Cowboys and Indians

 

I made a mad dash across Arkansas, well, that was the plan, but I ended up in Russellville where a one-night stayed turned into a three night stay. I was right on the river and it was so peaceful, I felt that I needed to just stay and soak it all up.

Easing On Down The Road

I was in Hot Springs maybe 4-5 years ago when I first started traveling in the RV. Even back then, I had a quest to see all of the National Parks, Monuments, Battlefields, Historic Sites, etc. What I wasn't doing was my more current quest of Junior Rangerdom. I thought that since Hot Springs National Park was sort of on my way south, I should maybe stop and rectify this particular oversight.

I rolled into Lake Catherine State Park and secured a site way down at the end of the campground. It is a lovely site, right on the lake except for the steam plant right across the lake. It is rather pretty at night when it is all lit up, but it sort of puts a damper on the nature aspect of the place. The lake is in front of me and there are hiking trails up into the mountain behind us.

My site on the lake

And the steam plant across the lake

We've had a terrible wildlife problem here. Every morning around 7:30, a male cardinal starts attacking the RV and my car. I think he sees another cardinal in the windows and mirrors. He is incessant – bang, bang, bang. At first I felt sorry for him – I didn't want him to get hurt. Now, after he has woken me up with his racket and it goes on for most of the day and I've seen the mess he has left all over my car – I guess I have mixed feelings. Silly boy.

We spent our mornings hiking. Nice hikes, steep and rugged hikes. On one hand, it is nice that the leaves are all down – you can see quite a bit farther. On the other hand, it is sort of monochromatic.

I did find a waterfall though

I went into the National Park and asked to be a Junior Ranger. The lady looked at me and said, 'OK – but you have to do every single task in our Junior Ranger book. No exceptions.' I guess they are going to be pretty hard core about it. The booklet was one of the best Junior Ranger books I've seen so far. Lots of info and a lot of scurrying around trying to find answers in the Park. When I went to turn in the book, she started looking at it and said, 'Good thing I'm checking you out – Ranger Bob would have flunked you right off the bat'. I had done every single task except filled in my name on the front of the book. As I said, these guys were tough.

Hydrotherapy Room.  L-R: pressure guns to shoot water at you, Needle shower, Sitz bath where they did Mercury Rubs if you had Syphilis and a big tub where they would put you in the water and send electrical currents thru you. You can just see the corner of the enema table - privacy was not a big requirement back in the day

Steam box and ice box 

Gymnasium

It wasn't all torture machines - this was a very luxurious place

I am a barefoot type of gal – I really don't like to have anything on my feet at all. This has been hard because it has been getting down into the low thirties at night and the floor of the RV is not insulated at all which means it is freezing. I finally broke down, stopped at Dollar General and got me a $6 pair of slippers. What a difference it makes in my quality of life. Of course Dollar General is not known for having the greatest selection of slippers.

And the sun sets again

Free At Last

Meanwhile, back at my new home – the car lot – we are patiently waiting for my transmission coolant housing unit to show up. It was coming from Memphis, which was about six hours away. We found out that we needed a new one on Friday, but it did not show up until the following Wednesday. I spent two nights at the WoodSpring Suites. Sounds really classy but in reality the best thing I can say about it was that it was super clean. The second night, I was fortunate? to get the last room. They did not want to rent it to me because evidently a dog had chewed up the blinds. I decided that if they had a blanket, I could put it up over the window-what can I say - I was tired and cranky. I got up to the room and the bed needed to be made but Pedro, the front desk guy was up there quick as a flash and made up the bed and covered the window. Miko spent both nights curled up under the bed. I don't think she was into the whole living the high life in a motel.

The transmission coolant housing arrived around 11:00 am on Wednesday. I can't tell you how excited I was that I was finally going to leave the car lot and move on down the road. It took Mike, my personal mechanic a couple of hours to install the unit and he tripled checked everything to make sure that it was all good and then I was on the road. What joy!!!!

Ten miles down the road, I'm climbing a hill and I see that the engine is overheating almost to the red line again. I pulled off onto an off ramp(I'm an expert on what to do when an engine overheats now and I know what to do – pull over and call Joe). Joe sends Mike and another guy out to see what the problem is. Turns out, a hose had burst. What are the chances that all this stuff happens all at once – cracked radiator, broken housing unit and a burst hose? Mike replaces the hose and I'm again on my way.

