Well, the odds finally caught up with us. We'd had nothing but dry weather for the first week of our trip, but on this gray Saturday we awoke to the patter of rain on the parking lot outside our hotel in North Little Rock. Roni tries to pack the trunk quickly in the drizzle. Photo by Glenn.
Look at that sky. Look at the ground. Look at the roof of the car. Will we let it spoil our fun? Heck no! Photo by Glenn.
Inside the Dodge it is nice and dry. The irony of this inclement weather is that this is what is left of Hurricane Ivan after several days ashore. It circled around the Carolinas and found its way back into the Gulf, then blew up over Texas and into Arkansas. Thankfully the storm had little punch by this time. Photo by Glenn.
The River Market is a farmers market located in downtown Little Rock across from the Arkansas River. Parking wasn't much trouble at all on this rainy Saturday. Photo by Glenn.
See what happens when you become president? They name streets after you in the capital city of your home state. Photo by Glenn.
We almost didn't pack our jackets for this trip. In fact, this was the only day we needed them. But even with the rain it was still warm. Ben decided he didn't want to take any chances on the raindrops while we toured the River Market. Photo by Glenn.
The River Market really is a produce market. There are also stalls selling jewelry and magazines and deli meats, among other items. Photo by Glenn.
This painted pig inside the River Market was used to solicit donations for some cause that we can't remember, but the artwork got our attention. Photo by Glenn.
The Alltel Arena is on the north shore of the Arkansas River in North Little Rock, across from the River Market. There is a plaque near here that commemorates the day Union troops crossed the river into Little Rock on a pontoon bridge during the Civil War and liberated the city from the Confederacy. Photo by Glenn.
Someone tell Turkey that one of its submarines is missing. Seriously, this is the USS Razorback, which served in World War II and Vietnam before being decommissioned and sold to the Turks in 1970. It returned to North Little Rock in July 2004 to become part of a permanent maritime museum. Photo by Glenn.
You can never have too many state capitols, or so we prove with yet another visit to a statehouse. This is the Arkansas Capitol. Once again we managed not to venture inside. This is the west (or rear) entrance. Photo by Glenn.
The east (front) face of the capitol would be much more attractive without the construction equipment and chainlink fence around the front steps. There is a lot of construction taking place around Little Rock, we discovered. Photo by Glenn.
We're on I-30 heading southwest toward Dallas. Arkansas won't win any awards for scenery on its main drag from Little Rock, but it didn't get the nickname "The Natural State" for nothing —- there are trees like this all along the route. Photo by Roni.
Maybe a different location on I-30 will reveal better scenic possibilities... Nope. Photo by Roni.
I-30 passes by Hope, Ark., so we said what the hey, let's pay a visit to President Clinton's boyhood digs. Actually, that's what Glenn said; Roni and Ben indulged him. This is the entrance to the visitor center. Photo by Glenn.
No, it's not a recreation of the 1996 Electoral College, but rather a map filled with pushpins representing the homes of visitors to the Clinton home. There was no room in the Bay Area to add ours, so we tried to stack it on the others. Photo by Glenn.
Don't let Operation Lifesaver see this! This is one of the photos on display in a room of the visitor center. That is the Hope train station, which is just a couple blocks away from the Clinton home. Photo by Glenn.
The visitor center contains a replica of the presidential rug that was in the Oval Office during Clinton's two terms. Roni investigates a cardboard cutout of Clinton and his saxophone. Photo by Glenn.
This plaque is affixed to a wall outside the public restrooms. Another plaque in the men's room extols the virtues of leadership. A curious choice of venues. We didn't go inside the Clinton house, which carried an admission charge, but we saw quite a lot in the garden and visitor center. Several of the exhibits here are destined for the Clinton Library in Little Rock when it opens in November. Photo by Glenn.
We had gotten just a taste of Texas the day we left Houston for Louisiana. This time we had another six days to look forward to. This is the welcome sign at Texarkana. Photo by Roni.
