March 31, 2006 - Cedar Key, FL

Our destination today is Cedar Key, FL. My brother, Ervin suggested we stay here for its beauty and great fishing, but we do not have the fishing addition like he does so we will enjoy the beauty. We arrived in Florida at 9:00am and arrived in Cedar Key, FL at 12:50pm. We are staying at the Cedar Key Sunset Isle Motel & RV Park. Our campsite was small, but our view was of the bay.

After setting up Taylor, we took a ride into the town of Cedar Key.
We walked around the tourist section of the Key and found it to be a very quaint small fishing village, with several restaurants and gift shops.



We drove inland around the town, in and out of residences and sat very close to the runway of the local airport in hopes of watching a plane land, which did not happen. We ended our evening with a beautiful sunset over the Key.

Sunset at our Campsite

March 29th & 30th , 2006 HSV,AR to Albany, GA

March 29, 2006
7:00am Landy and I went back to the workout facility so I could get a quit swim in before we left for our next destination. After not exercising since we started our trip I felt like I could swim forever.
Well it’s 10:00am and we have ended our visit for now with Steve and Landy. We will meet up with them again in Memphis, TN. Thank-you Steve, “The Historian”, and Landy for making us that great Spanish Pork Chops & Rice meal. Thank you both for taking us to places we would have never thought to visit and for being great tour guides. Today is day 1 of our 2 ½ days travel to our next destination, which is the gulf side of Florida. We have ended our travel time for today and are staying at the Wal-Mart in Starkville, MS.

March 30, 2006
Up at 5:30am in search of a Starbuck’s before we start our trip to Albany, Ga. We will travel approximately another 300 or so miles. At 3:30pm we have arrived at the Albany, GA Wal-Mart parking lot. The weather was a little hot but cooled off during the night nicely. To hot to cook, so a quick trip in Wal-Mart for a pre-cooked chicken and bagged salad, we settled in for the evening.

March 28, 2006 - Back to Hot Springs Village

Today we are headed back to Hot Springs Village, oh yeah, we have one more tourist attraction to visit before we leave. About 3 miles outside of town, we stopped at the Thorncrown Chapel. Nestled in a woodland setting, Thorncrown Chapel rises forty-eight feet into the Ozark sky. This magnificent wooden structure contains 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass. It sits atop over 100 tons of native stone and colored flagstone. The chapel's simple design and majestic beauty combine to make it what critics have called "one of the finest religious spaces of modern times."




Steve and Landy wanted to show us one more tourist attraction for the day, which is located in North Little Rock. It’s “The Old Mill”, officially known as "Pugh's Mill Park." It's not an actual old mill, but a life-sized sculpture, built and landscaped in 1933 as a replica of the real Pugh's Mill which actually milled actual grain a century earlier. It's a really beautiful garden spot, a popular place for locals to get wedding pictures taken. The Old Mill is also seen in the opening credits of “Gone with the Wind.”




Once we arrived back to Hot Springs Village, Johnny changed the oil in Big Red while Landy took me to show me her workout facility. They are in the process of expanding the facility and will be adding an indoor track, along with new equipment. I was very impressed with their pool. They have at least 5 lap lanes, which are roped off in the early morning hours, which I was very interested in doing. One of the nice features about the pool is the ceiling as the ability to be opened.

We ended our evening with dinner at the Marina’s restaurant called Last Chance. The restaurant food was very good, unfortunately they struggle to obtain competent help. Being a gated community we were very surprised to find out, if the worker does not live in the community, they have to pay $45 a month for a gate pass.

March 27, 2006 - Eureka Spgs & Branson, MO

March 27, 2006

Today, we are headed to Branson, MO. but, not without a stop to have breakfast at the Mud Street Café. The café is located in the heart of Eureka Springs. If you want a specialty coffee and a great breakfast, this is the place.



Branson is known for its theatre shows such as, Yakov, Acrobats of China, and Presley’s Country Jubilee to name a few. There are several country music performers, who have their own show theatres. During the summer, shows are plentiful for tourist.