Nasty little slit

I want to take another moment here and talk about how good Crain Buick/GMC in Springdale was to me. I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't taken me in. There was Mike, the mechanic, who really put his heart into getting me fixed up – I know he felt my pain as each new thing went wrong. And then there was Matt, the Service Manager who did everything in his power to make my 10-day stay as comfortable as possible. Lastly, Joe – the Service Adviser – the one who worked so hard to make sure I did not lose it during this whole process. If there was something that needed to be done, Joe would magically make it happen. These three guys went way above and beyond the call of duty. There are good people in the world and I am so grateful that I ran into these guys.

Now, not being of the sissy sort, I am heading into the mountains of Arkansas. There is no need to baby my engine, no need to break in these parts gently. I am going to really put these new engine parts to the test. I am heading to Lake Fort Smith State Park which is only a measly hour's drive away. Nobody had mentioned to me that I have to go over a mountain and then even worse down a mountain to get to the park. The drive up the narrow twisty road wasn't too bad, it was the drive down into the valley that got to me. I practiced my mountain driving skills but my brakes still smelled a little bit burny by the time I got to the bottom.

Miko and I really needed to spend some decompression time after our ordeal and this was the perfect spot. We didn't talk to anybody for a couple of days, there was no online presence, total solitude. We hiked – actually a rather grueling hike up and down the hills, it was a little bit rough on this winter body of mine. We saw armadillos – weird little creatures who have no idea that anybody is anywhere near them. We also saw a snowy owl and several hawks. Mostly we just sat and eased on thru the days.

Waterfall for the day - Arkansas desperately needs water, it is very dry here

This little armadillo wouldn't even bother looking up at us

Lake Fort Smith #13 - you can sorta see the lake thru the trees

A most glorious Arkansas sunset

Don't Fence Me In

I've been on the road for almost a week now and haven't made a lot of progress, both in my travels and my blogging. What can I say – I've been busy. I'm making up for it with this blog. It is going to be super text heavy.

It was difficult getting out of town this winter. Let's start with the car crash in the beginning of January which totaled my beloved Mini Cooper. Of a lesser note, it also fractured a couple of bones in my hand, not bad enough that I needed a cast, but bad enough that I should wear a brace for the next few weeks. I'm thinking that I sure would not want to be a car owned by me – it seems every two years some major hurt happens to a car owned by me.

After running around furiously (I have a time table to follow – like get out of Minnesota before I freeze), I end up buying a Ford Focus – same car that caught on fire a couple of years ago, except this is a manual instead of an automatic. I have to get the tow bar and supplemental braking system installed so I can tow it behind the RV.

I left on a Saturday, which was important because there was a major snow storm predicted on Sunday and ended up in Osceola Iowa at Lakeside Casino where I always stay my first night on the road. This was of note because I think it was one of the few times that I stayed there and there wasn't a blizzard or high wind warnings out. I woke up to an extremely dense fog, got gas and headed out.

Past Kansas City, near a town in Missouri called Nevada (said Ne-vay-da) all of a sudden I notice the RV coolant indicator heating up. It is climbing higher and higher. Just as it reached the red zone and the 'Reduced Engine Performance' light came on, I pulled over and shut the engine off. Roads in Missouri are usually not built with much of a shoulder. Those semis going by were really rocking the RV. I turned the engine back on, it was a normal temperature and started off again. This time the temperature climbed much faster. Time to call Roadside Assistance. They had a couple of guys come out ( think guys that looked like they belonged in Duck Dynasty) and they put four gallons of coolant in. They could not see any leaks and thought the wind had just blown the coolant out. Sounded a little fishy, but what do I know?

Proceeded on down the road, into a torrential rain storm. Got a little lost and finally got to the park I was staying at and settled in for the night. Have I mentioned that Miko seems to have developed a new nervous trigger (besides her travel in the RV phobia) which is rain storms. Lovely, soothing rain on the roof sets her all a-tremble. The next morning, I looked at my coolant and it looked low so I put another two gallons in. At this point I figured I needed to get this looked at, but I'm in the middle of Nowhere, Missouri.

I get as far as Arkansas, engine is heating up again. I pull over into a hotel parking lot and start making phone calls. First I call RV places but they tell me that they can't work on it because it is an engine problem, they only work on RV stuff. I then call Ford dealers because I have a Ford engine. Nope, they can't work on it because I'm too big for their bays. I find a place called Truck Service of Arkansas and give them a call. Yes – they can work on it. Yay!!!! I pull in, get in line (they are first come, first serve). After about an hour, they tell me – Nope, we can't work on your rig – you are a gas engine, we only work on diesel engines. What am I supposed to do now?

