Arkansas - Day 1

We stayed last night at The Historic Legacy in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas.  The hotel was built in 1913 at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Gaines Street.  At the time, it was considered to be the finest hotel in Arkansas.  It has since been added onto, updated, and restored to its original condition.  The marble staircase is an example of the fine workmanship and historical feature of the hotel.  We enjoyed a liesurely morning, sleeping in and taking our time checking out.

It was time for lunch so we drove downtown, to the Market District in search of a restaurant called the Flying Fish.  We found the eatery, it was parking that was hard to come by.  After circling the block about 4 times, we lucked upon a parking spot that was a short walk from the restaurant.  Julie ordered one fried catfish filet with fried okra.  Rainy had her hopes up for mudbugs (crawfish), but the were all out; she ordered a catfish po' boy and a cup of crawfish chowder instead.  We shared a dish of bread pudding for dessert.  The walls of the room where we were sitting were covered with those talking mounted bass that have been popular gifts for a number of years.  Each bass was donated by its owner, with the owners name and date of donation written below.  It was a hysterical sight!

After we left the restaurant we made the 4 hour drive to Bentonville, Arkansas.  Bentonville is the hometown of Rainy's dad's family; her grandmother Jetta still has a home in Bentonville though it is currently unoccupied.  When we pulled into town we drove around the old town square.  The first thing we noticed was that the businesses were booming!  Unlike other towns and cities we have driven through, Bentonville is a thriving community, due in most part to its being the home of Wal-Mart.  Many of the buildings were in the process of being refurbished!  It was wonderful to see.  Next we drove to Jetta's home.  The gate was unlocked, so we drove on in to walk around and remember old times that we had spent there.  The first thing Rainy noticed was that the old walnut tree, the one she used to climb, was no longer there. We walked all around the house, peeking in through the windows.  The enclosed swimming pool was in a horrible state of disrepair.  No one had drained the pool and the walls of the pool were caving in.  This saddened both of us.  But it was very nice to revisit and talk about wonderful times spent there.

Next we drove out to Bella Vista where we would be staying with Edna and Henry Braker.  A note for those of you who don't know:  Edna was married to Rainy's Gandpa Wayne until he passed away when Rainy was about 3 years old.  Edna since married Henry Braker, a wonderful and kind man.  Rainy still thinks of Edna as one of her grandmothers!  It was such a great joy to see them both; though I had seen Edna and Hank in Phoenix just this past January, Rainy hadn't seen them in more than 10 years!  Hank cooked a wonderful dinner of spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and fruit for dinner.  We enjoyed blackberry cobbler with ice cream for dessert.  It was the first home cooked meal we have had the luxury to enjoy on our road trip.  We stayed up a while, talking about the past and filling in one another on our lives and on our relatives.  It was a wonderful evening!