Russelville/Little Rock Arkansas

Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful mother's,especially mine.

What can I say about Arkansas!?! Well, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN.. Now I won't blame Arkansas for that, of course, it just happened to be a rainy week, but ugh...we all know what it's like when it rains too many days in a row.
I was mainly there to visit an old family friend in Russelville.
I've known him all my life but haven't seen him in a while except briefly a couple years ago. So I booked a hotel near his home and planned to drive to other spots I wanted to see. When I got to my hotel he and his friends invited me over for a cocktail party. Well, you can imagine my delight in being invited to a martini party! Either way it was great to see him. When I got there he just hugged me, cried and wouldn't let me go. He said when he looked at me he saw both of my parents who he loved dearly and felt like family had come to visit. He's 84 now and it felt so good knowing my visit brought him some joy.
He took me to a local diner for breakfast the next day, real southern food. You know, biscuits and gravy;grits. It was great to experience the local life. I try to do that wherever I go because I want to know how the locals in any area live and how they experience the world.

We had planned to tour around the local area but it was too rainy so we saved that for another day.

The next day I went to Little Rock and loved it. It was about a 2 hour drive. Russelville is at the foot of the Ozark mountains (beautiful) and Little Rock was further south.First stop when I got there, Clinton Library. Many people said no matter what my political feelings might be it's worth seeing and they were right! It was fascinating.
Being an adult when he was president and familiar with all that happened, made it more exciting. There was so much depth added to what I remember from that time. It was great to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff. And those estate gifts! Presidents can't keep any gift worth over $250 and the heads of other countries give some AMAZING things. I loved it.

An added bonus was an art exhibit displayed by the artist Peter Max. If you know him, his art reminded me of Leroy Neman. Remember that artist who did all the art and posters for the Olympics in the 70's? This guy was also very colorful and his work was displayed all over. He loved Clinton so he created 100 faces of Clinton (as seen in the photo). One of the display rooms had lots of famous people and one of George W. Bush and one of Bush the dad. Both of those pictures were hung behind the exhibit door, hmmmm....


I met a volunteer there who said her husband went to law school with "Bill" and they've known him a long time. As you can imagine, everyone in Arkansas loves him. She and I got talking and she asked me why I was in Arkansas and I explained my trip. She started talking about the things she hasn't done and because she was much older now wasn't able to do. I have had a few of those conversations on this trip and every time I feel really grateful that I have the opportunity to live out one of my dreams (yes, I know I've said it before and I'll probably keep saying it).
I spent the afternoon going through the shops and Art Galleries in Little Rock. They have a beautiful River St. Market on the water with a Farmer's Market and vendors with local artists displaying/selling beautiful crafts/art/jewelry. It was a nice day.

The next day I met John and his brother for a trip into the mountains and I got to see part of his family history. It was a beautiful farm on the top of a mountain. The funny part was that it had rained so much (though this happened to be a beautiful day) that we got the car stuck in the mud and had to call AAA. So here I was with 2 men, 84 and 70 something, stuck in the mud at the top of a mountain on land that wasn't their's anymore. Silent worrying was the theme. I silently got a kick out of it. We spent a long time waiting so needless to say I got a really good feel for the property and this picture of John at his family farm.
Once we were freed we went to a lake nestled in the mountains which was beautiful.

One of the last days there,another sunny one, I finally got out and went for a hike in a wildlife preserve. It was really swampy and the trails went pretty far into the woods. Snakes are a fear of mine so I was nervous. I didn't want to let it stop me and went anyway. After a while, I got so involved in all the plant and wildlife, I forgot about it. I saw a turtle in the grass and laid down next to him to get a close up. I realized as I lay there how amazing it is that when I'm not thinking about my fears I have the opportunity to actually be present for the beautiful gifts! One of my many life lessons on this trip.


Off to New Orleans!