Little Rock, Ugly Tree

After knocking out beer from several states with trips to Omaha and Harpers Ferry, I was down to three states to drink a beer from.  One was Indiana, which has to be the state that I’ve spent the second most time in (after New York and Indiana, the next few would have to be Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, and Massachusetts in some order).  It’s quite possible that I’ve had an Indiana beer before, but I don’t remember it.  I googled the biggest breweries in Indiana and didn’t see anything that I recognized.  When I was in college, it was mostly Sam Adams, Guinness, and cheap beer (not necessarily in that order).  The other two states were Arkansas and Alaska.  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Alaska beer out west a couple of times, but I’ve been holding off until I actually get to Alaska (maybe next year).  I made the mistake of not drinking any Arkansas beer when I was there in 2014.  It was just a stop on my trip where I went to games in St. Louis and Kansas City.  I also used that trip as my excuse to get to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.  Arkansas was the only state other than Missouri where I spent the night.  I went to a minor league game in Springdale and I’m pretty sure I had a Sam Adams.  Even if there was no local beer, I should have just stopped at a bar or something.  Anyway, I wanted to visit Notre Dame this summer, but I used that trip as an excuse to get back to Arkansas.

I flew to Little Rock and got to my hotel around 2:00.  My first stop was the Clinton Library, my seventh presidential library.  The design was inspired by the library at Trinity College in Dublin, which I’ve been to.  But the museum was underwhelming.  Maybe I’m just not remembering the other ones I’ve been to, but this one seemed more political and less historical.  It kind of presented things as “Bill Clinton would have solved all the world’s problems, but the Republicans kept getting in the way.”  Of course, Clinton is the only president with a presidential library that was impeached (they only go back to Hoover).  They had the presidential limo, but that wasn’t as cool as Air Force One and Marine One (we couldn’t go in the limo).  There was a recreation of the cabinet room so that was kind of cool.  They had Clinton’s Oval Office, but you couldn’t take pictures inside.  You could have a professional photographer take your picture and then buy it for $30, but I wasn’t going to do that.  There was a lot of information, but I was expecting to see more stuff.  The temporary exhibit was on music and the country.  That was interesting, but it seemed incomplete. They showed a bunch of presidents with their campaign songs and what the popular songs were when they became president, but it only went up to Carter.  What up with that?

The presidential limo

The cabinet room

There was a football signed by Joe Montana, but that didn't make for a very good picture.  The ugliest Christmas tree I've ever seen makes for a better picture.  Apparently that thing was in the White House one of the years that Clinton was president.  I assume that it wasn't the official White House Christmas Tree.

So here are my updated presidential library rankings:

7.  Bill Clinton
6.  Jimmy Carter
5.  John F. Kennedy
4.  Richard Nixon
3.  Harry Truman
2.  George W. Bush
1.  Ronald Reagan

And here’s how I’d rank the ones I haven’t been to in terms of how much I’d want to get to each one (Obama’s hasn’t been built yet):

6.  Gerald Ford- The mid-70s, not a fun time.
5.  Herbert Hoover- The Great Depression, and even worse time, but at least more interesting than the mid-70s.
4.  George H.W. Bush- He’s the first president that I can remember being president, but I don’t find him that interesting.  There’s probably some interesting stuff about the Cold War coming to an end, but I’ve argued that the Cold War actually ended before he was president (even if it did end during his presidency, he doesn’t deserve any credit for it).
3.  Dwight Eisenhower- I’m more interested in Eisenhower in terms of World War II than as president.  They probably have some World War II stuff.
2.  Lyndon Johnson- He has a very mixed legacy.  Civil rights- good.  Vietnam- bad.  It would be interesting to see how that’s handled.
1.  Franklin Roosevelt- The Great Depression and most of World War II.  Lots of interesting stuff.  It’s also the presidential library closest to me (much closer than any of the other ones I haven’t been to).  I don’t know if I’ll get to any of the other ones that I haven’t been to yet, but I should get to the Roosevelt Library at some point.

After the Clinton Library, I went over to Central High School, which is famous for the Little Rock Nine.  When Governor Orval Faubus tried to prevent integration in 1957, Dwight Eisenhower sent troops to escort the black students to school.  There are benches outside the school with the names of the students engraved in them.

The sun made it difficult to get a decent picture of Central High School.

At night I was off to Dickey-Stephens Park for some Double-A baseball.  The Arkansas Travelers beat the Springfield Cardinals 3-2.  It was an impressive minor league stadium.  The crowd was good (attendance was listed at 7,700 even though capacity is 7,200).  The beer selection was very good.  I had a Diamond Bear Pale Ale, which was solid.  There were several other local options.  The food selection was decent.  I had a barbecue sandwich, which was fine, but nothing that stood out.  I had a nice view of downtown Little Rock from my seat.  The other thing that stood out was that the right field fence was very low and that short fence extended most of the way to center field.  You can find some short fences in the corners at some places.  Dodger Stadium’s fences are short in the corners, but they don’t extend nearly as far toward center.  Fenway Park has an extended short fence in right field, but I think Fenway’s is at least a foot taller (the short Dodger Stadium fences might be taller also).  I was struck by the combination of how short the fence was and how far it extended.  The stadium reminded me a little bit of Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston, but not quite as good.  Two things keep that one ahead of Dickey-Stephens Park.  The food was not as good at Dickey-Stephens Park.  And Dickey-Stephens Park had the worst video board I can remember outside of the pre-renovation Nassau Coliseum.  When they showed replays, it was like you were watching baseball from the 1970s.  They were seriously lacking in pixels.  But it’s a minor league park, so whatever.  I was ready to slide Dickey-Stephens Park in at number 4 on my minor league stadium rankings, but I had another leg of my trip to go.  I’ll get to that trip soon.

My view for the game

My 48th beer state