We had planned on spending ten hours tops in Arkansas. Drive, sleep, and leave. The only thing we knew about this place was that it was called "The Natural State." We assumed that everyone 1: had accents, and 2: drank sweet tea. We were right on both accounts, but we were missing so much in between. We expected very little of Little Rock, but thankfully the city pushed past our expectations and proved herself to be a lovely, welcoming, and glimmering gem.
We booked ourselves at a B & B in the historic neighborhood of town, hoping to find some culture. What we found was the cities oldest standing house and one of only two buildings in the city of the Queen Victorian style architecture. We just so lucked out on being the only guests for the evening, and after a brief introduction from our host Susan, we locked ourselves into the three story mansion for an evening of royal proportions. We played hide and seek on creaky stairs, we drank decaf coffee in cups with gold rims, I took a bath in a claw foot tub. And when we went to sleep, we stayed in the turret room ... something I could have only dreamed about.
We ventured out for dinner and found a bustling downtown. We found a lit up walking bridge, blues music, crawfish, accents and sweet tea. Our personal trolly driver informed us that the best coffee shop in all of Arkansas was situated next to our B & B.
In the morning, instead of exiting the city quickly, we found ourselves at a coffee shop equaling or perhaps even surpassing our "Portlandy" expectations. This coffee shop called Mugs Cafe is also a church, and as we drank our 7:00 am espresso, we deliberated about staying in this quaint city of trollys, coffee and Victorian Mansions. We walked the 26 steps back to our B & B where Susan had created a breakfast just for us. As we ate on antique china, she sat at the end of our long table and talked to us all about why she moved to Arkansas and why she thinks it is a hidden gem.
Susan told us about the amazing hiking trails, the night life, blues music, and the campground where people still strike it rich each year when they find gold laying on the ground. She gave us advise for our trip south and gave us the address of where to eat when we stopped in Memphis.
After such a morning, we simply could not just pull our trailer out of the city, we decided to delay our trip, and take our trim in this gem. Having driving through at least two other capitol cities and not stopping, we took ourselves to the center of the political world of Arkansas - The State Capitol.
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