The states are getting smaller out here, I drove all the way across Arkansas to a little town of Lake Village in about five hours. It has happened once again, the “business district” consisting of the usual hotels and service stations cluster around the off-ramp to the interstate highway. The historical town of Lake Village is located on the banks of Lake Chicot, a 22 miles (35 km) oxbow lake that was formerly the main channel of the Mississippi River.

Lake Chicot is a very beautiful lake with many opportunities for boating, fishing and just enjoying the great outdoors – except that it is almost completely cut-off from the public by hundreds of high-end houses facing, each having their own private dock and beach. There are no fences out here, but it is very clear that the actual beach frontage is private property. There is a small fishing spot immediately next to town, but the next biblically accessible beach is in the State Park located about ten miles north of town.

The town of Lake Village appears to have been almost entirely abandoned fifty or more years ago. The stores are crumbling, with roofs fallen in and walls collapsing. A few businesses remain open. I open ones included the telephone company, a medical appliance store, a fancy dress store, and a bait shop. The best kept up building in town is a large catholic church. There is no place to eat, no grocery store, no pharmacy, no service station – basically no town. By this time I was getting hungry, and having been told by the hotel that the restaurant next door was acceptable I went there looking for dinner. Unfortunately, it was closed as were all of the other eating opportunities except for a McDonalds. I went to the grocery store across the street and got a couple of things from their deli. Not good, but at least I got something to eat.

It is interesting to see how many towns seem to have been wiped out of existence by the introduction of high speed highways. The towns lose their economic value and just dry up and blow away – along with the community that they supported. I find them to be very sad, but wonder if my sadness is misplaced – if they are no longer economically and socially necessary perhaps it is just time for them to revert to nature. Whatever services they provide much be available elsewhere at a better price, and that is just the way it goes. Perhaps my sadness is just some sort of misplaced nostalgia for a time that never was. For example, the Wikipedia description of Lake Chicot says that it used to be highly polluted with mud from the runoff from the agricultural fields around the lake. That has been fixed and now the lake is better, but the towns are gone. Maybe the issue is that the slaves are no longer in the fields because of modern machinery and there just isn’t a need for a town.

I am finally getting really tired of living in motel rooms. I feel like a rat that is placed back in my cage at the of the day. The rooms are all nearly identical, all of them smelling like cleaning products, all with lovely views of parking lots and garbage cans. My plan this morning is to go to the State Park and see if I can get a camp site for a couple of nights. That means I will need to test out my new in-car bed and perhaps my little wood burning stove that makes electricity to charge my phone. It will undoubtedly be an adventure. It also means that it will be a couple of days before I can get back to writing these little stories. I will be forced to use a pencil and paper for a bit.