September 5th, 2015

Theodore Roosevelt: "It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things."

So it's not Friday Night in Winslow but rather a Saturday in Marble Falls, AR.  If your wondering where the bleep is that, I don't blame you!  It's located on highway 7, between Jasper and Harrison. Home of the old amusement park, Dogpatch U.S.A which is being revived.  The park opened in 1968 and was based on the comic strip, Li'l Abner.  From what I gather, they are not trying to restore it into an amusement park but they are trying to clean it up and save the old buildings!

They were having an event, Pirate Invasion, though I don't really get where the theme came from there were quite a few folks that got involved and dressed up.  Their FB page talked about explosive demonstrations, a parade, music, vendors, and more.  I located a flyer when we arrived that boasted of much more than that but it was a two day event and there was no schedule of events.  I'm a planner so it really sucked to not know when things were happening.  They desperately need an organizing fanatic (such as myself), to help them in their marketing and planning.  The site didn't give enough information to find your way there, let alone know when the events were.  In fact, their FB page told you the wrong place to enter and park!!  

At any rate, we arrived in enough time to see the "parade" which consisted of about a dozen ladies and gents dressed as wenches and pirates and they walked 20 feet or so into the "square".

After that, they gather around and played some music.  We walked around and checked out the vendors and then explored the park a bit. It was cool to see the old place and made me wish that somebody had gotten to saving it sooner.  I know people that have been there back in the day, including Damon.  I wish I could have seen it in all it's glory.  Anyway, really cool that someone is trying to save it!

Afterwards, we stopped off for a cold beer and some air conditioning (it was unbelievably humid that day), then headed back to the hotel to kick back and relax.  We stayed in Harrison because it was the closest we could find someplace to stay to Dogpatch.  We had dinner at a nice little Italian place called Roma Italian Restaurant and it was really good, didn't look like much on the outside but we were pleasantly surprised.

Before heading home, we realized how close we were to where some of Damon's family was many, many years ago.  We found the cemetery where they were buried and visited on the way back home.

Until our next adventure.......or maybe just a quite night in little ol Winslow, who knows!