Fall Hiking about Weston Bend

Warmer than usual weather this early March, coupled with a long period without precipitation, offered up a nearly perfect Sunday afternoon. Temperatures hovered in the low 20s C, with random patches of sunlight peeking through the clouds here and there. Generally, the overcast sky gave the appearance of impending rain, though none was expected. It simply kept temperatures reasonable.

A good friend called up to gauge interest in a hike, and we were soon on our way to the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River at Weston Bend State Park. The trails at this park are not particularly rugged or challenging, but do offer some of the best views of the Big Muddy anywhere in the state. The longest of the trails is paved, providing access for those not interested in getting too involved in creeping around the woods, or for cycling enthusiasts, and those disabled. We were not much interested in that path.

We started down the Harpst Trail first, knowing it connected with all of the others. The shortest and likely least challenging of the unpaved trails, it meanders easterly, gently sloping down into the Pensineau Creek valley where it meets with the paved trail, then turns westerly back up to the top of the bluff; 15 minutes and done. It is a great trail for a running hike. Indeed, the trail system at this park seems built for that sort of workout. All of the trails are well worn and the most extreme climb is 60 m across one kilometer.

Arriving back on top of the bluff, where the Harpst Trail meets with the West Ridge Trail, gale force winds met us head on. That wind continued to hound us as we continued along the West Ridge Trail, a stark contrast to the calm experienced down the valley. Our ball caps were in reverse for this leg of the journey, to avoid losing them.

That portion of the trail continues along the bluff line for about 1.25 km, punctuated with little perches on the edge of the bluff where breaks in the tree line provide some good views of the Missouri River valley. The last of these stops, near the end of the bluffs, offers the best view of all, as most of the Weston Bend portion of the river sprawling before the wild bottomland forests surrounding Fort Leavenworth.

From Weston Bend State Park Bluffs looking West

The trail only meanders gently easterly back down into the Pensineau Creek valley from there, where it meets up with the paved trail. At this point, the only choices are to return along the same path or follow the paved trail. We were not particularly interested in hiking a paved trail, but it did offer a change of scenery. Following alongside Pensineau Creek for about a km or so, it gently slopes back up towards the bluff, meeting with the Harpst Trail. As the most interesting feature along the way, the creek bed offers some interesting future exploration opportunities under the healthy and thriving canopy of cottonwood, sycamore and maple.

Pensineau Creek

The brief and uneventful journey ended back on top of the bluff at the scenic overlook, which provides yet another of the most expansive views of the Missouri River. Easily accessible to persons with disabilities, it is just a short walk along a paved path from the parking area, to a wood-deck platform set into the bluff.

View from the Weston Bend Scenic Overlook in Summer

It was a pleasant surprise to find the area very much cleaned up since the last visit a year ago. A view choked with old growth then, you could only catch glimpses of the river below through the tangled mass of trees. One can now take in the full view, similar to that found on the West Ridge Trail, nearly 15 km across the state of Kansas.

We did not linger much beyond that, though the park does offer various other points of interest, equally accessible to those that want to get out in nature without picking things off later, or suffering the rashes of some unknown toxicity.

Secluded picnic areas accommodate impromptu picnics, or large open shelters are available to host larger planned gatherings. A playground enables children to burn off supplemental energy, and a well-maintained campground offers basic and electric sites, including modern restrooms, hot showers, and laundry facilities. Shopping and restaurants are only a short 10-minute drive away in the town of Weston; for the more adventurous, only a 4 km hike.

As one of only a couple of State Parks within 30 minutes of Kansas City, Weston Bend State Park offers a place to get away from it all, without getting too far away. The area also holds a rich history stretching back to a time before the land became a part of the United States. Native American tribes of Kansa, Iowa, Sac and Fox called it home. French traders established an outpost nearby, and the Lewis & Clark Expedition paused here for a few days. This geological landmark shaped both land and culture, setting the stage to ensure its position as a historical landmark as well.

