I left Lafayette on Wednesday evening, March 14, driving to Indianapolis. I stayed that night at the Days Hotel near the Indianapolis airport, so I could get up bright and early on Thursday morning and take the hotel shuttle bus to the airport, leaving my car in the hotel parking lot for safe keeping.
The hotel experience was very disappointing. The room smelled of must, mold and/or mildew. It was very stuffy. I turned on the air conditioner and it worked well for twenty minutes, but then quit altogether. The carpet was stained and appeared not to have been vacuumed for a while. The bed was uncomfortable; usually beds have a low place in the middle that makes you fall into the center of the bed all night. This bed had a big raised place in the center, making it feel like I was falling off the bed all night long. The tile grout in the bathroom was stained, and the fixtures in the bathtub had so much lime buildup that they were stained green. There was no hot water for a shower in the morning. And worst of all, there was no remote for the television!!! I paid $75 to stay the night and park my car in the hotel parking lot and have a shuttle to the airport and back again. The man who drove the shuttle bus told me that during Super Bowl week the same hotel had charged $400 for the same room. He said he had driven some people to the airport who were on their cell phones complaining to the hotel chain management about the condition of their rooms. I would have complained, too, if I had paid that much. In fact, I think I will be writing to express my disappointment even though I paid much less.
Once I got to the airport, things went very well. I was first in line at the ticket counter to get my boarding pass. There were only five or six people ahead of me in the security line and it went very smoothly. I bought for a soda and read a book while waiting for the flight, which was on time. I watched out the plane window as we took off from Indianapolis and marveled at a housing development where the homes were so tiny, and so close together, and so identical that it looked from the air like a Monopoly board where someone had purchased little green plastic houses for all their properties. The weather was so clear and sunny that when the stewardess brought me a soda, the sunlight streaming in through the plane window made the ice and the bubbles in my glass sparkle like jewels.
It was a very smooth flight all the way to Houston. We did have to wait on the tarmac after we landed because there were no slots available for the plane to dock, but not for long. When we finally de-planed, I was hungry for pizza. I stopped at a pizza kiosk in the airport, but a personal-sized cheese pizza was ten dollars, so I opted for a sandwich, fries and soda for six dollars instead. While waiting for my connecting flight, I got a phone call from Orbitz saying that there was a delay of an hour and a gate change. I called Debbie and told her I would be late so she wouldn’t be stuck at the Little Rock airport wondering what had happened to me.
Once we finally took off, the flight was very bumpy and uncomfortable. Fortunately I was seated next to a very nice lady from Austin, Texas, and we shared our rough encounter in good spirits. The landing was the smoothest part of the flight. When I arrived in Little Rock, I was totally shocked to see that the airport is so small that Debbie was able to park right outside the door of the baggage claim area! You sure can’t do that in Indianapolis!
The views were spectacular in every direction!
Debbie and Bill's home is just gorgeous!
Their house is beautiful and Debbie has decorated it so that it looks like a picture from a home fashion magazine! Bill’s parents built the house when they retired to Arkansas about 37 years ago. It is constructed of lumber from their property, milled just over the hill from where they live. It is cedar-sided, and has a metal roof. Bill is in the process of building an oversized two-car garage which will be attached to the house by way of a connecting laundry room. Right now the laundry room is in the basement. It will be nice for Debbie not to have to drag clothes up and down the stairs once the new addition is complete. 
Their kitchen is done in reds, greens and yellows. I may have to hire Debbie as my decorator.
The kitchen is very nice, newly-remolded with granite counter tops, a large smooth cook top electric strove built into the island, a refrigerator with ice and water dispenser in the door, and a built-in dishwasher. The kitchen is open to the family room where there is a large flat-screen TV, plus two recliners, a Boston rocker, two other side chairs and an ottoman. There are also two huge book cases and an end table. The table that holds the TV is a large, heavy antique that Bill has customized by adding a piece of plywood stained to match its walnut finish. He did such a good job of it that you would not be able to tell it was plywood unless someone told you it was. It is such a warm, comfortable, cozy room.
