Monday, June 13, 2013

This morning, we left Memphis and headed west to Little Rock, Arkansas.  The state line is in the middle of the bridge across the Mississippi River.  From the traffic headed east, it appears a lot of people live in Arkansas and work in Memphis.

Arkansas is a little drier with more open spaces.  I think every state we have been in has corn as a crop and here it's no different.  It was an easy drive to Little Rock so we were there before noon.  This is where the presidential library for Bill Clinton is.  It's right off the freeway and next to an old bridge that has been turned into a pedestrian and bicycle bridge.  President Clinton specifically wanted it here and wanted the building to have a bridge look to it so it would symbolize a bridge to the future next to a bridge from the past.  A little imagination is needed to visualize that, but it has nice fountains in front and is of a modern design.

We went through security and were welcomed with open arms by the volunteers here.  They all wanted to know where we are from and shared their stories of being in the western part of the U S and the weather differences, etc. etc.  we watched the 12 minute film narrated by Bill Clinton about his background.  He seemed so genuinely nice it almost made me want to vote for him.  Almost.  Anyway, after that we walked through all the exhibits.  It's interesting to me that there are boxes of documents on glass enclosed shelves from his administration that are used as dividers.  One of the volunteers told us that there are 4,500 boxes that have been vetted through the archives and that it's only 2 percent of the documents generated during his time in office.

This library, like the others we've seen, has a research center for students and other interested parties to study all this paper.  It also has the Oval Office with the furniture he used.  I loved the upholstery on the facing couches, it was cream and rose striped.  We sat in his chair behind his desk, where we had our pictures taken.  At the Bush library in Houston, a volunteer will use your camera and take the picture for you.  Here, a volunteer takes it with their camera and then charges you for the picture.  And no photos of the Oval Office are allowed except from the doorway.  None can be taken inside the office.  Interesting differences.

A large portion of the displays are devoted to the Olympics that were held in Atlanta while he was in office.  There are huge windows here and we kept our eyes on the sky.  About the time we were ready to leave, a thunderstorm dropped a lot of rain, so we had lunch in the downstairs restaurant and waited it out.  The food was great.  There is a large area on the second floor that can be rented for meetings, dinners, receptions, etc.  I would imagine it is a pretty penny to do so.  We then hit the gift shop.  I just couldn't resist buying a coffee mug that says "I Miss Bill" on it.  I know it will appall my family which was a good reason to get it.😊
We walked a little ways out on the pedestrian bridge but it was even more humid since the storm blew through so we got in the car and drove to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to visit the Hot Springs National Park.  It's not far, about an hour.  It's quite the resort town and has a row of bathhouses dating from the 1920's on the Main Street to the Park.  The Park Visitor Center is located in one actually.  We drove the 3.5 mile loop through the park, looked over the view from the overlook and got our stamps for our National Park Passport and headed back north.  It was almost closing time for the offic and center so we didn't go through all the exhibits.  Oh, and Hot Springs is where Bill Clinton grew up.  One of the volunteers at his library told us we should visit a bathhouse and soak in the hot water.  We thought about it but decided to drive toward Oklahoma instead.  We stayed in a tiny town called Russellville for the night.