Living Our Dream

Old State House

Little Rock, AR - Events of Tuesday, May 14 to Wednesday, May 15, 2013

After our walk across the Big Dam Bridge that we wrote about in our last post, we headed to downtown Little Rock to see the Old State House Museum.

Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas. Although we have visited a number of state capitol buildings, we have never toured the one in Little Rock. We didn't tour it on this stop either, but we decided to visit the building that once served as the state capitol until 1911 when the current capitol building was completed.

The Old State House is the oldest surviving capitol building west of the Mississippi. It was used for several different purposes following the relocation of the state government to the new building in 1911. In 1947, the building became a museum. The Old State House Museum underwent a three-year restoration that was completed in 1999.

Old State House Museum

The Old State House has three sections - one for each branch of the government. The center section with its large pediment and four Doric columns was for the legislature, the west section (left) was for the executive branch and the east section was for the judicial branch.

Legislative section of the Old State house

The original design was for a larger structure built from stone, but the design was revised prior to starting construction due to budget limitations. The size was reduced, the stone was replaced by stucco-covered brick, and tin was used for the roof material instead of the copper. Inside, faux graining was used on doors and woodwork and faux marbling was used on mantles. Construction started in 1833 and was well underway when Arkansas became a state in 1836.

In 1885, the building was expanded. The portico and columns on the back side of the center section were removed, and the building was extended 50' to accommodate a larger legislature for the growing population. The rear portico was not replaced following the expansion.

The fountain in front of the State House is a 1998 recast of the original fountain, which was made for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia by a foundry that made cannons for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The original fountain was placed in front of the State House in 1878. It remained dry until the installation of city water in 1880.

1998 reproduction of the original 1876 Centennial Fountain

Inside the museum is a piece of the original 1876 fountain.

Rusted piece of the original fountain

The State house was originally designed as three separate buildings connected by covered walkways as shown in the artist rendering below. The walkways were later enclosed and were eventually extended to the two-story, enclosed hallways that exist today.

The State House was originally three separate buildings connected by covered walkways.

Inside the museum are a number of permanent and traveling exhibits that include a section on the history of the building itself plus many historical Arkansas artifacts. Paul thought the old typewriter in the next photo was interesting. Many youngsters today have never even seen a typewriter much less used one.

1920s typewriter

There are also several period rooms that have been designed and furnished by various civic groups. Unfortunately, although there were signs giving credit to the group that was responsible for each room, we couldn't find any information about what periods the rooms represented or why they were significant.

Period room set up as a library

A good bit of the second floor is dedicated to the first families of Arkansas. There were exhibits of memorabilia from some of the more well-known Arkansas governors including Orval Faubus who was governor during the 1957 desegregation crisis in Little Rock that we learned about when we visited the Central High School National Historic Site a few days prior.

Memorabilia from Governor Orval Faubus

Governor Mike Huckabee, who was once a presidential candidate, was also represented in the museum.

Memorabilia from Governor Mike Huckabee

There were also some cardboard cutouts of past governors. We don't know who the ones are to the left, but Bill Clinton with his saxophone to the right was certainly recognizable. Bill Clinton is probably one of the best-known governors of Arkansas. The William J. Clinton Presidential Library is located in Little Rock, and you can click here to read about our 2009 visit to his library.

Cardboard cutouts of several past Arkansas governors including Bill Clinton

There was also a fairly large display of Arkansas first ladies' ball gowns; but unfortunately, the lighting, which is kept low to avoid fading, was too dim for photos.

Also on the second floor are two legislative chambers. The smaller one is furnished the way it would have been around 1836 when Arkansas first became a state. After the 1885 expansion of the building, the legislature moved across the hall to a larger chamber in the newly added wing. Today, the larger chamber is used to display various plaques and photos detailing the history of the Arkansas.

1836 legislative chamber

After we finished our tour of the Old State House, we stopped for a late lunch at Cotham's in the City. Cotham's in the City is the sister restaurant to Cotham's Mercantile that we have gone to in the past. Cotham's Mercantile is located in an old general store in Scott, AR about 10 or 12 miles to the east of Little Rock. Cotham's in the City is located only a few blocks away from the Old State House, so it made sense to go there instead of driving all the way to Scott.

Cotham's in the City

Cotham's is the home of the Hubcap Burger. The Hubcap Burger is huge - about 8" diameter - so we split one. The burger comes with regular fries for $10; but we substituted an order of sweet potato fries at a nominal upcharge for Paul, and we added an order of onion rings for Margery.

