We enjoyed our brief visit to the City of Little Rock, Arkansas.  Although we did not have time to tour the state capitol building, we did a quick drive-by.

The downtown area is very nice, very pedestrian and bicycle friendly.  There are two pedestrian bridges that cross over the river, which makes for a nice walking/bicycling loop through the city.

A large park along the river has an amphitheater for concerts, as well as a weekly farmers market.

The Little Rock police department has this cute little car for patrolling the downtown area.

There are numerous craft breweries, and one whiskey distillery that offer tours (all within walking distance of the campground!).  We did take a tour and tasting with a large group at the Rock Town Distillery.

And we did stop in for a sample (or two) at the craft breweries, many of them in old warehouses.

After our time in Little Rock, we started heading north back to Wisconsin.  We did make a quick two-day visit to Branson, Missouri, just to see what the city was like.  In one word:  touristy!  It rained the entire time we were there, and most of the attractions had not yet opened for the season.

The city itself is well-organized, as the map covers red/blue/green/yellow routes.  We thought this was a great idea, and made finding attractions very easy.  You didn’t need to know what street it was on, just the color of the route.

The main attraction of Branson is the musical shows, and they have something for everyone:  Oldies, country, gospel, comedy and many tribute bands for Abba, Fleetwood Mac, Temptations, etc.  We had time for one show, and, at the recommendation of the person at our campground, we went to see “Six.”  It was very good.

We even talked about the possibility of doing a work camping job in Branson sometime in the future, and looked into a couple of the campgrounds.  Many of them offer complimentary tickets to the shows and other attractions as an incentive for working there.  It would be a great way to catch a lot of shows, and save a lot of money at the same time.

While we were sitting in the theater before the show started, Dan spotted a former co-worker/teacher/coach from Lancaster High School, Dan’s first teaching job out of college.  He had a great time catching up during intermission on the past 30 years.

The two of us really enjoyed our “touristy time” traveling from Florida to Texas, and then back up to Wisconsin via Oklahoma and Arkansas.  We were able to see and do many things, and we especially enjoyed our visit with my sister LuAnn and her family (and congratulations to our niece, Alicia, who just graduated this past weekend from high school!!!).

It has made us think about what we want to do in the future, as far as traveling and working.  We need to find more of a balance between the two, and may look into some short-term volunteer positions, which would allow us to travel more frequently.

Quote for the Day:  “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu