A Trip to Little Rock

The actual little rock that was a landmark for early river men.

I've been finishing up stories from my trip to Little Rock. I enjoyed meeting with and interviewing some of the LDS teens in the area. They are delightful, intelligent, well-spoken leaders in their schools and with their friends. I've said it before: meeting with this rising generation gives me hope for the future as they wrestle with issues and situations far more complex than what I had to deal with while growing up. We talked about the importance of staying true to their beliefs even when others criticize them. They know that when others are doing something they feel uncomfortable with that it's important to find something else to do, even when that means leaving the crowd.

One of the leaders who helped me set up interviews arranged for me to see the Clinton Library as well as a have a tour with the principal of Little_Rock_Central_High_School. They were great! I especially appreciated the tour of the high school and learning more about the Little Rock Nine. I was too young to remember that event, but I do remember the civil rights movement of the 1960s. I admire their strength and courage in persevering against tremendous odds for something that they believed in.

I also had the pleasure of meeting a family who have been able to work together through issues of severe chronic pain and bipolar disorder that their husband and father struggles with. I admired their spirit and appreciated the reminder that prayer and faith are an indispensable part of managing the disorder. He also talked about the importance of humor, talking through issues, forgiveness, and letting others help: "it's good for everyone, both giver and receiver, when help is offered and accepted."

I had some time to take in a few of the sites around downtown Little Rock. 

Arkansas River

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Steamboat Arkansas

A view of the hotel and the sculpture garden

The Peabody Hotel Ducks

These sculptures are part of a sculpture garden along the river front

One of my favorites

The first state capitol, now a museum with a great exhibit about the role of women on the Arkansas frontier

These fun sculptures were near a park featuring old log houses

At sunset

At the riverfront open air market

Little Rock will never be just another dot on a map to me again.

Road Trip Report

We had a wildly successful first empty-nester trip over Memorial Day weekend.
The day before we left David had a major struggle with pre-trip anxiety. He always has a panic attack before we go anywhere outside of Salt Lake Valley and usually tells me that we can't/won't/shouldn't be going. He worked through it by going on a walk along the Jordan with the dogs. Sadly, Riley bolted off just before David could put his leash on after a swim, and ended up half a mile from David at a busy road, and was killed by a car. We were heartbroken. All through the weekend we felt peace and comfort in the loss of Riley, and David made it through the weekend without any more anxiety or major depressive episodes. We felt blessed and grateful.

Everyone else who had planned to go with us bailed at the last minute, but we were OK with that. It was important and healing for us to be by ourselves, talking and mourning as we needed to. We also enjoyed being by ourselves, coming and going as we pleased, and exploring little-traveled side roads. Usually that gets us into trouble, but this time we managed not to get stuck or lost (well, only a little, one time).

We love going to the desert in the early summer. The weather was still cool, and with recent rain, desert flowers were out in full force.

Cactus in bloom


David and I like to camp in out-of-the-way rough camps, and the first night we found a beautiful campsite near a river bottom. David had a good time fishing.

The next day we went to Goblin Valley and had a great time hiking and climbing in the rain. The weather forecast all week had been 80s and sunny. They were wrong. It was more like 70s and showery, but we decided we weren't going to let a little thing like rain destroy our vacation.

Goblin Valley

The cliffs at Goblin Valley

It was raining when we drove through Capital Reef, so we kept on going.

View of Capital Reef area from a mountaintop scenic view stop

We found a beautiful place to camp near the little town of Boulder in the Grand Staircase Monument. I was just starting to cook dinner, and David had started to put up a new tent that we bought from Kevin, but hadn't put the rain cover over it yet (he decided to go fish in the creek nearby instead), when it started to rain. The rain turned into a downpour! So there we were: David trying to put the rain cover on the tent in a driving rainstorm (it didn't work: we hadn't figured out how to put the tent up, and the weight of the raincover filled with rainwater caused the tent to collapse with most of our camp gear inside! Fortunately, our bedding was safe and dry in our SUV) and I was trying to cook pork chops in a pan that filled with water faster than I could empty it out and keep cooking. I'm not a great cook anyway, but this was by far the worst thing I have ever cooked: soggy, cold pork chops. But we choked it down, then sat in our car, looked at the soggy mess and laughed ourselves to sleep.

The weather sort of cleared up off and on the next day, and we went on to Escalante and Calf Creek Falls, then over to Kodachrome Basin and Bryce Canyon.

Calf Creek Falls

Kodachrome Basin

Bryce Canyon

We camped by a beautiful mountain lake called Pine Lake, where David caught a 3-5 pound trout! He was a happy camper.

Pine Lake

We were reluctant to join the rat race of the freeway, so we slowly made our way home on the backroads and enjoyed looking at the small towns along the way home.

We were able to relax and reconnect with each other in a way that hasn't happened very often. We noticed that David's moods were much better, and when he could feel himself slipping into depression because of the loss of Riley, he was able to pull himself out of it. It was wonderful to have some time with a well David. 

We're planning on doing some more trips like this one by ourselves.