Hubcap Burger with sweet potato fries for Paul and onion rings for Margery

Margery with her half of the Hubacp Burger

The burger is not only large, but it is also thick. The extra thickness helps keep the burger nice and juicy during cooking. The bun is also big, but it's not too thick. That makes for more meat and less bun, which gives the burger plenty of good, beefy flavor.

We decided to share a piece of Mississippi Mud Pie for dessert. Cotham's version has a layer of vanilla ice cream between two layers of dense, chocolate cake. The whole thing is smothered in hot fudge and topped off with a couple of dollops of whipped cream. We shared a piece the first time we went to Cotham's Mercantile several years ago, and we remembered it was yummy. We were planning to share a whole piece this time, but our waitress warned us a whole portion was huge and advised us the half portion size was plenty for two. She was right. Even the half portion was big.

Mississippi Mud Pie

Since the new Arkansas Capitol is only about two blocks from Cotham's, we decided it was only fitting we should at least drive past to take a quick photo since we weren't planning on touring it this time in Little Rock. On the way there, we passed three horsemen traveling down the road. When we first saw them from a distance, we thought they were cowboys, and we had been somehow transported to Texas. As we got close, however, we realized they were mounted police.

Mounted police in downtown Little Rock

Current Arkansas Capitol building

After driving past the capitol, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV. The next day (Wednesday), we mixed relaxation with a few chores in preparation for our departure on Thursday. We'll tell you where we went in our next post.

Bernice Garden Farmers' Market

Little Rock, AR - Events of Friday, May 10 to Sunday, May 12, 2013

We mentioned in our last post that we had several favorite eateries here in Little Rock. Well, we just found a new one. Margery ran across a string of good reviews online for the barbecue at Whole Hog Café. Whole Hog Café has three locations in Little Rock. They have several more locations elsewhere in Arkansas and also as far away as New Jersey and New Mexico. One of the Little Rock locations happened to be close to where we planned to go on Friday to run some errands, so we stopped for lupper.

Whole Hog Café

Smoker on display inside the door of Whole Hog Café

Whole Hog Café has all the usual barbecue favorites - pulled pork, ribs, beef brisket, chicken and smoked sausage. The sandwiches are available in regular and jumbo sizes as are the plates. The cost of sandwiches ranges from $4.59 for a regular pulled pork to $7.99 for a jumbo brisket. Plates cost about $2 more and include two sides. Ribs are $8.99 for 4 bones to $20.99 for a full slab.

We were hungry for good old pulled pork, so we both had a jumbo pulled pork plate with potato salad and cole slaw for our sides.

Jumbo pulled pork plate

Paul about to dig into his pulled pork barbecue

The pork was tender and moist with just about the right amount of smoke. The sides were delish, too.

They have 7 different kinds of barbecue sauces that range from sweet molasses to southern vinegar and spice. The heat ranges from mild to what they call Volcano. We tried just about everything but the Volcano, and we both liked the southern.

On Saturday, we did our weekly cleaning chores in the morning then ran to the local Walmart and to Kroger to pick up a few groceries. Kroger is Margery's favorite grocery chain of all time, so we usually make a point of stopping when we get to an area where their stores are located.

Little Rock has a farmers' market on Saturdays in the downtown area along the riverfront that we have gone to in the past, but we found out about another farmers' market in the downtown area that is held on Sundays. The Saturday market is a big market with lots of produce, entertainment and a few crafts. The Sunday market is held adjacent to Bernice Garden, which is a small, urban garden. Since we like gardens, we decided to give the Bernice Garden Farmers' Market a try.

Bernice Garden Farmers' Market

As expected, the market and garden were small, and they were both pretty artsy. The garden is filled with quirky sculptures.

Garden sculptures

Paul loves mosaics, and they had some nice ones that were supports for wooden benches. The abstract designs reminded us ocean of waves.

Mosaic bench supports

After we looked around a bit at the garden and the sculptures, we began to meander through the small market. The Saturday riverfront market has nice produce, and most of it is everyday vegetables and fruits like tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, strawberries and melons that have been commercially grown. On the other hand, the market at Bernice Garden has a lot of specialty items, including several vegetables we have never even heard of, that are grown by small producers - most likely the vendors themselves. This time of year, the primary offerings were for specialty greens.

The Sunday market at Bernice Garden also had a few crafts like the jewelry shown below. The crafts were high end and well done.

