R and J in the USA

We left Arkansas feeling that we had not seen nearly enough of it to give any kind of proper overview of it. It wasn’t until our final day that we had any sense of really being immersed in the state at all, and, more than any other state thus far, we left feeling that there was way more of Arkansas to see that we left unvisited. It was a combination of having had to shorten our time there by a day thanks to some logistical factors, a post Hawaii and travel stupor that took a few days to move past to get back into the swing of the rhythm of the trip and a set of itinerary limitations that would keep us only able to see a smaller portion of Arkansas than we usually get to see in each state. By the time we left, however, we had gotten a chance to see just enough nature, learn just enough history, and meet just enough Arkansans to feel like we were beginning to get the smallest sense of The Natural State.

As is the case with any state, we left entire swaths of the state completely unexplored, but in Arkansas, we left more untraveled than traveled. We saw a few locations off of I-30 on the way to Little Rock from Texas and traveled up 71 north to Fort Smith, then further north to Fayetville and Bentonville before turning west to explore Oklahoma. This means we left all of north central and south central Arkansas and the entire eastern part of Arkansas completely unvisited. Even though we drove through the southwest of it, that is exactly all that we did, and at night, so we can consider that portion of the state essential unseen by us as well. In each of those spots, we left Arkansas with major areas of the state and significant spots worth visiting completely unexplored, and of the ones that we did see, many of them we saw even more briefly than usual. 

With all that said, we managed to squeeze in a fair bit in Little Rock. Thanks to some logistical factors that put us in a hotel room for a night, with a free upgrade thanks to our Marriott credit card, we ended up waking up to a great view of Little Rock from inside the Vice Presidential suite at the Little Rock Marriott.

We managed to pack a lot into a Little Rock afternoon, including the Old State House, the current state capitol, the William J. Clinton Presidential Museum and Library, and the Historic Arkansas Museum, where Julie got a tremendous dose of Arkansan art. We also drove by important history at Central High School (though we missed the open hours for the visitors center to learn more about the history of the spot). We rounded out our Little Rock day with a delicious meal at a farm to table restaurant in town called The Roots Cafe.

We walked Bathhouse Row at Hot Springs National Park and left without getting a chance to soak in the famed waters, a fact that continued to make Julie crabby in a ridiculous sort of way until its deeper purpose was revealed towards the end of our Arkansas trip. We left Hot Springs with whatever is the past tense version of FOMO, feeling the burn of being so close to the hot springs without delighting in their healing properties. (For those reading this that might feel even the most mild urge to punch us square in the face for such a complaint after we just got to spend two weeks in Hawai’i and seven months traveling the country and living a pinch-me dream come true life, don’t worry, we also don’t feel bad for us in the least, despite our in-the-moment lamentations.)

We spent an evening at the campground at Crater of Diamonds State Park and tried our hand at diamond mining in the chilly January air.

We toured Fort Smith and learned more about the rough and rugged history of the American West and some of the harsh and resilient stories of the Five Civilized Tribes and the Trail of Tears.

We made our way to and through the beauty of Devil’s Den State Park, knowing that that spot alone would have been worth at least a full day of enjoyment, let alone the bare minimum of time we were able to give to it.

We took the briefest stop in Fayetteville for Julie to swim in a local rec center pool. She finally made peace with missing Hot Springs when she came out of the pool not only having realized it was a great way to step into life in Arkansas for an afternoon, but also realizing it had actually been four years since she had done laps in a pool and it felt like heaven. She walked out of the rec center with more yards under her belt than she had gotten a chance to get in most states’ swimming stops, usually due to untenable temperatures, a big smile on her face, and gratitude that getting into the Hot Springs hadn’t worked out.

While Julie was delighting in the chlorinated strokes, Ryan took the van for an overdue oil change. We made one more quick stop in Fayetteville to drop off our compost at one of its many impressive recycling and compost drop-off locations.

With the little time we had left, we swung through Bentonville, a town whose legacy can be found in nearly every other town across the country and beyond. Love it or hate it – the Walmart phenomenon began here. We were quite taken by the charm of the town square and could tell that the dollars of Walmart’s success around the world must be pouring into the area more than in other small Arkansas towns we’d seen. 

Everyplace we went throughout Arkansas, we seemed to see big and beautiful murals – even more so than we’ve seen everywhere else. They depicted everything from native people to town history to celebrations of what makes Arkansas beautiful to art for art’s sake. There were so many more than we managed to photograph, but each one brightened up an otherwise post-winter storm, wet, and fairly brown wintered landscape as we drove through an Arkansas January.

