By Jay Edwards
We headed from Little Rock to Fayetteville a few weeks ago to visit our daughter and son-in-law, Alexis and Sam, and his mom, Carol. The three of them recently moved from Asheville, NC and as much as I loved visiting them there I was glad to be driving three hours instead of 11.
Heading up Interstate 40 northwest from the edge of the Arkansas Delta to the Ozark Mountains is a trip I’ve made, like so many of you, many times. But it was the first time a stop at Whataburger wasn’t an option. Some changes are more difficult to accept than others, and 58-years was a good run, but I’d have been glad for a few more.
We drove on and I suppose the nostalgia I’d been feeling over lost burgers caused me to say to KM, my longtime and faithful traveling companion, “I think I’ll take the Pig Trail.” Her less than enthusiastic response of “Why?” wasn’t what I was looking for.
“Well, because we haven’t done it in a long time, and it’s a scenic byway.” “Hmm,” was her reply.
Causing a mother to lose precious minutes with her daughter wasn’t really a hill I wanted to climb, nevertheless, when we came to exit 35, I took it, and I’m pretty sure I heard another “Hmm” when I did.
The old Pig Trail hasn’t changed much over the years, just less traffic than I remembered. It’s still scenic, as you weave through the Boston Mountains, and of course better still in October.
We arrived safely at the kids’ new home, near Paradise Valley Golf Course. Sam was working and rather than go shopping for towels with the girls I decided to drive around the campus. “Hmm.” I drove down Center Street and saw the apartments where my friend Judge Morley lived back in the 70’s, where we used to meet on Monday nights after Algebra class to watch Charlie’s Angels. The apartments looked the same as I remembered, not like my old apartment called Murray Hill, a block over on Putman. It had a new name now and didn’t seem as nice as what I remembered. Then I went by the old house I lived in on Vandeventer, off Maple, with Phil Higdon, David French, Mark Brogan and Wet Doggy Head Doss. It hadn’t really changed, except for the sinkhole that’s now in the front yard. At least I don’t remember it being there.
I left the campus and headed towards a golf course where I used to spend a lot of time, Stonebridge Meadows. We were living in Fayetteville when the course opened in 1997. It sits on land that was once home to a Civil War hospital and then later a thoroughbred horse farm.
Once I played 54 holes there by myself. But that was almost 30 years ago. Can’t do that anymore. It’s been more than a few years since I’ve been out to Stonebridge and like the rest of NW Arkansas, the housing growth around it has been tremendous. If I’d have had my clubs I’d have tried to get nine in, just for old times sake.
My last drive down memory lane was at the house we lived in from 1995 to 2000, on Arthur’s Court on the east side of town off Crossover. We bought it for $245,000 and sold it for $250,000 five years later.
According to Zillow, in 2012, it sold for $295,000. Today Realtor.com is estimating that it’s worth $851,287. Hmm.
The plan that evening was to get some Mexican food at La Huerta on College, or La Hurt Ya, as my old friend Steve Carroll used to call it. He wasn’t wrong, it’s so good we always ate too much.
On Saturday we saw The Odyssey, which everyone loved.
Sunday, Alexis took KM and I to Bentonville to see The Momentary (See this week’s cover story). Then later that evening Alexis made Mexican soup and we played an online trivia game, adding our son Matt and his wife Sara to the team. They are up in Columbia Falls, Montana. Isn’t technology great. I was confident before the game because everyone is pretty smart and Sam and Carol were fresh off a first place finish in a local trivia match. But we somehow came in last, which I’m still miffed about.
KM and I headed back down from the mountains the next morning, satisfied from a good visit and excited about our kids being closer to home.
The house on Vandeventer in Fayetteville where we lived in 1979.