The Eldredge family, my hosts in Fayetteville, took me out to experience a real Southern meal.  We went to this restaurant that seemed more like a cafeteria called “The Catfish Hole.”  I tried really hard to recognize something familiar on the menu.  My hosts suggested that they order for me.  The waitress brought sweet tea and hush puppies to the table.  “What are these, donuts?”  It was hard for them to describe, but they told me that hush puppies are served pretty often with meals.  They were pretty good and so was the sweet tea.  The main course came after 30 minutes and noticed that everything on the table was brown.  The hush puppies, fried catfish, fries, and sweet tea were all brown.  I don’t think I could handle eating that much brown food more than one time. 

I told my co-workers about the meal I had, which made them think how much the food they eat is brown.  While we were passing a drive-in movie, one of the archeologists mentioned how people bring their trucks and put couches in the back and eat a bucket of fried chicken.  That sounds fun. 

This week is history.  Time flew by in Arkansas, but before the week ended, we took one more field trip to a bluff shelter in The Ozarks.  Bluff shelters are basically caves that American Indians lived in to keep warm during the harsh winters.  We found hieroglyphics inside the bluffs and several points that they used as tools.

January 15, 2009

The first day of work, I had a tour of the facility that included the library of artifacts.  I asked if I could work in the library to see what kinds of artifacts that archeologist collect.  There was just about everything; arrowheads, leaves, bones, and bowls.  We actually had to exchange the artifacts into new boxes because the old boxes were acidic and deteriorating the artifacts.  Some of the pre-historic findings were dated as early as 13,000 years ago. 

After working in the library all day, I was ready to go out in the field and try to find my own points.  Monday night, I actually attended one of the university’s archeology classes.  It helped me understand why some of our findings are significant to understand cultures’ past. 

It was about 20 degrees when we went out exploring some Civil War and pre-historic sites.  I would’ve almost enjoyed sitting in the lab and labeling some of the artifacts that were recently found.  After about 2 hours in the field, my luck changed.  The weather started to warm up and found a horseshoe from the Civil War.  I have to admit that I really didn’t care too much about history, but I started to become more engaged as I was out in the field finding several points.  It was actually amazing to imagine 5,000 soldiers stationed in the same field of Northwest Arkansas.  I am going to really enjoy history movies from now on.

January 12, 2009

I stopped in Branson, Missouri on the way to Fayetteville because there were rumors that it was the Las Vegas of the Midwest.  Let’s just say that I went to bed at 9PM when I was there.  It was more like an amusement park without the rides.  It is a great place for boating in the summer though. 

The following morning, I drove through The Ozarks to reach the Arkansas state line.  If there wasn’t a “Welcome to Arkansas” sign posted, I wouldn’t have known I was there.  Church after church, American flag after American flag; Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas blended together.  I do have to admit that The Ozarks have been one of the most scenic drives so far.  No wonder there are no rides in Branson, you can drive through The Ozarks and control your own ride.  The roads only reach 3,000 feet, but they roll up and down like I’ve never seen in any other drive.  I took a break on the side of the road and heard guns being fired in the woods.  Then I saw a teenager headed towards the dirt roads on his motorbike.  That’s when I knew I was in Arkansas.

After a 60 mile drive that lasted 2.5 hours, I made it to civilization in Northwest Arkansas.  Civilization around here means that there is a Walmart in proximity.  I had to stop and see the headquarters of Walmart in Bentonville.  I was surprised that the actual stores are much nicer than the headquarters. 

Getting ready to do some archeology…..