Moving Forward

Today we headed home after a great two weeks of making new memories but Daddy was with us every step of the way. Some days it would be seeing a cardinal, some days it would be seeing USMC related things, some days it would be while we were eating something and we would remember how much he loved the dish and some days it would just be remembering how much we love him and he loved us. 

We miss him terribly but know he would want us to keep living, keep achieving our goals, keep loving and be happy. He would want us to move forward.  One of the things that gets me is when people say “move on” as to me it implies the person who passed was just a moment in time and you can just get past it.  Daddy will forever be with us and never forgotten and we will honor him by living life, discovering new things and being happy.

We love you more Daddy (aka JB).

A Day in Little Rock

We didn’t have too much planned for today as we hadn’t been able to find much before our trip. We did read about a pig sculpture but couldn’t seem to find it and the locals we talked to didn’t know about it.  Across the river in North Little Rock, there is The Old Mill so off we went. 

The Old Mill is an historic re-creation of an 1880's water-powered grist mill.  According to the sign there, it was in the opening scene of "Gone With The Wind".  As many times as we've watched the movie, we couldn't remember it so to YouTube we went and what do you know, it sure was!

After the mill, we drove around the historic area of North Little Rock. Sadly many of the business looked closed down. There is a trolley that runs throughout Little Rock and crosses over the river to North Little Rock and we got a quick glimpse of it. 

A shopkeeper in town told us about a farm to table restaurant in the SoMa (South Main) area so we thought we’d give it a try. The Root Cafe is definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in Little Rock. There were some beautiful homes and buildings on that side of town. 

Before the trip, we read about the H.U. Lee International Gate. The gate is a symbol of friendship between South Korea and the USA. It honors the American Taekwondo Association founder. The international headquarters of the ATA is here in Little Rock. 

We also heard the Capitol was pretty. When we got there, we couldn’t really figure out how to get in so we stopped a man walking and he personally escorted us to the legislature parking and said we could park there since they were out today. He brought us in through the tunnel and got us through security. We could tell by the way security treated him, he must be someone important but he never introduced himself. After he escorted us into the main part of the Capitol and told us a little about it, he left us to explore on our own. I couldn’t stand not knowing  who he was so I went back to security to ask. Turns out he is the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff. He was very friendly and kind to take the time to help us...can definitely tell we're in the South!

Imagine our surprise to find Underwood on one of the name plates.  

This is House Representative Kendon Underwood (no relation).

The building was very nice and it was great to have it pretty much to ourselves. We wandered around the floors and opened doors…figured unless someone came after us we were okay. We were able to look into the House and Senate chambers from the galleries. I was reminded how lucky and blessed we are to live in the USA because in other parts of the world there is no way you could walk around a government building unescorted and forget about taking photos. I’ve been in many countries where it was illegal to even take photos of the outside of a government building. 

Sentate Chamber

House Chamber

We kept seeing around town these electric scooters.  Turns out they are part of a pilot program between Lime and the city of Little Rock.  Similar to ZipCar, the scooters are left where the user leaves them and are billable by the minute.  They are $1 to unlock (with app) and then $0.15 for each minute.  To make sure the city doesn't become littered with them, nightly Lime staff and Juicers (independent contractors) pick them up every night and charge them and then place them strategically around town the next morning.

After driving around a little, we stopped at a Wendy’s and had a frosty. Daddy loved frosties and it was one of our weekly rituals up until just the Thursday before he passed.  We headed back to the hotel to chill before packing up for tomorrow’s flight home. 

Tulsa to Little Rock in 8 Hours

Our original plan was to go back roads from Tulsa to Little Rock but when we woke up it was pouring and the forecast looked like heavy rain all day. We opted for the safer (and faster) route of taking the interstate. The drive was supposed to be 3.5 hours but as usual it took us a bit longer. 

We just can't resist exiting when we see a brown sign indicating something that might be interesting. Some of the signs were just teasers and when we would exit, the site would be over 10 miles away so we’d hop back on interstate. 

We kept seeing signs for the Historic District of Van Buren so we had to check it out. The town was very cute and had what looked like some really interesting shops but sadly they were all closed. The Visitor Center was open and the lady said since they are open on Saturdays the shops close on Mondays. This has been a very common theme on our travels. So nice to see these little towns make sure to keep a work/life balance and only work five days a week. 

We asked the lady in the Visitor Center for a good spot for lunch and she recommended the Dairy Dip Diner. They had a great burger and patty melt and offered a little excitement. The police had stopped a couple folks out front and all the servers and guests were peering out the window watching. #smalltownexcitment 

Can you beleive we actually used to pay to be
told how much we weighed?  How crazy were we?!

Back on the road, we saw a couple big billboards for Wiederkehr Village so we figured they had to have some really cool sites and took the 15 minute drive off the interstate only to discover the village has a population of 46!  Literally 30 seconds later, we were out of the village.

Who knew Arkansas produced wine?!  After the village, we started seeing signs for the Wine Trail.  As much as we wanted to stop at some of the tastings, we decided to keep moving.

We wanted to see where the road led and we stumbled upon St. Mary’s Church and knew we had to stop. Daddy’s funeral mass was at St. Mary’s in Charleston and we saw a cardinal land on the statue of the Blessed Mother as we pulled up so we took as a sign Daddy was with us. The church and grounds were beautiful and there was an amazing view as well. 

The road eventually took us to Altus and when we saw the sign for their Business District we couldn’t help but turn off. Over the course of the last two weeks, we’ve learned the Business District is the town square for these small towns.  I bet back in its heyday this was a hopping place. Sadly, like most of the little towns in this country, the town square has closed down. 

Altus was our last stop before Little Rock as I was starting to reach my driving limit. Tomorrow we plan to head out to the River Market area and see what the town has to offer.