Missouri State Parks Weston Bend State Park Map - 2016

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Further Reading

Weston Bend State Park

Missouri State Parks

A Wet Weekend in Arkansas

Trumpeter Swan near Hiram Road in North Central Arkansas

We had a good trip south the weekend before last, following our typical route along US-65 to the Greers Ferry area. Not really stopping for much, the only thing of note along the way were a few forest fires, one of which I got a shot of out of the car window near Leslie. A burn ban was in effect for most of North Central Arkansas. I assume weather had been dryer than usual, though you could never tell by looking at the Little Red River. It was running a good 12 feet higher during our entire visit, according to the USGS stream gauge.

Fire on the moutain near Leslie, AR

The weather and other matters kept us from getting out too much, but we did detour away one day to go have a look at the swans out on Hiram Road. Apparently, they are fixtures at several of the surrounding ponds. I am not quite sure if they are all the same or different groups of them. That little jaunt was to have been the extent of our travels that day, but we found ourselves with more time on our hands than originally planned, so headed off to Batesville for a look around.

Central Avenue Bridge in Batesville

The White River runs through there, which the Little Red joins up with much further downriver. We knew little more than that. I had a couple of historic bridges marked on the map, and a schoolhouse along the way, so we chased those down. We found and photographed the Central Avenue Bridge, built by the Luten Bridge Company, dedicated in 1930 and on the National Register of Historic Places. We were not so lucky with the Dill Schoolhouse, which should have been near Ida, remained elusive.

Sugar Loaf mountain shrouded in clouds

The rest of the time in the area was not particularly suitable to photography. It was cold, gray and rainy the next day. Cards and conversation were the order of the day, along with pizza. Indeed, the few photographs taken that day were with the phone, on a pizza run. With Sugar Loaf shrouded in clouds, better photos would have prevailed with a better camera. Having another 30 minutes to wait on said pizza, I toured over to the utterly vacant Heber Springs Recreation Area and snapped a couple of shots of the lake at dusk.

Stairway in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

The next day we were on the road again to Eureka Springs, for an overnight break in the action. Arriving late in the afternoon, everything was closing within a couple of hours. It was a Monday and the town was mostly dead, and not likely to be alive much more on Tuesday morning. Some shopping around occurred, along with photographing various oddities here and there. Dinner at the Balcony Restaurant, along with our stay at the historic Basin Park Hotel was fantastic. It is quite an interesting piece of architecture, with an interesting history.

Roaring River State Park

As several of the store-clerks indicated the day before, the next morning the streets were just as deserted as the night before. We needed to get back to Kansas City anyway, and the hour or so of shopping I had been through the previous day had been enough. We stopped through Roaring River State Park briefly, for a closer look without the usual traffic around. It was as empty as most of the places we visited too, but afforded a closer look at the grounds, the hatchery and the spring that feeds the river. That was the only other stop on this the short mid-February run to Arkansas, and were home again.

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Further Reading

Captain Perry and the Barefoot Ball

The vision of one man remains front and center after 100 years

Barefoot Basin Park Hotel

Basin Park Hotel — photo by Purdy Art Company, Eureka Springs

One of the most recognizable landmarks in Eureka Springs stands firmly planted on the side of a mountain in the middle of town, at the split of Spring & Center Street, and right next to the City park namesake. The Basin Park Magnuson Grand Hotel dominates the town center and continues to inspire the imagination of visitors and this growing community for more than 100 years now.

The hotel sits on the site of another hotel built by Captain Joseph Perry, also responsible for many of the first hotels that sprang up along the rail lines of the west. Reportedly moving to Eureka Springs as an incurable invalid, Captain Perry found his cure at the Basin Park springs, and resolved to reside permanently beside the life-giving fountain. In 1881, within 100 feet of the spring, Captain Perry constructed his 4-story hotel known as The Perry House at a cost of $50,000; roughly, a million dollars in today’s money. A first-class hotel for the time, each of the 60 rooms had running water, the most modern furnishings, electric bells and a passenger elevator. The wooden structure only lasted a few years though, before succumbing to one of the many fires that plagued the community in 1890.

