2018 was our fourth year going to MINIs In The Ozarks and it was a fantastic trip. I am always concerned with this trip about what the weather will be, and the timing of the color change in the trees. This is particularly an issue since we like to tent camp when we go which can be problematic when it is extremely cold or extremely rainy.
Arriving this year revealed we were in for a treat with the fall colors. I am not sure we could have timed it better. Even in the picture above taken in the late afternoon, you can clearly see the beautiful colors in the trees at the Eureka Springs KOA Campgrounds.
This year we took several tours of the local hotels. They make big deals out of places in town being haunted. It seems that is a really big tourist thing all over, not just in Eureka Springs. Of course, Eureka Springs has a lot of old buildings, underground passages, and really unique features that make ghost stories really easy to tell. The image above is a night time picture of downtown taken from the top of the Basin Park Hotel.
This year turned out to be one of the colder ones which meant we needed to keep warm. One of our favorite things about camping, when we go, is making a fire almost every night. There is just something so relaxing about a campfire while you read, eat, or just sit and watch the fire.
We also took in a show while we were here, ANNA presented by the Melonlight Ballroom. This is put on by the local dance studio owned by the man in the blue shirt in the front, and the woman in the white apron in the image above. They do an amazing job and the show is a lot of fun. We absolutely will be going again.
They make the whole thing fairly immersive. You are sitting not in front of a stage, but on the floor at the same level as the actors as they walk past you. You are literally inches from the action at times.
They are also a lot of fun. You can see in the image above Sue Ann is tied up in the chair and I am helping hold the ropes on the left. The other five people in the image are the cast members. They pose and take the pictures for all the audience members who would like to get a picture, and they all have a lot of fun doing it.
This year we even decided to participate with the dance group who was going to do the Thriller Dance during the Zombie Crawl parade. We took private lessons from the Melonlight as well as participated with their dance instruction in the Basin Park the following afternoon.
Turnout was good this year and it was a long line for the parade. We had purchased a lot of candy at the local grocery store to throw out to the kids this year and there were plenty of kids to scoop it up. We were led through downtown twice by the local police. Plenty of fun was had by all.
While we were there the colors just kept getting better. We saw this tree while out walking to our last practice for the Thriller Dance and the gold and orange colors were just amazing. Unfortunately, no matter how good of a picture you take, it just doesn’t do justice to the colors you see with your eyes.
Every year they have a Halloween parade called the Zombie Crawl where they encourage all the participants to dress up as zombies. It is very popular as you can see from the picture above. We have been to Eureka Springs many times at all times of the year and this is the only time of the year where there are this many people. In fact, earlier in the day and on the following day, there are nowhere near this many people there.
To give you an idea, in the image above it can be difficult to walk up the street (don’t even think about getting on the sidewalk), but on a normal day in Eureka Springs, it is not difficult to walk up the sidewalk. Normal day, maybe 100 people walking around downtown at any given time, during the Zombie Crawl, maybe 20,000 people in a few blocks.
The picture above is right where we were scheduled to dance the Thriller Dance in front of all these people with only a couple of days of practice. We would be about 20 feet in front of the red SUV.
<<< INSERT VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THRILLER DANCE >>>
Yup, that’s Sue Ann and I doing the Thriller dance. I am sincerely sorry Michael. The good news is we didn’t break anything, and they put us in the very back so hopefully, everyone was watching the really excellent dancers upfront.
After a tiring day of dance practice all day, then performing (if you want to call it that) in the parade, we were exhausted and headed back to camp to a long night’s sleep.
While not one of our more relaxing trips to Eureka Springs and MITO, it certainly was a lot of fun. As usual, we made some new friends, had fun, and enjoyed life so we certainly will be back. See you next year!