Crafts at the farmers' market

There was a booth selling artisan cheese. They had some interesting types like habanero-cheddar. There was also a booth selling baked goods that were very tempting, but we have been eating out a lot lately, so we passed.

Baked goods

Another vendor was selling some very healthy-looking herb plants.

Herb plants

As we said, the market was small; but we enjoyed seeing things that were different from what we usually see. We also enjoyed the garden. If you want a large selection of regular produce, go the riverfront market on Saturday. However, if you want to see some unusual things, go the Bernice Garden Market on Sunday.

It was still early when we left the market, and we had another stop to make on the way back to the motor home. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Little Rock to Memphis

West Memphis, AR - Events of Friday, June 22 to Saturday, June 23, 2012

Paul was up early the day we left Little Rock (Friday) hoping to catch one last sunrise. Unfortunately, there were clouds to the east that pretty much blocked the sun as it came up over the river. However, a little later, we got a different treat as a hot air balloon came floating over the river.

Hot air balloon over the Arkansas River

The balloon went a little to our south, then began to descend behind the trees.

Balloon descended to the south of Maumelle Park

After the balloon was out of sight, we had breakfast and finished packing up. Then it was off to the dump station and to the boat launch parking lot where we had enough room to hitch up the car.

The drive to Memphis was about 3 hours including a fuel stop. We pulled into Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park, where we have stayed twice before, a little after noon. Tom Sawyer's is located overlooking the Mississippi in West Memphis, AR right across the river from Memphis, TN.

The campground has one section back from the river under the trees where they mostly put their seasonals and two sections right along the Mississippi. The section along the river where our site was located is primarily for motor homes, and the sites face the river. The other riverfront section is primarily for 5th wheels, and the sites face away from the river so you can get a nice view if you have a picture window in the rear of your rig.

The main entrance road into Tom Sawyer's RV Park is paved, but the interior roads are fairly dusty gravel. About one third of the sites in the two sections near the river are paved, and all the rest are gravel. There are full hookups with 30/50-amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi signal was a little weak where we were (two bars), but the connection was fairly fast. We used the campground Wi-Fi most of our stay even though we got dumped off occasionally. Using campground Wi-Fi when possible allows us to stretch our Verizon Broadband to keep us from going over our 5GB data limit.

We had reserved a front row site, and they gave us a great site right on the end.

Our end site at Tom Sawyer's RV Park

The sites are a little narrow, but our site had a lot of extra space and a nice, big tree on our door (south) side. Unfortunately, the tree was located in just the wrong spot that it blocked the signal to our rooftop satellite dish. We probably could have moved the motor home all the way to the rear of the site to make the rooftop dish work, but we preferred not to park the car in front of the motor home so we would have an unobstructed view of the river out our front window. Therefore, Paul had to get out our portable dish and tripod. This was the first time in almost 6 years of full-timing we had to use the tripod. Setup of the portable dish was easy once Paul remembered to switch the input to the receiver from the rooftop dish over to the new cables he ran a while back for the portable dish.

Most of the front row was filled by late afternoon, but much of the rest of the campground except for the seasonal area under the trees was empty.

Front row of sites

Tom Sawyer's has a much better view of the Mississippi than Riverview RV Park where we stayed recently, and there seems to be more river traffic here than there was down around Natchez. We were still in the process of setting up when the first tow boat went by heading upriver.

Tow boat and barges

The campground has a nice, grassy area where there are several benches along the river bank. On our evening walk, we paused on one of the benches a while. Another tow was headed downstream.

More barges heading downstream

At the same time, a small tow boat and a work barge of some sort was chugging upstream.

Work boat heading upstream

There are lots of things to do in and around Memphis beside watching the barges go up and down the river. We have numerous possibilities we are considering. However, one of the most important things we want to do while in Memphis is sample more of the delicious barbecue for which they are so famous.

The one barbecue joint that stood out in our memory from our two previous visits to Memphis was the Bar-B-Q Shop, so we headed into Memphis on Saturday afternoon for a late lunch.

The Bar-B-Q Shop

We arrived at the Barb-B-Q Shop around 2:30, and even though it was the middle of the day, the place was fairly crowded. We had gone there before, not only in the middle of the day, but also in the middle of the week. Therefore, we weren't used to seeing so many people in the restaurant. It took much longer than usual for our food to arrive. We found out later there was a large group in the next room. Judging from the fact they left just about the time we got our food, they must have arrived a little before us, and that must have created a bit of a backup in the kitchen.

