Full Circle: Back in Nashville
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
As far as my bucket list/scavenger hunt was concerned, Friday, July 8, 2011, was a most excellent day. Anytime you can scratch off two Presidential gravesites, a state capitol, and pair of Presidential homes, off your checklist, you’re doing quite well. Add to that mix two more eateries that had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and you’ve really got something! The only problem was that I had had such a great time just hanging out with Jamie during the course of our week-long trip, I was just sad to see it come to an end. Read the rest of this entry »
After Jamie and I had spent our day at the Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 6, 2011, we made the three-hour journey back to Memphis, Tennessee. Of course if you’ve been following this series of road trip posts, you’ll know that we had already spent Sunday in Memphis. But I had purposely made the plans so that we would hit it both coming and going. Following our long drive, we were both ready for a late dinner and we arrived at Uncle Lou’s Chicken at about 7:30pm. 
Jamie doesn’t have a tremendous interest in history but thus far, she had been a very good sport as I dragged her through Arkansas to such things as Bill Clinton’s birthplace in Hope, the Clinton Library, and the State Capitol. There was however one thing of a historical nature that she was interested in seeing. The reason for her interest was that she had had a guest speaker by the name of Jefferson Thomas in one of the classes that she was teaching. Jefferson had been on of the Little Rock Nine, a group of black children who were prevented from entering the front doors of Central High School in Little Rock in 1957 – until U.S. military troops showed up on the scene to escort them inside. It was a crowning moment in both the Civil Rights movement and the show of Federal Power under President Eisenhower. 
With all of the traveling, site-seeing, and eating that we had already accomplished, it was amazing that so far we had only been gone for one weekend. And since this fine Monday in 2011 was July 4 – aka Independence Day – I still had one more day of non-vacation to cash in on before I would begin getting docked. This day was purposely designed to be a very quiet one. Thinking that there might not be a lot open on the holiday, I timed it so that we could spend the bulk of this day on the road. Jamie and I slept in a little bit and didn’t actually depart our motel in Memphis until about 10:30am – at which time it was a blazing 101 degrees outside. We had a long drive from Memphis to Hope, Arkansas. Other than our initial drive from Cincinnati, this would be the longest un-interrupted drive within the trip. 
Only future history will reveal how President Bill Clinton’s administration is viewed and rated. The sex scandal that led to his becoming only the second President in American history to be impeached is just too fresh in our minds. But even with the periodic scandals that marred his administration from 1993-2001, Clinton still ranks high in the list of all-time greatest Presidents and left office with relatively high approval ratings. His accomplishments in the areas of foreign and domestic policy have been unmatched since the days of Ronald Reagan. In my view, he was also the most fiscally responsible President that we have had in the last 50 years.