City Camping at Little Rock

We are right on the Arkansas River in Little Rock, at a city campground that’s a lot like that one in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

It’s basically just an organized parking lot, but it’s within walking and biking distance of most of downtown.

What we thought might be a deal-breaker when we pulled in is the fact that it’s been 100 degrees every single damned day, and the trailer is in full sun on pavement for most of that. To compensate, we’ve been taking short bike rides through the city before 9 am and driving out to one indoor tourist thing in the middle of the day, then sitting outside the camper only at night.

Banjo and Tracy have been unhappy about the whole place, Banjo because there’s nowhere interesting to smell around the campsite, plus we won’t let her cook herself in the sun, and Tracy because we’ve paid so much for this campsite for several days, but the hosts didn’t assign us a spot in the shade and the places we’d visit to get out of the heat are packed. Heck, we tried a brewery in the middle of a weekday and there were no seats. Then we couldn’t get the truck out of a tight parking lot that filled up while we were away. All this adds up to us being unaccustomed to city life, I’m thinking. That’s not LIttle Rock’s fault.

Six Bridges

The city has been developed on both sides of the river, with multiple railroad, highway, and pedestrian bridges connecting the two parts.

We’re right at the foot of the biking/pedestrian bridge, formerly railroad, that’s a little beaten up but has been revitalized.

All day long people are using this bridge: joggers, dog and stroller walkers, bicyclists, wandering folks.

I like to walk along it in the heat of the day to feel the breeze come down the river and watch the various water traffic move underneath.

I gotta say, I’m in love with this bridge. Its official name is the Junction Bridge Pedestrian Walkway, but I’m now calling it my bridge.

River Multi-use Trail

The Arkansas River Trail runs for 15 miles in a loop, along one side of the river, across (on both ends), then along the other side.

We poked around on the main city side one morning, since that’s where the sculpture gardens and outside amphitheater and unusual playgrounds are, but I barely took photos while riding since I’m still in an extra-careful bike mode.

We passed various interesting things we’d read about in Atlas Obscura beforehand, but, truthfully, highway construction forces you to detour onto the city streets in places, and homeless folks were trying to go about their business in other places, and my knee was swelling, so we didn’t spend as much time as we could have.

The northern side is less developed but very pretty right along the river. You can tell one end of North Little Rock is very depressed (Tracy had to ward off junkies to get through the one grocery store’s parking lot) whereas the other end is getting gentrified as fast as developers can build. I love the idea of living right on a river, but the new homes and apartments are super expensive, whereas there seems to be plenty of small older homes in the hills on the other side of the river that looked like nice neighborhoods.

Cheese Dip

Oddly, this is the first thing Arkansas wants you to know about their city when you visit the tourist websites. Some historian deemed Little Rock to be where the first cheese dip was made, so kind of like that town that stakes its claim to being the future birthplace of James T. Kirk, Little Rock now embraces cheese dip. Not ever calling is queso, either.

We had lunch at the Faded Rose, a Cajun and Creole restaurant that’s been here since the 80s. Our meal choices weren’t stellar, but now we can say we had a famous version of the cheese dip. It was for sure made with real cheese.

If I’d had my way, we’d have gone to several restaurants and bars a day to try as many cheese dips along the Cheese Dip Trail as we could. If I had my way, though, we’d end up drunk and broke and lost by the side of the road. (Thanks for that sadly accurate image, Doug.)

Night by the Trailer

Our campsite is on concrete and the days are blistering, but when the sun goes down, we have the best views you could ask for.

Each of the bridges lights up in garish colors, one in the distance with blinking lights (man am I glad we’re not near that one.)

We sit and play cards or just watch the moon and the city lights. We could hear the band, Turnpike Troubadours, playing on the river last night; the Avetts play next week and damned if Steel Pulse isn’t playing next month.

Addendum

I said I wasn’t going to post anymore about health updates, but I have context here and I’ll be quick. In Livingston, I was given a heart monitor that is driving me nuts by now, especially at night when we’re sitting outside.

I am certain my heart is healthy, but anytime you mention to your doctor that it’s beating fast—and your dad died of a heart attack at age 42—he’s going to order an echocardiogram and a portable monitor. My echo is totally clear, but I’m stuck with this monitor for two weeks, 24/7. It’s in the way, I have to carry a separate phone at all times to record the data, the sticky stuff for the electrodes won’t wash off, and it’s making my skin itchy and unhappy. I can mostly ignore it during the day, but by the end when I’m outside trying to enjoy these views, I’m scratching and washing and applying hydrocortisone and bitching. I imagine when we leave this heat it will be less of a bother, but until then I’ll declare I hate this thing almost as much as that post-surgery leg brace. As Tracy pointed out rightly, we dedicated this summer to get health info, so we’re going to get all the health info we can!

I have one more afternoon with my beloved bridge and one more evening to ignore my skin and enjoy the lights. Talk to you when we’re farther north.