Friday, August 3
I
was right. We all felt much better, today. We were ready for the adventures
we had planned which were mostly roadside attractions, instead of President
fare. First on the list was Leila's Hair museum. Yes, that's right, Hair.
Amazingly, it was very interesting. A part of the Independence College of
cosmetology, it is a collection of hair art from the 16th through the early
20th century. Apparently, women used to save or cut their and their deceased
loved ones' hair to make flowers, wreaths and jewelry from it. The pieces
were amazing and usually a memorial or a family history. I think I want to
learn more about it and maybe how to do it. An article at the museum talked
about how one woman screamed and ran out when she realized what it was. I
thought it was a beautiful lost art.
From there, we got on the road south toward Hot Springs, AR. Shortly we got on the road we made a gas and pit stop in a small town called Peculiar. It sure lived up to its name. When we went into the bathroom there appeared to be blood spattered on all the walls. Immediately, we realized it was red paint - but still peculiar to say the least. The drive was nice and we were able to enjoy the MP3 music we downloaded for the trip. Coincidentally, U2's "It's a Beautiful Day" was immediately followed by Guns and Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle". We were hoping for the first to be our foreshadowing.
Our
next stop was in Carthage to see the Precious
Moments Chapel. Boy was it ever precious. Yes, those lovable little figurines
have their very own attraction, which includes the chapel, a water and lights
show, wedding facilities and, as you might guess, lots of gift
shops. We stuck to the free chapel tour. There were lovely
paintings and stained glass windows, all featuring scenes from the Bible
starring the Precious Moments characters. The whole thing was sickly sweet
and just a little pandering but I couldn't help but feel a sense of calm in
the surroundings. The art truly was lovely. We got back on the road, proud
that we did not fall prey to the Precious Moments cult. On our way south,
we detoured through Joplin and took pictures of a couple of motels, our first
on the trip.
Hot Springs was a lovely little town. The town where Bill Clinton lived and went to high school also had some cool motels and a very nice downtown. There aren't too many sites for Clinton, yet. His library, in Little Rock has not been completed so we heard that there was a large mural painted of him at his high school. We went to the high school, didn't see it and asked a couple of young people about it. They explained that we were at the new school and the painting was at the old school downtown. So we went off to find it there. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be there, either. We looked everywhere and even found an open door to look inside a little. Finally, someone told us that there was a painting out front of the school but that he thought it was taken down and is now in one of the museums on the main drag. So we got a picture of the plaque that said that it was the Alma Mater of the former president, and vowed to find something else in the town to shoot. Luckily we found his house from when he lived here just a couple of blocks from our motel. So, that will be first on our agenda, tomorrow.
Our motel is very nice, an old one that has been taken care of by a faithful owner who cleans all the rooms himself because he doesn't trust anyone else to do as good a job. We took a few more motel pictures and had a great dinner at a Longhorn steakhouse rip off and are now ready for another good night sleep. Tomorrow, it's an alligator farm and then it's off to Graceland!
