Or you're going the other direction, leaving 65 at Harrison for the area around Eureka Springs. And that means that you'll be affronted by this unfortunate sign of our times. It accosts you just as you've settled into your drive. Perhaps unconsciously, your body feels the road, as it winds, rises, and falls around the hills on this edge of the Ozarks. Half-consciously, you notice the smattering of commerce that hugs the edges of the road.
Billboards advertise things like caves, canoes, and hams.
There are a couple of Wal-Marts on the road now, a couple of Taco Bells. But beyond the clamor of signs, the driveways leading to roadside houses, and the clusters of businesses here and there, the scenery is purely pastoral. Fields stretch out to the horizon and over hilltops. Yellow rolls of hay slump where they've been piled. On either side of the highway, wherever a strip of ground hasn't been mowed or hayed, wildflowers rise up in praise of the sun.