Out of the ashes rose the Basin Park Hotel in 1905, a fireproof fortress constructed primarily from limestone and dolomite quarried in the area. As lavish for the time as the former Perry House and then some, it boasted 100 rooms with all the modern conveniences. Every room had hot and cold running water, a telephone, and electric lighting, with private baths in half the rooms, and a guest bath on every floor.

The ground floor hosted a barbershop and drugstore, while the seventh floor provided guests fine dining, billiards, a grill, sun parlor, and a full ballroom for dancing their night away. After arriving through one of the two porte-cochères and checking in, a fully electric elevator provided guests with easy access from bottom to top. In case of another fire, iron catwalks enabled quick and easy escape to the mountainside. Because of this last little feature, Robert Ripley added the hotel to his collection of the curious, as the only hotel whose every floor is ground floor.

Quite a few “Believe or Not” moments litter the history of the hotel, as well. A group of locals formed the Syndicate Company to re-develop the property, finding their financing through local banks and institutions, and nearly bankrupting them too. Final costs for the hotel mounted to $150,000; approximately, 4 million dollars in today’s currency. During the Prohibition Era, owners cozied up to the Chicago elite, providing a playground in the Ozarks for illicit booze and gambling.

Al Capone’s sister reportedly spent a month lingering about the place, and the hotel even had its own live-in “hostess,” whose business was well known, but mostly ignored. Business flourished for all parties during these times, but as with similar situations, things eventually came to a bitter end. On the eve of one of the hotel’s signature events in 1955, the Sheriff raided the Barefoot Ball, seizing slot machines and liquor. It was blow to the owner, who eventually sold the property, lacking the continuous flow of funds from such festivities.

A unique annual event in itself, the Barefoot Ball began out of an odd little inspiration, and continues today. It all started in 1948, when a couple won a two-week trip to the hotel on the Truth or Consequences radio show, on the condition that they remain barefoot during their entire stay. Complying with the requirement, the owner of the time noticed them going everywhere without footwear, and decided to hold the very first Barefoot Ball in their honor that June. Since that time, the annual Ball on the top floor of the Basin Park Hotel has become a banner of community pride.

As a very old and historic building, it has a creepy side too. Doors do not shut quite right, and floors have that well-worn feeling here and there. Angles are not perfect, and things go bump in the night. It is part of the character of the place, and likely the source of many of the surrounding ghost stories too.

The Balcony Restaurant at the Hotel is a lasting mark by one of the previous owners, the view during the summer is likely the best in town. Just a couple of floors from street level, it hosts a clear view of the town from above and in most directions, seemingly stories up in the air.

Eureka Springs is a fun spot to visit, and this is definitely a great spot to stay. Everything seems like it is only a block away like that, and it is. The hotel is at the epicenter of everything downtown in Eureka Springs. Lunch and dinner options beyond the Balcony Restaurant are abundant within a block, as well as a couple of pubs, along with a coffee shop just across the street. Most of the shopping and galleries are within a block, too. Parking is a little weird, but no surprise in a town of this character and layout. It is only two blocks away though, and the hotel offers a shuttle down and back, so the walk is inconsequential.

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further reading

Basin Park Hotel

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Capt. Joseph Perry

USGWArchives - Carrrol County, Arkansas Biographies

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is one of the most-recognized landmarks in Kansas City. Even those that have never actually made a trip to the museum immediately recognize its neoclassical architecture, and beautifully massive sprawling lawn, located right in the heart of the city.

