Saving the Transylvania Burger.

An updated version of this story appears here.

This restaurant has closed.

For years, travelers along US 65 heading south to Tallulah have passed by the tiny burg of Transylvania. Truthfully, there's not much to Transylvania -- just an empty elementary school, a nearby prison, a cotton gin, a small community and the Transylvania General Store. Many have stopped in at the General Store for gas or a cold drink under the bat adorned water tower -- and they've discovered a cultural rarity.

They've discovered where baby bats live.

Beans and Cornbread and so much more at War Eagle Mill.

Updated versions of this story:
The War to Road Eagle
Floating Away: the flood and War Eagle Mill
Green from the Get-Go
An Arkansas Thanksgiving Dinner
Everyone Has a Cornbread Recipe

War Eagle Mill is known for a lot of things. It's a great, honest-to-goodness real water-powered grist mill. You can purchase all sorts of neat staples like ground cornmeal, thick cut oats, and organic ground whole wheat.

A Temple To Comfort Food - Anne's Country Cafe in Pine Bluff.

There are some restaurants that have kitchy relics of the past plastered on the walls. There are some that claim to have good Southern food. There are even those that claim they’re down home good.

Ann’s Country Café doesn’t say any of that. It doesn’t have to.

Between Pine Bluff and Sulphur Springs.

I'm not certain if this says "60 like cake" or "go like cake" but either way, what?

Hillbilly Aesthetics.

Part of growing up in Arkansas and going places was souvenirs. Those souvenirs back in the 70s and 80s tended to be hillbilly-ish in nature, from the "chicken dinner" that was a wooden box with a couple of pieces of corn glued to the bottom of it to the wooden tooth shaped brush that was supposedly a "tooth brush."

This sign inside Backwoods BBQ in Greenbrier quite succinctly captures that aesthetic.

Ghosts of Booger Hollow.

Back in the days when Arkansas was known more for the concept of hillbillies than Wal-Mart, back when the population was under a million people and Dogpatch USA was our big northwest Arkansas attraction, there was Booger Hollow.

Seen in Dardanelle...

UPDATE 1/1/17.  When I started Tie Dye Travels, I wasn't certain what it was going to be. The idea of an article clearinghouse drove my initial instinct, but as those first weeks passed I really wasn't sure I could make that stick. The internet was a different place, and there were a lot of blogs out there that just posted photos, so I thought I'd give it a try. These days we have Instagram for this sort of thing.

West Plains Time Warp at the Suds N'.

This restaurant has closed.

A short distance across the border from Mammoth Spring, you'll find the town of West Plains, MO -- home of the Zizzers. This small metropolis is home to many wonders -- but none that surprised me more than the Suds 'N'.