Road Trip: Up The Middle Of The Country

Day 8: Saturday, May 11, 2024 - Bentonville, AR

Day's statistics:
Weather: 84°, overcast
Steps: Steve 5,221; Linda 5,079
Travel: 214 miles

While most of our hotels / motels are usually acceptable and sleep isn't too much of an issue, sometimes we get those facilities where the other customers slam doors, have kids that run in the hallway, they talk in the hallway, or whatever.
A couple times overnight a car alarm in the lot went off. 2:00 in the morning. I had to check to make sure it wasn't ours. Right when I got to the window, it stopped. I still had to check to make sure it wasn't ours. It wasn't. And a couple more times during the night / early morning, it went off again.

Today's breakfast was a hot buffet like yesterday.
We ate, returned to the room to brush, get our belongings, and we checked out.

While we have a slightly "rigid" schedule - there is some flexibility in it.
Not too much - we did have nightly hotel reservations in various cities on our route. But we can leave earlier to head somewhere, or skip something and go somewhere else - which is what we were doing this day.
Our plans had us originally visiting Ridgedale: Top of the Rock Ozarks Heritage Preserve, and or a couple sights in Springfield.
We had heard through conversation at the President Clinton Library that a "place to go" was the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR. (What are the odds that there were two similarly named museums in two different states that we would visit on the same trip?)
Bentonville is a museum that was started by the Walton family (of Wal-Mart fame). It is in the northeast corner of the state, and was a three hour drive away.
Admittedly it added an hour to our travel time from Little Rock, AR, to Springfield, MO, but since we didn't really have anything else scheduled, we thought it would be worth it.
We headed out, and were finally able to get a decent shot of this church (?).

On the way, we had some nice mountain vistas to enjoy, and even a tunnel.







We were on a hightway, and we saw signs that said "Right lane closed 1 mile".
OK... but why wasn't anyone - other than us - actually in the right line?!!? I mean, we had a mile. I really don't like the moochers - the ones that go all the way up to the big, lit lane closed arrow and try to get in, but... we had a mile. A MILE.

So we buzzed right along. For almost a mile. Then found a slow moving eighteen-wheeler with a big gap in from of him that we moved over to fill a little. Got through the closure, and before long we were all moving at speed again.

At about 11:30 we were parking in the garage.
We walked out to the traffic circle at the same time a shuttle arrived to take us to the museum entrance.


A five (or less) minute ride brought us to the entrance.


The grounds were rather extensive, and being expanded too.

We had to go down a couple levels to get to the lobby. As there was a line for the elevators - only one of the two was working - we took the stairs.
The numerous works we encountered will be presented without commentary - like they have been this trip - except for any particularly significant pieces.











Benjamin West's Cupid and Psyche. As soon as I read the name, I said to Linda "That's the statue we saw in the Louvre." (Though my words didn't have a clickable link on them).

Jackson Pollock's Reclining Woman.

We finished in the first main room, and continued on to a small area that had some Native American works in it.

As we walked from one wing to the next, we saw this path in the woods.

Continuing in the next section.























We got to the end of the building, and went downstairs. And continued on.



At the end of the wing, we came across a window.

This piece, by Claes Oldenburg, Alphabet / Good Humor, is the alphabet, in the shape of a Good Humor ice cream bar with some letters intentionally left out, also resembles body parts, such as a brain.

Further on.



A couple of the last pieces in this section, Rosie The Riveter and Sick Puppy by Norman Rockwell, were the only pieces by a "famous" artist (we're not afficianatos, so some of the other works may be "famous" too, but just to us).

The next section had some larger works in it - it was also a much larger space.






Off to the side was an area that was dedicated to comic books and superheros. The photo is NOT of Christopher Reeve's Superman, but rather a look-alike.



And this sculpture was on a US Postage stamp.



Heading toward the end of this exhibit hall.



We exited the hall, and came across this sculpture by Jewel (though not the singer).

We got to the top of the stairs, turned the corner, and had to walk through the café to get to the other side.
Hanging from the ceiling in the café was this.

We walked down a long hallway toward the Great Hall and Temporary Exhibition Gallery. The TEG required an admission fee and we had already seen enough art here and decided to skip it. But we did see the pond / lake.




We saw signs for the library, so we decided to head there. It was an elevator ride to the third floor.
It turns out it was more of a research library than a public library. But we visited and enjoyed a few minutes of quiet time - it WAS Saturday, after all, and it was rather busy.


We relaxed in the library for about 20 minutes.
We headed back to the entrance to take the golf cart back to the garage.
Hats off to this guy.

We thought there may have been a dance at the museum, but our driver said he thought it might be a quinciera celebration (eventually there were more well-dressed teens present).


We were at Crystal Brdges for about two hours, and it was approaching 2:00 - and we were getting hungry.

After we got to the car, we did a search for Mexican restaurant - we wanted to eat something different.
We prefer not to spend too much on meals, so we tend to avoid fine dining and other upscale establishments.
We were at a four way intersection and on the opposite corner was a Mexican restaurant - Las Palmas. Linda couldn't get the menu to come up on the phone fast enough so we continued. A hundred yards or so down the road we did a u-turn and went there anyway.


We were seated and given menus, along with chips and salsa.



We perused the menu - it was still considered "lunch time" - and make our selections. Linda had the grilled shrimp taco salad, and I had the shredded chicken burrito grande.


The food was good, and tasted fresh.

Next up on the schedule... nothing.
We originally planned to go straight to Springfield from Little Rock, but now we were two hours away.
So we obviously had to get ourselves to Springfield.
Lunch was done, and it was about quarter to three.
We plugged Springfield into the GPS and off we went.
Here are the sights along the way, including our third state line (only three so far? seems like it should be more than that...).






No, we weren't in southern Westchester County, New York...

We checked in to the hotel, Baymont Inn, and went up to the room.

It was a little early, but it gave us time to relax a little, then wash up and get to sleep.

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