Today, Kay and I drove to Bentonville to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to view the Norman Rockwell exhibit.  This is a special exhibit featuring his most famous paintings, sketches, and illustrations, and all the Saturday Evening Post magazine covers attributed to him.

Enroute, we stopped at Pea Ridge National Battlefield and enjoyed the short drive around the park.  The Civil War battle lasted only a couple of days, but was decisive in the Union maintaining Missouri—two CSA general officers were killed; the Pea Ridge battle was payback for the losses the Union suffered at Wilson Creek in the Springfield, Missouri, area.  Many improvements have been made to the grounds in the last few years, and the park roadway would be a great bicycle ride.

Over the years, I have heard much of the Elkhorn Tavern in northwest Arkansas, and finally saw it at Pea Ridge.  This is not the original, but an old replica.

At the Norman Rockwell exhibit, we found the parking lots to be full as the museum was packedl; I dropped Kay off at the door and found someone pulling out in the uppermost lot.  We waited in line about 20 minutes to get into the exhibit hall, but it was worth it. 

With the museum’s IPods in hand and earphones on, we really enjoyed each painting and piece of art in the exhibit.  Photographs were not allowed to be taken at the exhibit, but the flowers along the walkway back to upper lot were beautiful.