Our Travels Through Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas and Branson!

We have returned from our travels throughout parts of Alabama, Tennessee,, Arkansas and Branson Missouri. Purpose of the trip was to see our middle grandson, who is a TV reporter for Ganett's sister CBS affiliate,and to be with his lovely Cheyenne girl friend ,Andy, whom Kevin met when he began his TV career in that city after graduating from Univ of Md.

Little Rock is a great city and has been rejuvenated by The Clinton Library and Presidency.  The Capital city has done a wonderful job architecturally blending the old with the new, preserving the best and doing reconversion's that are first class.  It is very livable and there is something for everyone on a small scale.  North Little Rock is going through it's own renaissance and is quite artsy.

The Stephens banking family, second wealthiest  in the state after the Walton family, have been a tremendous asset helping finance so many of Arkansas' major businesses.  Southern Arkansas is agriculture - rice, soy beans, corn, tomatoes, okra and peaches.

Little Rock has excellent restaurants, the walking path along the river is wonderful and there are good hotels to suit anyone's accommodation needs. You  will not be disappointed if you visit Little Rock.  

We did not tour the Clinton Museum but did visit their Art Museum, went to their  best art galleries and toured the city's restored neighborhoods.

Kevin works on the weekends since he is new, took us to the station and introduced us to the staff and his co workers and also to Hot Springs which was once The Las Vegas of the South. Hot Springs is a city within the National Park and is a lovely town but faded.  The Arlington is still the largest hotel spa but not the palace it once was. The Park is known for its healing springs and many still come for the various baths etc.

Kevin also took us to a lovely botanical park  that is part of  the Univ of Arkansas system and is on one of the many large lakes that abound in the state which are stocked with  a variety of fish providing tremendous sporting diversity. Arkansas also has a large number of caves and really is , as their license plates broadcast, the outdoor state. Restaurants serve many of the local fish caught in these lakes and Lynn had an excellent fish dinner at one of Little Rock's nicest restaurants.

Andy works for a local health facility so their schedules are a bit awkward but Kevin hopes to change his in time and Andy is applying to finish her Bachelor Degree.  Their apartment is very livable and is downtown and within walking distance to most everything.

From Little Rock we drove north through the Ozarks and stopped in Fayetville to see The University of Arkansas.  A beautiful campus , lots of new buildings and I was most impressed by the fact that one was devoted entirely to nanotechnology. ( Bernie Marcus gave 25 million to Ga. Tech to build their own Biotech facility.)

We had lunch at a local restaurant that served Mediterranean food.  Fayetville is a great college town, hillier than Athens and totally consumed by Razorback Football.  the Broyles Stadium is huge!

Then on to Bentonville and 21C, the new art museum hotel, that a member of the Louisville Brown family and her 

Husband began. We have stayed in their flagship Louisville Hotel and urge anyone going there, Bentonville and/ or Cincinnati to avail themselves  of this unique experience.  Their dining room serves outstanding food and the avant garde art is everywhere.

Bentonville is awash in Walton public munificence and Crystal Bridges is their newest gift to America and houses one of the finest collections of American Art in the nation.  The Israeli architect, Moshe Safde, has outdone himself in designing the various outbuildings to blend with their natural setting and has succeeded.  The art is a mixture of great to representative and the family have made a commitment to continue to build the collection. The museum is free and open to th public.  Crystal Bridges is a must visit for art lovers.

As for Bentonville, you get the feeling that You will meet Aunt  Bea and Andy at any moment as you walk the streets and , again, the redevelopment of the downtown square is all due to the success of WalMart and the Walton family. Over one million vendors visit the city as they hawk their wares to WalMart, the largest retailer in the world housed in a sprawling and very modest facility.

The waiter who served us dinner moved from California because his entire family works for WalMart and he sings the praises of this company but of course the unions and liberals hate WalMart because they are successful so they find ways to attack this American  success claiming they kill the little entrepreneur, mistreat their workers and the list is endless. No doubt WalMart is not totally faultless. They control 15 per cent of our nation's retail business, lower our inflation rate by 1 1/2 per cent and people do not have to work there if they do not wish to and the unions would love to harness their workers because of the fees they would garner to enrich their own fat cat leaders who would then be able to doll out more campaign funds to their pocketed politicians who, would then, pass laws favorable to various and nefarious union causes.

From Bentonville, we drove to Branson to mingle with mid America. If you want to escape from Obama's America then Branson is where you must be. The town is devoted to providing wholesome family entertainment, crime is low, patriotism is alive and well and the various shows we attended ( four in three days) were excellent.  It is a wonderful place for anyone willing to return to that period in America when humor was clean, a bit corny, the entertainers were there to entertain and not shock.  You are not likely to be confronted by Trayvon's or be killed by those who are bored.

We stayed at The Chateau by The Lake, a very old European  type hotel, friendly staff, excellent  restaurant, comfortable rooms with beautiful views of the Ozarks  and free parking.  Their spa was excellent and we treated ourselves to well deserved massages after some 1200 miles of curvy off road hill driving.