The fireplace provides a pleasant area for curling up on a cold evening.
The living room and dining room are on the other side of the huge stone fireplace made with rocks harvested from the property. It goes from floor to ceiling and serves as the room divider between the family room and the living room. Beyond the living room, there is a lovely sitting porch with three walls of windows giving a glorious view of the pond behind the house and the scenery beyond.
The view from the glass porch is so conducive to relaxation!
There are two very big bedrooms and a full bath on the main floor. The walk-out basement has another large bedroom, full bath, family room with fireplace, and “canning kitchen” in addition to the laundry room, several storage areas, and a workshop for Bill. It is currently under renovation. I told Debbie I could live in her basement. She told me I was welcome to anytime I wanted!
Indoors or out, the decor is lovely.
Ever since she was a little girl, Debbie has loved horses!
The farm they live on is approximately 450 acres. Much of it is in timber. There was a severe ice storm about three years ago that wiped out hundreds of trees. Countless still stand broken and bent. It will be many years before things grow back to normal. There are numerous ponds on the property, designed as watering holes for the cattle, but most are also good for fishing. Several are new ones that have been dug where dead trees had to be bulldozed under. The farm supports a small cattle operation. They raise Bermuda grass hay to feed their own cows and also to sell to help support the farm. There are two breeding bulls, Lucky and Romeo, and about three dozen cows. While I was visiting, several cows were in the process of delivering new baby calves which will go to market. There are also three horses on the farm, Chance, Pepe and Breezy. Chance is by far the biggest. Pepe is a rescue horse, a former thoroughbred racer who had suffered a broken neck. For obvious reasons he cannot be ridden, but he is enjoying his retirement in the company of the other two horses. Breezy is a quarter horse, smaller than the other two. Bill’s nephew plans to saddle break him the summer so the grandchildren can have a horse to ride.
Bill’s brother Gene, and Gene’s wife Candy, live on the farm, too, about half a mile from Bill and Debbie. They are actually the ones who take care of the cattle. When a cow is in labor, Candy will ride their four-wheeler out into the field and sit with the cow and comfort her until the calf is born. It makes quite a picture to see her sitting cross-legged in the grass, wearing a wide-brimmed hat to protect her eyes from the sun, stroking the cow’s back and talking to her softly, encouraging her until the calf is born.
Being on the Sunnyland Volunteer Fire Department is a big responsibility for Bill.
When I arrived Thursday evening, Bill had supper waiting for us, a really tasty meatloaf! Just after we finished eating, the volunteer fire department alarm went off. Bill had to go help put out the fire. Debbie and I listened to the radio traffic all evening as each different volunteer responded and asked for directions to the fire. The location was an abandoned house far out in the country. The house was probably set on fire intentionally and is likely to be a total loss. Bill estimated that they used over 10,000 gallons of water to stop the blaze. When the fire was finally out, three of the department’s vehicles were mired in over a foot of mud and had to be winched out. Bill didn’t get home until after 2:00 Friday morning.
The Stone County, Arkansas Court House
I went into Mountain View with Debbie on Friday morning and waited in the car for her to while she had an appointment. From my perch in the front seat of the car, I had a great view of the Stone County Court House as well as numerous small shoppes and tourist sites located along the main streets. Mountain View, with a population of less than 3,000, exists on tourist trade. There are several bed and breakfasts and every fast food restaurant you can name. There are folk festivals and music jam sessions held on the square on the weekends during tourist season. All this is in addition to the natural beauty of the area.
