Final Thoughts and Observations

Here are some random thoughts and observations that we wanted to add to the Little Rock adventure before the blog goes dark....
- We got up this morning and opened all the doors and windows in the house just for the fresh air. Morris spent the first few hours going from open door to open door and spending time in each one. We really missed the fresh air in the high-rise building.
- Even thought we know we would never want to live in a high-rise, it was a wonderful experience and we are so glad we did it. It was really fun to be able to walk to restaurants, farmers market, or just walk down to the river and go for a walk. Plus just sit and watch the city go by.
- Rarely did we ever see a person run a red light turning left while we were in Little Rock. That is the norm in Tucson. Also, people stopped behind the cross walk and didn't inch out into the left turn lane.
- The speed limit in west Texas is 80 mph for cars during the day, 70 mph for trucks and everyone goes to 65 mph at night. We were suprised to see that people ovserve it plus there were enough highway patrol on the highway to assure you did follow the rules.
- We certainly didn't miss the hard, hard, HARD water that Tucson has. Also didn't feel like I needed to use a full bottle of moisturizer every day on my skin. Of course I also couldn't control the natural curl in my hair with the soft water and humidity.
- I've heard about "Southern Hospitality" and to experience it is amazing. People act like they have known you forever and do they ever like to chat - about anything.
- I never did talk Larry into eating collard greens but at least he tried fried okra.
- Morris far exceeded our expectations - of course we were prepared for all the nightmare stories we had heard about traveling with a cat. He did really well. He could settle in anyplace we were after checking out every square inch of it. However, it's obvious since we got home that he prefers it here with space, fresh air, etc. And there was no way you could get him off our bed last night!
- I apologize to you readers who are excellent spellers. Now you know how spelling challanged I really am. 8-) We had spelling bees in school when I was a kid and I never lasted past the first round. Now math was a different story..... Unfortunately, the Yahoo blog software doesn't have a user-friendly spell check and -0- grammar check.
- After a few days rest, I will start on our vacation book and use the blog as a base for this trip. Will add more pics and script but the base is there which is nice.
- So.... after 91 posts to the blog, we thank you for your comments and enjoyoyed sharing our adventure with you. The blog is now dark until the next adventure! Larry, Darlene & Morris

We're home!

"After 20.5 hours of driving, my staff and I finally got home this afternoon. It took 14.5 hours to just drive across that place they call Texas. As you can see by this picture, no matter what my staff says, I'm the perfect traveler. Yesterday I spent a lot of time on the suitcases in the back of the car and made faces at the vehicles following us. Today I mostly just spent time in my cave - some call it a carrier. I would sleep awhile and then have a conversation with the staff although it was pretty one-sided since we couldn't communicate very well. I could say what I wanted and they didn't know the difference. They did get points for not going into restaurants and leaving me by myself. The hotel room last night was o.k. but I missed my chair from the apartment in Little Rock. I don't know about satellite radio... I had to listed to CNBC for 20+ hours! Got any questions on stocks for me? At least I'm back where I have lots of space and can go out into the entry and we can open doors. The down side is that I'm already wheezing and have only been home a couple of hours. My female staff person will do the blog tomorrow and then she says it's going dark until the next adventure" Morris McClelland

Halfway Home

We're staying in Big Spring, TX tonight which is almost exactly halfway home. Fortunately they have a Best Western that takes pets... It was a pretty good day driving and it didn't seem like we were on the road for 9 hr 45 min. Morris wasn't very happy when we first started out but there was only a couple of the "save me, they are killing me" screams from him. He spent the morning on top of a suitcase looking out the back window and then crawled into his carrier and slept most of the afternoon. He checked out every square inch of the motel room and then settled down on the window ledge looking at the world from the 2nd floor. Wonder if he can tell the difference between the 2nd and the 11th floor that he is used to? Tomorrow he will be back to ground level. 8-)
Imagine our surprise when we turned on the TV for the evening news and saw a reporter that used to be on Ch 4 in Tucson. He is now anchoring the news in Midland, TX. For you Tucson people, it is David Marino.

Packed and ready to go

Almost everything is packed and the alarm clock is set for 5 a.m. The car is loaded except for litter box, small suitcase for tomorrow night and the bag of food, etc for Morris. Tonight we went downstairs and had dinner where we did the first night we were here. Lunch today was Dugans where Larry had the best fish and chips he will probably have for a long time and I had their wonderful, homemade french fries. Our goal is to drive 600 miles tomorrow and we have reservations in Big Spring, TX. Morris has been pretty calm today - at least better than yesterday. I think we are going to give him a small sedative in the morning before we leave to make it easier on all of us. 8-)

