The Big Loop, Day 23: Travel (4 images)

On day 23 of my adventure, it was time to hit the road again, mostly north toward an eventual stop in St. Louis. But that is almost 800 miles, too much to pack into one day. So the mini-destination became Hot Springs National Park, which I will explore today. But on the way, I just had to make a minor detour. The reason involves a story.

In the old John Wayne movie, Big Jake, the Duke intentionally picks a bar fight with a mountain of a man in order to distract the bad guys. So he is getting beat up on pretty good as the fight spills out into the street with many bar patrons watching the action. But with the distraction accomplished, it's time to end it. So Duke holds up his hand and says, "Hold it, friend. Have you ever been to Nacodocous?" The big dude says "Nacodocous? No." So John wayne says "Strange. Pardon me"and walks away. A bit confused by it all, the big dude says to the crowd, "But I ain't never been to Nacodocous." A fun scene with some fun lines from one of my favorite old westerns.

So, yesterday, I decided to detour through that fair city. Now I can say that I have been to Nacodocous and have a photo to prove it. But while there I visited with two very nice, very helpful women, Ruth Ann and Lily, at a bank there. Then I learned that that bank nearly got clobbered by debris when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas back in 2003. There is a modest memorial in the bank to the event and the astronauts who perished. That sad but quirky story made my stop even more worthwhile.