Road Trip

Yesterday P and I joined D and Y and drove up to Mountain View / Blanchard Springs. As it turned out, we got to attend "Caroling in the Caverns" for free because the regular tours were canceled for the caroling program and the federal website hadn't been updated. P finagled it. When we returned to Mountain View the town was gathered in the square for the lighting of the Christmas tree.


"This is Christmas. This is really Christmas!" Y said as we came out from dinner onto the square. It did look idyllic. The Court House was lit and so was the Christmas tree. People were milling around after the festivities and a long line of children stretched across the lawn waiting to sit on Santa's lap.


The idea was to show Y some of Arkansas besides Little Rock and D had thought of Blanchard Springs. P said his grandfather (who due to a quirk of generations was born in the late 1800s) had worked to sink the shafts to the cave after it was discovered. "The only elevator in Stone County," said the bushy tour guide has we rode down to the cavern. Two local sights for the price of one.


It is very white here, Y said at dinner. That's because we are in the mountains, we said. This area has historically had small farms, cattle farming, nothing much that required the cheap labor of slavery or tenant farming. Go down to the Delta and the demography changes. Take music. In the Delta it is blues and BB King and Helena's King Biscuit festival and the origins of a lot of rock'n roll. In the mountains it is folk music. Mountain View calls itself the folk music capital of the world and makes more hand crafted dulcimers than just about anywhere. For "Caroling in the Caverns" the musicians were from Mountain View and there were two guitars, one mandolin and a hammered dulcimer.


"I'd rather poke my eye out with a fork than go to Little Rock," said the lady behind the cash registrar. It's a common sentiment. But what is odd about it is that it is based on the idea that Little Rock is a big city, which it really isn't. So Little Rock remains somewhat exotic, and Mountain View, which would be half as far away if there was straight highway connecting it and Little Rock, remains isolated at the other end of a tangle of mountainous roads. Behind the counter she and I compared IDs. My drivers license is my favorite. All the others - work, school, passport - are awful. She was fine with her passport photo. She has a passport but she never makes it down to Little Rock! But maybe this is what keeps Mountain View Mountain View.