Branson, MO

Driving is exhausting. Driving through the midwest is exhausting-er. I can feel myself getting fat from doing almost nothing active lately, but I just don't have the energy while also trying to make progress.

I slept surprisingly well by the highway last night. The trains stopped coming, and the passing semis made for good white noise. What got to me though was the bright street lights on the other side of the highway. The trucks would block them as they passed and it would get dark, but when there were no trucks the bright light would come back. I could handle it being light or dark, but i'd be about to fall asleep and then it would suddenly get bright and wake me up. Also, some other light went on in the wee hours of the morning. I woke up at 3am convinced that the sun was coming up. I had to get up and out of my tent to make sure it was still night. But overall I really did sleep well.

I got up pretty early, showered, and was all ready to go but decided to hang around 'til 8:00 for the campsites pancake breakfast. That would save me stopping later for food. It took forever to actually get food, but I finally made it out on the road at about 8:45.

It was a pretty straight shot to Little Rock, AR. I've been debating lately between hanging out and seeing the things I want to see, or just making distance. I'm tired of travelling, but at the same time who knows when will be my next opportunity to come to some of these places. With that thought in mind, I stopped at the Bill Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. It was pretty cool. I'd never even heard of a presidential library before, but it's basically a museum of everything you'd want to know about the president. Or at least that's what this one was. The lower level was a giant timeline of his time in office and what he accomplished. It also had a replica of the white house meeting room so you could sit in his chair and pretend to be important.

Then there was the upper level, which had everything you'd ever want to know about life in the White House, including a replica Oval Office (though you didn't get to sit down at that desk. Sad.) There were tons of photos of the Clintons just hanging out in the White House, as well as some of the personal momentos they used for decoration. It was neat...made them all seem a lot more human. Then there was an entire exhibit of gifts given to Clinton from athletes, foreign leaders, and others. Finally there was an exhibit of little Billy Clinton's childhood, including bare butt baby pictures. I gotta say this was absolutely halarious! All sorts of pictures of him growing up....his cub scout records, his elementary school report card, an old pair of his shoes, etc. Fun stuff.

There was a mention in one of the exhibits about the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. I've read all about the Little Rock 9 and I've been interested in the story for a long time, but it still never occured to me that it was that Little Rock. After all the civil rights stuff I saw in Mississippi and Alabama (especially in Birmingham), I sort of forgot that it stretched all the way up to Arkansas. I decided to do a quick drive by of the school, just to see where it all happened.

When I was getting directions to the school, I discovered that since it's on the National Historic Register there's a National Park Service visitor's center right next to it. I figured I would park at the visitor's center, go take a picture, and then get back on the road. Instead, when I walked in to the visitor's center they told me that a tour of the school was about to begin. The only way you're allowed inside the school (unless your a student or staff) is to take a tour. I thought it would be cool to see inside, though I wasn't sure I wanted a full tour since it was getting late and I hadn't had lunch. But I went for it, and it was very cool to see. Strange though....being lead through a functioning highschool by a fully uniformed park ranger. Literally, this woman was dressed just like somebody you might see in Yellowstone, right down to the hat. It was very cool to see the school and be in the place where all the stories occured. Unfortunately one guy on the tour kept asking question after question after question, so the 45 minute tour turned in to almost 2 hours. But I couldn't walk around the school on my own and I didn't want to be rude and leave so I stuck with it.

Oh, and to add to the fun, it was pouring rain. It'd been cloudy all day but the rain finally started while we were in the school....along with lightning and thunder. At one point the power even went out. It went on again within a minute or so, but it left us with a nice awkward minute. The walk from the school back to the visitor's center left me drenched, even though it was less than a block away.

Once we finally made it back to the visitors center, I decided I'd gone so far through Little Rock I might as well keep going and get a new camping book from AAA. It was something I needed to do but AAA's can be hard to find sometimes. Thankfully this one was right where the map showed it to be, so I got it done quickly. In the end, my planned hour long detour for lunch and the Clinton museum thing turned in to about 4 hours. I finally got back on the highway, and after a quick stop in Conway to see where my friend Nicole went to college, I headed north off the interstate.

I admit Arkansas did get a lot prettier when I got to the western half. The mountains are nice. However the "interesting" Jesus vibe never quits. I drove through all sorts of tiny little towns that had more churches per capita than anywhere I've ever been. The Jesus billboards continued....as well as nearly all of the regular buisness billboards seeming to have some religious message. My personal favorite from today was a picture of the typical evolution image. You know the one...the bent over gorilla looking thing progressively standing up straight. The billboard was that image with a red circle and a line through it and the words "No Evolution!" Under that it had the beginning of Genisis: "In the beginning God created...." Like I said, I just don't get what they hope to gain from these things!

So now I've made it to Branson, MO, just barely north of the Arkansas border. Branson is an interesting place. It's billed as the clean cut, family friendly version of the Vegas strip. Personally I think Vegas is plenty family friendly. I mean come on now, Circus Circus! :) Really though, they do get some big name musicians and such here, along with some....interesting looking acts. I'm not even sure exactly how to describe them. They just look strange. By the time I finally found a hotel that was affordable, had space, and had internet, it was too late to really see or do anything. I did drive down the "strip" though, which was fun. In a sense it is like Vegas because there were tons of bright, flashy lights everywhere. It's much more of a strange rural sprawl scene than a strip though. It's weird...you drive down the road for a bit and find yourself in the midst of all sorts of craziness....then it'll get a bit quieter and you'll see a walmart and perhaps a taco bell, and then it goes back to the craziness again. I had hoped to walk down the strip, but the way it's laid out it's hard to find somewhere to go. I'm considering spending the day here tomorrow just to hang out. And because I noticed a place with a 4-story go-kart track that I just have to try. And because driving through the midwest is getting to me, though I've only just begun. I've been talking to the radio a lot, as well as singing along and coming up with actions to all the pop songs i'm hearing again and again. I even managed to sing Miley Cyrus's "The Climb" entirely in opera. And before anyone says anything about my knowing every word to that song....I spent the summer working at a climbing tower. With teenagers. It came up. A lot.

So yeah, I might take a mental health break in the ridiculousness that is Branson, MO. Especially considering that it's already midnight and i'm still awake trying to make sense of blogging. (Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm falling asleep as I type!) We'll see how I feel in the morning. And we'll see if my rather "verbal" car survives the night here! hahaha just kidding (I hope!).