Great day today!  Finally got to bed around 2 am and set the alarm for 8 am, so I could clean the house before a bunch of Realtor’s came over.  SUCCESS!  Also finished packing for my trip, and then left at 11am right as planned.  It was bittersweet leaving this morning to be honest.  Felt like I was leaving for a lot longer then I will actually be gone for.  Not sure why.  I kinda felt like Forest Gump, and I just wanted to start running.  Once I got on the road all was well.  Got a phone call from a buddy really early, and ended up talking to him about 45 min while I was driving down the highway.  It made the time go by which was nice. 

I finally drove up and reached Turpentine Tiger Refuge, outside of Eureka Springs, AR!  This place has eluded me for my entire time I have been in Arkansas.  It was an accomplishment just to get here.  It was well worth it!  This place takes amazing care of these amazing creatures that have been neglected, for the most part.  Some have funny, exciting, and some have very sad stories.  After seeing this place, I know they are doing good work, and I will be donating to them in the future.  I met a great couple there, and I asked them to take a picture with my sign for me.  They asked about it, and we developed a good friendship this afternoon.  I’m looking forward to talking to them in the future.  I met up close some amazing creatures today and I am so thankful for the opportunity.  I ended up taking way more pictures then I expected at 400+!  But oh well.  I will post some here shortly.  I also friended some of the interns and employees there.  Great group of people, who definitely have conservation on their mind. 

I used my business to book a hotel, and went to check in.  Got an upgrade for no reason, which was nice, and when I asked them where to goto dinner in town, they suggested the hotel.  It was VERY good for hotel food.  The best part though, was after I checked in a beautiful Red Corvette drove up.  I was admiring the car and the couple that got out of it was very nice.  When I sat down to eat, they walked by to seat themselves.  They asked if I was alone, and I said yes, but then immediately invited them over.  You never who will meet.  Fascinating people.  We were engaged the whole time.  They are born again, after an early like of coke and stuff.  Amazing stories and interesting perspectives on religion.  As a thank you for the conversation I guess and for my service, they bought me dinner.  They also told me where to go to see the sunset, so off I went!

Got to Beaver Dam State Park just a few minutes after the sunset.  So I set up camp and started shooting a few.  I learned that to take shots through a ND filter you HAFTA be out of Servo mode!  Took me a while to figure that one out.  But I didn’t miss much.  While I was there I met ANOTHER couple who were road tripping their Harley’s through the middle of the country.  I was helping with their camera phone, and helped them capture the moment.  After that came home and loading pictures, writing the journal, and figuring out where to go tomorrow on my way to Bosworth, MO to meet up with my mentor from Junior College.  Can’t wait.

Well I have never blogged before so I will figure this out.  I doubt they will all be this long in the future, but this will be a good record of my travels for me too.  Hope you enjoyed it.