Our first show was Dolly Parton's Stampede ( if you want to experience an ostrich race then go.)Even the dinner served was hot, tasty and plentiful.

Next the best of the four shows  we booked was called "It," and starred The Hughes Family.  Five brothers, all married, two to two sisters, the oldest has 14 children ( his wife was performing after their 3 moth old was delivered) and a total of 35 children in all.  largest family entertainment group in the world. A wonderful show.

The third show was ok  and  featured four males singing a variety of western, gospel etc. the comedian was hilarious and his timing exquisite. They singers billed  themselves as "The Pierce Arrows."

Our  final show was "The Legends" and starred impersonators of Cash, Dionne, The Temptations, Blues Brothers and,of course, Elvis.

Again the performers varied from good to excellent, Cash and Elvis were the best. Lynn insisted we buy the photo of her with Johnny and me with Celine - ugh!

In all four shows the orchestras were great.  We spoke with one of the musicians  from "The Pierce Arrow" and gained some interesting insight into his life.  Branson closes for the winter months after the December Christmas Shows, some seven million people visit Branson yearly, the musicians basically get paid for steady nine months work so must save their earning to get them through the months when there is no work. Many of the shows feature names from the  past like a Rich Little, Shmirnoff, etc.

Branson is just great and we have a bit of it here in Savannah with Meese's Savannah Theater Productions which are also outstanding.

From Branson we meandered to Memphis and along the way drove through the artsy Ozark Historic Town of Eureka. Our oldest daughter, Debra, one of our two family published authors, has spent   time in Eureka having been invited as a resident guest author by one of the foundations located there.  In fact she just applied for another such opportunity.

While in Memphis we stayed  at The famous Peabody Hotel, where the Peabody Ducks make their daily entrance at 11am and departs at 5pm.  

Memphis is also an interesting city. Obviously plenty of music and BBQ but they also have wonderful small scaled museums, a great park system, homes that overlook the river that were once old warehouses etc.

We had a delicious lunch at Brennan's, a New Orleans Cajun restaurant, before going to Graceland,which turned out to be better than I thought.  I was expecting gaudy and actually fund a lovely home, decorated in the taste of the '60's and really not pretentious. The grounds were beautiful, the added outbuildings displayed Elvis' career in movies and recordings, his personal interest in racket ball and finally his own and family grave sites.  My view of Elvis was influenced by my mother who found  him distasteful but he was a product of the times, left an indelible impression on  the world and was quietly very charitable.

We also toured the museum housing his impressive collection of vehicles ranging from muscle cars to Rolls and America's iconic models and then went into  his two private airplanes.

After we left Graceland we drove around  the city and toured one of America's most beautiful College Campuses - Rhodes College.  Rhodes has about 1900  students, all the buildings are built of the same material - Fieldstone and the grounds are manicured. The neighborhood Rhodes is located near is historic and borders the Zoo and Aquarium and the park where The  Brook's Museum is located. Lo and behold we caught  the Carroll Cloar Exhibit which will soon be featured at GMOA.  Cloar was a regionalist and also a pointillist.  This is a must see exhibit and I encourage everyone to go to Athens and see this exquisite art show.

That evening we had dinner at BB King's  Beale Street Restaurant and listened to a lively orchestra and watched even livelier dancers.

As we left Memphis, Lynn explored the history of Elvis, his only daughter, Priscilla and "The Col" his long time manager.Elvis courted Priscilla for seven years and was, more or less, forced into the marriage. His constant affairs with his co-stars, beginning with Ann Margaret, led to his divorce.  His return to performing in Las Vegas, after a seven year hiatus, reignited  his career and from there on it was onward and upward. The demands of his physical performances, the extensive traveling and crazy hours simply 

Led him to rely upon drugs which eventually killed him.

Elvis left his estate to his daughter who now, after four ill fated marriages, lives in England and has begun to perform songs she and her husband have collaborated on and Priscilla, his former wife, has had many affairs including one with Richard Gere and has several other children .

Before we drove back to Savannah we stopped in Birmingham so I could have dinner with former partners of my father and an old family friend.  Birmingham is also going through its own renaissance and is beginning to bring some of its suburban citizens back to town as many of the vacated buildings are being redeveloped into condos etc.  Birmingham is behind the curve, has a long way to go but eventually will  overcome it's sad past once it gets through it's current financial problems the consequence of corrupt city management and mayorship.

We arrived home Sunday to find our phones were not working  and therefore our desk computers as well so I graciously allowed Lynn to solve the problem because I have no patience dealing with Comcast idiots.  She  was told they will be out Thursday So . much for where American public  service has  come,  There was a time when Ma Bell would apologize and be there in less than 24 hours.

My next memo will revert back to political commentary as there is much to discuss considering the fact that Obama  is struggling with the red gauntlet he threw down threatening Assad should he use chemical weapons.

I sent a letter to the local paper, who I will post, that was generally supportive of Obama's Saturday speech but I have my misgivings as well and will go into more detail so stay tuned.

Dick

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