the sunset from the balcony. Then we showered and jumped into the hot tub located on the bank of the pond. It was wonderful. The next morning we awoke at 5:30, watched the sunrise over another pot of tea, and were on the road again by 6:30.