Commonly referred to simply as “The Nelson,” the museum opened in opened in 1933, funded primarily by the estate of local newspaper publisher William Rockhill Nelson and local schoolteacher Mary Mcaffee Atkins, widow of a local real estate speculator. Designed by local architectural firm Wight and Wight, who also designed the approach to the Liberty Memorial and the Kansas Governor mansion, it is a grand structure in the Beaux-Arts architecture style, modeled on the Cleveland Museum of Art.

It contains many widely recognized classic and contemporary art works from around the world. It includes works by Caravaggio, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Titian, Rembrandt, Gustave Caillebotte, John Singer Sargent, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Thomas Hart Benton, and George Caleb Bingham, just to name a handful. One of the first places most stop though, at least most school fields trip in memory, the collection of early Western civilization. While not the largest, it does contain some interesting Greek and Roman works.

The museum does distinguish itself from others in the nation with some fantastic collections originating from Asian countries; indeed, hosting one of the best collections of antique Chinese furniture found anywhere in the United States.

Among the works held there are the celebrated group of glazed pottery luohans from Yixian, and a personal favorite, the Guanyin of the Southern Sea from the 11th/12th century. The wood sculpture sits in front of a massive 14th century wall mural, depicting a cosmic Buddha, flanked by two bodhisattvas, and surrounded by figures representing the five planets of traditional Chinese astronomy. The room emanates quiet and peace through ever sense.

A need for culture amidst the sometimes-monotonous homogeneity of the Midwest initiates most visits. Regular events celebrate individual cultures frequently too, such as that of the Chinese New Year. These offer a rare opportunity to not only witness but also participate in music and performances by local talent.

Often times, all areas of the museum were open to exploration during these events, including the Bloch building, which usually requires an admission fee. Added in 2008 While praised by many as an architectural achievement of sorts, it tends to contrast a cold and sterile feeling, against the environment of the original museum. I was look forward to going though, and always find new and interesting things to capture through the lens.

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further reading 

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - Kansas City

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Time to Google

Screen shot of Time Warner KC “promotional” rates on 10.28.2015

We finally got our chance to ditch Time Warner, in favor of Google, and are so happy to finally be out from underneath their heel. I must admit that the speed Time Warner provided near the end was quite sufficient for our needs, but it was the long-term relationship with the firm that caused the irreconcilable differences.

I wish I had kept a log the entire 20 years or so, having been a customer with them since the introduction of broadband. The most recent example occurred when just a few months ago our bill increased yet again, with them citing “the end of a promotion.” That in itself is not uncommon or terrible. However, this sort of activity had been going on for the entire length of our experience with them. They always provided a bit different “promotion,” of course. Sometimes, it was better. More often than not, we ended up paying more. One can never really get a straight answer out of them about their actual rates, either.

Working with their representative at the time of this recent example, we negotiated another “promotion” to the Ultimate 300 package. She was actually a bit rude about it, when we expressed that it did not really matter, since we were going to switch Google as soon as they came to install sometime in March. Overall though, it was good speed and fairly consistent; that is, if it were not for the other set of usual problems with them and their service.

Already a concern, we were only averaging of 10 Mbps download speed. After the upgrade, we were supposed to be getting up to 300 Mbps. Contacting them again, apparently we did not have the right modem. They shipped a new modem, and we were getting close finally at 100 Mbps. Again, we contacted them. It seems they forgot to pair up the service with what we were paying for. They did whatever magic they do on their end, and we were instantly over 200 Mbps. We only broke that barrier a few times though (see table below).

With Time Warner, it was always this way. On top of all of that, the in between periods were filled with generally poor customer service. They did start to get their act together in the last six months. Customer service and the reliability of their service started to improve. It was too little, too late, for us though. When Google contacted us to install Fiber, we nearly threw a party.

So far, Google Fiber has been fantastic. On install, we clocked at 984 Mbps, and we continue to hover between 900 and 1000 on every check. Time will tell though. It is the ultimate test. Will Google become that same demon? Let’s hope not.