It's interesting that you mention the Ft. Smith area. Were you at Ft. Chaffee, by any chance? Last summer, I was geocaching there and picked lots of ticks off me all day long. After getting home that evening, I had my wife check me and she picked off at least a dozen more!
A few days later, I started feeling pretty bad (flu-like symptoms).
After hearing about the ticks, my doctor ran a blood test and it confirmed I had picked up some kind of virus. A shot and a prescripiton later (about 1 week), I was back to normal. So beware the Ft. Chaffee ticks! -- ORR