California doesn't have a monopoly on spectacular sunsets. There was so much haze in the skies in the South during our visit that it didn't take more than a few clouds to produce these rosy results. This is taken from the parking lot of our hotel in Mesquite, looking west across I-635. Photo by Glenn.
Everything's bigger in Texas, including our hotel suite. We were supposed to get a double, but the clerk switched us to this three-bed room for a reason unknown to us. So we had one bed for Ben, one for Mom and Dad, and a third for suitcases. Photo by Glenn.
|
We always enjoy hearing from our visitors. We welcome your comments.
|
|
Goodnight Dallas
Saturday, September 25 (Day 9) — Our streak of good weather came to an end this morning when we awoke to dark skies and rain drops on the window of our hotel room. We have been chasing rain -- or more accurately it has been chasing us -- the entire trip, but most of the time we have had gray clouds, a ton of humidity and little else. The Weather Channel tells us that this is what is left of Hurricane Ivan, which after it made landfall a week ago Thursday continued to spin around over the mainland, then headed back into the Gulf and returned somewhere over Galveston, Texas, yesterday. How funny it seems now that I was so worried about Ivan's impact on our trip, and now it and we have finally met up two weeks later, hundreds of miles from where we thought we would.
We did not let the rain dampen our fun, however. After taking in the continental breakfast in the hotel lobby, we got an early start (9:45 is early to us) for Little Rock where I had seen several attractions advertised. We went from I-40 to I-30 west, exiting just across the bridge from the Arkansas River. Downtown along the waterfront, on President Clinton Avenue, is the River Market, which is a big produce and flea market operating under a large, permanent canopy. It is a good thing the market had the protection of the roof, because the rain couldn't decide whether to ebb or flow. Some newspaper vendor gave us a free copy of the Little Rock Democrat Gazette and asked if we wanted to sign up for home delivery. I told him that would be difficult, seeing as how we were from California. I dumped the paper in the trunk of the Dodge, and by the time I returned Roni had struck up a conversation with some of the sellers. Once they found out we were from California they were full of advice on attractions we should check out. Unfortunately, none was on our way.
The rain ceased enough to allow us to walk down to the river and check out the commemorative marker for the Civil War campaign in Little Rock. In September 1863, the Union forces put up a pontoon bridge across the Arkansas River and marched into Little Rock. If those soldiers could see this city now they would undoubtedly be amazed at how it has evolved. It isn't a must-see place like Memphis or New Orleans, but there are a lot of good things happening here. The downtown is well laid out and attractive. There is construction taking place around the capitol and at the new Bill Clinton Presidential Library that is scheduled to open in November. Vast stretches of I-30 are being widened from four lanes to eight. It's a progressive town.
From the River Market we drove west until we reached the capitol. I wanted to go inside, but we had spent a long time at the market and I was concerned about getting on the road for Dallas, plus Roni and Ben didn't want to see the inside. So I contented myself with a few photos of the exterior. Next we tried to find the Clinton library, but because it is still under construction there is no direct access to it. It isn't in the nicest part of town -- actually, it is behind the Democrat Gazette printing facility in an industrial area, bordered on one side by the freeway and on the other by railroad tracks. Once it opens there will be a promenade along the river, and the library itself will jut out above the river. You can see the project from I-30, but we didn't get any pictures.
My research of eastern Arkansas yesterday had me on a quest to find information on the trees that we saw growing there, so next it was off to find a Barnes & Noble bookstore that Roni had heard about in North Little Rock. We didn't find it at first, but instead wound up at a place called Books A Million. I combed the shelf of regional interest titles and, while I did find some good resources on the state, I didn't find exactly the book I wanted. Roni picked up some romance paperbacks to tide her over for the remainder of the trip. Our souvenir suitcase is getting rather full. It was only after leaving that store that we stumbled upon Barnes & Noble. We looked around there for another half hour before again coming away emptyhanded. I found several books on trees, but they weren't specific enough to eastern Arkansas and I didn't want to spend $20 for something I might not use often, so I passed.
