Mountain View, Arkansas

Last Sunday, we traveled a little over 100 miles from Little Rock to Mountain View,  Arkansas, a little town in the Ozarks known as the "Folk Music Capital of the World."

Music is an integral part of this town with less than 3,000 people.  The town is famous for the preservation of folkways and traditional music and in 1973, the Ozark Folk Center State Park was opened.

Visiting the state park is a look back into the Ozark culture as it is the only center that preserves the Ozark heritage.  More than 20 crafts are demonstrated throughout the park as well as classes are scheduled to teach others.

That is why we traveled on a Sunday, something we don't usually do.  I signed up for a two day soap making class.

I started Monday morning learning how to mix and prepare the ingredients as well as the process involved.  Here's my first batch poured in the mold.

I made two batches the first day and made soap bunnies, lotion bars, spritzers, bath salts, felt soap, and soap on the rope the second day.  I also took the soap from the day before out of the mold and cut it.

Now I have 50 bars of soap!  It was so much fun!

Getting back to Moutain View being the Folk Song Capital of the World,  local and visiting musicians  meet out on the square by the courthouse each evening to just "jam" out the mountain tunes.  There is also a program at the Ozark Folk Festival Auditorium each Wednesday thru Saturday nights where musicians perform songs from the culture.  Mountain View was just such a neat place, we hope to get back there again.

Today, we left to go further north to Eureka Springs.  We're staying at Beaver Lake about 10 miles north of town.

We have a great shaded site.

The river is right behind it, unfortunately, there are lots of trees and shrubs between us and the river, so we can't see it from the rig.  It is just a short little walk to this beautiful place.

We're looking forward to checking out the sights here.