Wednesday September 25th - the William Jeffeson Clinton Presidential Library

     It was only a 35 mile drive to Bill Clinton's hometown of Hope, Arkansas.  We needed to do some grocery shopping, and thought it would be a good start to our "Clinton Day" to go by the place he lived until he was 4 years old.  There was excellent signage into the downtown area, and the last one we saw pointed straight ahead beyond past the downtown buildings to an area that got progressively more destitute and poverty stricken.  We finally gave up, and headed back to I30!  Oh, as to grocery shopping - we were looking for a decent "chain" supermarket for a change, like a Kroger's perhaps.  We were hoping for something other than the ubiquitous Wal-Mart's.  Well, we passed "Fred's", and "Barry's", and a few others that highlighted the fact they were deep discount stores.  OK, no luck on that score either, perhaps in Little Rock.

     120 boring miles later we arrived in Little Rock, and the directions to the Clinton Presidential Center were easy to follow.  The complex is huge, and the Museum itself is a very modern glass and metal structure with the two ends open underneath, supported by the central entrance structure.  After going through security and checking in/buying tickets ($5 each for OAP's ("Old Age Pensioners", aka retirees!), we headed for the "42" restaurant for lunch.  It's a classy place with sit down service, good food and reasonable prices.
     The Museum is primarily on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and is state of the art and simply superb.  There is a 12" orientation film on the life of Bill Clinton, narrated by Bill who is in virtually every scene. Even the hardest core anti-Bill person would walk out of the movie impressed by what he has accomplished in his life.  We think the folks at the Eisenhower Museum should go see this, and then update their 28 minute movie. 

 The meat of the Museum is the walk through the timeline of his Presidency.  As the visitor walks down the corridor, on the right side are large panels showing the highlights of each particular year.  The photo to the right is the last panel, the year 2000.  It shows the way each one is laid out.  Notice the lower right hand corner, the line of white items to the left of the vertical blue panel.  These are 12 bound binders, each
 representing a month of the year.  Each contains the
Presidential schedule of events for each day of the month, a page for each.  Becky is examining one in the other picture.

Across from the timeline, on the left side, are "event" alcoves depicting major happenings/accomplishments of his Presidency.  There is one on Education, one of Civil Rights, one on Military Preparedness, and a number of others.  These are presented by way of pictures and TV film and movies on large screen TV's.

     Behind the timeline, as the visitor walks back towards the center of the floor, there are other alcoves holding more exhibits, movies, and gifts received during his Presidency.  There is also a full-size cabinet room that the visitor can walk through.
    The third floor contains exhibits on Clinton's early life, and time in the White House.  It is remarkable to see how young Bill and Hillary looked back in those days!

     The centerpiece of the 3rd floor is a full size mock-up of the Oval Office, equipped as it was during his years in office.  One item that particularly caught Becky's attention was an impressionist's painting of the American Flag, shown on the left side of this photo on the wall above Clinton's desk.  She thought the style looked familiar, and it was.  It was done by the famous American artist Childe Hassam, and was given as a gift to the Clinton's by Stephen Spielberg.  We actually have two prints by Hassam, of wildflowers in a field, hanging in our bathroom that Becky had selected and had mounted years ago. 
     Everyone at the Museum that we had contact with were friendly, informative, and couldn't have been more helpful.  The only criticism we have, and it's not a strong one as it probably saved us some money, is that the gift shop is not located in the building!  You have to take a (free) cart ride several city blocks distant to get to it!
     There are other buildings on the ground, including a learning center located in an adjacent building that looks like it was a major railway station at some point.  There is a  garden, and an ancient railway bridge that is now the "Clinton Presidential Park Bridge.
     This is an outstanding Museum, and well worth a visit.

     We then drove another 120 miles or so on one of our least favorite highways in the country, Interstate 40 over to West Memphis, Arkansas.  We have driven this section of road what seems like dozens of times.  It was our normal route traveling from either the Northeast or Tennessee (when we lived there), to the Dallas area.  18-wheelers always seem to outnumber cars, the concrete surface must date back to the first days of the interstate highway system (though we noticed there has been some recent macadam paving!), and the endless scenery of soybeans and rice paddies is just tough to take.  We were very happy to make it to the Memphis KOA (which happens to be across the river from Memphis on the Arkansas side), as were the dogs!