Search For The Little Rock

It has elluded us on our previous visits. We now returned for a third time to one of our favorite cities, Little Rock, Arkansas with our friends and skillful sleuths, Joanne and Gary to search for ... The Little Rock.

Located on the south shore of the Arkansas River, the city of Little Rock embraces the river edge with beautiful bridges, parks and trails. Discovered by French explorers, it was initially named "La Petite Roche" in 1720 for the series of rock formations along the river. 

And while those bluffs are still pretty amazing, surely, we could find a single spectacular "little rock" to give special meaning to this capitol city of Arkansas. Let the search begin!

From our current "home" at Downtown Riverside RV Park, it was easy to walk across the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge in order to enjoy the garden areas that line the river's edge. The park paths led us through ...

the Sculpture Garden,

a musical park,

Mr Cardinal's autumn hangout,

and lots of neat rock formations.

But nothing that struck us as truly worthy of the "Little Rock" title. 

 The following day we got out our bikes and followed the seven and a half mile trail to the ...

Pretty spectacular, but with no sightings along the way of that big "little rock", we returned through town where Doug was a least able to snag another beer coaster. Oh, did I mention that Little Rock is home to a large number of top notch craft breweries? While many of them were worthy of a return visit, we were happy to discover a new favorite, Core Brewing. In addition to the good craft beer, they provided a comfortable hangout complete with couches and ping pong tables.

We left no stone unturned in our search for the "little rock" as we checked out our first distillery. No historically significant rocks sighted at Rock Town Distillery, but we did find some good cream bourbon and coffee liqueur.

Thinking that maybe this "little rock" may be visible from a higher elevation, we decided once again to climb Pinnacle Mountain to get a better view of the river valley.

We enjoyed beautiful vistas ...

as the rocky path took us
700 feet up to the peak.

"Continue on", our lead explorers told us.

But Joanne and I were
content to just enjoy the views
as we rested for a bit.

This search was going to be more strenuous than we bargained for. I decided that we needed some R&R, so we drove an hour west to explore Hot Springs National Park.

While we have never quite figured out the appeal of this national park formed around bathhouses, it was, nonetheless, fun to ...

... check out the elegant surroundings
of the bathhouses of bygone days,

... fill our water bottles with the 143 degree
hot spring water that took over 4000 years
to make its way back up to the surface,

... try out the beer brewed with this spring
water at Superior Bathhouse Brewing,

... and discover that

... my real man will visit his
least favorite National Park
one more time just to enjoy a
Fat Bottomed Girls cupcake!

Taking a break from our "little rock" search, we walked over to explore the Heifer International headquarters, museum and gardens next to the Clinton Presidential Library.

This organization is working to end world hunger by supplying animals and agricultural supplies, and providing education to people in poor countries in order to help them become more self-reliant.

While walking around their grounds, we were invited to tour their headquarters. As we found out, Heifer International has many reasons to be proud of their energy efficient, cost efficient, and environmentally friendly office and campus. Their award winning design uses 52% less energy than a building of similar size. Specific designs allow them to reuse the rainwater, efficiently utilize sunlight, and turn a former toxic railroad yard into a environmental masterpiece.

Artwork in the building helped control excessive noise as well as reflected the influence that Heifer International has had in so many developing countries of the world.

The intricate stonework as well as all the other building materials were secured from local sources ... maybe a not-so-distant relative of that ellusive "little rock"?

Our time in Little Rock was coming to an end, and I was thinking that maybe this "little rock" was just an urban legend when ...

Super Sleuth Gary
came to our rescue!

He had consulted Professor Google, and sure enough ... resting unpretentiously under the shadow of one of the river bridges ...

sat the "Little Rock",
with official plaque and all!

It took a week to find it, but it was a week filled lots of steps (100,000+ of them according to Joanne's fit bit) and even more laughs as we realized how much fun we can have searching out the treasures around us ...

... and realizing the greatest treasure of all is friendship!

Until next time ... never stop searching for all the fun in life ... and enjoy the adventures in your life!

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