Once Debbie was finished with her appointment, she took me on a sight-seeing tour around town. We stopped at a place called “Mellon’s Country Store”. It is an old-fashioned country story with antiques, toys, music supplies, candies, collectables and flea market gadgets. There was an old man sitting inside playing a guitar and singing. He asked us where we were from and when I said, “Indiana”, he began to play and sing “Wabash Cannon Ball” and invited us to sing along. It was great fun! Debbie found a little metal tray with a painting of a farmer on a John Deere tractor with his grandchildren. I bought it for Bill and gave it to him when we got back to their house.
The amphitheater is a glorious place for an outdoor concert.
After our trip to town, Bill gave me a tour of the farm. I could not help being impressed with the beautiful flowers and the redbud and dogwood trees that were blooming in the warmer-than normal spring air. I saw the pastures and the hay fields and the ponds and the forests, and it was all so pretty I felt like I was in a movie! Back at the house we played a new game called “Sequence”. It is a combination card/board game. We played all afternoon and had a great time seeing who could be the champion. I think Debbie cheats somehow because she usually won.
For dinner that night Debbie made this fantastic onion soup using only butter, onions and beef broth with croutons and parmesan cheese on top. It was out of this world delicious! Bill made us a desert using a sugar-free cake mix, some sugar-free apple pie filling, and sugar-free whipped cream. It seemed so rich that I had to have two helpings! He called it his “dump” cake!
Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day. Debbie took me to a Celtic music concert in Blanchard Springs Caverns in the Ozark National Forest. It could not have been more wonderful! The program was in a cave/cathedral underground. The setting was so beautiful, as was the music. The musicians were all local folks. There was a dulcimer player, a bass player, and a Celtic drummer, as well as a mandolin player who also played guitar. But the star of the show by far was a young girl who played the violin (fiddle) and danced (jigged) and sang, sometimes all at the same time. It was a stunning performance! The acoustics were fantastic inside the cave, and the darkness gave it such a warm atmosphere. All who attended clapped and clapped and we were all sorry when the show was over because we could have listened to that music all evening long. After the show, Debbie drove me around the curving roads inside the park and we took several pictures of the beautiful sights to be seen there: cliffs, creeks, waterfalls, and the sun shining on the mountainsides. Gosh, I just felt so blessed being there.
Inside St. Francis Catholic Church
Sunday morning we headed out for church. Debbie and Bill belong to St. Francis Catholic Church in Fairfield Bay, which is a retirement town about thirty miles from their home. There is a Catholic church much closer to where they live, but they just didn’t feel at home there. Once they stumbled upon the church in Fairfield Bay, they knew that this was “the place.” The parish is very small, with a congregation consisting primarily of older folks who live in the area. The church building was recently renovated and appears very modern. The stained glass windows were hand-made by one of the parishioners. In the center of each of the 14 windows around the sanctuary is a small sculpture of one of the Stations of the Cross. These carvings were saved from the original structure and add a lovely piece of history to the new facility. Their baptismal font is made of native marble, also crafted by a parishioner. Outside, there is a beautiful statue of St. Francis, and also an outdoor Stations of the Cross garden.
After Mass, we drove back to Mountain View and picked up Bill’s mother, Doris, to take her out to lunch at Hardee’s. She lives in a spacious two-bedroom condo in a small retirement community. The apartment has a very nice kitchen, small living room, and two full bathrooms, as well as a little front porch. She moved there after Bill’s father died because it became too hard for her to live out on the farm, since her vision is very poor and she couldn’t get to town on her own to be with her friends. Originally Debbie and Bill had planned to build their own house on the farm, but when Doris moved into town, they instead agreed to move into her house and remodel it to make it their own.
After taking Doris back to her house, we spent the rest of Sunday on the deck catching some rays.
On Monday, Deb and Bill went into Mountain View but I stayed at home and sat on the back porch and read. It was very relaxing to just go from watching out the windows at the cattle, to reading, to looking at the scenery again. Bill was kind enough to pick up a few things I needed at Wal-Mart while they were in town. When they returned, Debbie drove the truck with the trailer attached as she and I followed Bill who drove the tractor with a loader on it. We went to a pasture where there were some felled trees. Bill loaded the limbs onto the trailer and we brought them back up to the house to use for firewood. They heat their house with a wood burning furnace supplemented by gas heat if it gets really cold. But usually the wood is sufficient for their heating needs.