I call and call and finally find a guy who takes pity on me. Bless his heart. Joe actually said when I told him my story, as an exclamation – 'Oh Good Gravy' How can you not like somebody like that? I end up at Crain's Buick/GMC dealer – nicest people ever. After they diagnosed the problem – cracked radiator - They dealt with my extended warranty people which helped a lot. The warranty paid for a couple of nights in a hotel, so Miko and I stayed at La Quinta. First room's sink would not drain, the second room's ceiling would drip when the guy upstairs took a shower.

Crain ordered a new radiator which took a day to get here and then when they opened the box, it turned out the radiator was all bent up. So they had to order another one. At this point the RV is up on blocks. I spent last night in the RV, behind the locked fence with the three rows of barb wire up on top. It actually wasn't too bad, I guess I felt pretty secure here. If I can't get out, I figure no nefarious creatures can get in. They think they will have the radiator replaced today, but I'm not so hopeful. We shall see.

Update: Radiator is in (YAY!!!), but they have found that something called a Transmission Coolant Housing unit that is cracked. They have ordered the part from Memphis but it will not be here before next Tuesday. So I guess I am living in the car lot until next Tuesday at the earliest. These guys at Crain though have been so wonderful to me. They have me hooked up to electricity, they have filled my tanks with water – they have given me a key to the gate – I cannot say enough about how great their customer service has been. Although I don't quite understand why they haven't ordered a name plate on my chair in the customer lounge – I mean I've been sitting in that chair for almost a week. :-)

My nightly view - can't see the barb wire, but it is there

Eureka Springs

Eureka Springs – located about as far north as you can get in Arkansas without straying over into Missouri. At last count, there is supposed to be 63 natural springs – guess that is where the name came from. It used to be a mecca for people wanting to be healed but since the Health Department has declared that perhaps it is not maybe in your best interests to 'take the waters', Eureka Springs has become more of a tourist town.

As is my nature, when I first get to a town, I like to do a city overview, if possible. In Eureka Springs, this takes the form of a open air tram ride to most of the town sites. There were Victorian houses, the haunted Crescent Hotel, a 65 foot statute called Christ of the Ozarks and a very touristy downtown with very very narrow streets. I'm really glad I wasn't doing the driving. The guide was your typical corny tour guide but he seemed to have found his audience among the 48 tourists. The tour was about 90 minutes and it was a pleasant afternoon to be driven around.

There is a place called Quigley's Castle that I needed to see. In the forties, Mrs. Quigley designed a house which Mr. Quigley said he would build for her. She got a little impatient, waiting for him to build the house. One day, when he left for work, she and her children tore down the house they were living in. When Mr. Quigley returned from work, he had to resort to living in a chicken house. Mrs Quigley designed the house so it had two frames. The outside frame was decorated in rocks and shells that she had collected over the years. The inner frame was several feet inside the outer one and in that space between the two frames,there was no floor, there was just dirt where Mrs. Quigley planted a garden. Some of the two story plants that are there are over sixty years old. Mrs. Quigley had a lot of energy and ended up putting stones and crystals everyplace.

The Castle

Inner/Outer Frame

The Goldfish Tank

The second story - plants growing up from below

Mrs Quigley's Butterfly Wall - one whole wall in an upstairs bedroom

Mrs. Quigley collected rocks - Mr. Quigley collected bottles

My mother thinks I put too many pictures of rocks in my blog - Mom, it could be a lot worse

I felt guilty for leaving Miko alone and so when I got back we decided to go hike around Lake Leatherwood. I chose to do the four mile loop around the lake, forgetting, of course, all the rain that Arkansas had been literally flooded with. It was a nicely marked trail on the first half of the trail until we crossed the dam. There were several creeks that normally you could walk across on stones, but now were about ankle deep. I started regretting the fact that I had opted not to buy waterproof hiking shoes. At the very end of the trail, the flooding got even deeper. I let Miko off leash because of her tendency to try to hop over water. I knew she would pull me over. Somebody had tried to put some logs and boards across the waterway, which I used, but mostly I just resigned myself to getting wet.

How to get from here to there?

Blue Springs Heritage Center was the home of Blue Springs – a spring that pumps out 38 million gallons of water a day. The walkway around the springs was all flooded out – you could only walk on the upper walkway. It was sort of eerie looking down into the water and seeing a bench that was about three feet under water. It was a little like looking at the Lost City of Atlantis.

