Going On The Road with Monte & Rose

May 13-15

Little Rock, Arkansas

We reluctantly left the little hidden gem of Rising Star Campground to head to Little Rock where we had made reservations for three nights at the Downtown Riverside RV Park. We don’t usually make reservations but we did this time because we wanted to make sure we would have a spot for a couple of days.

Downtown Riverside RV Park is located in downtown North Little Rock on the bank of the Arkansas River. We chose this spot because it was close to a couple of places we wanted to explore in the city.

The park is basically a parking lot. But it was reasonably priced for a full hook-up and clean showers.

An added bonus was the nightly light show from the two bridges near the campground.

In keeping with my love of American History I had to include a visit to Little Rock Central High National Historic Site.

We began our tour at the visitor center where we watched a short video before walking through the exhibit hall.

Central High is still an active school so the only way to visit it is with a ranger led tour.

When Central High was built in 1927 at a cost of 1.5 million dollars it was designated as the most expensive, most beautiful, and large high school in the country.

At that time in Arkansas, and other states across the south, public schools were legally segregated. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in schools were unconstitutional.

Nine black students were denied entrance to Central High provoking a showdown between the Governor and President Eisenhower.

The Little Rock Nine faced an angry mob of over 1,000 Whites in front of the school prompting President Eisenhower to order the U.S. Army’s 101s Airborne Division to escort the students into the school.

As we were touring the school I couldn’t help but think about the courage it must have taken for those young students to stand up to the mob. But just walking into the school was not the end of their courage as they faced challenges everyday from some of the other students.

After dinner we took a ride into the River Market district.

Most of the shops were closed so we just strolled along until we came to the one place Monte couldn’t pass up-Kilwins where we shared a New Orleans praline ice cream.

One of the advantages of staying at the Downtown Riverside RV Park was that we could ride our bikes across the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center.

We began our tour with a temporary exhibit, Louder Than Words-Rock, Power, and Politics.

The exhibit includes several videos narrated by music icons detailing how rock and roll has been the soundtrack of American life. In war and peace, in the struggle for human rights and in triumph and tragedy-music has been there at every moment.

After watching a 12 minute orientation film that presented President Clinton’s life and political career, we toured a replica of the Cabinet Room, the Oval Office and exhibits chronicling Clinton’s early years as Governor, Life in the White House and gifts given to the Clintons.