President, Hot Springs, High School & Purses! Arkansas

William J Clinton Presidential Library and Museum is in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, and it was built there to help the economy in that area. Parking is free and tickets are $12.00 each. Like other similar places, lots of docents around to greet, inform, and direct. When told about the video, we asked if it was closed captioned. The person at the desk and a lady standing near had no idea if “words were on the screen.” I often use those words since a lot of people don’t know what closed captioned means and will just say no. Then the guy behind the desk handed us some papers stapled together. It is the script of the audio tour. That was so great. The video was captioned. Incidentally, when we returned the script, the new shift didn’t know anything about it.

The second floor has displays and also the a replica of the White House Cabinet Room. The president’s chair is higher backed than the others. We were able to sit in the chair and take a picture. Along the outside walls of the long room are 3-sided wall spaces with pictures and information. Down the center is a timeline of his presidency. Underneath are big folders with the daily schedule for him.

The next floor had replica of his oval office. The weird thing is, even though stuff wasn’t the real things, you couldn’t go inside it unless you paid $17.00+ for someone to take your photo. We thought that wasn’t nice. You could look in the doorways but they were tied off so you couldn’t enter. 

🇺🇸 250 Commemorating America 250 had a traveling display there called “Making Amends.” This was a great walk through with displays telling about different amendments and something interesting about them. 

By this time we were done and it was 1:30 p.m. We decided to eat downstairs at 42 Cafe. Kevin had Cobb Salad and I had breakfast of eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and potatoes. Rated: Don’t Come Here With 5 or More People…Menu Says “For parties of five or more, a 23% service charge will be added…” What? That is a normal size family for a lot of people. 

Next stop was The Container Store. Oh, this is such a fun store. Kevin said I like it because it is all about organization. True point! I had noticed that some of my containers that hold flour and such had the lids popping off. I found ProKeepers that seems to lock well. We bought 5 and one for Kevin’s coffee. 

Just under an hour away from the campground is Hot Springs National Park. We drove the back way there through roads with no shoulders, lots of curves, trees, and occasionally a clearing for a house or business. As we we entered the town of Hot Springs, we saw it is really run down. Very much so. Lots of empty buildings including motels. We were surprised. This was definitely the back way in. As we kept going, we came along Bathtub Row and on the other side of the street were all sorts of opened business. And tons of people! I can’t imagine how busy it would be in the summer. No parking spaces open until past the national park and I saw a city visitor center with parking. Kevin went to pay on the app and found out it is free parking on Sundays. Nice. At the parking lot sidewalk I saw a round concrete thing with pipes sticking out. What was it? This is where people can bring bottles and jugs and get free water. As we left for the day, Kevin grabbed a water bottle from the truck and filled it. Yes, the water was from the hot springs and was 143°. HA 

We started out at the national park visitor center. This is in one of the old bathhouses. A great video, with captions, explained how water goes down 1 foot per year and the water here is down 8000 ft. Then the cool water pushed the hot water up through the slits in the rock so quickly that it doesn’t cool down and out it comes. 143°. 100 gallons of water per day is the average that Americans use; the springs can supply that for 6,500 people every day! Native people came here and the word is they didn’t fight when in the water (same is said at Lava Hot Springs, ID). 

We walked along the street and saw the funniest thing. There were several signs saying, “No parking; equine only.” And there parked was a big Dodge Ram truck. I turned to Kevin and asked him if I remembered, “equine means horse, right?” Yes. We laughed that the ram truck “identified” as a horse. 

Walking back to the truck we saw a sign with a National Park Ranger hat in metal and the information that James Alexander Cary was the first National Park Service Ranger to be murdered in the line of duty. It was March 12, 1927, and he was killed by bootleggers while patrolling on West Mountain in the park. We took the faster way home (footnote 1) along the freeway. 

We stopped at Costco because I was completely out of chicken. I also got pork shoulder to make Carnitas. Well, of course the list we needed was quickly surpassed by what we wanted. LOL As we checked out, the guy told us they owed us money. How much? He didn’t know but we were to go to the membership desk. Wahoo! Turns out when I updated our address on the app, it didn’t change in their system and maybe they sent the 2% checks to our old place. They weren’t sure but they could see they owed us for two years. Nice! That is awesome! It was put on a Costco gift card. Can’t wait to spend it. HAHA

Today I made homemade GUMBO. Here is the link to the recipe:  https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a63579207/gumbo-recipe/ I first ate gumbo when we were in Louisiana back in 2023. I wanted to try it, since “eat what the locals eat” and I really liked it. Such a different flavor base. Well, I found a recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I made it today. It takes a lot of time to make. Just the constant stirring for the roux was almost 1/2 hour. It took me 2 hours to make it but wow oh wow delicious. Rated by both of us: Do You Have 2+ Hours In Your Day To Make This Every Day? 😉 

Text to a friend, “I told Kevin I am not cooking tonight. We will have the leftovers of the homemade Gumbo I made the other day. Why? I will be glued to the TV watching the Artemis launch (going around the moon). He laughed and asked if the “launch” is an April Fools joke. I told him it is real but he doesn’t believe me! 🤣”

It was a rainy day and evening but thankfully it didn’t stop us. We went to Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. This is the high school where 9 students tried to enter after Brown vs Board of Education, in 1957. The museum is free and done very well. We liked that there were a ton of videos of the actual “Little Rock 9” as they told their stories. All were captioned, too. We felt the display boards gave clear and good teaching information. 

Next stop was Esse Purse Museum. I was so excited to check out this unique museum. And it turned out to be great! I had no idea what to expect. On my Exploring Card I put a question mark for the cost: didn’t know the cost of the museum…and…maybe I would buy a purse! LOL When you walk in, it is a narrow store with purses and accessories. This is where you buy your ticket for the museum. It was $10.00 each. Then you go through a door and the museum is a very long and narrow area. I thought this was done in a very excellent way. It covers 1900-1999, each decade with glass enclosed displays of purses and what would be carried in them. A long sign board would describe the decade, the culture, and the purses and what was carried in them. I enjoyed this very much! There was even a hanging weight scale like you used to see at grocery stories for produce. You could weight your purse and then read about how heavy it should be. 🙂 I really wanted to buy a purse from here because what a fun memory. But alas, none were my style and I couldn’t bring myself to buy one that I wouldn’t love.

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.