The food was worth waiting for. We both had chopped pork dinner plates for our late lunch. Margery had slaw and fries for her sides, and Paul had slaw and beans. The pork was tender and moist, even without barbecue sauce. We prefer slightly tart (but not sour) barbecue sauce, and the sauce at the Barb-B-Q Shop is just about perfect in our book with just the right amount of sweetness to offset the tartness. We also love their cole slaw because it is slightly sweet with just a hint of tartness. The slaw and the barbecue go great together with the slaw also adding a nice crunch to the tenderness of the pork.

Chopped pork dinner

Margery had slaw and fries with her chopped pork.

In addition to chopped pork, the Barb-B-Q Shop has ribs, chicken, turkey and sausage. Sandwiches are $4 to $6, and our dinner plates were around $10.

We got our visit to the Memphis area to a great start with some great barbecue. We have more barbecue joints to check out, and plenty of sighteeing possibilities for the three weeks we are scheduled to be here.

Little Rock, AR

Little Rock, AR - Events of Sunday, June 10 to Thursday, June 21, 2012

On Sunday, Paul was up early again and caught another beautiful sunrise.

Sunrise over the Arkansas River

A couple of squirrels were running around the campsite, and they were scurrying up and down several of the nearby trees. One of them paused several times to keep a wary eye on Paul.

A squirrel eyed Paul warily

After breakfast, we did our weekly cleaning, then we chilled out and watched the NASCAR race. We also watched many of the weekend warriors leave the campground. The funny thing is the campground never really empties out in the summer. About two thirds of the people left, and the rest stayed another day or two. Every day during the week, a few RVs left, and a few others arrived. Maumelle Park is close enough to Little Rock, we think a lot of people stay beyond the weekend or arrive during the week and just go to work from the campground.

After making a stop at Walmart on Monday morning and stopping back at the motor home to put the groceries away, we drove to Cotham's in Scott, AR for a late lunch. Marilyn and Alan, our full-timing friends who were originally from Little Rock, introduced us to Cotham's when we met them at Maumelle Park in 2009.

Cotham's Mercantile

Cotham's has two locations - one in downtown Little Rock called Cotham's in the City and the original restaurant located in Scott, AR about 30 minutes east of where we were staying in Maumelle Park called Cotham's Mercantile. The one in Scott is called Cotham's Mercantile because it is located in an old general store built in 1914. Cotham's Mercantile added a small eating area to serve lunch in 1984. Soon, people from Little Rock discovered Cotham's. It's list of customers includes former President Bill Clinton whose office was in the capitol building in Little Rock when he served as governor of Arkansas from 1983 to 1992. Cotham's Mercantile has also been featured on the Travel Channel program Man vs. Food.

Inside Cotham's Mercantile

While Cotham's has plenty of southern favorites like fried catfish, chicken fried steak, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, and fried okra (note the frequent use of the word "fried"), it is famous for it's Hubcap Burger. The burger, which supposedly weighs about a pound, has a diameter of about 8 or 9 inches. We shared one between the two of us, and we also shared a large order of onion rings. A large order consists of 10 very large, hand-cut rings.

We split a Hubcap Burger and a large order of onion rings.

 
Paul had trouble getting his mouth around the Hubcap Burger.

The restaurant has antiques hanging on the walls, and the side of the restaurant where the cash register is located is set up much the way it was back in the day with old bottles, cans, toys and tools on the shelves and in the display cases.

Plenty of antiques are on display at Cotham's Mercantile.

We did a little shopping on Tuesday. We are back in the area of the country served by Kroger, which was and is Margery's favorite grocery store chain. We stopped at Kroger for Margery and at Home Depot for Paul.

On Wednesday, we drove about 40 minutes northeast of Maumelle to Cabot, AR for lupper at the Mean Pig Barbecue. Marilyn and Alan also introduced us to the Mean Pig. The Mean Pig is another area restaurant that was featured on the Food Network program Man vs. Food. In fact, Marilyn was at the restaurant when they were taping the program.

The Mean Pig Barbecue

Cute sign inside the door at the Mean Pig

The Mean Pig has sandwiches that range in price from $4 for a regular chopped pork to $7 for a super jumbo Black Angus beef. Ribs are $8 for a half rack and $15 for a full rack. You can add two sides for $1.79. Paul was hungry for chopped pork. Since they didn't have the pork available as a platter, Paul got a super jumbo chopped pork sandwich and only ate part of the bun. Margery got a half rack of ribs.

