Sunday, June 9, 2013

Day two -- Arkansas to Missouri

We started off nice and early, with a lot of 'big' things to squeeze into the day it was important to get moving!  After leaving the hotel we headed to Mama Carmen's, supposedly the best coffee in North West Arkansas.  Unfortunately it was closed so we headed to good old reliable Starbucks.  Oh well, we tried to support local business!  Our first stop was the world's largest wind chimes. The scenery in NW Arkansas was gorgeous, rolling hills and lush green landscape, not a lot of commercialism.  Which is great, unless you have a three year old who REALLY needs to pee!  We made it to the wind chime stop JUST.IN.TIME, but unfortunately we were 0 for 2 and they were closed down :(  S had her first 'outdoor' peeing experience.  We did get some photos, the building was incredibly odd and seemed to be completely abandoned.



 
Next stop was a homemade Razorback, very similar to the one seen the day before at the University of Arkansas
 
 
Then onto Branson, MO.  Uh not sure what to say about this place.  A bit sketchy, we only spent about 25 minutes and then headed in the direction of St Louis.  Here are some 'interesting' things we saw.




 
 
On the way to St Louis, we stopped at Ozarka, MO for some Throwed Rolls , we have visited the Alabama location before and the kids really enjoyed it.  So we decided to visit one of their other locations during this road trip.  We waited just over an hour for our table, this place is hopping!!  I winged it on the gluten free food.  My fingers are crossed.  I went with grilled chicken, coleslaw and potato salad.  They have something they call 'pass arounds' which is additional side dishes that they bring around table side and serve if you would like some.  Black eyed peas, macaroni and tomato, fried okra, sorghum molasses and fried potato and onions were today's pass arounds.  I only tried the potatoes and they were delicious.  I wasn't brave enough to try the black eyed peas and nothing else would have been safe for me.  Here is a pic of my yummy lunch.
 





After we stuffed ourselves silly at Lambert's Café, we headed to see a giant fork.   We needed to visit the fork first just to feed ourselves the massive dishes of food at the restaurant :)


 
We saw a chicken car next.  No explanation needed.
 
 
Oldest boy child HAD to have these 'murican sunglasses.  Aren't they fab?

 
World's largest rocking chair......but wait, there's more!!
 

 
That's right folks, not only did the rocking chair have a gift shop, but also a Taxidermy Studio!  Winning!!  Unfortunately it was Sunday evening and they were closed :(

 
We were in for a longer stretch of road now, finally heading for St Louis after several stops along the way.  However, before we were going to our hotel, we headed to a sculpture garden.  It was really interesting and the kids loved it.  We didn't spend as much time as we would have liked to because the sun was setting and we were all exhausted from our full day.  We did snap some pictures though.
 



 
Roadside America had the giant eyeball sculpture as the site to see but we were so pleased to have found so many other really cool sculptures to admire. 
 
Tomorrow will be another adventure as we head for Chicago, IL.  No lack of excitement and 'big' things to see :)
 
 
 

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