A Tale of Two Cities

The population of metro Tucson is listed as 1,020,000 people. Little Rock's metro population is 686,000. Both cities have city councilman/mayor/city manger governments. The sales tax in Tucson is slightly higher sales tax. the median income is about the same as is the cost of living. However, the two cities could not be more different. Arkansas finished their fiscal year with a $90 million + surplus. Little Rock isn't perfect but it is doing a lot of things right. The city is clean and what little graffiti there is is quickly cleaned up. This picture is a downtown street and you can see the wrought iron surrounding the little flower beds with a tree in each one. Nice trash cans are on every block where there are pedestrians, people use them and they are emptied before getting full. Old building that cannot be restored are torn down and a park or parking lot put in the space. Parking lots have landscaping with trees and grass. Little Rock has a "land bank" which is where the city buys run down homes/building or trash filled abandoned lots, cleans them up, resells the space and the new buyer pays for the cleanup. Sometimes the city pays under $10 for a lot or $500 for an old, abandoned house. Even paying for cleanup, the eventual buyer gets a bargain. Empty downtown buildings are kept in good condition so they appeal to people who want to move into them. Two hugh old downtown buildings, across the street from each other, have become the largest charter school in the are. Trails and parks in the city are everywhere. Two old no-longer-used railroad trestles have been turned into pedestrian/bicycle bridges across the river. A large arena for shows, concerts etc is downtown near the river as is the ball park for the minor league baseball team. Freeways surround the city and one bisects Little Rock not far from the downtown area. Not once, in 2 months, have we seen anything in the paper about the city council fussing with each other. There is no doubt that Little Rock being the state capitol and the Clinton Library have a big impact on the town. Little Rock was recently listed as the 7th Best Value City for 2011 by Kiplinger Magazine. Besides being the state capitol, the job market is driven by a Caterpillar factory, headquarters for the IT company Acxiom and 5 very large medical centers. Little Rock citizens have pride in their town and it shows. Tucson could learn a lot from Little Rock!

Capital Hotel

The Capital Hotel is located near Arkansas's first state capitol building, now known as the Old State House. The Hotel as built in 1872 and was the most luxurious hotel in the state. It often served as an unofficial political headquarters where decisions, as well as political careers, were made. the hotel hosted many political and historic people in including President Ulysses S. Grant. Legend says that the Capital's unusually large elevator was built to allow Grant to take his horse to his hotel room. In 1974, the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel fell into disuse and disrepair during the 1960s and 1970s. It was purchased by a group of investors, restored and reopened in 1983. Another restoration occurred in 2005 and it reopened in 2007.

Lobby of the hotel.

Skylight above the hotel lobby.

Crisis - 7 coyote inside the city limits

Searcy, AR is about 50 miles northeast of Little Rock. At least 7 coyotes have been seen inside the city limits. Animal control has been called. Police have been called. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission have responded to the crisis and will allow them to trap the animals. In the meantime, people are being cautioned. Well you can imagine how hard we laughed over this article in the paper considering how many of them are Dorado residents!

"Can I start packing?"

About 1 minute after the suitcases came out today, Morris knew something was up. He gets clingy, wants to be held, hangs out at the front door, meows for no reason and keeps getting up on the bed where I'm folding clothes. I think part of it is that he thinks he is going to be left behind like he is when we go on trips. Larry keeps telling him that he gets to go but there is a slight communication gap between the two of them. I needed to go downstairs and talk to the building conciere about what to do with keys, etc so we put Morris on the leash and took him along. Actually he did a really good job of walking on the leash but he doesn't like elevators. At least the trip made him tired so he's napping. We are packing with mixed feelings and will be sad to leave. We have not 1 BUT 2 boxes of clothes to ship back due to our excessive contribution to the local economy. Between fantastic sales and different styles, we were very naughty kids.

Songahm Martial Arts Gate

This is also known as the H. U. Lee International Gate & Garden. General Master Haeng Ung Lee, from South Korea, created a fellowship of martial artists that grew into the American Taekwondo Association. Since 1977, the ATA's international headquarters have been in Little Rock. Mr. Lee died of cancer in 2000. His wife and the city of Little Rock build the park, located next to the convention center, in his memory. 80 tons of Arkansas wood was harvested and shipped to South Korea. The base is approximately 25 feet long, 9 feet wide and 30 feet high. the roof is made of clay tiles from South Korea. The handcrafted wood, granite foundation, roof tiles and paint was shipped back to Little Rock. Five artisan teams from South Korea came to Little Rock to assemble the gate and paint it using "old world" techniques. The gate is painted in the primary colors of South Korea. The outside 2 gates are used for everyday entrance and the center gate is only opened for ceremonial occasions. Cost of the project was $1.4 million.

This is a statue of a male and female student, both bowing. The bowing represents greeting and respect. Each stand 6 ft tall and are dressed in ATA attire.
The reflective pool, in the shape of the Songahm star, is 27 feet wide. According to the ATA, when the outer points of the star are connected, it forms a circle which represents complete balance. The fountain represents the spreading of knowledge. It is 9 feet tall. 9 and 3 are significant numbers in the Asian culture. The fountain contains 3 bowls. The top bowl is 3 dragon heads; the middle bowl is 6 dragon claws and the bottom bowl is 9 Songahm Stars.