The water was actually this color

Upper walkway and stairs down to the lower walkway

Never one to turn down an opportunity for a Junior Ranger badge, I headed over to Pea Ridge National Military Park – site of a civil war battle. The ranger was unable to tell me the difference between a National Military Park and a National Battlefield, even though he said he had tried researching it. I hope he finds his answer. I watched the movie, drove the seven mile loop around the battlefield, impressed aforementioned ranger with the depth of my Junior Ranger answers and got my badge.

The Devil's Den

The nice thing about traveling in the middle of the week is that you can usually go to a super popular state park and they will have a camping space for you. Sometimes you might even be the only one in the whole park. Since I was traveling mid-week, I was able to pretty much take my pick at Devil's Den State Park in the Boston Mountains in northwest Arkansas. Even better, if I stood outside my RV, in a very particular spot, I would have on again, off again WIFI. The bad news is that I had no cell service at all. I panicked for a bit, because I didn't know about the lack of cell service and I knew Tony would be waiting on me to call for our evening chats. I guess we would have to rely on old-fashioned letter writing. Ok, perhaps that is a bit dramatic, when I could catch a WiFi signal, it would be email.

The Dam Waterfall Near the Visitor Center -

The first trail I was going to do was called the Yellow Rock Trail. It leads to a rock overhang where there is a great view (a long way down) over the valley. It is supposed to be three miles and take about two hours to hike. Somehow I got a little turned around and this hike ended up taking me five hours and many more miles. At one point, I came to a V in the trail. One leg seemed to go down a small hill and end at a cliff. The other leg looked like the trail continued. Nope – that leg dead ended. I went back to the V and could not figure out what to do. I decided to sit on a log and wait for another hiker to come along and that way I could just follow in their footsteps. After sitting there for an indeterminate amount of time and no hikers came along, I figured out that that strategy was not going to work. I crept out toward the edge of the cliff and there hidden behind a tree was a steep switchback going down the side of the cliff. Yay – I was saved. Perhaps I need to work on my wilderness skills a bit.

Yellow Rock - Miko again ignoring me

The other trail I did was called the Devil's Den Trail. It was a circular trail and it was a great deal of fun. You had to climb up and down rocks and try to figure out where the trail was. I found that when there didn't seem to be any way forward, if I just stopped and thought for a moment, a way would become clear. There was a baby waterfall on the trail and the last portion of the trail wandered by Lee Creek which was refreshing

Baby Waterfall

I Say Petite, You Say Petty

I was reading my Arkansas Waterfall book and it said that the largest waterfall in Arkansas was at a state park called Petit Jean. When I consulted my Google maps, I found that the park was only an hour drive away and they had available campsites. Change of direction – change of plans. Off to Petit Jean State Park.

You would think that Petit Jean would be pronounced in the French way, but not in Arkansas. It is pronounced Petty Jean. You can read about the legend of Petit Jean here

Miko and I spent the first day at the park running around to all of the trails that were under a mile. Lots of rocks and lots of greenery. I saw the famous big Cedar Falls from an overlook, but I could only see the top half.

Palisades Overlook

I finally got Miko to look at me.  I had to trick her though - I took a picture when she was looking away and when she heard the camera click, she thought I was done picture-taking and looked at me. Sly little puppy.

Top part of Cedar Falls

I met a wonderful couple, who shall remain nameless, who had moved to Arkansas. We were talking around the campfire about traveling by RV to Canada and the gentleman said that he had a great deal of trouble getting into Canada – evidently Canada is a little touchy about letting people into their country with a police record. Never mind that the offense occurred over forty years ago. Never mind that it was a simple marijuana possession charge. Never mind that this gentleman had actually been pardoned by Governor Bill Clinton. Imagine, he actually had a piece of paper signed by the future president of the United States. I thought that was both a shame (Canada) and also very cool(Clinton).

I debated whether or not to hike the Cedar Falls Trail, which goes to the bottom of the Falls and was supposed to be the only way to see the Falls in all their glory. The trail was rated as strenuous and 'only those in good shape should attempt this hike'. The first half mile descends more than 200 feet down steps cut from rock by the CCC. This does not sound like my type of hiking. I wasn't too worried about the going down, it was the coming back up that had me worried. I decided to do it. What's the worst that could happen?