Dolly Parton Theatre


The Titanic in Branson,MO

After driving around the town, we proceeded to Chateau on the Lake, in Branson. This high class resort sits on top of a knoll, perched like a castle.



Chateau on the Lake

Inside Lobby

On our way back to Eureka Springs, we stopped at Big Cedar Lodge “The Ozarks’ Premier Wilderness Resort”, for lunch at the Buzzard Saloon. The lodge has several man made waterfalls. You have to drive across one of the falls to enter into the resort. We toured the lodge, which is decorated with several wild animals such as, Raccoons, Elk, Deer, Coyote’s, Owls, etc… All the metal work is cut into various animal shapes.


Inside the Lodge

Buzzard Saloon

OK, its back to Eureka Springs where we ended our evening at a very quaint restaurant called “The Horizon” at Beaver Lake. The restaurant is located approx. 5 miles outside of Eureka Springs, nestled in the mountains over looking Beaver Lake. We arrived in time to watch the sunset as we waited for our meal. We all, loved our meals and highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Eureka Springs.


The Horizon Restaurant

View from our table at The Horizon

March 26,2006 - Eureka Springs, AR

Sorry for all the late postings. Due to the limited internet connectivity and time, I will only be posting once a week. I also need to limit the amount of pictures posted. We hope you still enjoy reading our blog.


March 26, 2006

We left at 9:00am for a 2 day trip to Eureka Springs, AR. Eureka Springs is located 4 hours North West of Hot Springs Village. In the 1800’s, Eureka Springs has cooling springs that were sought out to cure the body. Now Eureka Springs soothes the spirit, heart, and mind. The town is a REAL Victorian Mountain Village, with gentle rolling hills in the Ozark Mountain range. We toured the downtown area, which has retained many of its old structures from the late 1800’s. The town is filled with various types of shops from Antiques to Gift shops, restaurants and cafes. After touring the town, we ate dinner at Forrest Hill Steak Restaurant. Being as hungry as we were, we ordered a Greek Pizza as an appetizer, which was the best. They also serve several entrée’s from steaks to pasta dishes, plus a buffet on Sundays.




Flat Iron Hotel

March 25, 2006 - Texarkana, TX to Hot Springs Village, AR

March 25, 2006

8:15am After a chilly night at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Texarkana, TX and a quick stop at Starbuck’s for coffee, we are on our way to visit Landy (Johnny’s sister) and Steve in Hot Springs Village, AR.



We arrived in Hot Springs at 10:15am, where we met Steve and Landy. Johnny and I hopped into their van and went for a tour of Hot Springs, not to be confused with Hot Springs Village which is 20 minutes away. We stopped at the visitor’s center and took the Hot Springs version walk of their “Walk of Fame”, this is at a much smaller scale from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.






Hot Springs is known for its bathhouses. The national park visitor center is the Fordyce Bathhouse. The only operating bathhouse is the Buckstaff Bathhouse .


Fordyce Bathhouse

Landy and I in the Ladies’ Pack Room

Us in the Men’s Bath Hall

Ceiling of Neptune's Daughter in the Men’s Bath Hall

Bathhouse Row

The town offers FREE spring water. There are 6 water spring stations, which locals and tourist come to fill up there water jugs. The average water temperature of the stations is 140 degrees. It takes 4k years from the time the rain hits the ground, trickle through the rocks and come back up to the surface at 140 degrees. Back in the 1800’s the natural spring water was claimed to have cured several aliments such as, arthritis, blindness, liver disorders and syphilis, to name a few.


Us at the base of a “Hot Spring”

Fountain hot spring

We ate lunch at Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant, not to confuse with S.F's Fisherman's Wharf.

Lunch with Landy and Steve

After lunch, we hooked back up with Big Red and Taylor and hauled them to Steve and Landy’s pad in Hot Springs Village. There are 9 various lakes in Hot Springs Village they live on Balboa Lake, which is the largest lake of the 9. They also have 11 golf courses which one of them is private.


Steve and Landy’s home (view from the lake)

After we set up Big Red and Taylor in their new pads, Steve and Landy took us on a boat ride to tour the lake. All the lakes are manmade and are at constant levels year round.