We leave every state wishing we had more time and with a list of places we missed. In that way, Arkansas was par for the course.

Whether it was the impact of unexpected travel changes, our new itinerary of 5Ks, or the necessity for new hiking boots, a new tire, and an oil change, much of our time to leisurely explore The Natural State of  Arkansas was influenced by logistics and circumstance. We actually enjoy logistics and don’t mind at all having to tackle a big pile of it. For Julie, it’s a downright passion that she engages like a sport. But the opportunity cost of time spent on logistics is that same time being spent getting to know a state.  That said, for all we did and didn’t do in Arkansas, we can say that we found nothing but kind and welcoming people at every turn.

We got some glimpses into the history of the state as a major crossroads for many of the most definitive elements of US history – manifest destiny and how that impacted the native peoples it displaced, the rough and rugged American frontier replete with its pioneers and violent lawlessness, and the efforts of law and order to overtake and reign in the ensuing chaos.

We learned only a little bit about what is referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes and how they almost managed to form their own state in the union, complete with a fully ratified state constitution.  And, of course we learned about Arkansas as a crossroads for the racial story that played out in America, with Arkansas itself being somewhat split between the small farming economies of the northwest and the large plantations of the southeast.

We learned how Arkansas actually had four union regiments in the Civil War, in addition to all of those that fought for the confederacy.  We learned about Sam and Helen Walton’s philosophies and how a 5 and dime in Bentonville, Arkansas turned into a global phenomenon. And, of course, we learned about what it was like for Arkansas to be the home state of an elected president when President Bill Clinton from Hope, Arkansas, went from being the youngest governor in Arkansas’ history to President of the United States of America in 1992 and what a big moment that was for Arkansanans, Democrats and Republicans alike. His was the first presidential library we visited where we had lived through the history detailed in it. 

As for the natural scenery, we got a small glimpse at the beauty of what is called The Natural State. Much like Julie’s misgivings about Montana calling itself The Big Sky State, wondering if any one state could really lay claim to the sky and its colossal expanse, Julie found herself skeptical of any state claiming nature as its core feature. There is not a state we have been in that doesn’t have gorgeous nature and plenty of it. But, since it is something that each state could equally lay claim to, Arkansas has as much a right to it as anyone, and the beauty of nature is here to back it up. We didn’t get a chance to see nearly as much of what earns the state the moniker as we’d have liked to, so we feel inadequate to the task of describing what makes it so. 

We are more aware of what we have missed seeing in Arkansas than what we have managed to see. What we have seen is a place that, like any place, has its struggles, which are hard to really have any true understanding of as a traveler moving briefly through it. And, of course, it also has the ways it shines.

We came away from Arkansas feeling we had only dipped our toe into its waters and wondering if we really got to know it in our short time passing through. We encountered nothing worth complaining about (except for the fact that the Buckstaff Bathhouse in Hot Springs closes at 3:00 PM, of course) and plenty worth feeling pleasant about. We enjoyed our time here.

Whatever Arkansas is at its core, as much as each state does really have such an essence and as much as we have any ability to touch that in our travels through them, we found it is a core that is not easily visible or touchable as a mere passerby. We sensed that, by the very end, we were starting to get immersed enough to begin to acquaint with it.

Many states we have been in, some of the core values and ways of life are dripping from the landscape or the townscapes in myriad ways. Some we learn by observing things around us. Some we learn by what we are invited in to join. And some is just an accumulation of small inputs to the senses over time. Whatever is there in Arkansas, we found it took more time to fully steep in than we had during our brief time passing through. It wasn’t until that last day that we started to feel like more than just passersby. When we did, we only started to get enough of that sense of immersion to feel it, but not quite enough it put words to it.

It seemed to us a place you might need to spend real time in to get to know. But we do know we enjoyed our time passing through and left wishing we had more of it. We knew next to nothing about Arkansas when we entered, so everything we did see enriched and educated us from where we started. Despite leaving feeling there was so much more for us to learn to understand and truly know this place, we suspected that perhaps Arkansas might be an underestimated place, and one that seemed to be treasured by those that called it home.

No matter what we might suspect about what Arkansas is or isn’t, more than anything, we will leave saying we enjoyed our time there and found it worth continuing to explore, and that we don’t really know enough about The Natural State that is Arkansas to know much at all.