"The Natural State"

Welcome to Arkansas

Arkansas/Texas border on I-30
December 30, 2005

I guess I wasn't sure what to expect from Arkansas, since I had never been there before this trip, but I was amazed at how quickly the landscape changes. One minute I was passing wide-open farm land, next it was dense forests, followed by rolling hills. I guess the Natural State is an appropriate nickname, since it seemed that every terrain in nature is available within Arkansas' borders. One thing that struck me was how little fanfare was made about this being Bill Clinton's home state. While there was a sign on I-30 outside of Hope that declared this was his hometown, there weren't signs to his home or any other mention outside of his library in Little Rock.

I despise signs over the road. This means I can't stop and get a decent photo, and this was no exception. I took this photo as I was driving along and I'm surprised it came out as well as it did. So if you click on the image above, the detailed image isn't from the same sign. I was so frustrated that I looped around and took a picture of the sign on the Missouri border, since it was on the side of the highway and much more clear. I will say that both signs are incredibly dull and the seat belt reminder should be its own sign and not wasting valuable space on the welcome sign.

Welcome to Little Rock

December 30, 2005

I should have learned by now not to have expectations of a place before visiting it. I assumed Little Rock would be a sleepy little town in the middle of Arkansas with nothing to see. Boy, that could not have been more wrong. Traffic was awful during rush hour when I arrived and I got lost trying to find my hotel. Located right along the banks of the Arkansas River, Little Rock is a bustling city of nearly 200,000, crushing my image of a farming community. I was shocked to see a skyline with several huge office buildings and condos located along a four-line expressway through the heart of downtown. If I had arrived earlier, I would have had more time to explore, but sadly, the sun was already down.

The capitol grounds were more along the lines of what I expected from Little Rock. It is located on a plot of land away from the downtown. It really felt like it is isolated from the rest of the city, unlike most other urban capitals where the building is usually located in the heart of downtown. As you can tell, the building is right off the road, without many government buildings located nearby. I really liked the two columns near the dome with the rounded tops, since it gave the building a European feel to it, and it wasn't as boxy as most of the other capitols tend to be. A statue of former governor Clinton was no where to be found.

Miscellaneous Arkansas Symbols

State Route Sign

License Plate

Seal

Quarter