You had to be careful going down the first half mile. There was a lot of navigating down steep rocky switchbacks. I had to speak severely to Miko who forgot herself again in her never-ending lizard hunt and almost took us over the edge one time. Usually she is great on the trails, especially going downhill. She is quicker than I am going downhill and she knows that when she reaches the end of the leash, she needs to stop and wait for me to catch up. Otherwise she could pull me over flat on my face.

Once we got down the mountain, it was a lovely trail along the Cedar Creek until we got to the payload. Cedar Falls was beautiful. We sat down on a rock and just watched the water come down. It was cool and crisp and very idyllic. I found myself thinking “ok, when we get back, I've got to do this and I've got to do that and....” I had to tell myself to get back into the present moment. All that existed was these Falls – there was no past, there was no future. I ended up sitting there for maybe 45 minutes.  It was a piece of cake getting back up the mountain.  For some reason, it took me an hour to hike to the Falls and only 45 minutes to climb back out to the top. 

Cedar Falls - all 95 feet of them

For a little height perspective, check out the person/waterfall comparison. You could go behind the falls and this woman decided to do it. It must have been pretty cold based on how shrill her shrieking was.

There were two young women, Susie and Chloe, in their twenties, who were camped next to me. We decided to go out and hike the 4.5 mile Seven Hollows (it actually only goes through four Hollows) Trail the next day. They were very interesting women, both had been raised by missionary families – one grew up in Spain, the other grew up in Panama. They also were traveling nurses. Miko likes to lead and be in front, which meant that I was in front. I felt very conscious of the fact that I was about forty years older than them and I really didn't want to slow them down on this hike. I was really moving out. It was a little bit humid. Let's just say I moved quickly beyond the glow, into the perspiring stage and almost immediately into the sweating like a pig stage. I don't know when I've ever sweated so much. It was fun though, the trail was a fun one and getting to know these women was also interesting. We did talk religion, we were coming from totally different viewpoints and it was so nice to be able to talk about beliefs in a respectful interested way.

Chloe and Susie - it was great fun

Two thumbs up for Petit Jean. I would love to come back someday.

Up To The Mountain

I moved up into the mountains to a little town called Mountain View. Mountain View bills itself as the Folk Music Center of the World. If you need to buy a dulcimer, this is the place for you. Usually, Mountain View has a population during the year of about 2500 but when Bean Fest happens, the population swells to over 30,000. The Arkansas also has a state park here which is called the Ozark Village State Park which was my primary draw.

The State Park is set up like a small village. Each of the buildings has some sort of Ozark craft focus where you can learn about various crafts. Did I mention that there was also a kindergarten class that was wandering around also, so some of the crafts I got to learn about on a kindergarten level which was actually fun because we got to do little hands on crafty things.

In between my kindergarten crafts, I spent a lot of time talking to the various artists. I especially enjoyed the candle maker. It looked like a lot of fun to make candles, she would dip strings into wax multiple times and then once everything had dried, she would dip them in different dyes. I decided that I need to be a candle maker.

Candle Making

There were also other buildings - this was the one room school house

I also enjoyed the Apothecary Shop, where I learned all about soap making. The woman said that it had been 15 years since she had used commercial soap on her hair or body. She talked about how it was pretty much a chemistry project, putting together different chemicals, melting them in a big pot and adding essential oils. If it didn't have Lye in it, it wasn't soap. I'm thinking I should start making soap.

The other fascinating shop I visited was a copper shop. They would take a piece of copper and they would paint with a mini blow torch. Depending on how hot the torch was and how long you kept it on the copper, that would determine the color. Yup, if I had any artistic talent, after my soap and candle making, I would be a copper painter.

I also visited a knife maker, weaver, glass blower and a potter. I guess I will have to put all of this on my to-do list.

Of course, the highlight of my visit was lunch. I had been wanting one of these like forever and finally the stars aligned. I had a Frito Pie. Does life get any better than this?

After being all crafty, I went home and picked up Miko. We were off for Blanchard Springs. The big draw in the area is Blanchard Caverns, but I really don't have much interest in going underground. It was too nice of a day and I had been promised a waterfall. This is a most excellent time to see waterfalls in Arkansas because of all of the heavy rain that we have had in the last few days, those waterfalls are gushing. Also because of the rain, the creeks have all overflowed their beds. The trail I was planning to take, went along the creek in a loop but I could only go down one size of the creek – there was no trail or way to cross the raging torrent.

I think that is a trail on the other side of the creek

Finally  A Water Fall!!!!

Bonus - another one!!!

