When Josh and Chase asked us what there is to do in Eureka Springs I said that it’s touristy and outdoorsy – there’s a cute downtown with shops, and there’s also hiking trails, ziplines, and caves (they were excited about the caves). And I said our friends have an amazing property on 22 acres with a pond and caves.

I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous if two young men would find any of that interesting, but they did! They both said they liked it a lot better than they thought they would. Ha, I felt that way the first time I visited the area too – I was surprised by how beautiful it was and how much there was to do.

So here’s what we got up to!

Saturday

After dropping our bags off and seeing the house, we got in the truck and parked it near a trolley stop so we could ride the trolley downtown and not deal with parking. It was Courtney’s first time ever riding public transit, and she was excited to try it!

It was sooooo hot out – in the 90s and humid – and the trolley comes every 25-35 minutes and of course, we had a 35 minute wait. We were all joking about it. “Does the trolley even exist?!” Then we cheered when it (finally) showed up.

We ate lunch at Amigos Mexican Restaurant then walked around the downtown area. There was an Oktoberfest going on that we talked about checking out, but it was so small we didn’t really find it (they did have a good band we saw and heard though!).

But we did remember to visit the Working Bunnies again! If you buy something, the bunny gives you your change, and the product.

It’s so cute. Josh said it was his favorite part of the trip.

We walked around a bit, went into the candy shop and toy shop, checked out the inside of the Basin Park Hotel, and hiked up into the rocky area above Basin Spring Park. I hadn’t even noticed you could go up there – Chase pointed it out and I’m glad he did! I enjoyed seeing the rocks up close, and the view.

Me, Chase, Josh, Courtney, David, and Steven

Steven said walking around downtown was his favorite part of the trip.

View of the Basin Park Hotel

After checking out a few more shops we went to the trolley depot and got a ride back to the truck. Since we were close to Christ of the Ozarks we went to see it. Steven may or may not have left the group because I was embarrassing him too much. Ha, Courtney and I are a bit obnoxious together.

We went back to the house and cooled down for a bit, then took a buggy ride down to their lake to feed the fish.

Then we hung out at the house. That’s my favorite part of the trip – just hanging out and connecting. I had a few small alcoholic drinks and enjoyed some delish food – chips and homemade salsa and pumpkin fluff. Steven, David, and Chase smoked cigars on the enclosed sunroom (Chase’s favorite part of the trip) while Courtney, Josh, and I hung out inside. I really enjoyed our (sometimes, okay, mostly, silly) conversation.

We had delicious homemade pizzas pretty late – close to 10:00 (we had lunch around 3:00). All the boys voted that as their fave meal on the plane ride home. After pizza we stayed up until midnight chatting. This is what happened last time we were there – we had such a fun time we stayed up until 2:00 or 3:00 chatting most nights. I thought we were doing much better calling it quits at midnight but Steven told me if he is flying three+ hours he needs a bit more sleep. We’ll remember that for next time!

Anyway, lots of inside jokes were born that night, which I love.

Sunday

On Sunday I ran and saw a beautiful sunrise, then walked with Courtney. More on that in another post (I know, another post? yes, another post). I only got 5 hours of sleep but felt fine enough.

We had a slow morning, chilling, eating breakfast, and watching golf. Then we headed to Onyx Cave. When I looked up caves to go to, I picked this one because there are two cave cats – Onyx and Flo. And we met them both!

The cave had a self-guided tour – you listened on the headset and it told you when to walk forward and which way to look. It was pretty good! Then when you got to the end, you could take the headset off and walk back.

I enjoyed it! And enjoyed the cool temps.

I bought something funny in the gift shop. More on that below, muah ha ha.

We stopped at the Aviation Cadet Museum to see the planes out on the grounds, then went to the petting zoo near Christ of the Ozarks. They didn’t have any food out for us to buy to feed the animals since they were already eating, but we did get to see them.

Then we went back to the house and cooled down. We eventually went outside to try Courtney and David’s disc golf basket. David is really in to playing and Josh likes it too. Steven and I had never tried it. It was fun to try!

We did another buggy ride to see Courtney and David’s caves.

Chase actually went in (the entrance is so small!) and took a photo to show us what’s inside. Then I took this album cover photo of Steven, Josh, and Chase:

We took a similar photo for their sophomore album at the airport.

We were supposed to come up with songs on the plane ride home but forgot. Oops!

When we got back to the house we had the burgers we came all the way for!

While we were getting our burgers we heard Courtney scream from her bathroom. Muah ha ha. She had told us a story about how scared she was when she found a frog in there one time, and since I’m am an ass I bought a little frog figurine at the cave gift shop and put it there. Everyone was in on it except Chase! He’s the only innocent party.

We named him Spot and I said he keeps all the real frogs out of the house.

After burgers we shot the sh*t for a couple hours then left to go to the airport, which I wrote about here.

We had a wonderful time there (and getting there and back). Everyone got along so well. It felt like a weekend with long-time friends even though two of the friends were newer to us. I feel lucky to continually be meeting amazing, fun, open-minded people. And I just love asking Josh a million flying questions. Hopefully that’s not too annoying because I don’t see me stopping any time soon.

I really needed this weekend. I needed to get away and just focus on being with lovely people. And that’s what I l did (okay, I did vent a bit about work and the shutdown theater).

Courtney and David are such wonderful hosts. I love staying in their beautiful home, and feel so taken care of and loved there. I hope we get to go back again soon!

It all started a few weeks ago when Courtney and I were talking about burgers, and she mentioned she had enough buns to make some for me and Khali. “Should I ask Steven and Josh how long it will take to fly us there?” I joked.

