Little Rock and the Prez

Moonrise over the Arkansas River
Little Rock Central High School
Reflection on the effect of the Little Rock Nine
William J. Clinton Presidential Library

Replica of the Oval Office

Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago?

Tiki Barber

Bill's boyhood home

Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center - Notice the vapor coming from the hot water in the fountain.

Nanc warms her hand in one of the open springs.

Music Room in the renovated Fordyce Bathhouse.

We spent four days at Maumelle Park near Little Rock on the banks of the Arkansas River and on our drive there we filled up with diesel fuel at the lowest price we have paid in our 16 months on the road. So even the cloud of seeing our IRA tank has a silver lining. We toured the Little Rock Central High School National Historical Site where in 1957 President Eisenhower used the U.S. Army 101st Airborne to integrate the school to comply with the Supreme Court decision 'Brown vs Board of Education' that ruled separating schools by race did not provide an equal education. After Governor Faubus used Arkansas National Guard to bar the black students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, from entering the school the president ordered the army to protect them. The U.S. troops helped the students but they were still harassed and abused by the racist crowds that gathered outside the school and by many students inside. Even so, senior Ernest Green became the first black to graduate from Central in May 1958. It was quite interesting being there 51 years later talking to the ranger who is a recent grad of integrated Central about the election of Obama. She had attended an election night party with one of the Little Rock Nine and said they both cried when it was announced Obama had won. We were there at dismissal and it looked like many other schools with kids of all shapes, sizes and color leaving school together even though Arkansas is a place that is still very much a red state.

We also spent a day at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center. The library uses a timeline to follow his eight years as president and other displays show his years as Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas. There are many videos and artifacts about life in the White House and the accomplishments of President Clinton. A number of displays deal with the impeachment and trial in the Senate where he was found not guilty. One room is an exact replica of the Cabinet Room and another is of the Oval Office. It is amazing what he was able to achieve even though the Republicans controlled Congress for six of his eight years. Economically the number of jobs increased over 20,000,000 and there was a budget surplus when he left office. He vetoed the tax cuts for the rich that Bush enacted his first year in office. Is there a connection there that we now have a huge deficit and the number of jobs has dropped by 1.2 million so far this year? Internationally we were well respected around the world for Clinton's many initiatives with all countries and now we are looked down on because we go it alone with disregard to world opinion. While in the library we saw former NFL player and current TV announcer, Tiki Barber, who was there doing a promotion for his new book. There are several other sites around the city including the governor's mansion, capitol building, Old State House and the Clinton Gore Headquarters that have connections to the former president.

Another day we continued our Billgrimage with a trip to Hot Springs. We saw his boyhood home and McClard's Bar-B-Q, one of his favorite restaurants. Hot Springs has a national park that is preserving its 47 hot springs and the old bathhouses where people would come to soak away all sorts of ailments. Most of the springs are now covered to prevent contamination but a few are still free flowing. When the bathhouses and springs were all open the area was known as the Valley of Vapors. In 1832 the federal government set aside four springs to protect this natural resource that comes out of the ground at 143 degrees. Along the original bathhouse row only the Buckstaff remains open today but others are being restored to their original grandeur to once again be open for public bathing. The Fordyce Bathhouse has been renovated, but not for bathing, and now serves as the park visitor center and is an example of the luxury style of bathhouses in the early 1900's. Others will be reopened for bathing as the restoration continues. The park also includes a campground, many trails and roads through the nearby mountains and a 216 foot observation tower.