Miko spent a lot of time chasing these guys

As I left town, I had to stop at the Conoco station in a little town of Leslie. When I entered Arkansas, way back when, the woman at the Welcome Center told me that this Conoco station makes the most fabulous chocolate rolls. They have this dough that they spread out flat and then smother it with chocolate, roll it up and then deep fry it. I walk in, stood in line, asked for them and the lady says – “how many? A dozen?” I took a deep breath and said sure. Gotta say, they are pretty incredible.

I ended up in a Corp of Engineer Park called Old Post Road Park. It had a nice dam and river but not a lot of charm. There was a soccer field there that had about 100 Canadian geese all lounging around. I thought about all those kids playing in all that goose poop and Miko told me that she could fix the problem. I looked around, there was nobody nearby and I let Miko go. She took off at warp speed and it was like one of those nature photo ops from National Geographic. One hundred geese all taking to the sky. I sure wish I had had my camera ready.

I also have learned about a terrible thing that Arkansas has. Something called Seed Ticks. Not so Fun Fact: The life cycle of a wood tick is composed of four states: egg, larval, nymphal and adult. The larval stage is also called Seed Ticks. They are super tiny, smaller than a deer tick and they attach themselves like a regular tick. A lot of times, you can feel them attach – they have super sharp biting heads. I speak from experience. They are so tiny that it is difficult to notice them, let alone get them off. It is Seed Tick season here in Arkansas.

Little Rock - It Actually Coulda Been Called Big Rock

I have arrived in Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas and I think it is also the biggest city in Arkansas. Little Rock was actually named because there was a little rock (which was actually a Big Rock) in the middle of the Arkansas River.  Go figure.   I've decided to go all urban and I'm staying at the Downtown Riverside RV park which is right across the Arkansas River from Little Rock in North Little Rock. I am almost right underneath the I30 Interstate bridge, but I'm right on the river and I have a pretty good view of downtown Little Rock. It is your traditional RV park with your neighbors right on top of you, but I guess I could say Location, Location, Location.

View out my front window of downtown Little Rock - see how close I am to the river

You can see my rig and Cooper right in front of the middle tree

Besides the interstate bridge, there are two other pedestrian bridges close by that cross the river. One is the Presidential bridge which goes from the RV park directly to the Clinton library. The other is called the Junction Bridge – an old railroad bridge that runs trains no more. Miko and I get up early and hike across the Presidential bridge and come back over the Junction Bridge. The Clinton library is having a special exhibition now called Xtreme Bugs. Took a picture of these two, weird thing is that if you get close enough to them, they start to move.

Sort of a strange thing to have at a Presidential Library

We then wandered through a sculpture garden – there are supposed to be about 70 sculptures here, I saw maybe 30. Don't know where the rest of them were.

Lord Featherwick

The beautiful sunny morning turned into three days of rain with a little bit of hail thrown in. Widespread flooding was predicted. I was a tad bit worried seeing as how I was so close to the river. I picked a certain spot on the bank of the river and decided that if the river rose above that point, I was outta there. Not to worry, the Arkansas River kept moving everything downstream.

I am quite the wine snob. I am getting a little short on wine and went online to see if I could find an upscale wine shop. All reviews pointed to this one market so I ran over there. Let's just say that the only thing I picked up there was in their cheese department and that was that southern favorite “Pimento Cheese”

On my list of NPS sites was the Little Rock Central High School. Over the years, I had seen some film segments about what happened, but did not know much about it. The visitor center was an excellent spot to learn more about what happened when the Little Rock Nine tried to desegregate the white school. The stories that I heard, I'm telling you -  it was horrifying what these kids went through. Amazing how strong they were and how mature. They are an example to us all.

The school itself was built in the mid 1920s at a cost of over a million dollars. Think about how much money that was in the twenties. It is an impressive school – today it houses 2500 students and all freshmen who start their high school years here are required to read a book called “Warriors Don't Cry” written by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine.

Little Rock Central High School - On these steps the Little Rock Nine entered

I did go out to dinner with my diamond hunting partner Jan to a place called All Aboard.  Basic diner food, but once you order, you sit down and your food gets delivered by a train that runs on a track that circles the restaurant.  That was pretty cool, the first time you saw it.  Below is a video that shows a delivery being made.  I think to see it, you have to go to the MikoBoBiko website.  www.mikobobiko.blogspot.com

My view at night of the Presidential Bridge - the white blob on the right side is the Clinton Library