We're back from our trip to Mountain View.
I was not ready to come home.
We got to our cabin around 4 p.m. Friday afternoon, unpacked our stuff, and headed to the square to listen to some music. A "headliner" group was to play on the courthouse lawn later in the evening, but we preferred to go to the little park near the courthouse, where impromptu groups had congregated under the gazebos.
As dinnertime approached, we went into a Mexican restaurant (it was Friday, after all) only to discover that they didn't serve margaritas - it's a dry county. A lady who was waiting on a pick--up order said that another restaurant a few miles away served liquor, so we got in the truck and drove down there. The parking lot was packed. We didn't even get out of the truck and drove back to town for dinner at a pizza buffet (sans beer), then back to the square for more music.
The Husband had packed his ukulele but did not break it out Friday night. I think he wanted to scope out the scene first. Or else he was just chicken.
It was hard going to sleep that night. Our refrigerator kept making clicking/grunting noises. I got up and raised the lever on the icemaker, and the noise settled down.
Saturday morning, we had breakfast at a place on the square that had been recommended to us by the cabin rental agent. It was crowded and the restaurant seemed to be short-staffed that morning. They were out of biscuits (Horrors!) and got our order wrong, to boot. We did not go back there for the rest of our stay.
We spent most of Saturday poking around the shops on the square. One of the shops seemed to be an "overstock" store. I found a bag of smooth gray rocks on the shelf that did not appear to be part of the overstock inventory. I've seen these kinds of rocks painted and left for people to find. The lady at the counter was the same lady who'd told us about the restaurant that served liquor. She said that she and her kids liked to paint on the rocks. Thinking that The Granddaughters might enjoy doing that, we bought the bag of rocks. After we paid for the rocks, she very nearly crowed with glee. The store manager had bet her that the rocks would never sell; if she could sell them, he'd give her a day off with pay. I meant to check back with her before we left to hear her tell his reaction.
There's an ice cream/coffee booth on the square that does a hoppin' business in the evenings. The Husband and I had lusted after ice cream cones since we got to town, so when we were finished scoping out the shops, we walked over to the booth. He ordered ice cream, I wanted lemonade. Two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were minding the store. They were bickering as we walked up to the window. The girl took our order and instructed the boy to make my lemonade. When he said he didn't know how, she said, "I ALREADY SHOWED YOU HOW. FIGURE IT OUT!" Having just paid $6 for the lemonade, I stuck my head in the window and said, "NO! NO EXPERIMENTING WITH MY LEMONADE! SHOW HIM AGAIN!" The bickering ceased (though there was probably some low, under-the-breath muttering.)
My lemonade was fine. :)
We went back to the cabin for a while (it was just off the square) but went back to the square around sunset. The Husband took his uke this time. As we walked up to one of the gazebos, one of the musicians spied the ukulele case and, thinking there was a fiddle in the case, invited him to join. The invitation held even after they discovered the instrument was a uke. ;) The Husband had a good time playing and singing with the group, something he rarely gets to do. We stayed until everybody got tired.
Sunday morning, we broke our travel rule of "no eating at chain restaurants" and had breakfast at a fast-food joint. After breakfast, we drove up to Mountain Home, just to look around. We had a good lunch (with alcoholic beverages . . . ON A SUNDAY!) on the square. Afterwards, we found a liquor store, where I bought a small bottle of Jack Daniels and a small bottle of Fireball. We drove back to Mountain View, rested a bit, then went back up to the square. The Husband played with the gazebo group again.
We laid around the cabin a lot on Monday. Running low on ice, I lowered the lever on the ice maker. There was a hum as the icemaker began to fill itself with water. I closed the freezer door and went back to my book. A few minutes later, The Husband observed that the icemaker was still making that humming/filling noise. I got up to look. THE ICE BUCKET WAS BRIMMING WITH WATER, and we could not get it to stop. The Husband opened the cabinet doors under the sink, looking for a cut-off valve, while I bailed out the icemaker bucket. The water kept coming. While he grabbed his phone to call the rental agent, I flipped the icemaker lever a couple of times and, mercifully, the water flow stopped. We did not fool with the lever for the rest of the trip.
Monday, after breakfast at the fast-food joint, we drove up to the Ozark Folk Center. It is closed on Mondays. :(
Monday evening, as we were eating dinner in a restaurant down the road from the square, we recognized one of the other diners as a lady who had done some singing in the gazebo the previous night. The Husband struck up a conversation with her and learned that she planned to go back to the square to play music that night. She encouraged him to come along with his uke, so after we ate, we went back to the cabin, got the ukulele, and went back to the square. Several people were sitting around the gazebo. Nobody was playing, not an instrument in sight. An elderly man spied The Husband's ukulele case and said, "Boy, break out that fiddle and let's have some music." When The Husband told him the case held a ukulele, he said, "Oh. Never mind." Everybody laughed. But one of the other observers said he'd brought his guitar, and this started a trend. Before long, there appeared several guitars, a mandolin, and a harmonica. We stayed at the gazebo until nearly 11 p.m.
Our cabin reservation ended Tuesday morning. I tried my best to get The Husband to extend it, but he'd talked to Nanny and Son #2 and learned that (1) Nanny's cousin had died and the funeral was Wednesday, a long way from home, and she'd need him to drive her there, and (2) The Little Rotten Baby (who had been named "Student of the Month for August) was expecting us at the school on Thursday for Grandparents' Day. We had to go home. :(
Even though I would have happily stayed for as long as the cabin was available, we packed up Tuesday morning. On the way home, we realized we had not even opened the liquor we worked so hard to get. ;)
Even though I would have happily stayed for as long as we could've found lodging ANYWHERE, it was good to get home.
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