Evidence Photos

Aug 24, 2001
Branson, MO to Eureka Springs, AK

Our morning fuel stop in Branson. This was the first place I've seen that didn't make you pay first.
The Branson magic.



Another comment on the Branson Way. This billboard for a system that bleeps bad words out of TV broadcasts
was one of manyjust outside Branson.

If you asked me a year ago I would never have guessed I'd be visiting Missouri, but I'd be even less likely to guess I'd be in
Arkansas. Well, that's where we are. Eureka Springs, to be exact. Eureka Springs happens to be connected to Branson by Table Rock Lake
and the fact that it's also in the Ozarks, but that's where the connection ends. Eureka Springs is blessed with a variety of hot spring
believed by the Indians to have magical healing properties. Local legend says the Indians tried to keep the springs secret so they would not
become polluted. One day they helped an injured white man, swore him to secrecy and the next year there were 3000 visitors.
By the early 19th century Eureka was so popular that it had a rail line and gas street lights. .
The hot springs boom is long gone now and Eureka is a town of artists and souvenir shops with a really restrictive
and well enforced building code that keeps it looking like it did 100 years ago,


On the left is a cottage bought by the couple who owned the B&B next door where we stayed.
They bought the place broken down and restored for use as an inn over a number of years.
Each shade of paint had to be approved by the city. On the right is a 3 story brick building in the middle of the town
and home to a variety of galleries and craft shops.


Above is one of a couple of places happy to do quick marriage ceremony. I can see why...this is one very romantic town.
Perhaps too romantic for some people. Maybe romantic isn't even the word so much as cute.
It doesn't have gangs of Japanese female tourists only because none of them have heard
of Arkansas and with the yen in the 120/$ range foreign travel doesn't seem like the great bargain it used to.