Farmer Bill brings a load of limbs for the fire.
Debbie fixed Reuben sandwiches for her and Bill for lunch but I just had the corned beef and cheese, since I am no fan of sauerkraut! We were playing another game of Sequence when Candy whistled that one of the cows, Big Mamma, was in labor! Debbie and I walked out to the pasture and met up with Candy and her two-year-old granddaughter, Kennedy (Kenna). We waited and watched but Big Mamma moved out into the woods out of our sight. Debbie followed her but I went up to the house and sat in the sun. Debbie finally came back up to the house for supper – still no baby calf. These things take time! We had chili and corn bread for supper. It was great!
Tuesday morning Candy and Kenna came over for a visit. Kenna played with blocks and made believe she was a dancing puppy. Debbie, Candy and I chatted about the farm. Candy announced that Big Mamma did have her calf last night, a heifer weighing 84 pounds, big by any standard! After Candy and Kenna left, we had lunch and then went looking for a small dogwood tree to transplant from “the wild” into Debbie’s yard. We didn’t find a dogwood but instead Bill found another “mystery” flowering tree which he dug up and re-planted in their back yard near the pond. We watched the weather all evening as there were thunderstorm and tornado warnings out. It started raining right after supper and rained hard all night and most of Wednesday.
Bill drove Debbie and me into town again Wednesday morning. Bill and I went to the local grocery store for some orange juice and a few other things. Then we all went to Doris’ to drop off her “summer” clothes that had been stored in the basement of the farm house. While we were there, Bill put up curtain rod for sheers in her bedroom. We visited for a while and then left her house to go back downtown. We searched at three flea markets for a glass globe to replace one that had been broken in a "construction accident” in Debbie’s family room. We found one that was exactly what she wanted but it was $18 and much too expensive. We found another one on a lamp for $10 but we didn’t want the lamp part, so we didn’t buy anything. Just as we were leaving one of the stores, someone’s child knocked over something glass and broke it. Lucky it wasn’t us! I had wanted to take pictures of the little shoppes while we were in town, but it was raining and just not terribly picturesque. On the way home we drove by a huge mansion of a new home on the edge of town that some rich, pretentious local had just built. We all agreed that it was just plain ugly!
Since it was raining all day, we played a little more Sequence, watched TV, and read. By 7:30 p.m. I was too tired to stay awake any more so I went to bed. At 3:00 in the morning, I woke up coughing, sneezing and congested. I finally took an allergy pill at 5:00 and then couldn’t sleep any more. I watched the weather and news until 7:00 and finally got up and showered and started getting my stuff together to get ready to go home. The sun came out and started clearing away the fog and mist.
What a beautiful sky!
Thursday morning we had gone out on the deck for some fresh air when suddenly Debbie noticed one of the cows appeared to be sinking in the mud up to her front shoulders. Debbie called Candy to come and investigate. When the cow, Butter Scotch, heard Candy’s four wheeler approaching, she got herself unstuck in a hurry, apparently anticipating that Candy was bringing feed! We all took turns looking across the pasture through the binoculars at the cow. Kenna wanted to see, too. When she had the binoculars, she turned them around and looked through the “wrong” side and laughed about how little the cows appeared!
