Had another great day seeing the local sights. We started in Bentonville, AR and ended in Branson, MO. Only a 2 hour drive if you drive straight through but we took the entire day as we saw some great sights along the way. I’ll start today’s travel in Bentonville, AR again. I truly enjoyed this town and need to say that if you’re anywhere near this town, you won’t go wrong stopping to enjoy what they have to offer. Of course Walmart headquarters, I believe, has a lot to do with why this town has what it does. It has 2 very good museums and both are free, and I would recommend both. Yesterday we went to the art museum and this morning we started our day at the Museum of Native American History. It was not very large, but had artifacts that I have never seen at other museum. They give you a hand held audio tour so you can go at your own pace. It took us about 1-1/2 hours to complete our visit. It is free, but I highly suggest a donation before you leave, it was well worth it.
The town has miles of hiking and biking trails, baseball fields, many golf courses, lots and lots of motels and restaurants and in the Fall I’m sure the fall colors are wonderful. I wish we were here about a month later to see the foliage. I will tell you it does get hot here, both yesterday and today were over 100 degrees.
After we left Bentonville, we drove towards Eureka Springs. The best way I can explain this town is that this is a great getaway for a girl’s weekend. Lots of unique stores and many places to eat. It is in the heart of the Ozark Mountains with a Victorian aura. It has lovely Victorian homes and a Carnegie Library. Parking is terrible in town. The streets are narrow, and it has steep roads, and parking is very limited. They do have a trolley that you can take into town with various trolley stops throughout town. If it’s a busy day I would suggest using the trolley. Also, make sure you do have change because if you are lucky enough to get a parking spot in town they are all metered and you need quarters.
After a little window shopping and a stop for an ice cream cone, we drove on to Branson. It was a nice drive on all back roads. It is very hilly in this area and the roads are quite curvy and sometimes steep inclines of declines, but not anything like the Rocky Mountains. They call these the Ozark Mountains, but to some people they might just be larger hills, it’s all in how one views it. Either way the scenery is nice and there are lots and lots of trees.
We had a chance to drive thru Branson this evening and it is not a walking town. It is quite spread out, and a car is needed. I can see why they could have traffic problems when the town is busy, but today it is quite empty. We went to the historic downtown area this evening which is quite quaint, and they have a relatively new area called Branson Landing right on Lake Taneycomo. Shopping is not an issue here. Every store you can think of is probably here and Outlet malls too. In addition to shops at the Landing there are many restaurants and a boat trip you can take. All quite nice.
Well, that’s it for today. Been a long day and will be calling it a day. We’re here all day on Wednesday and we already bought Show tickets for tomorrow so will let you know how this is tomorrow. Have a good evening and my travels down my new road is taking a break tomorrow.
A New Road to Travel 