Arkansas
part four
[Saturday stories are something of a travel journal for a few weeks.]
When we rolled south out of Fayetteville, down 71 there were signs warning us that the next 17 miles would be steep and crooked. Actually, “Very Steep” is what they said. It was, but the sign was a little over dramatic. There were also warning signs about “Falling Rock,” which made me wonder if it was just one rock or several. It seems like it should have said, “Falling Rocks,” but I think rock is one of those odd words where it can be singular or plural. But why use rock as a plural when you have the word “rocks.” But if you were getting your driveway worked on, you wouldn’t say that you were buying a load of rocks, you would say you were buying a load of rock.
These are the important conversations that M has to be engaged in.
When we got to Van Buren, we parked by the train depot. If you didn’t know there is a passenger train that runs out of Van Buren. It seems to be popular based on the line of people waiting to board when we pulled in. We did a walk about around the downtown area.
There are lots of boutiques in Van Buren. It seems to be a thing. Half the stores in downtown have boutique in their name. It’s a fun word but not something a man who wants to keep his man card active gets to fired up about.
Walking down the sidewalk and crossing the street, there was a step down. I was looking ahead and not paying attention and did a hard landing on my bad ankle. I broke that thing in September of 2020 – five years ago. I asked the surgeon if after he made the repair it would be back to normal. He replied with surgical honesty, “At your age, it will never be the normal again.”
He was right. He also told me I would notice when the weather changed. Right again. But jamming it that way hurt. It hurt all day. It hurt all night. It hurt all the next day. I put horse lineament on it. I think it helps but I have no way to prove it. I buy it at Atwood’s. If it is good enough for Secretariat, it’s good enough for Steve.
We wandered into the Backwoods Book Co. store while walking around. It is a small store. When we went in the guy behind the counter asked us where we were from. “Oklahoma.”
“Where in Oklahoma?”
“Claremore.”
“We had some other people in here from Claremore earlier today.”
“Yes, they let us out from time to time.”
“Well, we are a Christian bookstore and we have a unique thing going on. If you tell us where you are from you can one book each of your choice for free.”
Normally, I would say that means that they have a bunch of books no one would want, but they actually had a nice selection of quality books by solid authors.
The owner of the place, Harold Smith, runs it as a ministry. Monica asked if he was related to J. Harold Smith, an evangelist we knew in our past. He isn’t, but he does have an evangelistic ministry. You should stop in there if you go to Van Buren.