Arkansas
Ahh spring break. The time when girls go wild and people take vacations. It’s not nearly as fun as summer but it ranks up there with no school hiatuses.
This year I went to Arkansas with my friend Anne Whalen and Gabi Francis. We also went the previous spring break. Arkansas falls into many stereotypes. Insiest, 22 cars in people’s lawns, hicks in small towns, and on and on and on. I would just like to inform you that this is all true. But! People neglect many other fine qualities about Arkansas.
For starters let’s talk about the environment. The air is very clean. Coming back to mason felt like I was coming back to a place filled with smog and dry ice compared to breathing the air there. This is probably due to the fact that Arkansas falls at the base of the Ozark Mountains where trees are a must. The land is beautiful. We go at the ugliest time of the year and it is still so beautiful. At Gene’s farm…
…Side note. Gene is Anne’s Mom’s best friend. She is who we go down to see in Arkansas and rent a cabin with. She is a wonderful lady full of wisdom and spirit. Her out look on life and every day is brilliant. If everyone saw and acted the way Gene did, this world would be a better place. I could talk to her for hours…
…Anywho! At Gene’s farm she has a water well. That is where all her water comes from. It is honestly the purest and tastiest water you could ever encounter. Because it comes from a well, it is also the most natural as you can get. I filled a water bottle of it and to this day I still have some in my fridge. Ummm, well water.
Her and her husband live very simple. They have a small cabin (about the size of Mr. Dykstra’s room or smaller) where they live. Gene’s husband farms old-school with mules. They do not have tractors. Everything is manual. Gene has recently planted her own garden and will soon be getting most of their food from that.
The towns in Arkansas are very small. On the plus side, the people are extremely friendly and interesting. It’s hard not to pick up an accent when talking to the people, but to keep from looking really stupid and making it embarrassingly awkward you have to watch your tongue so you don’t get that southern twang. It’s clear when you don’t have it in front of them so to pick it up in the middle of a conversation would make you look like a tard.
The women that we get to spend time with are one-of-a-kind. They’re all like Gene! (Gene still has some of her own qualities) The women are soo down to earth. You couldn’t be more down to earth unless you were Mother Nature herself. They love every form of life and believe all life should be cherished. To them every tree matters, every rock has it’s place, and the wind tells stories of our past. To be able to sit around a campfire with them and soak up their meaning and their joy is truly a life changing experience. Plus it is fun. For some reason they can all sing rather well and that is what we do. We sing old songs. We sing new songs. But mostly we sing songs that we make up on the spot. And we shout our woman power!
Our first day this year, was quite interesting. We were chased by coyotes! Yay! Adventures! Yeah! What an adrenaline rush. I tell ya. Whoooo. We, of course, went into survival mode. What a great way of starting out a vacation. Should of taken Monk, the half wolf half husky, with us.
I wish I were sitting under the starry sky of Arkansas right now soaking up the air and singing the songs of the wind. Okay, I’m going to stop sounding like Pocahontas now.
Peace. Punch. Captain Crunch.
