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| University Of Arkansas's Painted Razorback |
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| Book Store Razorback |
Up early enough, at 7:00, and went downstairs to get three cups of coffee for Evie. Then, since the wifi is weak in the hotel, I walked downtown to the Kollective, a neat little coffee shop about ten minutes away. It's partly cloudy out, fairly mild, as Hot Springs is just beginning to wake. We have about a five hour drive ahead of us today to Beth and family in Dallas, Texas.
We checked out of our Inn in Fayetteville just after 9:00, drove around and looked at the campus, getting a feel for it, mostly stone, older school buildings, lots of fraternity or sorority houses tucked in among the neighborhoods, and a plethora of trees, lining all the walks, elaborate gates at the four entrances to campus. We stopped at the bookstore and picked up some Razorback stuff before jumping on the highway, towards Little Rock and the Clinton Library.
The first hour of the ride was beautiful, hilly and green vistas off on either side of the road but once we got out of the northwest corner of the state, the land settled and flattened, and it was more like driving through northern Ohio. As we got close to Little Rock, the gas stations, fast food restaurants, car lots, and storage sheds started to appear, the kind of insignificant growth that circles most cities of any size.
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| Clinton Library |
It was, however, an easy on and off to the Clinton Library, a huge, modern looking building, a five story rectangle set up on legs, with a Clinton apartment on the top floor. We decided to eat as it was 12:30, so we went downstairs to '42,' the formal lunch room, with white table cloths, pictures of the Clinton's on the walls, and an outdoor dining area. We ate inside because it was still too cool to eat al fresco. The menu was varied and interesting and we both had great lunches, Evie a fresh berry and chicken salad, and I had toasted tortillas topped with black beans, salsa, collard greens, and a egg. Both were great.
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| Painting of Teddy Roosevelt, In Oval Office |
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| Replica of White House Cabinet Meeting Room |
We then spent 15 minutes watching a film, narrated by Clinton, and after wards, we went on an hour and a half tour of the library. There are replicas of the Oval Office and Cabinet Conference room, to give you a feel for where the decisions were made.
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| Sitting In Oval Office |
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| Painting In Clinton's Oval Office |
We then walked into the library proper, a long narrow two story, glass rectangle, with what looks like book cases, but they hold just a small portion of the Clinton archives. It's modeled after Old Library at Trinity College.. And surrounding this, in nooks are videos and photos of the Clinton years, highlighting the events year by year, from 1992-2000. And on the walls, were pictures and memorabilia from both Bill and Hillary's early lives, starting with Clinton's childhood, pictures of his family, then high school, and college. Then the early years together with Hillary as governor, before running for President.
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| Clinton Library Stacks And Exhibits |
It gave you a good sense of their lives, of the successes, some of the failures, but it was well done. One could spend hours reading all the texts on screens, under pictures, as well as letters, to and from Clinton. Lots of pictures of world leaders he worked with, as well as letters from them extolling the virtues of Clinton. After a couple of hours, we had had enough, as my limit on museums and libraries seems to be between two and three hours. We were mildly disappointed in the Library as it was not as impressive as we had expected. We did like the fact that it was a green building, much of it built from recycled materials.
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| President Clinton Bridge |
We then went outside and walked across the President Clinton Bridge, an old railroad bridge, now a hiking or biking path, which spans the Arkansas River, next to the Library. We left around 3:30 and had a traffic filled drive out of Little Rock, but once we got on the road to Hot Springs, traffic settled down and the drive was easy. We were a little taken back by the looks of of our hotel, the Park, the old lady of Hot Springs, which looked as if it needed lots of work. But we decided to stick with it, even though we had difficulty with the wifi and they have limited channels on the TV which means no ESPN, so I could not watch the Cavs. You cannot always believe what you read on TripAdvisor. The Park is definitely not posh, perhaps never was. Once we got settled, the wifi semi working, we relaxed as it was raining outside so we put off our walk into town off until dinner time.
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| A Great Old Bar And Restaurant |
We left for the town around 6:30 in rain but fortunately we brought our umbrellas. Uptown was just a short walk, one side filled with bars, restaurants, shops, antiquated hotels, the other side, a wall of green, the edge of Hot Springs State Park. We had read about a restaurant that everyone seemed to like, locals and tourists alike, The Ohio Club, so we walked down the street, window gazing and walked in, found a seat at the bar and we knew this was the right place. The bartender told us all about a new draft beer, a recipe from 100 years ago, and recently brewed by the local micro brewery across the street. Of course we had to try it and it was fine, not hoppy, so we had a couple. The waitress recommended the onion rings, so we had them for an appetizer and they were good. For dinner I had the Ohio burger, Evie the portabello sandwich, on a special bun and both sandwiches and fries were good.
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| Go Hogs, With Todd |
We ended up talking with a guy who lived in Hot Springs for seven years, but was then transferred by the Forest Service to a town outside of Tallahassee. He was here for his daughter's graduation. He used to come to this particular bar, told us its history, how Al Capone used to sit at a hotel across the street and keep and eye on it back when it was his cigar shop and brothel. It's gone through many owners, a fire, but seems to be doing well now. We ended up talking about politics, in a friendly way, and he told us why he supported Trump and why he, along with the bartender really hate 'lying Hillary,' We have heard this often from Arkansas natives, that they have little affection for Bill's wife. The vitriol toward Hillary, especially from the young bartender, was unsettling. I did not even dare bring up Obama. Anyways, we got along well, no hard feelings and had a fun conversation.
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| Evie And Razorback Fan, Rick |
We left about 8:30 to go to another bar, Fat Jack's, because they would have the Cavs game on TV since our hotel did not have ESPN. It was empty except for a guy, talking to a couple, the woman a stitch, as she told us all about why she believes in Big Foot, comparing belief in him to belief in Jesus. Quite hysterical actually. When she left we struck up a conversation with the other guy, a prosthetics salesman, a proud graduate of the University of Arkansas, an avid Razorback football fan, like most people in Arkansas. He was fun to talk with, a typical salesman. We talked Razorback stuff until he left and we paid up and walked home to our hotel room in the rain. Despite the lousy hotel, we had a great night out on the town in Hot Springs. We will come back, probably to the Arlington Hotel and Spa, just around the corner from our hotel.
It's on to Dallas in an hour or so. Cannot wait.
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