A 45 Year Old Knot

Sunday, October 30, 2011

On this date in the year 1966, Fred and Wilma tied a knot that has held firm for 45 years. We hope it will hold for many more years! Happy Anniversary to us!

The shower house was nice and warm as we started out early this morning, but there was a definite chill in the air. We pulled out of the Crystal Springs campground about 15 miles west of Hot Springs, Arkansas, headed northeast to Little Rock.  We took scenic route 70, and the trees were showing a lot of color. Soon after getting on Interstate 30, we stopped at a Waffle House for a quickie breakfast.

Our destination was Central High School in Little Rock, where in 1957 nine students boldly went forward to attend a previously segregated school.  The school is now a National Historic Site. There is a new VC with a lot of displays, and of course the passport book stamps. They are working on a video presentation, and expect it in about a year. There are numerous displays, including video of some news clips during the riots, an interview with news anchor Mike Wallace, and interviews with some of the original nine students many years later.  It was very interesting to see.

It's a huge school building.

Betty and Wilma and Fred looking at the garden momument.

Gas was only 22 center per gallon then.

We then walked over to the school. It is a very large building, built in 1927, and beautifully done. It is still a working school, and currently has about 2000 students. There is a small garden on the opposite corner of the intersection, with lots of pictures on a couple of portals. The original Mobil gas station is opposite the Visitor Center. The gas station is where the news people hung out while covering the story, and is being preserved in the National Historic Site.

It was then time to hit the road hard. We are now headed west, and will put in a couple of long driving days before getting to central New Mexico where there are stamp locations yet to explore.

We made a grocery stop in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, to pick up a few things we needed, and fixed some sandwiches for our lunch while we were there. Two hours from there we finally came to a rest area that actually had restrooms.  Oklahoma facilities are few and far between.

Against objections from some of us, instead of spending the night at the rest area, we continued on to Oklahoma City, where we found a WalMart and are parked on the fringes of the lot for the night, along with numerous other rigs. We had wanted to get clear out of Oklahoma City, but it gets hard to navigate through construction areas after dark, even with Garmin’s help.

More from our chisel tomorrow.

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