Day 30: I miss Bill

Today began a sort of mad dash across the Southwest. The days of 4 hour dives between cities and of taking 2 lane roads are over and we are on a mission to get to Albuquerque by Thursday night so that we can be there when my mother and sister arrive in prep for the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta Saturday morning. It's the meeting of the mothers and Justine and I want to be there for it.

Our only stop of the day was in Little Rock, Arkansas to visit the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. By act of Congress each President since the 70s must provide a place for the collection of presidential papers, speeches and other supporting documents in a library setting designed for research. Congress won't fund these libraries, but you got to have them, so in order to raise the funds to keep them going, each president has opted to erect a museum to his stay in the White House and the admission fee combined with private donations pay for them.

The Bill Clinton Museum is an open love letter to Slick Willy. I loved Clinton, wished that Gore (and when not him, Kerry) could have replaced him, but this museum was one big cigar in his lovely lady parts. There was no mention of Monika, nor any disparaging comment about his presidency. It was solid propaganda all the way through. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a little more balanced in my mind. That said, there was plenty of fascinating history, beautiful displays of some of the presidential gifts he received

and a replica of the Oval Office as he had it, complete with the histories and symbolism of his furnishings.

We got to listen to Billy himself give us an audio tour of the museum and there was an impressive yet odd curated display of Chopper style motorcycles that nothing to do with Clinton spread throughout the museum.

After the museum we drove around Little Rock a bit looking for aplace to eat and settled on The Flying Fish, a southern fried fish place with any number of combinations of catfish, shrimps, oysters, mussels or hush puppies deep fried in cornmeal batter.

On the walls were an extensive collection of "Big Mouth Billy Bass" animatronic singing fishes. No doubt if you remember them you are shuttering right now at the thought of one of them crooning Take Me To The River and Don't Worry Be Happy. Thankfully these all had their batteries removed and I think this was to serve as a graveyard for them. Apparently they will give a basket of catfish to anyone who brings in their novelty plaque for display and retirement in the restaurant.

We also visited the Clinton museum store which was next door and bought a few choice items.

Hopping back in the car we drove through the state of Arkansas and stopped for the night in Ten Killer State Park just past he Oklahoma border.

We secured a beautiful cabin in the park, eat a dinner consisting of Tasty Bites and Dolmas, and then passed out for the night.

Day 30: I miss Bill

Little Rock, United States