Well, I took Andrae's advice and flipped the board over and planed the bowed up ends. After about and hour of planing and checking for flat and square, I finally saw what was giving me so much grief. . .there was an abscess in the wood and a knot. I noticed right before I'd gotten to it that the grain was starting to go every which way and that my plane seemed to be getting stuck there near the end, or at least heavily dragging.
So, off to the trash pile that puppy went. I worked the second stretcher flat and pretty square (one end falls off, but since it's getting sacrificed as a tenon I don't really care much) and that took all of about 3, maybe 4 hours.
*sigh* Lesson learned. . .pay more attention to the grain and any possible knots. The guy at the lumber store even pointed it out to me. *shaking head* I just forgot it.
The Barefoot Woodworker.
Fueled by leather, chrome, and thunder.