Meacham's in Ash Flat

I have said this before (in so many words)...but it bears repeating...You will miss out on really good places to eat if you play it safe and never take chances.

After our monthly youth rally, which was at Full Gospel Church at Batesville Arkansas this month, Tami and I stayed the night in Batesville.  The reason being that Ralph and I were going to play music after the rally with the Hatfields and McCoys.  Actually there were no McCoys but Norman Hall filled in for them!

We didn't want to drive into Batesville to eat breakfast so we decided to find a cafe up the road to Missouri.  When we passed by Meacham's on 62 Highway at Ash Flat, there were lots of vehicles in the parking lot (good sign) so we turned around and pulled in.  We had to wait for a table (another good sign) but got right in.  We ordered regular breakfast fare and settled in to wait.  We kept seeing what looked like loaves of bread being brought out to various diners so we were sorta prepared when they brought out our meal.  What we were seeing brought out were biscuits!  Lamberts Rolls have NOTHING on these biscuits!!  Tami ordered one biscuit and gravy with one pancake...We brought half of the biscuit home!  The gravy was bacon gravy and it was outstanding.  My meal was perfect with hashbrowns, egg, bacon and toast.  Here's the kicker...we talked with the proprietor and she said everything was made from scratch.  She said she tries to avoid anything prepackaged or pre-made like the biscuits, gravy and hashbrowns.  We may have had to wait a little longer for the food but it was well worth it!...and the price was not out of line for what we got.  So...if you're ever on the backroads of Arkansas...look up Meacham's in Ash Flat and enjoy!

Biscuit-zilla!!

Forts

What red-blooded American boy has never built a fort?  Regardless of whether you live in the country or city, whether Rebel or Yankee, rich or poor, black or white, it is just part of a boys DNA.

The first fort I remember building was made out of burlap sacks.  Now burlap is the highfalutin' name for a gunny sack or we just called'em "toe sacks".  My brother Ralph and I nailed boards as cross-pieces between four small Black Jack trees (roughly in a square), put cardboard on the roof and tacked toe sacks from the cow feed on the sides.  It was great!...until the rains came and "beat upon that house" which made the roof collapse...."and great was the fall of it"!

Another fort we built...or actually moved into...was an old hog farrowing house.  Mr. Wages, my best friend Eric's Dad, had got out of the swine business but one of the farrowing houses remained.  The sow moved out...we moved in!  It was rain, snow and sleet proof...but a smell lingered...and my friends, it wasn't a bacon smell.  We even cut a small hole in the back wall and built a fireplace!  On one of the only big birthday parties that I remember having (my birthday is December 19th...), I had some boys in my class over and we had about ten hyper nine-year-olds in our "fort"!  Believe me, being such "close" friends is highly overrated!!

In the summer of 1974, Eric and I began the construction of "Fort Thompson".  I really don't think we called it anything but "The Fort" but it was built on Mary Thompson's land, out of a pile of old fence posts.  We had a fire place in this fort also...seriously...it is a thousand wonders that the whole countryside didn't go up in flames!  The farther we got into the summer the less charm our little post fort had.  So...we hauled in some scrap lumber and added onto the top!  This satisfied us for a few days until we found more scrap lumber...   Hey! why stop at at a two-story fort?  A three-story fort would be quite charming (charming? Did I really just use that word again?) Quite Macho!...Macho was the word I was looking for!  We spent many a happy hour in that fort but boys will be boys and by the fall we had gone on to other haunts.

However...I guess my Dad was pretty impressed with our fort because when I was looking through our old slides the other day I found the pictures below....

Our "Fort" with my brother Ralph carving on the tree at the right, Eric looking out the "picture window" and meself in the "basement"

Our old dog "Sandy" keeping guard!

Guess Who!

Just to keep things interesting....

I found this picture of a fine, intelligent, handsome, upstanding citizen of our fair Howell County!  The picture is at Halloween (Duh!) circa 1967 and just a hint...it ain't Chet!!!...close...but not him. First one to guess correctly gets the cookie!

Update:    Sometimes you can't see the forest because those aggravatin' trees keep getting in the way!  My cousin, Dennis Hendrix, pointed out that my Mom did not put up the Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving.  So...the "Duh" is on me!  Now you know that this is the Riggs' hacienda but who is the man behind the mask?

Las Cascadas, Davis Oklahoma

Tami and I were passing through Davis, Oklahoma (see previous post) and downtown we saw this little Mexican place.  Being the adventurers that we are, we decided to try it out.  (Just a note for the faint of heart...when you walk in and there are business suits and work boots...and the place is almost full...don't walk out!) The meal was very good.  Not the best I've eaten but certainly high up on the scale.  But the Sopapillas...muy bueno!

Muy Bueno!!

My good friend Davy Boggs reminded me that there is a fried pie joint somewhere in the Davis area.  I researched this and it is "Fulton's Fried Pies" at exit 51 in Davis....AND WE MISSED IT!!  Oh well..Next Time!!

Indian Meridian Initial Point

Tami and I were making our way down to Texas for our nephew Ryan's wedding and I decided to make a detour or more accurately...take the road less traveled!  I had made my plans to visit the Indian Meridian Initial Point monument which is in the Arbuckle Mountains just west of Davis, Oklahoma.  Since I am an Oklahoma Licensed Professional Surveyor, I figured it was a once in a life time opportunity.

For the "Land Surveyingly Challanged" reading this blog, the initial point was a position (randomly chosen, designated by the Land Commissioner or as in the case of the Louisiana Purchase, mandated by the US Congress) from which General Land Office (GLO) surveys were begun.  A baseline was run east and west by compass based on true or astronomic north, with monuments being placed every one/half mile at the section, quarter section and township corners.  A meridian line was run north and south by compass also based on true or astronomic north and monuments placed as outlined above.  Six mile square (square in name only) townships were then established from the township monuments on the baseline and meridian line.  This is extremely simplified but the point is (no pun intended) the initial point is a very important....point.  The Indian Meridian Initial Point controls all of the surveys in the state of Oklahoma, except the panhandle which is based on the Cimarron Meridian Initial Point.

We drove west of Davis Oklahoma on Highway 7 to the road that led south to the monument.  Big Problem!  It was the entrance to the "Lazy" something ranch and was gated and locked!  Using an old indian trick (tire tracks in the dust) I ascertained that no one had been in or out of the gate in a couple of days.  Since we couldn't see anyone at the ranch buildings we had to leave without visiting the monument.  It was disappointing but I found some good pictures of it here.  We did get some pictures of the area which are posted below.

If you want to read more detail about the "Indian Meridian Initial Point" go here

Road Sign on Meridian Line

Looking North

Looking South

Looking southerly toward the Arbuckle Mountains