I got all packed up and Deb and Bill and I left the farm just after 11:00 a.m. We drove to Clinton, Arkansas and stopped to see the “Natural Bridge.” It is a 100 foot long sandstone formation made through millions of years of erosion. Years ago people actually could walk over it and even had picnics on it. But now it is not considered safe to do so. The weather that day was perfect for outdoor sightseeing. We drove down a very steep and curving drive way to the bottom of a gorge. There was a small log cabin gift shop at the edge of the parking lot. We went in and paid the entry fee and then went out the other side to see the Natural Bridge. The sun shining on the waterfall made a very striking view. After taking pictures and thoroughly enjoying this majestic creation, we went back into the cabin and I bought souvenir t-shirts with pictures of the Natural Bridge for the grand kids. The young lady working at the counter gave me a great discount and some free postcards. She had her two-month old baby girl with her, and what a doll she was! All in all a great tourist experience!!
This sandstone bridge is the result of millions of years of erosion.
When we left the Natural Bridge, we went in search of a feed store to buy pea seeds for Debbie’s garden. Once that was done, we filled the car with gas and then went to lunch to fill our personal gas tanks at Golden Corral. Everybody got everything we wanted! It was very reasonably priced, since we went at noon and since we are all now officially ‘Senior Citizens”. Our waitress Melissa was very friendly and kind. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
After lunch we stopped at a Dollar Jewelry store. Debbie found a pair of clip on earrings for me to give to Granny Pat and a necklace for herself. Then we went to Home Depot to look for wall tiles for behind Debbie’s sink. They didn’t have what she wanted, but she did find two azalea plants she liked. Then we stopped at Kirkland’s Home Store. Deb and bill went in, but they didn’t buy anything. Then it was off to the airport.We arrived at the airport three hours before my flight, so Deb, Bill and I sat in the car in the “cell phone parking lot” and visited for an hour, reminiscing about how much fun we had had during the past week. Then Bill drove to the terminal where we all hugged and said goodbye. I really didn’t want to go home!
As I checked in at the United Airlines counter, the clerk asked me if I had paid on line to check my bag. I chuckled and said “No, but I guess I could have said yes and then you wouldn’t charge me.” He laughed and took my credit card. But the card would not scan through their machine so he said, “Oh, never mind” and sent me on my way without paying the bag fee! I deposited the bag with TSA and went through a very short line at the security check point. By 4:50 I was waiting at the gate for my 6:30 flight. So I decided to go buy a book, since I had finished the one I had bought in Indianapolis and left it for Bill to read. It turned out to be a good thing I bought another book.
About half an hour later, the loud speaker announced that there would be a delay in taking off from Little Rock. The United Airlines employee said that I would still be able to make my connecting flight in Chicago. Sorry, wrong. By the time we left Little Rock, there was not enough time to get to Chicago before my flight to Indianapolis took off. Consequently, I found myself “stranded” at O’Hare airport Thursday night. After waiting in line for half an hour, and then waiting for another half an hour while the very nice, polite clerk booked me on the next flight to Indianapolis, (11:15 Friday morning!) I was given a hotel voucher to stay at the Double Tree Rosemont Hotel for the night.
O’Hare is a very big airport. There are numerous terminals and gates and hallways and escalators and sliding glass doors. What there aren’t enough of are signs. It was very hard to figure out how to get from the United Airlines booking desk to the “ground transportation” area where I was to board a shuttle bus to the hotel. The United employee’s directions to me were to “go down that way and turn right.” Not very helpful. How far “down that way” and after I “turn right” then what???
Terminal C, O'Hare Airport
There were many other people having the same problem I was, so it was comforting not to be alone in my quest. I figured, “what’s the worst that could happen?” and just kept walking in the same general direction as my fellow weary travelers. One in particular, a middle-aged Asian gentleman, seemed as perplexed but determined as I was, so we played “the blind leading the blind” all the way through the airport, out the doors, across three lanes of traffic, through the Hilton Hotel lobby, across another street, and finally to the “ground transportation” site. You’d think they could have painted little fluorescent yellow foot prints on the floor to give you a clear path to follow, but, no, that would have been too courteous, I guess. How do they expect people to figure this out on their own in a strange town when it’s nearly midnight and you’re dead tired from traveling and waiting???
