OPINION: Ready to search out the gems of Bella Vista

A week into this new adventure and I can already tell Bella Vista has a lot to offer.

It doesn't take a whole lot of digging around these hills, lakes and golf courses to realize that, and I'm sure many long-time residents of this fair community currently reading this column may be thinking to themselves, "Yeah, tell me something I don't know."

What's exciting to me is the idea that more digging in the future will most assuredly reveal more hidden gems.

That's what I missed out on my earlier forays up and down Highway 71. I missed out on the opportunities to dig deeper into this corner of Benton County and, because of that, I missed out on hidden gems.

In the fall of 1980, after graduating from Harrison High School over in Boone County, I followed an older brother and sister to the hallowed halls of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Two younger sisters would soon do the same thing, as did my mom and dad after the nest had cleared out.

I spent almost 15 years in Fayetteville before returning home to be the sports editor of the Harrison Daily Times.

That time from 1980-94 was spent at college, working at a couple of Fayetteville radio stations, getting married and then settling in to a gig as a sportswriter with the Northwest Arkansas Times. It was also spent traversing the ins and outs of Washington and Benton Counties. Trips into Missouri destinations of Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield always brought me through Bella Vista on the straight shot between the Church of Christ building and Dairy Queen restaurant.

And golf courses. If I wasn't driving on these trips my eyes were trained on the fairways and greens passing by just a wedge shot away from me. I imagined my tee shots knifing through the heart of the fairway, chip shots to within a few feet of the stick and putts deftly navigating the rises and dips of the greens before disappearing into the hole with that distinct sound a golf ball makes when it finds the bottom of the cup.

But, as I'm finding out now, there's much more to Bella Vista than butterscotch dipped ice cream cones and golf. I actually realized that back then, truth be told, but sometimes when you are younger you don't allow your mind to wander much past the next cheeseburger, ice cream cone or recreation opportunity.

I realized it back then, but never went searching for the extras like I should have.

Someone once said, "It's a mighty thick pancake that has one side." I understand those words put together in that fashion usually pertain to the fact there are always two sides to one story. But they can be used to also point out there is more to a town than meets the eye.

In this case, there's more to Bella Vista than fast food restaurants and golf.

Now hold on, before we get the cart before the horse here please understand I'm all for fast food restaurants and golf. I'm not saying those are low points and the only direction we can go from them is up. Those restaurants are vital to our economy and any golf course to me is a valuable thing in and of itself.

Courses bring in money. They provide a wonderful form of relaxation (once you get to the point mentally in your game like I did where you come to grips with the fact not every shot will be as beautiful as the guaranteed one per round that is and thus makes you feel like you can do that every swing, and therefore you must return often with the belief that, yes, every shot can be as beautiful as the "come backer") as well as a thing of beauty that spiffs up any patch of ground on which it is located.

John Feinstein authored a book that detailed a year on the PGA Tour. He titled the book "A Good Walk Spoiled."

That could certainly describe my game, or how it was described before I quit playing to "let it rest" for a while. Is 20 years a while? Maybe it's time to wake it back up.

Whether it is time to dust off the clubs again or not, it's definitely time to clamber around and see what other gems Bella Vista has to offer. I am eager to check out the hiking trails, to do what I need to do to wet a hook in the many bodies of water the community boasts and to learn about the myriad of clubs and organizations functioning here and what each has to offer. Naturally, I will be familiarizing myself with issues of city government and its officials and departments, but what I'm most looking forward to getting to know is the city itself and the residents who make up Bella Vista as well as, of course, their stories.

Bella Vista is more than a strip of highway that escorts travelers from one end of town to the other. It's more than just the businesses and golf courses that hug each side of that highway. I've know for a while now that Bella Vista is more than that. I have learned in the past week it is way more than that.

So now the adventure truly begins, the expedition to uncover the hidden gems of Bella Vista.

-- Bennett Horne is the managing editor of The Weekly Vista. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.