Thursday, June 10

On Tuesday we drove up to Fayetteville, AR to tour Bill and Hillary Clinton's Home Museum. They were both teachers at the U of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and married in their livingroom. The house has been turned into a museum, and contains a replica of Hillary's wedding dress, early pictures of their lives together, Bill's campaigns and a video of his campaign ads. The director told us about Pea Ridge Civil War battlefield only 25 miles north, so we headed up there to see it.

The picture is taken on the Elkhorn Tavern's front porch. The tavern was utilized as a field hospital during the battle. The battlefield itself is 4000+ acres, and has a welcome center with a good movie of the battle. The Union won the battle, which is billed as the biggest battle in the western area.

On Wednesday we went into Fort Smith to the Fort Smith Historic Museum and spent about 3.5 hours learning more about Fort Smith. The museum covers two floors and was thoughtfully planned to take a person from early civilizations through to the present. I particularly enjoyed the drug store with working soda fountain and Jack's favorite was the central office, showing the step telephone equipment he worked on when we lived in MN and he worked for CenTel. We both enjoyed learning about Fort Smith's favorite son, William Darby, who formed the famous Darby's Rangers during WWII. I wanted to go to the FT. Chaffee barber shop museum to see where Elvis lost his famous duck tail, but when I called the number on the brochure, I got a wedding chapel! OOPS. Never did find the place!

Today we went back up to the Fayetteville area to see the Arkansas Air Museum and the neighboring War museum. I enjoyed seeing the first plane that Sam Walton purchased. After the Air Museum we drove up to Bentonville to see the very first Wal-Mart which has been made into a Welcome Center. We were disappointed that we couldn't see it -- it closed on June 7 and won't reopen until year end. Meanwhile, a temporary site is being set up, but that won't open for another three weeks. BOOO!

Next Stop - St. Joe, Missouri! Stay tuned!