a.d. elliott - Take the Back Roads

Dear Henry, My cousins are safely back home and it has been such a fun adventure. I mean, how often do you get to explore your hometown like a tourist? I am grateful they came to visit and trusted me enough to allow me to plan a trip for them. I would like to call the trip a success as they seemed to have a good time (I hope they weren't lying). So here it is, a Take the Back Roads Ultimate Northwest Arkansas Destination Guide*  *(according to me) Day One: Eureka Springs Arkansas Eureka Springs Arkansas is a quaint town nestled in the Ozarks. It became most known, during the early 1900s, as a mountainous spa and resort town.  Many of the oldest buildings have been maintained and the entire area is on the National Register of Historic Places. Our first stop on our tour of  Eureka Springs was the Thorncrown Chapel . The chapel was commissioned in the 1980s by Jim Reed as a pilgrimage chapel. It was designed by E. Fay Jones. The design gives an open-...

Dear Henry, I just learned about a new word type - the Hapax Legomenon. Hapax Legomenon is a word that occurs only once in the written form.  Most hapaxes occur as a single occurrence in a book, or as a word used only once over the entire author's portfolio of work. However, there are a few English language hapaxes, where their usage has only occurred once in the entire written record. although technically, as soon as I write them here, they are no longer hapaxes. The English hapaxes I found were: Flother  - a snowflake - from "The XI Pains of Hell" Hebenon - a type of poison - "Hamlet" Manticratic - ruling by a family - "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" Nortelrye - an education - "Canterbury Tales" Sassigassity - audacity?  - "A Christmas Tree" Sleepwerigne - sleep weary? - "The Exter Book" One of the problems I noticed about these words is that no one is entirely sure what the definition really is, as they w...

Dear Henry, Of all the through hikes I wish I could do, the Camino de Santiago has been the highlighted one. The Camino de Santiago (the way of St. James) is a route about 500 miles through the mountains of  Northern Spain (there is a small part in France) to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, which is thought to be the final resting place for St. James. The trip takes at least a month. Fortunately, Spain has another trek called the Camino dos Faros (the lighthouse way).  This trek walks along Spain's "Costa da Morte" and takes about eight days.  The reports that I have read call the hike absolutely breathtaking. It is also much less crowded than Santiago. Where do you want to go? xoxo a.d.