Alibi Lounge

Day four of our road trip to San Diego... stop 1.

We finally made it to Van Buren, Arkansas, home to my grandmother and  our first long term stop along the way to San Diego, CA. Here we are presented with two whole days to find spots to Yelp! and for me to show Sarah a bit of what I love about the Ozarks.

The first day in Van Buren included some driving around Fort Smith and Van Buren, showing Sarah where my father went to Catholic school, the neighborhood where he grew up before the farm, and the National Cemetery where my granddad is buried.

In the local paper I saw advertised a few cool things to do in the evening, and a bunch of bands playing around Van Buren in the outlying towns. And that is how we arrived at the Alibi Lounge in Muldrow, Oklahoma.

Muldrow is a small town just on the other side of the Arkansas River from Fort Smith and in what used to be settled pretty much entirely by Indians who were relocated from Florida during the Trail of Tears.

We were a bit early for the Opry so we pulled into the Alibi for a few beers, and we were instantly charmed by the place.

This is what you would call your classic Southern beer only juke joint. One juke box filled with nothing but classic country, a small stage for bands, two pool tables, and a large cooler filled with a solid selection of  America's finest domestics... longnecks for $2.25 each. $1 for a bag of Frito's.

We walked in, and were three of the five patrons bellied up at the bar. The others were minding their own, putting five dollars at a time into the digital slot machines, only getting up for change.

After paying for our first round of Budweiser longnecks, and as if by cue, the jukebox started playing Merle Haggard's greatest hits, and already spinning disco ball was hit by tiny pinspots, filling the room with light.

We were told by the bartender that if more people show up, there'll be some karaoke later. "Tomorrow" she said, "we have this band Knee Deep and I like 'em a lot. You all should stop back by." Sarah and I looked at each other and made an honest mental note of it.

It was just two rounds of Bud and a bag of chips, but the Alibi Lounge will be something we talk about for a long time. And I will probably return the next time I'm in Van Buren visiting my grandma.

And outside, when we were headed over to the Opry, a stray cat that we saw as we entered came up to Sarah and let her get away with some petting. Almost as if to say, "thanks for stopping through."

Tip: check out the juke box, and go for the Merle Haggard. As I recently read in Rolling Stone, Merle was that badass that Johnny Cash wasn't.