Day 1 - #DogWalkingWeek

We are joining My GBGV Life and Cascadian Nomads in their #DogWalkingWeek celebration. The idea is to think of ways to get those peeps motivated to take you out EVERY day for a walk and an adventure. Our first motivation is "find a small town to go and visit ...one that has something unusual about it"

So for our Day 1 we went on a trip to Walnut Ridge - a small town of about 4,000 that is 20 miles from where we live. Now what would such a small town have to offer you are thinking - well in all honesty - not a lot. Like many such small dying towns - there are just a lot of empty stores, buildings and houses (sadly most are damaged beyond repair now). Many of them look to be from around the 1920s and must of been something in their glory days. Apart from that Walnut Ridge does have a small park  and we have been there before - but it is really just a walking loop and there is nothing much to explore.

BUUUTTTTTT - Walnut Ridge does have one claim to fame. It would appear that those Liverpool laddies the Beatles stopped there in 1964 when they were touring the USA. (insert sighs, gushes and amazement here - okay maybe not) Now Mom thinks it is kind of funny that you would brag they stopped there for a whole 15 minutes (more then likely just to take a pee because back then the plane like the one they were on didn't have bathrooms) You can read more about their MONUMENTAL 15 minute visit here and here .

Now having such a "claim" to fame Walnut Ridge has gone all out to celebrate the fact that the Beatles once pee'd stopped there and they have made their own little monument to them. The silhouette sculpture of the fab four stands in front of a washed out photo background of Abby road. Now Mom had to circle the town four times to find this as instead of it being somewhere prominent it is tucked away on a back street between a couple of old buildings and she actually drove by it twice without seeing it !!!!

We give them a 1 paw rating for "trying" as it is kind of drab and  blah really -  some plants, even a couple of trees in big pots would certainly help and we can attest that it really wasn't very sniff worthy. Every year Walnut Ridge also celebrates the Beatles visit with a Beatles festival and they have cover bands that play all the old Beatles songs - something I am happy to say we have not and will not in all likelihood ever attend :) We did however woof "I wanna hold your paw" all the way home :)