...and off to a great head start!
It's interesting how even though I haven't driven the rig for a year, it just all comes back to you! Even when towing a car behind and stuff like this happens in the middle of a crowded freeway (I think it was old carpet, rolled up)
We followed the Trail of Tears all week long
It was hot, hot enough that we saw cows hanging out in the ponds as we drove past!
Our next stop was Hope, Arkansas where we saw Bill Clinton's birthplace. Sorry, no spectacular photos of the house because it was on a very busy street with no crosswalk in sight to the other side. This was his grandparents' home and he lived there until he was 4.
The hospital he was born in was knocked down and is now a funeral home...
His boyhood home has a plaque out front that is mounted atop some of the bricks that were salvaged from that hospital. He lived here until he was 7, then his family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas
We ended our first real touring day by visiting Rohwer, one of the sites of the Japanese-American internment camps. This is where George Takei (of Star Trek fame) and his family were interned when he was 5.
The memorial was located in the midst of some really beautiful and serene farmland. Some of these camps were literally in the middle of the desert, some, like this one and Minidoka in Idaho, were in the middle of beautiful farmland.
This pseudo guard tower had some informational panels and a few sound clips about the camps, with George Takei narrating.
Our second full day we headed up The Great River Road and went to Arkansas Post National Memorial
We saw LOTS of lily pads and blossoms on the water as we drove
The post itself no longer exists and the fort that was there would now be underwater due to the change in the channel. This fort was controlled by several different countries over time
We headed out to see some of the archeological remnants and found this right outside the visitor center. It's not a ball, it's not edible, but it is called an Osage orange! Comes from the Osage tree and our dog really wanted to chase it when I kicked it off the path.
See how beautiful Arkansas is?
This is looking out over the Arkansas River
Our dog became a B.A.R.K. Ranger!
Third day out and we explored Little Rock, Arkansas. Our first stop was the Clinton presidential museum that is still closed to the public until July 1, because of the pandemic. We went there anyway, just to say we had been there.
We made a cool discovery of almost two dozen of these sculptures on the grounds outside, all of them with an environmental theme
Look at the 1836 flag on the wall!
We headed off to see the current state capitol!
We saw the House of Representatives
And the Senate
Both of which had beautiful lay lights, but the Senate also had these interesting draperies
On the capitol grounds, there was a sculpture tribute to the Little Rock Nine, the nine students who integrated Little Rock Central High School
Oh, and before we left, we saw a for real Hot Wheels car!
The Mobil Gas station, the visitor center across the street in one direction, a memorial garden on another corner, and the high school are all part of this NPS site. The high school is still a working high school, so you can only go inside when on a guided tour
This display in the visitor center shows the difference in the school for African American students and the school for white students. It wasn't just size of buildings, it was also everything inside those buildings from library books to curriculum that was more, better, and challenging
We stopped by the Daisy Bates house. Daisy Bates was the local president of the NAACP during this time, the Little Rock Nine students gathered at her house before school so they could show up together and were dropped off at her house after school so they could be picked up by their parents. Her house was a target for segregationists because of her activism.
Our last stop of the day was the Little Rock National Cemetery, so I could find a few of my relatives.
Fourth day of travel: Plantation Agriculture Museum
This cotton gin was interesting to watch work. We weren't quite sure how it did its thing, but we could see everything turning
A bale of cotton from 1927!
Just down the road was Toltec Mounds--to which both kids rolled their eyes and S said, "It's just another pile of dirt!" (I think we've seen too many mounds, maybe)
I'm still impressed at the fact that there were EIGHTEEN mounds here (only 3 left) and it was all done without the help of a tractor, backhoe, or dump truck!
The path around the mounds took us out by these cypresses
We got to see more cypress knees in the water!
We went into downtown Little Rock that night to find the location of the "little rock" that gave the place its name. Only this plaque now:
Because there's a huge bridge there now!
Fifth day of travel: Hot Springs, Arkansas
Only two of the bathhouses are actually bathhouses now and have spa prices, so we did not partake!
We went to the visitor center which is a former bathhouse and free to tour--all four floors!
This was a luxury destination! There are a lot of old hotels in Hot Springs, people would come to "take the cure", even sports teams would come for the relaxation and rehabilitation!
Or you could steam
In the basement, you could see the spring bubbling up from the ground
These were the ladies' changing rooms
The gymnasium
And after we were all done, from an insider tip, we went and found the fountain so we could taste the water and fill up our water bottles!
Sixth day of travel, someone is still happy to be going everywhere with her Humans!
We headed to Fort Smith, which took us briefly into Oklahoma
And then back into Arkansas
Sadly, the visitor center was damaged during the polar vortex storm, so all we could see were the grounds. The building in the background now serves as the visitor center, there is only one other building still on the grounds, the commissary. The rest are archeological ruins.
We did see a reconstruction of the gallows, on the site the gallows formerly stood
Right next to Fort Smith is a history museum, which we were told is really good, and a trolley museum. We saw a train engine go by while we were there too, there are tracks running behind the NPS property.
We also stopped to see Parley P. Pratt's grave. Why is he buried in Arkansas and not Utah, like he wanted to be? Look up the story, it's kinda wild!
We drove through the Boston Mountains Scenic Byway and even got to go through a tunnel
Last but NOT least: the Walmart Museum! We HAD to stop here, Walmart has hosted many a free night's stay during our RV adventures.
Sadly, we had 15 minutes until the museum closed, wouldn't open until noon the next day, so we dashed through. They recreated Sam Walton's office
And there was this really awesome Lego recreation of the two buildings that house the museum now.
I had to go get this photo from the museum's Facebook page, I thought I took one and then when I looked at my camera roll, in my haste to get into the museum, I took a photo of the sidewalk instead!
Seventh day of travel: we stopped by the site of the Bentonville Arkansas Temple, still very much under construction but definitely looks like a temple!
Then we went to Pea Ridge, which we learned was the best preserved Civil War site.
We drove the battlefield loop
We saw Elkhorn Tavern, a reconstruction and historical building, not an actual tavern. A half dozen or more people hunkered down in the cellar during the two days of fighting there
If you look closely, you can see cannons out on those fields. This was a farming area and the fields were devastated by the battles.
We made it to Flippin, Arkansas for the night. That's really the town's name! We also passed Yellville...
This is what our map looks like, we need to make it up to New England to finish it up! We've already had a few adventures with the rig, hopefully we will be able to safely make it up there and back home!
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