March 24, 2006 - Spicewood, TX to Texarkana, TX

The temperatures last night did not reach freezing, which we are very thankful for Ed & Madeleine Manigold and their winery. After a morning of me getting the blog up to date and Johnny packing, we headed out of the Spreen’s homestead on our way to Texarkana, TX for an overnight stop at Wal-Mart and than onto our destination of Hot Springs Village, AR.




Thank you very much to John & Sherri, we enjoyed our stay and the many conversations of the past. Kristi, thank you very much for being our Austin tour guide.

March 23, 2006 - Spicewood, TX

Sherri’s car is still in the shop. So, Kathy let John and Sherri use her vehicle to take us sightseeing. Before we started our siteseeing tour, we had lunch at OPIE’s Bar-B-Que. YUM, YUM.. You pick your choice of meat (pork ribs, brisket, or chicken)right out of the pit, and your side dishes are pinto beans, and slice white or wheat bread (to soak up them there soppin’s).




I think this guy has cut meat before....look how close that knife is to his fingers.

Johnny and I could not believe all the rolling hills and beautiful country side which is called the “Hill Country” in and around Spicewood. The terrain is rolling hills and just below the soil level is solid limestone. There’s even a Castle in Texas….check this out http://www.falkensteincastle.com/ which is used for Fairytale weddings.


Falkenstein Castle

We visited the Buchanan Dam, which was constructed in 1937, stretches more than 2 miles, and formed Lake Buchanan. The lake is 31 miles long and approximately 5 miles wide. We were surprised to find out the depth is a mere 109 feet.

Buchanan Dam

Buchanan Dam

We did pass by a Granite Quarry, which also has a show room nearby and of course we had to stop in to check out what we could not afford. The beauty of what they sculptured from the granite was breath taking. We ended our day, with a stop at the Spicewood Vineyards, owned by Ed & Madeleine Manigold. They opened the vinery in 1990 and all the grape are grown and harvested on the land. You can check out their site http://www.spicewoodvineyards.com/. They even have an online gift and wine shop.


The weather conditions overnight are to be close, if not at freezing temps. We are hoping the temperatures do not reach freezing levels for the Manigolds sake. These temperatures will damage a lot of the crop at the winery.

THANK-YOU Kathy for letting us borrow your car and a big Happy Birthday

March 22, 2006 - Spicewood, TX

Sherri took us to Austin to meet up with her sister Kristi for lunch. Well, we almost made it, till Sherri’s car decided to crap out on her. Kristi met us where we were broke down as did the tow truck driver. The car went to the shop and we went and had lunch at Chuy’s Mexican Restaurant.

Chuy's Restaurant
This was the best Mexican food we have had so far. The restaurant décor was Velvet Elvis. We tried to take a picture of the entry, but needed a shade for the glare. Checkout what we came up with, hubba, hubba, a live glare shade.


The glare shade was too small, so we opted for a photo taken in front of the entry.

Here we are with Kristi & Sherri

Kristi was now our tour guide through Austin since Sherri’s car would not be ready till the next day. We toured the downtown and surrounding areas.

State Capital


Victorian in Austin

We went to the headquarters of Whole Foods. OMG!!! This place was unreal, they had beautiful cases of various meats, cheeses, delicatestans, fruit and veggie and they even have a “Beer Alley”. The place is so big, they have a conveyer belt that takes your groceries to the parking garage and the workers will load them in your car for you.

Front of Whole Foods headquarters

Fruit stand

Johnny & Kristi in "Beer Alley"

We then went to Kristi’s house that she and her boyfriend Gary are remodeling. Kristi is currently establishing her business in Survivorship Planning, with the help of Sherri who is building the website. Gary is an established Chiropractor in the town of Austin. Gary and John started talking about cars and it was a funny consistence that John had 55 Chevy and Gary has 56 Chevy Nomad.


56 Chevy Nomad

In the evening, John and Sherri had a birthday dinner for their sister-in-law, Kathy. Kathy also lives in Ridge Harbor and travels back and forth to Iceland where her husband (Sherri’s brother), is Plant Manager for a major Aluminum factory.