when i drug my ass out of bed the next morning, we went sight seeing. in '95, the town started holding concerts/festivals down on the river. there was already a park down there, and they constructed a stage underneath the garrison bridge. the first festival they had was the blues fest. intitially, it was the best bargain in town, or anywhere for that matter. five dollars for an all day concert with ten or more acts. people brought lawn chairs or blankets, and we stretched out on the lawn, drinking cheap beer by one of the town's best micro-brewery, and ate good ole sweet bbq complete with baked beans and cold slaw(on the side, where it BELONGS). boats anchored just off the banks to listen and as the day went on, the sunset over the river. it was a great time and we always tried to convince visiting friends to consider coming during the blues fest.

as the years went on, bigger and better acts came (one year we saw Keb Mo), and so the price of admission went up and a five dollar plate of bbq only got you a tiny sandwich.

the town wanted to expand the area and turn it into a riverwalk. they started having the fourth of july celebrations down there, but little more than the stage under the bridge was there.

the day we visited, they were setting up for a wedding. the rounded area/amphitheatre was built after we left. it's difficult to see, but the stage is still nestled under the bridge.







it's ashame, their downtown is dying. they wanted to revive it and they had an opportunity years ago when beverly enterprises wanted to build their national headquarters there. but beverly also wanted to build a parking garage, with an enclosed pedestrian bridge that would span over garrison avenue. the city leaders nixed this idea, and beverly ended up building on the outskirts of town, and the downtown is struggling.

one of my favorite little bars is gone, well not gone, but it's changed hands. old town grain and feed is now an oyster bar. mark and i spent a lot of time there when we dated. the space was small, practically standing room only, and as the blues bands began to thump, the crowd moved in unison to the beat. it was a unique place and atmosphere. if you sat in the upstairs area, beers (served in mason jars) were lifted in a bucket so the waitresses wouldn't have to fight the crowd up and down the stairs. out the back of the bar was a cute little courtyard surrounded with quaint restored apartments. i always thought that while i'd love living in those spaces, i'd never get any sleep because of the grain and feed activities.

they've built a fancy new library and placed a new facade on their convention center(where as a teen i saw my first concert, Headeast, and as a senior, we had our dinner and prom.)

when we got home from looking around, my middle sister came over. mom had decided she didn't want to cook for us every night and so we'd go out to eat. she later confessed that they seldom went out, so it was a treat for her. the first night we ate mexican. my dad is such a nut, he griped because his burrito was shredded beef instead of ground, (authentic mexican burritos usually are shredded beef) and he was upset because when the barely-speaks-english waiter brought the check, there were no prices on it so he didn't know how much the whole dinner was. because of this, he didn't leave a tip. the food wasn't as good as my beloved Fiesta Maya.

the next day, after mom made z his requested mac and cheese and chicken nuggets lunch, they took me out to eat at the Ozark Mountain Smokehouse. yummy! i love that place and used to drag mark there all the time since it was very close to where we lived. the original smokehouse is in the ozarks (actually, the ozarks barely reach into arkansas, the majority of them being in missouri). it was a popular stop on scenic highway 71 between fort smith and fayetteville (where the main University of Arkansas is).

when i was a teen, they opened one up in fort smith, taking an old barn and refurbishing it. they smoke all their own meats and cheeses (omg, the chedder is to die for) and make all their own breads. plus, they make such things as jellies (oooo, apple butter how i love ya), pickles and they have the best, i mean the best, spicy brown mustard, which i bought a jar of to bring home.



in fort smith, it used to sit off by itself. now, strip malls have sprung up around it, and it's old timey red barn looks out of place surrounded by urbania. it's a "build your own sandwich" place, and you can pile it as high as you want with as much as you want, then pay based on weight. you can buy a whole ham or turkey, buy the cheese by bulk. i hear christmas is their best and busiest season.

that night we went out to eat at a chinese buffet place. z was thrilled because according to him, you can't go wrong with all you can eat shrimp. J (my middle sister) and her husband went with us. he's a big coke nut, their house is full of coke collectables. if a restaurant serves pepsi instead of coke, he won't eat there. lucky for us, the chinese place served coke. you can see how thrilled z looked to be there...he's such a teenager.



well, that's it for today, but i've much more to come...