Tourists, Day 4 in Arkansas
We have one full day left in Arkansas and my brother and I have seen about everything that there is to be seen in Bradford and the surrounding cities, so I convince my dad that we need to venture outside our thirty mile radius that we’ve stayed in (minus the trip to Tennessee) the last few days.
After we pick up McKinley, we head out to the Little Rock Market? where they supposedly have tons of touristy things to do including museums, statues, a theater, food markets, yummy restaurants, and locally made items. An hour and a half drive later, we’re finally in Little Rock. As we’re all walking along, we notice almost everything is closed, bummer! My brother and I spot the Historic Arkansas museum way back towards the area were we parked, so we head that way, crossing our fingers that it is open. I start to laugh because I notice my brother, my dad and McKinley starting to sweat, I am now glad that I chose to wear a tank and shorts.
We get to the museum, and yes, it is open. The first thing we do (lead by my dad, which is odd for him), is head to the gift shop, since it is right in front. They have some normal touristy stuff for sale, but also a lot of native American things, such as this cool guitar that you press down on the metal fingers in order to make it play music (almost like a piano) , my brother and I had a jam session in the store.
As we leave the museum store, we make our way through the actual museum. My brother is in love - they have a huge sword and knife exhibit, which are his favorite things to collect. By the time my brother and dad had made it through the first part of the exhibit, I was already done with the whole ground level. I make my way upstairs, where they have these interesting and beautiful sculptures of African American women (and some men) made by Ariston Jacks and Susan Williams. My brother, with the maturity level of a 14-year old half the time, giggles because he saw “boobies”. The next room over had a different artist’s work. His work is mainly of faces, focusing on the eyes; enlarging them on every face. Thankfully after the last artist’s work, we had come to the end of the museum (everything besides the paintings and sculptures in the last part of the museum was a complete bore to me).
We decide it is time to head out and grab some lunch. In my head I am trying to figure out which restaurant we passed on the way to the museum would have the best food, all looked good. BUT, my dad and McKinley decided they wanted to eat somewhere cheap and easy, so we left Little Rock and headed back to Bradford making a stop at KFC - McKinley’s favorite fast food. I on the other hand am not a big fan of KFC (fast food in general, but KFC), so I walked a block down the road to Taco Bell, mistake! As I walked in, construction workers were staring, all the employees looked like they were on drugs, while eyeing me². I quickly went up to the counter, the only female and semi-non-drugged out employee took my ordered of nachos, then my cash, and luckily I wasn’t robbed by the other employee giving me the stink eye. As soon as my food was up, I booked it back to KFC where I ate my nachos with the rest of the gang. I told my dad, brother and McKinley of the craziness of Taco Bell, they laughed and my dad, slightly worried he let me walk over there alone.
As we are driving back to McKinley’s, my dad decides that I can take the sweet/scared little beagle home with me, but by then, since we are leaving the next morning, I do not have time to get it shots, a kennel, and a plane ticket… Once we get back to McKinley’s house, my dad takes a nap³ and my brother and I convince McKinley to drive us to Sonic to get a milkshake. My brother spots this hot chica working at Sonic and wants to ask her out, but he realizes that would be dumb since we’re visiting from WA, we don’t have our own car and we’re leaving the next morning.
We laugh as McKinley tells us jokes, and I become sad as I realize the end is near. We say goodnight to McKinley, give him our final hug goodbye and we head back to our hotel to rest before our flight tomorrow.
?The actual market doesn’t open till tomorrow, go figure.
²I wasn’t sure if they were going to take my order, drug my food, steel my money, or ask me out.
³Not that I’m shocked, he always wakes up around 3am – habit from his job.