Anyway, I approached the man standing at the door of the shuttle bus marked “Double Tree Rosemont” and asked foolishly if this was the shuttle to the hotel. He gave me that “Yessssssssss” that you give your kids when they ask a stupid question, so I boarded the bus. After a while a few other folks got on, too, and finally the driver took us to the hotel. When I walked into the lobby, I felt very out of place. It was quite an upscale hotel with marble floors and potted plants and crystal chandeliers. At the desk, the kindly attendant welcomed me, and along with my room key he gave me a small sack with a freshly-baked, still warm, home-made cookie! It was like getting a big hug! I took it up to the fourth floor, along with my complimentary toothbrush. (“Sorry, no toothpaste, we’re all out.” Luckily I had a package of breath mints!) Unfortunately the room key card wouldn’t work, so I had to go back to the desk. The clerk gave me a replacement card and apologized for the inconvenience. The new card worked, and I was in the room just before midnight. I was so tired I wasn’t paying any attention and so didn’t notice until the next morning that I was in a connecting/adjoining room and hadn’t locked the door between the two rooms! Lucky for me there was no one on the other side of the door trying to see who their neighbor was!
Lobby of the Double Tree Rosemont Hotel
The hotel room was very, very nice, with huge, fluffy pillows, really, really soft sheets, and such a contrast to the experience I had had in Indianapolis, that I actually had a pretty good time being delayed!
The next morning I got up, showered in the sparkling clean five-foot by five-foot ceramic tile shower, dressed, called home and let everyone know where I was, called work and let them know I wouldn’t be in to the office that day, and went down to the lobby to catch the shuttle back to O’Hare. I got there with plenty of time to spare. Going through security took longer and was more tedious due to the volume of travelers in Chicago and due to some people being very rude and not reading and following directions. By now, too, I was tired of traveling, and less likely to excuse other people’s uncouth behavior. I found a not-terribly-uncomfortable chair in the gate area and settled in to wait for the plane. About an hour later, the loudspeaker announced that there had been a gate change for the flight and I had to make quite a trek from gate C7 to gate B29. But I made it with time to spare. Once finally on the plane, I just breathed a sigh of relief that I was almost home.
When we landed in Indianapolis, I called the airport shuttle and the woman on the other end of the phone line said she would send the driver over to the airport. An hour later, he finally materialized. He was all stressed out for some reason and wasn’t sure how many people he was supposed to pick up. He kept going back into the airport terminal and coming back out to the van and making phone calls, trying to determine if he had all his passengers or not. Half an hour later he finally left the airport to take me and three other people back to the hotel.
Once there, I went to the front desk to settle up my bill and make sure they had not billed me to stay there Thursday night as I had originally planned to do. The gal behind the counter was on her private cell phone making dinner plans. The other lady there said that she couldn’t help me, but that the other one would. When she finally got off her phone, she looked all over the counter for my bill but couldn’t find it. She kept asking me how to spell my name and flipping through files. Finally she said “things are just such a mess here I can’t find anything, so . . . .” and her voice just dropped off. I said, “So, what now?” And she just shrugged and said she didn’t know but she guessed I must be paid up. So, I left. I haven’t seen any more charges on my credit card, so, like her, I guess I must be paid up.
I got in my car for the drive home. Not being exactly sure how to get back to the interstate, I plugged in the GPS device, but it would only give me directions from High Point, NC (where I had gone on vacation last summer) and would not reset to give me directions from the Indianapolis hotel. So I tossed the GPS into the back seat and took off unaided on my own. Amazingly I got on the right road purely through serendipity, and was on my way home by 3:30 p.m.
I got back to Lafayette in time to stop at the post office and pick up the mail I had had held. There were no checks from Publishers Clearing House, but there were no bills, either, so I guess I broke even.
All in all the visit to Debbie and Bill’s itself was absolutey grand, and I can’t wait to go back and see them again!!!!
But next time, I’m driving.
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