Thorncrown Chapel...

....in Eureka Springs, Ar. 
  A man named Jim Reed bought the land where this chapel sits to build his retirement home on. It's located up in the Ozark hills and you can see for miles, so lots of his friends as well as many strangers would come up to his property to look at the fabulous view. That's when he decided that rather than fence it off, he'd build a chapel in the woods to give the visiting people a place to relax in an inspiring way.  He found an architect to build it --all out of glass --so that when you're inside of the building, you're surrounded by the beauty of nature. It was so peaceful & quiet!!  
On the way to the chapel, we had passed an old abandoned house that had 3 cows standing inside of it--one in each window & one in the opening on the rt. side of the house, so I'm saying "stop the car, stop the car" to poor Tom, as I wanted to get a picture, but he couldn't stop as there were cars behind us!  So as soon as he could, he pulled onto an old dirt road he saw & I hopped out and walked back, trying to be quiet & move slowly--I made it to the fence, started to raise my camera & the cows freaked!! They bolted out of the building & took off--I've never seen cows run that fast & I'm from "the dairy state"! Darn!! Was I disappointed that I missed it! (I put a pic of the old house in my extras) After the chapel we went to the Turpentine Exotic Animal rescue where they take in exotic animals that people stupidly get as pets then can't take care of! They had 2 bears, 3 cougars, a panther, and a whole lot of lions and tigers--oh yes, and 2 "ligers" that were bred by some idiot who then didn't want them!  I included a picture of "Donna" in the extras too, as she was very friendly & followed our group all along her enclosure. When we stopped, she stopped--when we walked, she walked!  (Tom said she wasn't friendly--she was hungry! Ha! ) On the way back to Court & Matt's, I managed to catch a shot of some little kids-- covered in mud-- trying to push a 4 wheeler out of the mud pit; I've included that one as well!  Starting the homeward trek tomorrow, which will be somewhere around 10-13 hours of driving, so we may stop one night on the way! 
Thanks so much for all the stars and comments that have been left on my blips--I really appreciate it--just haven't had much comment time, as the twins have been keeping us busy! :))