Margery had a half rack of ribs.

The pork was moist and tender, but Paul thought they put a little too much sauce on the sandwich this time. In the future, he'll ask for the sauce on the side. Margery's ribs were smokey and meaty. Although the ribs were good, they weren't as tender as they were on previous visits.

After our lupper at the Mean Pig, we headed back to the motor home to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Paul was up in time for the sunrise again the following morning.

Another beautiful sunrise over the Arkansas River

Last time, Paul was visited early in the morning by a couple of squirrels. This time, the resident geese came by eating the seeds from the tall grass on the river bank.

Geese feeding on the seeds from the tall grass

We had Thursday to relax some more before we headed out to our next destination. We'll tell you where that was in our next post.

Little Rock, AR

Little Rock, AR

As we said in our last post, we planned to relax in Little Rock and not do much sightseeing. One way we planned to relax was to eat out a couple of times to give Margery a break from cooking. It was also a good way to continue our 2011 Foodie Tour. Not only that, but eating out saves water when you don't have sewer hookups. See how easy it is to come up with excuses?

In 2009, we met our friends, Alan and Marylin, who were originally from Little Rock, at Maumelle Park before they went full-time. They introduced us to several great restaurants in the area that have become real favorites of ours. One of those restaurants is Larry's Pizza.

Larry's Pizza has several locations around Little Rock, and one of them is right down the road from Maumelle Park. Different locations may have different schedules, but the Larry's near Maumelle has a lunch buffet every day for $6.69 and a dinner buffet on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for $7.69. We went for dinner on a Tuesday.

Larry's buffet is similar to CiCi's, but the pizza at Larry's is better because Larry's is a lot more generous with their toppings. Larry's also has one of the most creative pizza menus we have ever seen. They have pizzas like loaded baked potato (sliced potatoes, bacon, chives and cheese), honey mustard chicken, chipotle chicken, BLT, cheeseburger, and chicken or steak fajita. Of course, they have all the regular favorites, too, like the pepperoni pizza Margery is about to devour in the next photo.

They also have tasty dessert pizzas such as chocolate chip (plain and with peanut butter), Bavarian cream, and cinnamon.

One of the other eateries in the Little Rock area Alan and Marilyn introduced us to is the Mean Pig, which is located about 40 minutes northeast of Maumelle in Cabot, AR. The Mean Pig smokes their ribs with dry rub, then serves them with either regular or hot barbecue sauce on the side. They also have Shutup Juice, which is ultra-hot sauce. When we went to the Mean Pig a couple of days after going to Larry's, we both had half a rack of ribs with regular sauce and potato salad for a side.

The ribs were nice and meaty and fall-off-the-bone tender. Although they were good, the ribs weren't as smokey as we remembered them being. They also didn't have the sweet barbecue sauce they had last time we were there. The regular sauce was also good, but the sweet was our favorite.

It was hot and humid the whole time we were in Little Rock, and that made us feel even less like sightseeing. We had a few possibilities on our list, but the only sightseeing we did, if you can call it that, was to visit the Little Rock River Market. There are a number of full-time stores and restaurants in the market district near the Arkansas River that are open every day, but we were interested in the Little Rock Farmers' Market that is only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from May through October. Since the market is downtown along the riverfront, we decided to go on Saturday in the hope of finding easier parking. There is a parking lot along the river next to the market that charges $5, but we found a free on-street parking space right by the entrance.

There was a large, open shelter that was filled with vendors. Some of the produce looked like it was local, and all the produce looked very nice - no "plastic," grocery store tomatoes here.

They even had steel drums for entertainment. The music really gave the whole market a festive atmosphere.

Margery stopped for a tourist photo with a new friend.

Behind the main shelter were a couple dozen more vendors. Most of these were crafts, but there was also more produce mixed in.

On our way back to the car, Paul stopped to admire the live plants. The bright green ones behind him are ornamental sweet potato vines.

The Little Rock Farmers' Market was one of the nicest markets we've seen in terms of size and in terms of the variety and freshness of the produce. The prices weren't bad either. We bought a few peaches and some fresh asparagus. We used to grow asparagus when we had a stick house, and it is one of those vegetables we love and that we don't get very often anymore.

We relaxed a couple more days, then continued on our way north. We'll have a report on the transition to our next destination in our next post.