Xavier's First Tick
Greetings to everyone.
We awoke late in the morning today. Xavier got to bed late, and did not want to sleep in his plush pack-n-play. He stood in it, crying with some panic near the end. We supposed he felt alone and abandoned in the cabin, even though we were right outside the room. This was all strange to him.
I went in with a bottle and let him lay with me. He went to sleep shortly after, but in our not nearly Queen sized bed, not in his pack-n-play. There (bed hog that he was) he spent the night, relegating Mom and Dad to the mattress edges all night.
Most of the other family were scheduled to arrive throughout the day; we were the first ones there. We decided to drive into Eureka Springs and have a look. Once more, we employed IRMA (the name we gave our Garmin GPS device), who quickly found a way to get us onto the back roads and non-obvious paths.
On the way into town, we passed a sign advertising "Bubba's BBQ." We thought with a name like "Bubba's" and being in the South, we needed to try it. We planned to make it our lunch. As it turned out, it would become a goal and then a quest to experience lunch at Bubba's this week. It would not be today we dined there.
We drove through the historic downtown, but decided we needed to return to the cabin so we could get Xavier back on his nap schedule. It was at least thirty minutes back to the cabin, and we still needed to stop for lunch and hit a grocery store to buy some things for the family feast tonight.
We ate lunch at a local Mexican restaurant in the same center as the market. Xavier had already fallen asleep, but woke up as soon as the car came to a stop. While waiting for our meal, Rebecca looked down and saw a little pinhead sized critter slowly moving across Xavier's head.
It was a tick. Xavier had spent the morning before we left playing outside. The area of Arkansas where we were has ticks, all year 'round except when it freezes. We asked the same lady who helped us with directions yesterday "what kind of bugs do you have down here?" Her answer was something like "the usual and a few ticks."
We got the tick out; it had not set itself in yet, so it was easy enough to pull once Rebecca could get her fingers to hold it. After lunch, it was back to the store for various tick repellent items, and a set of tweezers.
It rained the rest of the day. Xavier slept back at the cabin. I studied the art of tick removal in case the need arose again.
In the Ozarks at Last
Greetings to everyone.
Our start today for the last leg of our Ozark Expedition got a late start.
After eating breakfast at the hotel (and taking with us some fruit and milk for Xavier), we headed to church. In Wichita, it's not only the traffic which moves a little slower. The service began at 10:00. We were out just before noon and then we needed to lunch. We ended up heading back on our journey about 1:00 in the afternoon.
We had chosen a hotel near the highway so we could get on it and go. However, we chose to trust our Garmin GPS device, and we entered in the address of the church we attended. Garmin decided the highway idea we had planned was not optimal. Not knowing the area better, we blindly obeyed the directives given by that gimmicky gadget (more on our Garmin-led adventures are forthcoming).
Our Garmin (which we later named IRMA: the "I" for irritating) decided that we needed to leave Wichita via the most scenic route possible. She added an extra half hour to our trip right out of the gate. By the time we arrived at our cabin, we were convinced people pay Garmin services to direct people their way.
Finally getting on to the 400, we drove, and drove, and drove. Then, a friendly sign welcomed us to Missouri. Our travel headed south, and true to form for this trip, IRMA found the most indirect, winding, scenic way into Arkansas. We drove for an hour on winding roads and 20 MPH speed limits. All of us were asking "are we in Arkansas, or are we still in Missouri?"
Eventually, we crossed an invisible line demarcated by a non-spectacular sign welcoming us to Arkansas. IRMA continued to guide us through the turns and trees (yes, we were in the Ozarks now, and there are lots of trees). "In a quarter mile, turn left onto County Road 34" she instructed.
That lead us from a paved road onto a gravel road. Certainly, we were in the sticks. "In 100 feet, turn right" she directed shortly after whatever sunlight was still shining in the mid-evening skies was choked out by the increasingly dense trees which pressed in against the one car width road.
We took the advised right, something like a 6% grade down a winding path which may or may not have had a turn before some cliff edge, then stopped the car. We decided IRMA was leading us on a "Deliverance Trail" and we may have heard the not-too-distant sound of a banjo being strummed. We found our way back to the paved road. Rebecca called the camp ground where we rented our cabin.
After some explaining, and clarifications, the lady on the other end of the phone call said, "Well, you are in the sticks, aren't you?" You know you're off the reservation when in the backwoods sticks of the Ozarks, someone refers to where you are as "the sticks."
Our drive ended in a heavy downpour, but we did get to our cabin shortly after, again having to undo some of IRMA's directions. The cabin was nice. It had a large bathroom, utensil-stocked kitchen, living space with satellite TV, and decent bedroom.
It also came with some large spiders and other bugs. The spiders were Daddy Longlegs, but nothing like what we know here in Colorado. The Longlegs we encountered were three and four times the size, quite literally the size of Rebecca's hand; they figured once the front door was open, they could just come in as they wished. Often, that meant dropping down from the door header onto the person passing underneath. Rebecca used up half a can of Deep Woods Off (large size) on the doorway to help keep them at bay. That worked for a few hours, but then the rain. And then, more rain. And then it rained some more.
The bugs did not phase Xavier, who was just happy to get out of the car and run around. The first thing he found were the TV and DVD player remotes. As the microwave was reachable from his height, he thought the microwave cavity a better place to store the remotes. Also, because the microwave's keypad beeps, Xavier pushed buttons and started the microwave. Fortunately, Dad was already en route to save the microwave and the remotes. The microwave spent the week in the bathroom so we could lock it away from Xavier (who, at every opportunity, found his way into the bathroom where he either turned on the tub water, flushed the toilet or played with the microwave).
We also had to remove the knobs to the oven and stove top. Xavier found these before the microwave had fully moved into the bathroom. The knobs went on only when we needed to use the stove.
Road Trip To Arkansas
Greetings to all.
Today, the arduous journey to the Arkansas Ozarks began. Interestingly enough, our rental vehicle is a Dodge Journey.
This trip is a family reunion for Rebecca's mother's side of the family. We have been planning and saving for this trip for more than a year. As the time neared, we studied air travel and car travel. Car travel, by far, had all the advantages. One of our biggest concerns was, of course, Xavier and how he would travel on such a long trip, either in a plane or a car seat.
We packed the Journey with our luggage and other of life's necessities. One suitcase for each person. I knew I had (way) over packed (I'm out of practice!). We did not know if we over packed for Xavier or not. When Aunt Chelle arrived at 9:00 AM and her luggage was added into the SUV, we were ready to go.
Our first leg of the journey was to Wichita, Kansas. We did not want to make the twelve hour drive in a day, and we planned to take several rest breaks for Xavier's sake, as well as our own. Who wants to ride in a car with a screeching two year old?
Xavier did extremely well. Having a person in the back seat with him, we think, really helped keep him entertained and not thinking about the fact he was strapped in to a rear-facing chair.
We arrived a little after 6:00 PM. Checked in to our hotel, then headed across the street for dinner at Chili's. After dinner, we returned to the room and went to bed. It was an exhausting day. Xavier slept with Mom and Dad on the king-sized bed. Once the lights were out, he was asleep very quickly.