Let's Go Places: Postcards from a Tri-State Captial Sweep

 

Friends, if I do say so myself, I really outdid myself in the capital quest last week.  One week, three capitals - let's go!

Trip Overview and Planning

I've been pretty busy at home lately, so the length of the trip was dictated by a gap between events from Saturday, February 28 and Saturday, March 7.  After limiting myself to driving no more than seven hours in one day, I saw that it was possible to hit up three states.

Saturday, Feb 28: attend exciting event at home, drive to Elizabethtown KY and spend the night
Sunday, Mar 1: drive to Little Rock AR
Monday, Mar 2: see the sites of Little Rock
Tuesday, Mar 3: finish seeing the sites of Little Rock, drive to Jackson MS
Wednesday, Mar 4: see the sites of Jackson MS
Thursday, Mar 5: drive to Nashville TN
Friday, Mar 6: quickly see the sites of Nashville and drive to Louisville KY
Saturday, Mar 7: come home in time for a big family party

If you're thinking that Nashville got the short end of the stick on this trip, you are correct.  I had to chose between spending less than 24 hours in Nashville or not going at all, so I chose the short stay.  Since Nashville is the closest to home of all of these places, I figured that it was the easiest to go back if I had things that were left undone.

I stayed in Airbnbs in Little Rock and Jackson, and in hotels for the rest of the time.  I recently got the IHG credit card, and I'm working on getting the sign up bonus which means that staying IHG brand hotels (ex: Holiday Inns) is very advantageous right now.  Elizabethtown KY has a Holiday Inn with reasonable prices, so it was an easy choice.  Hyatt chose itself for my two other hotel stays.  I stayed at the Hyatt Caption in Nashville, which was reasonably priced and won me my first "Hyatt bingo": for every five unique Hyatt brands that you stay at, you get a free night certificate.  There was a Hyatt House in Louisville that had a very good points redemption value, so it made sense to dip into my Hyatt points and claim a free night.

Notes From the Drive to Little Rock

I hit the road on Saturday as planned and arrived in Elizabethtown before dark.  The next day I made a stop at the nearby Lincoln Birthplace.  I saw some chatter about the original log cabin, and I wondered about that.  Lincoln would not have been a big deal until decades after he left Kentucky, so it seemed a bit odd that his birth home would have been preserved for that long.

I drove up and saw something that was definitely not a log cabin.

I was very tickled at what I saw next.  As I had already figured out, the O.G. log cabin did not survive the years.  In lieu of that, there is a replica inside the monument.

There is also a trail, overall it is a beautiful place, admission is free, and it is close to the main highway so it's worth the stop if you're in the area.

Many miles later I arrived in Little Rock.

Let's Rate the Airbnb!  (Little Rock Edition)

What we have here is a guest house in the SOMA neighborhood.

This was an excellent stay, but there is always something "off" in 100% of Airbnb units.  What was the dark side here?

Only the placement of the front door light.  I bonked my head on it several times in my comings and goings.  I got to experience what it's like to be a tall person.

Things That I Did in Little Rock

Thing #1: toured the capitol and held $600,000 in cash

Question: what do the state capitols of Minnesota, West Virginia, and Arkansas have in common?  Their architect, Cass Gilbert.  I was a little sad to reach the end of my Gilbert journey.

I am too early in my journey to declare a favorite capitol tour, but Arkansas has a lot going for it.  The tour was very heavily focused on "this is the people's building.  The government works for the people", and the tour guide's love for her work place and her state was contagious.

It is the only capitol that I've seen so far with distance markers.

And it is also the only capitol where you get to handle some cash.

The state treasury operates out of the capitol, and they like to show off their work.  All visitors get the chance to visit the treasury and to handle the goods.

The amount of money available to handle each day varies, but on the day that I was there, the Wad du Jour was $600,000 in $100 bills.  According to the staff, it weighed 21 pounds, but it felt as light as a feather.

I don't post pictures of myself very often in this space, but I also don't get the chance to tote around 600 large very often.

The state has a photo stream of all of its cash handling visitors, and if you are willing to do a lot of scrolling you can see a less flattering picture there.  That cash gets passed around, that's for sure.

Thing #2 walked on all the bridges

Bridge 1 of 3: the Broadway Street Bridge.  Fun fact, there was a marathon the weekend before I arrived and there were still a few signs up.

Bridge 2 of 3: Junction Bridge

Bridge 3 of 3: Big Dam Bridge.  Everyone swears that the name comes from the nearby large dam, but the fact is that it's a big damn bridge.  If you're after gorgeous views, this is your place - see photo at the top of the post for an example.

