Arkansas

part one

[I enjoy writing about our travel when I can. Sadly for us, we haven’t taken any vacations for a couple of years. Recently, we had the chance to take a weekend away. You take what you can get, right? The next few Saturdays I will be sharing stories from that trip.]

I have had several (meaning two) people ask me when I was going to write vacation/travel journal stories again. They have been sparse the past two years because – well, we haven’t taken a vacation in a couple of years. We still haven’t. But when M retired I promised her a weekend getaway. I deemed this the “Summer of Monica;” a moniker only Seinfeld fans will understand.

She chose a trip to Arkansas to attend a Dead South concert as her retirement gift. She purchased the tickets and found us an Air BnB to stay in without realizing it was a holiday weekend. That made it better because we weren’t under any pressure to get home Sunday so I could rest up for Monday.

Anyway, if you are interested...Ride along.

Saturday morning we packed a few things and left without feeling any kind of rush to hit the road. It was a two-day trip with nothing in particular planned except the concert that night. The traffic was heavy on 412, as expected for a holiday weekend. But we stayed on 412 until we drove into Springdale.

While driving through Tontitown I was reminiscing about this route 30 years ago – far less crowded and not as much along the highway. We used to drive it going to Eureka Springs and the Passion Play. Does anyone do that anymore? I think the Passion Play faded away. One of our go to stops back then was AQ Chicken.

I asked Monica if she thought it was still a thing. She reminded me that the last time she and I ate there (probably 20 years ago) our meal came to a conclusion with a line of roaches parading across the chair railing as if to honor our eating that greasy chicken. As I thought back on it, I vaguely remember one of them stopping and raising his front let, extending it over his eyes, and saying with admiration, “I salute you, sir.”

We hadn’t eaten there since.

M looked it up and found something where they said they were reopening in a new location in 2024. One person commented that they hoped they did something about the food. To which the owner responded, “We wouldn’t do this if the food wasn’t going to be amazing.”

I said we ought to try it for old times sake.

M mapped it. I followed the directions as they were recited to me.

We drove until the phone lady said, “You have arrived at your destination.”

The only problem was the destination wasn’t a destination. I was still on the street and nothing like an AQ Chicken was to be seen anywhere. I pulled over and searched for it on my phone. It came up and said in brilliant red letters, “Permanently Closed.” It seemed definitive…