Bust of Eternal Grand Master Lee.

The Statue of Turtles is 1 big turtle and eight small ones made of polished granite. It is 2 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 4 feet long. The statue symbolizes long life. Nine turtles together symbolize the unity and strength of the family.

We're Brain Dead.....

We are both totally brain dead tonight after spending the day at the convention! It was kinda like school in that each session lasted 1 hour and there were 3 different ones going on at one time so you had to pick the one to attend. After the session, you moved to another room for the one you wanted for that hour. It was such a delight and pleasure for us to be able to hear and meet some of the top docs in kidney disease from across the nation. There as such a wide range of topics. Topics ranged from what they are working on to replace dialysis or transplants such as a wearable, artificial kidney to new meds that are being tested. There was a "Lunch with the Expert" and we were at the table with a Dr. Rees who is one of the leaders in paired donation. It was great to be able to directly ask him questions on transplants. There is a 1/2 day session tomorrow and then it will be time to start packing to come home.

The Convention Begins....

See....I really am still alive! The AAKP (American Association of Kidney Patients) kicked off there 38th annual convention last night with a reception at the Clinton Library. We were back there again this morning for a forum on Health Care Disparity (race, gender, age, etc) and it was a lot more interesting that I expected. I was stunned to find out that 48% of adults cannot read a bus schedule well enough to use the bus. One of the speakers was the Immediate Past Chief Medical Officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. Then this afternoon we learned more about stem cell research than I ever wanted to know. The convention goes all day tomorrow and 1/2 day on Sunday. When we got home about 5:30 p.m, Morris met us at the door and cussed us out all the way to the kitchen for leaving him alone all day. Usually we are home by 1 or earlier.

Peabody Ducks

Here is the Duck Palace where the Peabody Ducks spend their time when not "on stage". Back in the 1930's, the General Manager of The Memphis Peabody Hotel and a friend returned from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had a little too much Tennessee sippin' whiskey and thought it would be funny to place some of their live decoy ducks (it was legal then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Peabody fountain. The reaction of the guests who saw the ducks was enthusiastic. Thus began a Peabody tradition which has become internationally famous. Each of the Peabody Hotels has a fountain and their own ducks with a Duck Master. The ducks do their walk to the lobby fountain at 11 a.m. and go back to the Duck Palace at 5 p.m. The 5 ducks are changed out about every 3-4 months and this was the 1st week for the ducks we saw today. All Peabody Ducks are raised on a central farm and it takes 3-4 days to train them for the red carpet.

Three of the ducks resting inside their Duck Palace. There is running water, food dishes and a water mister inside their house.

The fountain is ready with the red carpet from the elevator to the fountain's edge.

Waiting inside the Duck Trailer to enter the elevator to go downstairs and "on stage".

The ducks and the Duck Master in the elevator on the way down.


Walking the red carpet!

Single file up the stairs into the fountain where they will stay until time to go back home.

Copeland's of New Orleans

We took a break today from Southern Cooking to try some Creole food. There is a Copeland's here in Little Rock and they are famous for authentic Cajun/Creole cooking like that in New Orleans. The Copeland's chain was started by the guy who started Popeye's Chicken which we have become addicted to since we have been here. Anyway, Larry went for the Shrimp Creole today and give it 2 thumbs up. I tired it but it was a lot more spicy that I could go for and I like spicy food. Apparently, according to the server, it's the most spicy item on the menu. This pic is a fountain in the entry. Just wine bottles in a brick wall with water flowing from them. Kinda neat and very different!

Odds n Ends of Aug 24th

McDonalds: There is a McDonalds about a mile from us just before we get on the cross-town freeway which means it's a frequent Hot Mocha stop for Larry. This place has to have the worst service of any McDonalds I have ever seen and believe me, I've seen a lot of them. It's on a small corner lot and there isn't much room for parking or drive-thru. On a typical morning, thee are 8-9 cars in the drive-thru which means that at least 1-2 cars are out in a busy street. They have a "security" person whose main job seems to be keeping the cars in the drive-thru moving so the street isn't blocked. They have a lot of people working inside yet they are SOOOOO inefficient! Plus...the person who takes the money should never have people contact with her disposition.

Wal-Mart Supercenter: I have become a believer in a store where I can buy a TV and steaks all in one trip! I've never lived where there was one of these before and was really surprised at the quality of the meat, produce, etc. I'll miss it!