Thing #3: The Clinton Presidential Museum and Library

The best part was the refresher on Socks and Buddy

Things that I took pictures of instead of buying in the gift shop:

Other things: the old capitol, the Historic Arkansas Museum, and the MacArthur Museum

Mind Blowing Arkansas Facts To Tell You

• Surely the most burning question that we all have is why is Little Rock called Little Rock.  Well, it was those French explorers at work again.  They saw a rock formations as they were making their way down the river...one was a big rock formation, and one was a Little Rock formation.
• Some perspective on the population of Arkansas.  There was only one other person on the capitol tour with me, a lady from Texas.  In the words of our guide "The population of Texas is 31 million.  The population of Arkansas is 3.1 million."  Why so few people?  Because the land is needed for growing things.  
• What things?  50% of the US rice supply, for starters.

With that my time in Little Rock came to a close, and I headed for Jackson MS.

Let's Rate the Airbnb!  (Jackson edition)

The unit was described as being a studio apartment in "a gated community with a security officer".  The reviews were glowing.

Everything inside the apartment was an A+.

The issue was the "gated community with a security officer".  It was an apartment complex with a gate around it and a couple of dudes sitting in chairs out in the parking lot during the day.  I didn't take any pictures to back this statement up, because to put it politely, my spidey senses told me not to hang around outside.

The problem is that staying in an apartment with the shades down was no better than staying in a hotel.  I didn't get any sense of Jackson as a town or a place to live.  Point taken.

Things That I Did in Jackson

Thing 1: I toured the capitol

It was a grand and delightful tour, and it is not Mississippi's fault that it got upstaged by Arkansas and Tennessee.  It's hard to compete with $600,000 and the highlights of TN that we'll get to in a minute.

Thing #2: Two Mississippi Museums

This is the collective name for the Mississippi state museum and the Mississippi civil rights museum.

On the history side, Mississippi won me over with their post card exhibit.

Thing #3: The Eudora Welty House and Gardens

Eudora Welty is a familiar name, but I had never read any of her books.  Since I went to the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, I figured that I would continue my Great Southern Writers with Museums in Southern Capital Cities tour by visiting The Eudora Welty Home and Gardens.

The story is that young Eudora went away to college and lived in New York for a few years, but when her father became ill and died in the early 30s, she returned to her parents' home and looked after her mother.  She lived in the house for the rest of her life, and worked as a journalist until her fiction started paying the bills.

The family loved to sit by the large window in the living room to catch the breeze and to people watch.

The tour guide told us that the house was kept in the condition that Eudora kept it in, "but tidier".

Her writing process is on display on the dining room table.  She was a big fan of cut n'paste...literally.

She did most of her writing in her bedroom, where she had the same view as the living room.

In her later life, arthritis forced her to switch from her beloved manual typewriter to an electric, and she had to write closer to the window because that was the only place where the cord would reach.

If we're comparing these three authors as writers, the top prize goes to Margaret Mitchell.  But if we're rating homes and insights of the writing process, Eudora Welty's crib is where it's at.

Other Things:

• The Mississippi Petrified Forest
• The Old Mississippi State Capitol

With that, it was time to get wheels up for Tennessee.

Best Roadside Stop Between Jackson and Nashville

That honor goes to the Pinson Mounds.

The museum was made to look like one of the ancient mounds, which necessitated a very funny "don't do that" sign.

Let's Do a Quick Sweep of Nashville

What does one do when one has less than 24 hours in Nashville?  I get the feeling that my answer is probably a little different from most.

Thing 1: Tour the Capitol

You don't get to hold $600,000 at the Tennessee capitol, but they make up for it with some good stories.  These guys know where the bodies are buried.

Literally.  Two of the building's architects are entombed within the walls (by their request).  President Polk and Mrs. Polk are buried outside.

The House chamber is where the final vote that ratified the 19th amendment went down.  If you are up to speed on your US government procedures (which I am not since it's been a while since I learned this in school), after a constitutional amendment is proposed, it has to be ratified by 75% of the states, which was 36 states in 1920.   It was the summer of 1920, and there was a lot of pressure on to get the ratification done before the fall election, since presidential elections are kind of a big deal the last thing anyone wants is to get the right to vote and to not be able to use it until four years later.

Tennessee was the last state to vote, and it was a close call.  The senate voted yes, so now everything rested with the house.  The opposing side tried very hard to get the vote delayed, since this would achieve their goal of not having women vote for the presidential election.  When that didn't work, they moved forward and hoped for the best.

The final vote was 50 of 99, so just by one vote, which belonged to Rep. Harry Burn, who had previously voted no.  The reason for his change of heart?

The term "childless cat lady" did not exist at the time, so the slang in vogue was something about childless women with low cut tops and short skirts.  One senator had given  a particularly nasty speech about those childless hussies, which caused Burn's mom to write him a letter asking him to reconsider his vote.

Other Things:

Went to the state museum, walked down Broadway, walked across a bridge.

And that's all she wrote!  I put the pedal to the metal and came home.

Who has been to any of these places?  Who has read Eudora Welty?