Little Rock, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee
We had the first real rain we've had on our trip. That's downtown Little Rock in the distance, and the bridge spans the Arkansas River.
We started at the Clinton Presidential Center and Library in Little Rock, an impressive structure. Here's a night shot, courtesy of the New York Times.
Between the audio tour narrated by President Clinton, the long-winded descriptions of our tour guide (a member of the Arkansas Travelers, a group of diehard volunteers who traveled the country on their own time and their own dime to help get him elected), and all the interactive audiovisual media at each display, we felt bombarded and had to abandon ship before seeing everything. There's an area called the Timeline which is jam-packed with presidential memorabilia and audio and visual displays documenting Clinton's 8 years in office and his various doctrines and policies. If you're a political nerd, plan to spend the entire day at the museum. And bring an umbrella in case you get caught in the rain like we did.
Oddly, the museum restaurant has extremely limited vegan options, and we made sure to let the manager know that since Bill is a vegan, they ought to do better than that. But Bill has his own 2,000 square feet pied-a-terre above the museum with a west wall of floor-to-ceiling glass that looks onto downtown Little Rock (I guess in these parts that counts as a great view) and he probably travels with his own chef. He visits once a month and stays there when he's in town. In case you were wondering.
The funniest part of the museum was a video exhibit called The Humor of the Clintons, featuring Clinton spoofing himself in speeches over the years and Hillary doing a Forrest Gump bit. There's also an entire wall showing a tiny sample of the gifts given to the Clintons over the years. What I learned from this was never to give a gift to any President because they get so many they can't appreciate yours and it will end up in the back room of the presidential archives. Only the choicest gifts from world leaders and celebrities make it to the displays. I also learned that if you want to get lots of really cool gifts from really cool people all over the world (like gold-covered horse sculptures from the Amir of Bahrain), you should become President of the United States.
The coolest part of all these presidential centers are the replicas. Clinton's has the only full-size replica of the Oval Office.
There's also a replica of the Cabinet Room, and you can walk in and sit down at the table and pretend to be Secretary of State. Wish I'd had thought of doing that while I was there -- it would have made for a much more interesting picture.
And here's a replica of a table set for a State dinner along with the menu for President Nelson Mandela's visit. I'm not sure why I found this compelling enough to photograph at the time. I think I was just trying to keep warm (they really blast the air conditioning to preserve the exhibits).
A surprising aspect of the Museum was all the childhood memorabilia from both Hillary and Bill, like third grade report cards. By show of hands, who still has their third-grade report card??? Maybe it has something to do with your parents living in the same place forever. By the time I turned 13, I had lived in three countries and about six different houses (and my mother wonders why I have wanderlust), so some things just got dumped along the way.
The museum had a brief section on Hillary's rise to power and I was really impressed with a speech she gave to her class while still a college student at Wellesley. It caused quite a stir and resulted in her being interviewed by Life magazine. Really powerful and well-written for a 20-year-old. If you can enlarge it and read the excerpt, please do so, especially since she'll probably be running for President in a few years. Did you know her father was a staunch Republican and she was president of the young Republican club at college? Her politics changed during college and law school because of the turbulent times.
Here's a pic of her and Bill in younger days.
And a picture of Marina in front of the actual limousine used by Clinton during his presidency.
We hit the road again after our visit and headed for Memphis. We've noticed that there are vast numbers of 18-wheeler trucks (and quite a few trains) continually moving goods across the country. When we overtake the trucks, I look at the driver and the driver looks at me and we move on with our lives. But I was thinking what a great series of photographs it would make to take photos of each driver at the exact moment that we passed alongside them, each with their own unique expression of tiredness, frustration, joy or contentment. Unfortunately, Marina doesn't like to slow down for me to get the best shot because she's more concerned with road safety.
The second thing I've noticed about the open road is the number of campers, RVs and trailers. Every time we pass an RV, I think with longing of the time we're going to do this trip again in one of them. Here's a guy who really knows how to enjoy nature. Check out the bicycles, kayaks, canoes, and goodness knows what else he's got strapped to his SUV and his home-made trailer. He had a scruffy beard and his dog sat in the passenger seat; I'll bet he was playing Radiohead or folk music.
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