Howard's Cross Country Trek

Day 5 - 5/12/07 (Little Rock, AR, Memphis, TN)

Like everyday so far, my day started with a drive to the next location, in this case Little Rock, Arkansas, which was beautiful and lush, especially compared to Oklahoma. I wanted to go to the Clinton Library located right next to the Arkansas River. After going through it, I thought it could have been longer and

more detailed. The only time I was at the Reagan Library was when it first opened…I was probably 13 then. I don’t know if it was because I was small and stupid back then or not, but I recall the Reagan Library being much bigger. Nonetheless, I really liked the Clinton Library. It was interesting bot

h from the presidential aspect, and from the fact that many of the events made me flash back to my high school and college days when Clinton was president. I found the Middle East sections particularly interesting/difficult, considering I lived in Israel for a total of a year and a half or so during Clinton’s presidency. I forget sometimes how close (at least how close it seemed) the world was to peace in the Middle East. Now we are in such a different place and I can only imagine how incredibly different things would be today if peace was reached in 2000.

I spent the next hour or two walking around Little Rock. The downtown area was like a ghost town. Admittedly, it was a Saturday, but it still seemed eerily empty. I considered staying in Little Rock for the night. There was a concert at an amphitheatre at the Arkansas River. It seemed like it was going to be cool until I noticed all the Disney Radio signs and then found out that some band I never heard of, The Jonas Brothers, were performing…anyone know them? I also considered staying to go to a minor league game, but in the end, Memphis beckoned.

When I got to Memphis my friend Eileen put me in touch with her friend Heather who lives there. It was very nice of both of them and Heather offered to let me crash at her place and take me out for dinner and drinks on Beal St. For those of you that haven’t been, Beal St. is like a smaller more tame Bourbon St. in New Orleans (I would think…I’ve actually never been). We went to a bar where there was a blues band playing and got some BBQ. I had been craving BBQ since getting to Arkansas earlier in the day and was happy to finally be eating it. The atmosphere at the bar and outside on the street was great. The whole evening was a lot of fun. The quote of the night came on the trolley home when, in my continued quest for good BBQ, we asked a Memphis resident next to us where the best BBQ in the city was and he responded, “in my backyard.” Unfortunately, this response was not followed by an invitation to try some of his backyard food.

Upon returning to Heather’s apartment complex (which was a huge lot of townhouses and an apartment building, much like a Park La Brea set up) I learned that Elvis’ first home in Memphis was actually in one of these buildings in her complex. How about that for a full experience? It was really great of Heather to offer her place to me and really helped me out. Thank you.