A trip to the Ozarks, and back

I only had enough space last week to write about the very end of my trip which ended unpleasantly with a cancelled flight in Denver. Actually the rest of the trip was pretty pleasant. Except for my flight to Denver and back to McCook on Boutique Airlines, the rest of the journey was made on Delta. I always fly first class when I can because of the larger seat, more legroom, and instant service from the flights attendants and for three fourths of my journey this time I did too. Delta takes a very circuitous route to and from Northwest Arkansas (XNA is how it's designated in flight terms) which is okay with me because of more flight time which I enjoy but is baffling to many. For example, we flew from Denver to Minneapolis, changed planes, boarded another Delta flight without first class accommodations and then flew on to our final destination.

I sat next to a cool old dude on the way to Minneapolis who was close to my age and very talkative. He was a recovering drug addict from the '60s who is now into holistic medicine. He was on the way to a small town in Wisconsin to visit his daughter who had bought him his first class ticket, the first time he had ever flown first class in his life. We talked a lot about the music of the '60s and '70s and when I would bring up a song he liked, he would break into song which would get the attention of others flying in first class. Pretty weird but I've always liked diversity and spontaneity rather than routine which leads to boredom so his singing didn't bother me. The '60s had obviously been very good to him because he ranted a lot and once asked me if Minnesota was in the middle of the country. He acted completely surprised when I told him where it was so he was either permanently affected by the drugs he took back then, wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch or a combination of both. But he was fun and the flight went by quickly and without incident.

Wal-Mart has built a 10,000 seat amphitheater in Northwest Arkansas between its home base in Bentonville and the next town south which is Rogers. When I attended the University in Fayetteville many years ago, there was 10 miles between Fayetteville and Springdale, another 10 miles between Springdale and Rogers and another 10 miles between Rogers and Bentonville. Today it's one large town and it's impossible to distinguish between one town and another although each city has kept its legal autonomy. The Amp is state of the art and we were lucky enough to have 9th row seats which provided an excellent view of Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald as they performed. There was a 60% chance for rain and thunderstorms but not a drop fell during the concert which was thoroughly enjoyed by a near capacity crowd of aging rockers! I struck up a friendship with the woman in charge of checking our tickets for admittance to the lower half of the amphitheater but that's a story for another column on another day!

We ate high on the hog while I was there but the best tasting meal I had was a chicken fried steak at a new barbecue restaurant in Fayetteville. It was thick and juicy, completely covered in southern white gravy (not sausage gravy) and had the best flavor of any chicken fried steak I've ever had! Sides of corn on the cob and cole slaw enhanced the flavor of the meat perfectly and I ate til I couldn't eat anymore. I was accompanied by my son Will, his wife Erica and my other son Michael.

I was startled out of my sleep at two that morning by a blood-curdling scream from Erica and I was halfway out of my bedroom before I realized that happens occasionally because of night fears she's had all of her life. She apologized the next morning and I suggested she see a doctor for her problem. As far as I know, that hasn't happened yet.

I flew back on Sunday and the connections were even stranger than the flight down there. We flew from Northwest Arkansas to Atlanta, changed planes and flew back to Denver. So we flew across Arkansas going east and back across Arkansas going west. My seatmate on the way to Atlanta slept the whole way so I didn't have a conversation with him but on the way from Atlanta to Denver, it was a very nice grandmotherly type who was a Trump supporter and since I'm not, we had a lively but civil conversation that once again made the time go by very fast. If you read last week's column, you know my flight from Denver to McCook was cancelled and I spent the night in the Denver airport.

I'm driving today to Lincoln to meet up with Will and Michael for our annual fantasy football draft. It's a league that Will put together several years ago and it's composed of six people who live in Arkansas and six who live in Nebraska. We're having the draft at the home of one of the six who live in Nebraska and it's always a good time because everybody knows everybody else and we're all friends.

So that's my travel story. I'm planning on attending a University of Arkansas football game in Fayetteville later this year but haven't decided on which one yet.