By now it was nearly 1 p.m. and we had yet to begin our 300-plus mile drive to Dallas. We didn't get very far before we knew it was time to eat lunch. So we pulled off the interstate at Arkadelphia and went to the Cracker Barrel for lunch. After our disappointing experience yesterday with doing take-out, we decided to dine in the store's restaurant. I ordered the chicken and dumplings while Ben had a hamburger and Roni ordered a bowl of stew. My dumplings came with sides of corn muffins, fried okra, red beans and fried apples. It was all very good and very filling. Ben complained that his hamburger had no condiments -- it was just meat on a bun -- and so he didn't want to eat it. We enticed him with dessert if he ate the meat, which he finally did. We all got desserts. Ben and I had a chocolate pudding cake while Roni ordered apple dumplings. Her dessert could have fed the three of us. I love chocolate pudding cake, but I shouldn't have ordered it on the heels of such a big meal. I left feeling absolutely stuffed to the gills, knowing I would ultimately pay for my gluttony.
With lunch out of the way it was time to do some serious driving. We hauled butt along I-30 west until we came upon Hope, Ark., which is notable only for being the boyhood home of President Clinton. I already had picked up a postcard of the house and was debating not stopping because of the time, but my love of American history got the better of me. Soon we found ourselves in the parking lot at the entrance to the museum. You don't have to pay admission to check out the gift shop and interpretive center, which was all I wanted to do. The docent had us sign the guest book and then showed us a replica of the rug that was used in the Oval Office during Clinton's tenure. There was some campaign memorabilia, and photos from his life. A second room contained photos taken by the White House photographer, most of which were on loan to be included in the presidential library when it opens. The docent gave me a button with a photo of Socks the presidential cat to give to Ben. He loved it, of course.
Now 4 p.m., I wondered if we would get to Dallas before dark. The only good thing I can really say about driving the interstates is that they are fast. Doing a sustained speed of about 75 mph, I was able to clear the remaining 200 miles from Texarkana in about three hours, stopping only for gas some 50 miles outside of Dallas. We passed a lot of cows and ranch land on our way in to town. Once again we are at a Comfort Inn, this time in Mesquite. There was a problem with the room we had booked last night, so the clerk stuck us in suite 228. I joked that everything is larger in Texas. This room has three beds and an extra large sitting area where I am currently writing this entry. From some of the advertising literature I collected in the lobby we discovered that there is a rodeo about a block away from us. Roni thought it sounded like a fun activity. I was game to try despite being exhausted from our long drive, but we decided that Ben had probably had more than he could handle for one day and needed dinner more than bull riding competitions. We decided to go out for dinner about 8:30. Not wanting to drive all over town, I let Roni choose the restaurant -- there are a fair number of places to eat within a couple blocks of our hotel. She picked the Texas Roadhouse, which is a grill and tavern.
The Texas Roadhouse is the first place I've ever been where throwing trash on the floor is encouraged. They provide bins of roasted peanuts throughout the restaurant, and all one has to do is scoop up as many as you like into a metal bucket and take it back to your table. You crack the nuts open and then leave the shells on the floor. This creates an unusual dining environment, where you crunch your way to your table across discarded shells. Ben, of course, loved the fact that he could leave the shells on the floor and went out of his way to do so. Kids. My appetite hadn't returned since lunch, so I had the house salad and relied on peanuts and the honey buns provided as appetizers to satisfy my need for a real meal. Roni was the only one who had a substantial meal, eating a small steak and baked potato. I hope that tomorrow my appetite will return for our visit to the State Fair of Texas.
It is only 1:11 right now, but I am thoroughly wiped out from our long drive today and will pile into bed as soon as the computer shuts down.
|
