Yes, those are bulletholes in the welcome sign. Don’t ask me, I have no idea.
We spent two full days with friends and Pat’s family in Fayetteville, AR. Getting off the road for a while felt great.
Pat and I have two close friends from college – Greg and Jen – who are living down here and attending graduate school at the University. We hadn’t seen them in a while, so it was awesome to spend some time with them. Additionally, Pat’s Aunt and Uncle have been living here for the past 30+ years – both Bostonians originally. They put us up even though they weren’t home from vacation until our 2nd night, which was so nice.
We arrived late Wednesday night, dropped our stuff off, and went over to see Greg and Jen for a little while. Sleeping in the next morning was wonderful and much needed. When Pat and I finally got moving, we went into the town center to explore and meet Jen for lunch. Greg was teaching in the afternoon so we had to drop by and harrass him for a little while. He was lucky neither of us were feeling particularly cruel.
There’s a huge used book store in the center of Fayetteville which was very cool (and a little daunting). Wandering around in there for about an hour was lots of fun. We also checked out the University’s performing arts center – they have a great auditorium. After Greg finished up teaching, we caught up with them again and went for a few drinks at the local microbrewery and then to dinner at an award winning BBQ joint. The pulled pork was pretty tasty.
Post food-coma, Greg and Jen took us to a few bars around town, and we met up with a bunch of their friends down there. They allow smoking in the bars there. Everything I wore along with my entire body smelled like cigarettes by the end of the night, although I can’t say I noticed or cared until the next morning. Pat’s family got home while we were out. Saturday we hung out with them most of the day.
The Fayetteville farmer’s market is held every Saturday morning. Everything looked really fresh. We spent a few hours there collecting groceries with Pat’s Aunt, and then headed back to the house for brunch. In the afternoon we went for a hike by the town lake, and I chatted with Pat’s Uncle Ralph for a while. They have a really neat story as to how they ended up in Fayetteville. Thirty some-odd years ago, he, his wife, and his new baby were driving cross country to California and stopped to see some friends near Fayetteville. While visiting there, Ralph got word that his job in California had been cut, and he was now unemployed. At the same time, a local mental hospital had received a large grant to expand their services. Ralph had experience in that field and ended up getting a job there the next day. Thirty seven years later, they’re still here.
He also told me about a pretty unique story regarding the Jewish community in Fayetteville. They’ve been small but present for many years now, and recently have grown large enough to support their own synagogue. Originally, they hoped to purchase an existing home and convert it into a temple, but there was a lot of opposition in the town for whatever reason. A successful general contractor in the area who happened to be a Muslim Palestinian immigrant approached them and offered to build them a brand new temple at his cost. The NY Times covered the story. Very cool.
Saturday night, Greg and Jen came over for dinner. We called it an early night since Pat and I had the worst drive of the trip the next day – 12 hours to Santa Fe, NM. We left around 9am Sunday morning and were driving down a one lane highway with the windows down when I literally got smacked in the eyeball by a bee. She was much worse off though – I don’t think she survived the collision. But we made it! All the way through Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, and New Mexico. Driving up towards Santa Fe, we watched the sun set out of the driver’s side window and a huge lightning storm up ahead. Gorgeous.
After we settled in at the hotel, we decided to head down to the Plaza and grab a late mexican dinner. The Plaza is the old historic area of the city. On the way into this mexican restaurant & microbrewery, we heard some live music down the street and decided to check it out afterwards. The music was coming from a place called Evangelos – an awesome little bar with lots of character and a small stage. We walked into a jam session – there were about 10 musicians shuffling on and off the stage playing R&B and they were all awesome. When they stopped playing for the night and walked around to collect money, we realized Samuel L. Jackson was hanging out in the back of the bar listening too. This trip has been surreal.