More Thunderstorms: Poor Morris....we had thunderstorms last night and again this morning. Last night was a lot of lightening and thunder. He gave up his chair for a spot on the sofa that is as far away from the window as he can get and laid so he couldn't see the windows. This morning there wasn't any lighting but a bit of thunder. He was on the chair asleep and the thunder woke him up so he quickly moved. Kinda hard to believe that Little Rock has already had more rain this month than Tucson may get in a year.

Shopping: We have certainly contributed to the economy around here with our shopping. It's interesting that you can go to a dept store like Pennys or Dillards and there is such a different selection of clothes between different parts of the country. But oh well.....

Rice Farms

Arkansas ranks first among the six major rice-producing states accounting for approximately 48% of the U. S. rice production. Rice is grown on about 1.3 million acres in the state each year. These fields are about 10 miles southeast of Little Rock close to the Arkansas River. Rice plants grow 3.4 - 5.9 feet tall with long slender leaves. The fields are flooded to set young seedlings, control weeds, reduce pests and to control growth. Rice fields are harvested in mid-September to October. We were first by these fields about a month ago and the plants have easily doubled in size since then. During winter months, rice farmers capture rainwater in rice fields crating the most important wintering area for North American mallard ducks.

B I G Yards

Larry simply cannot get over the size of yards back here. We happened to drive by this one today and admittedly it is one of the largest we have seen. He estimates it is at least 3 acres and it was all perfectly manicured. I keep telling him that you just get on your riding lawn mower, put your straw hat on, turn on your IPod to some good 70's music and start driving. He's not buying it that it is that easy..... 8-)

An Evening with Janet Napolitano

We saw in the paper that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was speaking at the Clinton Library tonight and it was free.....so made reservations and walked over to it. If you aren't from Arizona, you may not know that she was the Governor of Arizona before Obama named her for the position she holds. The room was packed with at least 500 people in attendance. All the TV and print media were there. The theme of her speach was that the odds of another 9/11 are pretty slim but terriorism is changing and very real. She cited computer hacking, shipping stuff in planes, chemicals, etc as being likely. Homeland Security is making a push to take prevention to the local level with training for police, etc. They have a campaign of "See something, say something" and then training local authorities on what to do when something is reported to them. Kinda interesting and a different way to spend an evening.

MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History

General Douglas MacArthur was born in 1880 at the Little Rock Arsenal and this is the only building remaining of the original Little Rock Arsenal. In 1836, the same year that Arkansas was admitted into the Union, the federal government requested that a military installation be built in Little Rock and it would be known as the Little Rock Arsenal. It cost $30,000 to build and is made of timbers from south of Little Rock, stone from north of Little Rock and locally made bricks. Over the next 10 years, more than 30 buildings were added to the installation. The Arsenal was decommissioned in 1890 and it was given to the city of Little Rock in 1892 when the other buildings were torn down or relocated. Over the years, it was the site of various museums but in 2001 it became the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. There are several permanent exhibits including some really good Civil War exhibits, a room dedicated to World War I and another displays a portion of the museum's collection of 4,600 photographs taken by news photographers during World War II. Other rooms document the Korean War experiences of General MacArthur. General MacArthur's corn cob pipe, aviator glasses and 5 star insignias for his uniforms.

Hat worn by General MacArthur

This wonderfully restored house has nothing to do with the museum but is across the street from the museum and is beautiful!

Walk in the rain

I throughly enjoy going out for breakfast! Larry doesn't even like to eat breakfast, no matter what the doctors say, and going out for breakfast is just not on his radar screen. So.....since we've been here, every Sunday morning I walk 4 blocks to the Marriott Courtyard for a wonderful buffet breakfast. They don't have fancy foods, just basic, good, home cooked breakfast stuff. Well, today was the last Sunday I'll be able to do this since we'll be going to the convention next Sunday which will be our last Sunday here in Little rock. Anyway, when I left the apt this morning there was just an intermittent sprinkle of rain falling. I took the umbrella, just in case, and am glad I did since there was a light rain falling when I headed back to the apt. It was wonderful! Just me, empty streets, a full tummy, the smell of fresh rain and a light rain still falling.... 8-)

Important Foods of the South from the Farmers Maket

I don't think I have been in a single restaurant back here that doesn't have okra on the menu. It is stewed, fried and who know how else they can figure out how to fix it. To us, it doesn't have much taste. I won't touch it and no way would I ever cut it due to the slimy substance that in the peeling.

Another southern staple is collard greens. I can remember my mother going out in the garden and picking this stuff which just looked like weeds to me. It isn't just one green but includes a mixture of turnip greens, mustard greens, etc. It is cooked down in a pan with a generous seasoning of ham hocks, fatback or other fatty meat, diced onions, vinegar, salt and pepper. You always eat green with cornbread. It was never one of my favorite foods when growing up.

These are long beans - sometimes call Chinese Long Beans. They are cooked and eaten like green beans. However, the bean pods are 12 - 24" long! I had never seen these before but several stands at the Farmer's Market have them.