[Josh is Steven’s flight instructor. Steven doesn’t have his pilot’s license (certificate) yet, so he has to fly with an instructor. We love spending time with Josh, so that’s great! And, Steven will be ready for his first solo flight soon!]

Then we asked Josh if he wanted to go to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where Courtney and David live, and after telling him a bit about it, he was like “sure, why not?” I love that he’s up for anything!

And just like that, our joke became an actual trip! But instead of bringing Khali with, I brought Steven, Josh, and Josh’s friend Chase.

We left Saturday morning just after 9:00 am and got back around 9:30 pm Sunday night. The flight was about three hours and twenty minutes on the way there and back. I have NEVER looked forward to the journey part of getting somewhere as much as on this trip. Flying in a small plane (we were in a Cessna 182) is such a delight. I brought my Kindle in case I got bored, but it was completely unnecessary. I was content looking out the window and BSing with everyone in the plane. Seriously, what a delight. So much better than dreading a 10-hour drive back. And looking forward to getting to fly home in a small plane definitely helps with the sadness of the trip being over.

Plane we flew

Steven and I spent a lot of Thursday and Friday doing the flight plan for this trip – drawing a line on sectional maps, picking out visual checkpoints, calculating distance between them, then figuring out the heading, weather, timing, fuel burn, etc. It took forever, but because I “helped,” I understood the flight plan (and assisted with it just a little bit in the plane on the way there).

When we got to the airport Saturday Steven reviewed the flight plan with Josh and compared it to the one Josh made in ForeFlight. After they discussed that and weather and blah blah blah, Steven did preflight and we packed up and headed out.

It was our first time meeting Josh’s friend Chase. We had invited Lily but she had plans so Josh asked Chase to come. Chase is super nice, and we enjoyed getting to know him and spending time with him. He was on the quiet side and I wondered if we’d be too loud and obnoxious (Courtney and I get that way together, oops) but he told me he had a great time and really liked everyone. Yay!

It was such a wonderful weekend. We had a good mix of activities and hanging out! I’ll put all the activities in another post though – or this will be way way too long. Let’s focus on the two flights.

Leaving UGN

Our flight out was super hazy, but we still saw some cool things – like Steven’s office building (ha),

and the Mississippi River,

and Table Rock Lake:

I was worried about having to go pee on a 3+ hour flight, so I worked out (walked) that morning and didn’t drink much water, and was fine. We had picked an airport to land at for fuel and bathrooms just after the mid point, just in case.

During the flight we talked about things to do in Eureka Springs (it was both Josh and Chase’s first time going to Arkansas), how we know Courtney and David (she is an OG blogging friend from 2005!), and brainstormed ideas for a bachelor party Josh is throwing next July (that was a fun convo, ha).

And Steven completed his instrument/hours foggle time during the first flight (foggles are glasses that limit your vision and force you to use instruments).

As we got closer to Carroll County Airport, Josh mentioned playing his favorite game of “find the airport.” None of us had been there before, and we weren’t sure if it was before or behind some hills we saw (was it behind? I don’t even recall.). We obviously found it and it was beautiful flying in – the runway is surrounded by lush greenery. I loved it. And was so excited to see Courtney outside waving and cheering!

You can see the runway toward the left side of the windshield

Steven picked up a courtesy car from the FBO (Fixed Base Operator) in case we didn’t all want to jam into the back of Courtney and David’s truck, but we ended up doing that and just drove the courtesy car to and from the airport, which was about 12 minutes from Courtney and David’s house. It’s pretty cool you can borrow those cars. Makes trips like this easier if you don’t know someone or want to spend a lot to rent a car (the courtesy cars are often free, Steven spent $20 on this one).

On the way back on Sunday, Courtney and David came to watch the preflight process and watch us take off.

They added oil and gas and did the rest of the checklist.

And I wanted to take a bunch of group photos, as I do:

Our goal was to take off at 6:00 and my photos delayed us a bit and we were off around 6:13. I didn’t mention how hot it was there – in the 90s both days, and it was hot up in the plane until we got up in the air (then it felt fine)!

My new headphones worked great! My head didn’t hurt at all and I listened to music on the way there and back.

It was hazy again, and we saw a beautiful sunset.

We talked about our favorite parts and meals of the trip, and had lots of airplane related and what we were seeing talk.

We decided to take a slight detour on the way home and fly by the Gateway Arch! It’s close to Class Bravo Airspace (but not in it) so Steven had to talk to the tower and get permission to fly by, and descend to the allowed altitude (Steven said the two flights were great practice for talking to towers because we kept switching between so many).

I think we all expected the arch to be more lit up but it was super cool to fly by (open photo in new tab to see it larger).

We had a slight tailwind on the way home and the detour would have taken longer if we didn’t have it, so yay for that (we pay for the plane by the hour and it was *yikes* level expensive).

It was fun to fly at night and see the stars. We did nighttime flying so Steven could complete those hours – now he just has to do 6 more nighttime landings (before he gets his license/certificate – the only thing required to solo is Josh thinking he is safe and a short written test).

And it was fun seeing the sprawling Chicagoland suburbs from that altitude, and all the jets going in and out of ORD. Basically I have my face plastered to the window the whole time.

Tristate Highway by our house

Where we landed

When we got back we put the plane in the hanger, unloaded, Steven maybe did some other plane-y stuff, and we paid for the hours and drove home.

We got home around 10:15.

I think it’s pretty obvious but I absolutely love traveling like this. It’s expensive and a treat and not something we can do all the time but, yeah, I just absolutely freaking love it and am so excited for our future adventures. Hopefully more with Josh and Lily and I would love to see Chase again too!

If you made it this far, congratulations! I will write another long post about what we got up to in Eureka Springs for tomorrow!