GULF COAST - Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana & a tiny little piece of Texas

Lou & I embarked on a ten day 2100 mile road trip through parts of six states just over two weeks ago. I try to get these posts done quickly upon my return but we came home to my son & granddaughter staying with us for a week. Of course, my adorable granddaughter takes priority over a trip report any day.

But better late than never, here we go. We landed in Little Rock, Arkansas, to find the state capitol closed on weekends (not according to their website & the tour book) so we swapped plans & heading to the Clinton Library instead.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library sits on the shore of the Arkansas River. There are full size replicas of the Oval Office & the Cabinet Room.

The largest room in the interior of the Clinton Library houses thousands of artifacts & papers from the eight years of Bill Clinton's presidency.

One of the most profound experiences of our trip was the tour of Little Rock Central High School where nine black students sought to end segregation by attending school back in 1957. It was a horrible episode in our history that I intend to write about in detail on my "Everyday Musings of a 60-Something Grandma" blog soon.

Little Rock Central High School is a beautiful building that was the site of  some ugly events in September 1957. I was saddened & disgusted that adults could treat children with such hate simply because of the color of their skin. 

From Little Rock we headed to Jackson, Mississippi, with a few stops along the Blues Highway & a visit to the State Capitol followed by a drive along the gulf coast to Biloxi.

The Blues Highway extends through most of Mississippi chronicling the history of the blues in the United States. Most of what we saw has seen better days - towns were deserted & buildings were run down.

This is the side of the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson. The dome has been covered in scaffolding for over a year as they completely refurbish it. I hate it when these cities do that & ruin our photo ops!

The interior of the building was beautiful. This is the Senate Chamber. That's Lou & our tour guide in the upper left corner of the picture.

The Biloxi Lighthouse is right in the middle of the main highway along the coast.

I've heard lots of negative comments about Biloxi but their beaches & coast side road looked inviting & impressive. I would spend a few days there relaxing for sure.

This was an ambitious trip even for us. We lived out of a suitcase with every night in a different city until late in the trip. Our next stop was Tallahassee, Florida, which included a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Spring House given by a woman who still owns it & lived there for many years.

The outside of the Spring House in Tallahassee. This is another of Lou's finds - our tour guide owns the home & is working on obtaining funds to have it restored & eventually opened for daily tours. It is a difficult job but she seems determined.

The woman's parents commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design the home. Their family lived in it from 1957 until 2011. It was quite interesting talking to someone who lived in the home as a child & an adult.

This is the Old Florida State Capitol with the dome. Behind it is the current State Capitol which is pretty much just a high rise building. We were standing just behind the high rise building not knowing it was the new capitol & asked a man how to get to the Capitol. He replied, "Just walk up the stairs over there." Duh!

I know that Spanish Moss is basically a parasite but we loved it & thought it made for some interesting photos.

The gulf coast has some beautiful lighthouses. Several were moved or rebuilt after being destroyed by hurricanes over the years.

Crooked River Lighthouse on the Florida Gulf Coast.

Cape St. George Lighthouse on St. George Island. We were able to climb  this lighthouse. The only one open when we were there.

We ate our picnic lunch with this view of Cape San Blas Lighthouse.

We continued through Panama City Beach ending up in Pensacola on Florida's western end of the panhandle.

Panama City Beach with its powdery, white sand beaches.

This Snowy Egret walking along the beach made for a gorgeous photo op.

We arrived at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola half an hour before closing. We did a quick run through snapping photos to look at later. These are the Blue Angels suspended from the ceiling

Pensacola Lighthouse - unfortunately we arrived here just at closing, also, but it still made a great picture.

As we made our way across Louisiana, we took a detour to New Orleans. Lou visited the National World War II Museum & I explored the French Quarter. We stayed two nights in Baton Rouge since we arrived late & had lots to see in the city.

Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

One of the ornate balconies that people decorate on Bourbon Street. 

The Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Huey Long is buried on the grounds & there is still a visible bullet hole from his assassination in 1935.

The view from the observation deck of the Baton Rouge capitol.

The Old Louisiana State Capitol. This city has one of the biggest contrasts between the old castle style capitol & the current high rise capitol.

The LSU Rural Life Museum houses a collection of over 35 old structures from all over the state which are preserved here at the museum.

A long horn steer enjoying his morning snack.

The following day we hit the road again with our first stop being Cane River Creole Historical Site which turned out to be a great destination. The Prudhomme family who owned the plantation was holding an open house with descendants telling the stories of their ancestors. A sharecropper held me spellbound with his tales of living in the sparse cabin until 1962.

The Oakland Plantation main house.

This former slave cabin was converted to a sharecropper home. I estimated the man telling his story of living here to be about my age. That would have made him about 12 in 1962 when his family left. Can you imagine living with no electricity or running water until you were 12? I couldn't.

Lou grew up in Bossier City, Louisiana, where we found his old elementary school, his house & the air force base where he spent many hours in the base pool. Just across the river, we headed into town to see the Shreveport Memorial Auditorium where Elvis Presley made his debut performance earning a grand total of $18!

The art deco Shreveport Memorial Auditorium.

A statue commemorating Elvis's debut performance at the auditorium.

Our final full day began with a stop in Hope, Arkansas, the birthplace of President Clinton. From there we did some diamond hunting at Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, followed by a visit to Hot Springs National Park.

The home where Bill's mother, Virginia, lived with her parents when Bill was born. His biological father died a few months before his birth.

Little Billy Blythe's room for the first four years of his life. Later he took his stepfather's last name of Clinton as a teenager.

Years ago Lou & I saw a show on the Travel Channel about Crater of Diamonds State Park. We decided that someday we needed to do a little diamond hunting - now we have - with no luck. It was fun but pretty hard on my back. Geez, I look pale in this pic.

About 700 diamonds a year are found in the fields here but all we found were a couple of quartz crystals & lots of jasper. 

One of the eight 1930s era bath houses preserved in Hot Springs National Park.

A spring that bubbled up from the ground. It was around 130 degrees & quite hot to the touch.

We had a few hours before catching our flight home so we headed to the Arkansas State Capitol that was closed on our first day.

The Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock.

One of their main attractions is an old vault that is a true work of art.

The vault houses over $524,000 in cash. One of the perks of the tour is that they let you hold it - I have $250,00 in my hands & Lou has $200,000. We wondered if there was anyway we could make a run for it!