Day Thirty-Eight - Arkansas Trip Report Part 2

Today I am going to continue my trip report from Arkansas.  If you don't know what I am talking about, go back and look at yesterday's post...  Or just go back to the beginning and look at all of the posts.

Day 3
We woke up in Hot Springs and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant/bar again.  All three of us ordered the same meal that we each had the day before: eggs, bacon, toast, hashbrowns.  Still excellent.  After breakfast we headed north.  On this day we knew that we were going to be driving for several hours and had decided to make the most of it.  No interstate for us.  No sir!  My GPS which was named Mabel several years ago decided that the shortest distance would be across every pig trail in Arkansas.  Mabel sometimes has a mind of her own and I have found over the years that it is just easier to go along with her than to fight it.  You might recall that on the first day of the trip she took us to a Dairy Queen that had been closed for about half a century (or at least two years).

So, we were northbound.  Our first destination was Altus.  If you look up Things to Do in Altus on Trip Advisor, you will see that there are exactly five things to do there.  They are four wineries and one church.  It is a Catholic church.  Altus spoke to the Meyers family.  Therefore, it was our first destination for the day.  To get there following Mabel's directions we used roads that were not on our map of Arkansas.  We went past places that also were not listed on our map.  And yet, we got there.  We did go very near Dardanelle in Yell county which I was reminded more than once was the home of Mattie Ross from True Grit.  Apparently, she told Marshall Cogburn that she was from "Dardanelle in Yell county" when she first met him and I was cheerfully reminded of that each time we passed a sign or someone glanced at it on the map.

Not too long before we found Altus we stopped at a roadside park and retrieved peanut butter crackers and Diet Coke's out of the back of the car to have in lieu of an actual lunch.  I must say that my years at jcp in which everyone eats lunch promptly at 11:30 everyday and they all eat full meals, did not prepare me for a road trip with my parents who insist that a person really only requires two meals a day.  Those meals are a huge breakfast and a huge dinner.  The thing that they left out is that when they are at home, they snack during the day which becomes the equivalent of having a third meal and without that snacking they are both likely to go into some sort of diabetic stupor.  It turns out that my parents do actually require at least three meals a day.  But in order to maintain family order we just won't say that aloud.

At Altus, after driving down a few vineyard roads, and making multiple U turns we finally found the first winery we had planned to visit.  Chateau Aux Arc Winery is located furtherest from "town" and I use the word "town" loosely.  The winemaker is a 35 year old woman who bought her vines from one of the other local winemakers.    The lady working in the tasting room was very informative and helpful.  She asked us what sort of wines we liked and when we told her that we liked dry white wines, she made a little face and informed us that we might not be big fans of Arkansas wines.  Apparently, the climate in Arkansas produces a very sweet wine.  If you like sweet fruity wines you will LOVE Arkansas wines.  She suggested that we try the driest wines she had.  We did.  Dad and I each found a couple of bottles to purchase.

To the left is a photo of the tasting room.  It was the newest and nicest one we went to.  I'm also posting a photo below of the vineyards.  We drove through several miles of vineyards and they were lovely.  But I didn't take any other pictures of them since at the time we were driving only a few feet at a time before making a U turn while Mabel was "recalculating" and Mom was suggesting that we just "forget it all".

After leaving this first winery, we went to Wiederkehr Wine Cellers (pronounced Whittaker - who knew?)  I did recognize this label from the Tom Thumb near my house.  The label looks very German and with the name, I think I always assumed that it was a wine from Germany.  Since German wines always seem too sweet to me, I never would have tried it.  I was correct in my assumption that it would be too sweet.  Although, this is the largest winery in the region, it is the only one where I couldn't find a single bottle of wine I was willing to spend $7.50 on.  They also have a German restaurant on site which is supposed to be pretty good if you believe the reviews on TA.  But again, "we don't eat lunch" so it was never a consideration.  Here's a picture that I took as we were leaving their tasting room.  We really couldn't get away fast enough.

After leaving Wiederkehr, we came across St. Mary's Catholic Church.  One word A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  This may have been the prettiest country church I have ever been to in the US.  To top the beauty of the church itself, the view is amazing.  So, bare with me while I post a ga-zillion pictures.

The church was positioned on the top of a very large hill overlooking a valley.  On the other side of the valley is the Mt. Magazine State Park which contains the highest peak in Arkansas and the lodge where we were going to stay for the night.

 This is the view as you walk into the church looking toward the alter.  Every surface was painted and it was gorgeous!  It was a very small church but just beautiful.  The photo below this one is of the pipe organ which is directly above the door as you walk in looking back from the alter.

One of the many stained glass windows

 These are the views ET enjoyed while we were inside.  The one below is looking directly across the valley from the church.  Our hotel was somewhere across there.

Next we went to the Post Familie Winery.  By this time Dad was getting a headache, probably from hunger, so he didn't taste any wines.  I had a sip of two different wines and bought one of them and then we left.  I'm posting a picture of the sign outside of their operation.  They were in the process of remodeling and had moved their tasting room to a metal building in the back of their facility while the main building was under construction.

We decided not to stop at the final winery in Altus due to a lack of interest and a strong desire to get to Mt. Magazine.  So, we set out for our final destination of the day.  This is the only reservation that we had made well in advance.  The lodge is located in the Mt. Magazine State Park.  It contains both a lodge and individual cabins.  We had originally wanted one of the luxury double queen rooms.  The luxury rooms have a jacuzzi in the room and a balcony overlooking the valley.  All rooms have a view of the valley.  The question is whether or not you will have a balcony.  By the time we made our reservation there were no "luxury doubles" left.  So we had to settle for a basic double queen.  The view was remarkable.  But again, no balcony.

This was by far the best hotel we stayed at and I thought well worth the money even without a balcony.  However, be aware that it is out in the wilderness many, many miles from the nearest restaurant other than the lodge restaurant and the food there leaves a LOT to be desired.  By the time we got to the lodge we were all near starvation because, you know, "we don't eat lunch".  So we sat in the room and went through the menu.  Everything sounded great!  Then we went to the restaurant which has multi-story windows and magnificent views of the valley and ordered the great sounding food.  Unfortunately, the food didn't taste quite like it sounded.  I had the seared Talapia.  I think it was rolled in corn meal and then pan fried.  It had no flavor.  I had to ask for tarter sauce just so that I could taste something.  Dad had Pasta with Shrimp in Alfredo sauce.  He said the sauce had no flavor and the shrimp were over salted and then he had to dig them out of the pasta to get the tails off so he could eat them.  He hated it.  Mom got Chicken Fried Steak.  She said it was some sort of ground meat (perhaps from a bovine, but possibly not) that had been fried.

After dinner we got our jackets and sat outside overlooking the valley and played a few games of Moon which is a 42 like domino game that becomes very competitive when played by anyone named Meyers.  When it started getting too cold and dark to sit outside any longer, we went to the indoor pool/hot tub and relaxed.  If you are ever in Arkansas, I would highly recommend this place for the stay but you may need to find some other options for food.  I think the best scenario would be to get a cabin and bring groceries so that you could cook your own meals but still enjoy all of the other amenities offered.  Here is a link for their website. Below is a picture that I took on Thursday morning before we left.

I'll post more pictures to the right.  The view and the hotel itself are so great that it makes you want to overlook the really awful food.  My parents who were very critical of the food are already planning to go back for their anniversary in February.  If you go, just make sure to book far in advance so that you get the room that you want.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about Day 4 and Eureka Springs where I was 20 years younger than their target tourist.  Happy Mother's Day!