Apr 6, 2013 - Oklahoma City To Fort Smith

This was my third time through Oklahoma City and I finally was able to bring myself to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial - a very moving experience. I entered at the East Gate marked 9:01 and looked out over the reflection pool to the West Gate marked 9:03. The numbers marked the minutes before and after the blast. To the left was "The Field of Empty Chairs" - 168 chairs made out of bronze, stone and glass. They are arranged in 9 rows representing the 9 floors of the Murrah Building. Each victim's chair is in the row that...

Oct 23, 2012 - Alma, Van Buren, Fort Smith...and Oklahoma

Today was more of a history lesson. We backtracked out of Devil's Den, intending to head to Mount Magazine (more to come) for a day of hiking. But we had seen some brochures which mentioned Popeye and an old historic shopping district. We drove first into Alma to see Popeye and the giant spinach water tower. We lucked out and found Popeye by chance. As we were searching for the water tower - who'd a thunk we'd have trouble finding a water tower - a cop started following us. Well, what would you do....I pulled him over :-)..."excuse me, but...

Oct 7, 2012 - Small towns in Arkansas

I got up at 0800 and took Toby for his morning constitution. Can't remember the last time I got up that early, got dressed and went outside. I think he is going to be good for me, exercise me while giving him a walk. Of course we ran into another dog. His twin, I think. No barking, just nose to nose, then butt to butt. Wonder why they do that? Can you imagine if people did that? Nope, not at all. Cooler today, in the low 50's and suppose to get into the 30's tonight. We took a drive the other day and I didn't add the photos, so I am...

Oct 6, 2012 - Meet Toby

Well, surprise, surprise. We are officially dog owners. It kind of happened by accident. Our friends, Roger and Monique have 3 dogs. They were planning to take only one on our trip and leave the other 2 behind, but really wanted to find a home for Toby. He had been around us for a few days and seemed very sweet. But, when he asked us if we would take him, we said NO! Yeah, right. Anyway, we went to her son's house and I said I would give it a "try"...hahaha. So, when we left she handed me the dog, his bed and some food. What? I hadn't said...

Oct 4, 2012 - Traveling through Arkansas

We left today for the Ozark Mountain National Park. It was only about a 3 hour drive through some beautiful country. We climbed and climbed and climbed the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains seeing the Petite Jean River overlook down to the valley. As we were driving along we came across a city name of “Y” City. Yep, that is what it is. I can just imagine the conversation. “Where are you from?” “Y”. “Because I just wanted to know where you live.” “Y”. Kinda like “who’s on first”. I couldn't find any info on why the town was named "Y". We arrived...

Jun 17, 2012 - Fort Smith, Arkansas

The drive from Eureka Springs to Fort Smith was beautiful. We parked at the campground at Fort Chaffee. We awakened, on the 15th, to rain and did some household chores. When the rain stopped, we went to a farm in eastern Oklahoma and picked blackberries and blueberries. On the 16th, leaving our quiet, peaceful parking spot on Fort Chaffee, we drove north of Fort Smith, across the Arkansas River, to the little town of Van Buren. This was one of those time the GPS took us directly to where we wanted to be and we were at the train station for...

Jun 9, 2012 - Saturday 9th June - on the road again

We were up and ready by 7.15am, breakfasted at our hotel and were on the road before 8.00am. We were heading towards Denver (not that we expected to get there in one day…it’s 1,346 miles, which is 2.166 kms) The weather wasn’t as warm as we expected to start with, but it did warm up as the day got on. Our first stop was at the Mississippi welcome centre. It was a lovely centre, with clean toilets, free coffee, heaps of information brochures and the weather channel showing on the television. We just had a quick pit stop and photo, then back...

Aug 5, 2011 - The Trawick's-Fort Smith,AR

Sorry, it took so long to update the site. Charlie and Lonnie and their families kept us busy. Lonnie drove all the way from Florida to see Alec and I with his daughter and granddaughter. Lonnie was my Tank Driver when we were in Vietnam. I met him in Hawaii when he got assigned to the Platoon when he was 17 years old. He was so big and young I use to call him Lunk. I still do. I guess I've known him longer than any other of my many Army Buddy's. Charlie housed and fed everyone until we couldn't see food anymore. Alec and I left with...

May 29, 2011 - Fort Smith AK 5/22 & 23/2011

We intended to stop in Little Rock but it was early and we kept driving. Stayed in a WalMart in Fort Smith. Toured the Fort Smith National Historic Site. Very interesting. Fort Smith in 1917 was built to keep the peace between the Osage and Cherokee Indians. After their peace, it became a supply fort because of the strategic location on the Arkansas River - a high point above the River to supply the forts further west. Then it became a jumping off point for CA gold rush. It then became important in the Civil War -first union, then 2 years...

May 5, 2011 - Ft. Smith, AR

Ian got his schoolwork knocked out really quick this morning and actually worked ahead and only has one lesson tomorrow. We packed up the trailer and took off. We went to Ft Smith after watching True Grit last night. Dave insisted that it was very interesting so I wanted to check it out. We made it to the museum. It was had a lot of old fashioned things like Model T ford, the first firetruck of Ft. Smith which was a one horse wagon. It had a whole section on old phones to include a switch board. I could not imagine using them. Technology...

Mar 30, 2011 - Fort Smith National Historic Site

This morning we drove the few miles into the town of Fort Smith to visit the National Historic site. Fort Smith is all about two things--law enforcement and a supply depot for the Indian frontier. The original fort was built in 1817 to help maintain peace and order between the local Osage Indians and the incoming tribes being removed from eastern lands and provide security for settlers. In 1924 this small stockade was abandoned. Nothing much remains of that fort today. As Indian removal ramped up under President Jackson, plus the increasing...

Sep 21, 2010 - Ft Smith, AR Fiasco

Drove to Ft Smith, AR today, the base was closed and really deserted. The RV park is in a field surrounded by trees next to old, old barracks and warehouses that were empty. Way too spooky for me alone. Nope, and I never did find the billeting office, there had been a semi overturned on the main road to the post and I had to go in a back entry—no gate. Evidently this stuff was given to the civilians who haven’t done anything with it yet. There was a sign on one of the warehouses “Boys and Girls Club Haunted Warehouse”. Yep, bet they didn’t...