I was sad to leave Memphis, I could certainly have spent more time there, but it was time to move on to our next adventure, the Ozarks.

I loved the Netflix series Ozark about a financial planner who moves his family to the Ozarks when a money laundering scheme goes wrong. The Ozarks  includes areas in southern Missouri, northern Arkansa, Kansa and eastern Oklahoma and is largely mountainous, in fact is a well known area for mountain climbing and hiking. I knew this, in the TV series I saw them driving along  narrow winding roads high in the mountains. And yet I still thought it would be a great idea to get a cabin the Ozarks for a few days!

So here we are in Murray’s cabin in the woods. And it is beautiful, after a rather hectic few weeks it is so lovely to relax, surrounded by trees and squirrels. There is so much to explore in this area, but it is freezing and rainy much of the time so we didn’t get to know the area as much as it deserved.

They say you should do something each day that makes your heart beat fast! Our first day out exploring we went looking for Sam’s Throne which is an actual rock. Google wasn’t very helpful in terms of pinpointing the exact area of the rock, but we found Sam’s Throne Camping Ground so figured we’d start there.

There was not much there, no-one camping, and the information board, although it detailed lots of trails and had a poem about Sam, didn’t actually have an x marks the spot for Sam’s Throne. We were about to give up when a young guy emerged from a parked car with a back pack. I wandered over to have a chat, as I do, and in course of chat he offered to take us to ‘the cliff’. Now that may thrill some people, it just me feel somewhat anxious!  However, he was so eager to help and assured us the path was quite easy, the cliff was not far away, and the view was worth it! Oh my, yep, my heart beat fast, really fast! Have these people here not heard of fences when you are walking along a path that is on the edge of a cliff  overlooking a valley which is a long way down? At one stage he said, “Oh, I think there’s someone here,” and stopped where there was a rope tied to a tree going over the edge of the cliff! He peered over but didn’t comment further.

If you look carefully at these you can see the actual path that I walked along. Please be impressed, I was!

Finally we reached a plateau of rock which was wide enough that I could actually stop and admire the view.

I was about ready to head back but our guide encouraged me on a bit further …

He showed us how to get back and as we were leaving I asked him where he was hiking to today, and he answered that he wasn’t hiking, he was going over here, nodding over the side of the cliff. We left him to it!

We headed off to Jasper where Jim, our Airbnb host, assured us we would find Ozark Cafe which had the best hamburger you’ve ever tasted.

I checked out Trip Advisor for the best things to do in Jasper.

I don’t think the statue of the elk in front of County Hall was on the list but it was an impressive statue

 

We were intending to have the best hamburger ever at Ozark Cafe but were seduced by the sound of the fried chicken with mashed potato and gravy, mainly because it was rainy and chilly. It was ok, but We both wished we’d stuck with the hamburger. Although the mashed potato and gravy tasted just like KFC version which I always loved. We had the same conversation we always have, we really should should just order one meal and share!

It was a cute cafe nevertheless.

I loved the little villages we drove through, folks here love their churches and their junk shops! It is fall,  so lots of doorsteps were decorated with displays, mainly featuring pumpkins. I tried to get a photo but it is difficult from the car!

The supermarkets sold all sorts of pumpkins for the displays

On the subject of supermarkets,  I was surprised at how little of an issue use of plastics was in supermarkets all over the States. I saw very few people bring their own bags, in fact most produce was double bagged.   I was only mildly surprised to see individually plastic wrapped potatoes and sweet potatoes. It turns out they were wrapped so you could just pop them into the microwave for 7 minutes for perfectly baked potatoes! As far as I recall if you want to microwave a potato they cook perfectly naked!

I had been looking forward to visiting Eureka Springs so we set off one morning to see Christ of the Ozarks, on to Eureka Village and then go look for elks.

Christ of the Ozarks was impressive although I did see it described in a review as a milk carton with the head of Jesus.

The statue is set in a complex which houses a very impressive amphitheater which has regular performances of the Passion Play.

There were a number of museums with different religious themes and a couple of items which seemed somewhat incongruous

People in the shops and museums were super excited to find out we were Australian, it was as if we had flown all that way especially to see them. I was amused by the guy in the Bible museum (great museum by the way) who told me a man from New Zealand had visited earlier, was that the same place and maybe I knew him! I said probably not.

Off we headed towards Eureka Springs, I was quite excited, but then it started to rain, quite heavily by the time we got there, driving through it was apparent there was no parking in the old town, just paid parking lots on the outskirts, and the town was packed! So we just headed on out of town to look for elks!

I must admit I was disappointed so it was rather quiet in the car (read into that what you will) until our lovely GPS lady decided to take us on a short cut to the Elk Visitor Centre. It was ok at first, the Community Rd she sent us down was sealed,

The next road was not,

and they became less like roads

and more like tracks!

In the end we back tracked and despite her best efforts to take us down more Community roads we stayed firmly on the highways, even though they were rather windy!

Unfortunately it must have been too cold and  damp for the elk, there certainly weren’t any herds around, but we finally saw two sitting in a field quite a distance away!

Our host Jim kept asking us if we met any hillbillies yet, apparently the Beverley Hillbillies came from the Ozarks.

We hadnt, although we saw an old still when we stopped to look at a natural bridge.

 

And all too soon our time in the Ozarks was over and we were heading off on the 6 hour drive to Oklahoma City to drop off the car at the airport and hop on the plane to LA.

We have a day in LA, but I am going to say goodbye here. Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my posts, and I’ll see you again from wherever my travels take me!