Day 12 - Little Rock, Arkansas

We departed Memphis and after a long drive along the Interstate we ended up in Little Rock. We have at times found it difficult to find places to eat that cater for us both, however after a bit o frustrating running around we found lodging in Noth Little Rock and were able to discover a nearby branch of a chain of restaurants called Cracker Barrel .....they have good salads and very welcomed cups of tea. The restaurant is combined with a traditional old-fashioned country store, and they appear to be very popular. Little Rock does not have much for the tourist, but it is the home of former President Clinton and home of the Clinton Centre. We did not have a lot of time so decided to move the following morning on towards Fort Smith.

In the event we ended up stopping a little short and instead spent a pleasant afternoon in Van Buren a neat little town with a cute histroic district. It was very hot too!

After a fresh look at our "Rough Guide to the USA" guidebook, we embarked on a last minute itinerary-threatening side trip the resort of Branson which is in neighbouring Missouri.. It is located in the Ozark Mountains. Our valued GPS system took us on a bit of a round-about route, but it enabled us to keep up a good speed rather than take the more tortuous lower-speed route which might have seemed more obvious from looking at the map! It took quite a time to get there and we were tired and hungry by the time we found the neon glow of the main strip into the town. There are many lodging options there, but we quickly settled on the first reasonably priced place that alleged to have free Wi-Fi. (was in fact a poor signal and we didnt bother). Alas! we had arrived too late to enjoy an of the shows playing in town. The Americans seem to like to eat early and shows all start around 8 pm and run for a couple of hours max. Determined to do something for the evening before collapsing into our bed, we ventured downtown to the recently constructed "Branson Landing" entertainment and shopping area situated right onthe lake edge. There were not many people about by this time and being off-season this was to be expected. We visited a duelling pianos bar for an (expensive !) drink and then took a stroll along the shopfronts hoping to catch the hourly local water fountain light show that had been highlighted in our guidebook. however we missed it somehow............must have been a short show and perhaps not as spectacular as we had anticipated! We stopped by a pizza joint to grab something to eat before we retired to our motel.

On the road to Branson, Missouri