Author: bbpeck

Bob and I arrived in Destin, Florida, on Sunday, Mother’s Day, to reunite with family at a lovely home near the beach that Bob’s sister and brother-in-law had rented for a couple of weeks. Since then, we’ve enjoyed the beautiful scenery, as well as time with our sister and brother-in-law and our nephew, niece, and family.

The following are some pics from this part of the visit.

Our niece and nephew and their family left today to get back for work, but Bob’s brother Eric just arrived, so more fun to be had…

The rain continues, but we had a short 2.5 hour drive today to our final stop before we meet up with family tomorrow in Destin, Florida.

We are spending the night at the Grand Hotel, an Autograph Collection hotel for Marriott. We had some Marriott points that we had to use before we lost them, so Bob found us a hotel/resort that we could never afford to stay at but that we could use points for a free night. It is quite the resort.

After our workout and shower, we walked a lot of the property.

We will meet up with family in Destin, Florida, sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Laurel, Mississippi, established in 1882, is the town that timber built and has significant Midwestern roots. Bob and I learned a lot about Laurel’s history this morning on a free walking tour through part of Laurel’s historic district led by the Executive Director of Lauren Roger’s Museum of Art. These tours are only offered on Fridays during a designated portion of the year, and I think we got in on the last one for this spring. There were 9 of us in the group. It was raining but not too hard and everyone had an umbrella.

It was a 10 minute walk from the Airbnb to the art museum, and on the way we saw a couple of buildings of interest.

The museum provides a film covering the history of the museum and Laurel (They are linked and Iowa plays an important role!), so we watched the film before our tour started at 10:30. In a nutshell, the land in and around Laurel was covered with Yellow Pine trees. Nothing could be done with them though until the railroad came to Laurel and connected it with important points around the country. This happened in 1881.

After that, the sawmills started in earnest, with lumber barons from Clinton, Iowa, Lauren Chase Eastman and George and Silas Gardiner buying up much of the tree covered land and an existing mill to really spur the local timber industry and the resulting growth of Laurel. Following World War I, Laurel shipped more Yellow Pine than any other location in the world. The peak of prosperity was reached in the 1920s when the mills were producing a total of one million board feet of lumber per day.

So, the Eastman and Gardiner families helped lay the groundwork for the town by creating the street layout much like what they had in Iowa as well as schools and other programs for their employees.

Lauren Rogers, the only grandchild of Lauren Chase Eastman, was expected to inherit and run the mills, however, he died at the age of 23 from complications due to appendicitis. His family established a foundation in his name that built the art museum, public library, and public schools for the community.

We walked part of 5th Avenue, where these founding families lived, to look at some of their former homes as well as other homes and buildings.

As you can tell from the tour, there is a wide variety of architectural styles in the historic district. However, because the heyday of Laurel was from 1900-1930s and their was a large middle class that benefited from the timber trade, there is also a lot of smaller Craftsman style bungalows as that was the popular architectural style of the time.

After the tour, we returned to the art museum to check out the exhibits. We were more impressed with the tour than the art, but a few things caught our eye.

After our time at the museum, Bob and I walked back into downtown Laurel and popped into another of Ben and Erin’s stores.

Bob and I left Little Rock, Arkansas, this morning to drive about 6 hours to Laurel, Mississippi. We have wanted to come to Laurel for a few years, as we are fans of the home renovation show “Home Town” and the hosts, Ben and Erin Napier, who do the home renovations.

We had a much flatter drive today than we had yesterday. This made Bob happy. We were also both happy that the rain and storms we thought we might be driving through did not pan out.

Our first stop in Laurel was the Visitor Center where we learned about other famous people from Laurel, MS.

We are staying at an Airbnb in Laurel as there weren’t any good hotel/motel options downtown. We were not able to check in until 4:00 pm, so we had a look around the downtown area while waiting, and had an unexpected find.

The best part of this part of our day is we got to see both Ben and Erin in his shop while they were shooting a tv episode! We were not allowed to take photos, but the staff member by the window where we looked in said that they renovate about 4 homes in the Laurel area every 8 weeks.

We were sent information about where to park and how to get into our Airbnb at 4:00 pm. We are here until 10 am on Saturday.

Bob and I are having a lazy, rainy Wednesday. Since the drive to Little Rock, AR, from Fayetteville was a little less than 3 hours, Bob and I had a leisurely morning in The Graduate Hotel in Fayetteville before getting on the road. Since we are staying at a Marriott property in Little Rock, we had requested a check in of 1:00 pm (versus the standard 3:00), and we learned after we had left that our room was ready and we would be able to check in early.

The initial part of the drive was rain-free, which was nice as we were coming through the mountains, but the last hour of the drive was wet.

We arrived a bit after 1:00 and were able to check in. We were in room 1517 in the last hotel and room 1518 here. Hopefully we don’t forget tonight and try to get into room 1517.

We have access to the Member Lounge here, so we headed there for a free lunch. We’ll be back tonight for a free dinner and tomorrow morning for a free breakfast before we head out for our 5 hour drive to Laurel, Mississippi.

It has been raining off and on since we arrived, so we have explored the large Little Rock Marriott Hotel, which is right downtown and has a convention center attached to it. We visited the city years ago shortly after the Clinton Presidential Museum opened to see that and downtown Little Rock, do some hiking in nearby state parks, and visit Hot Springs.

Some pics of the surrounding area.

And a few pics from our walk around the hotel, including a sign that caught our attention.

Bob didn’t realize he was that well known in Arkansas, but he’s definitely okay with it.😂. Actually, Google tells me there was a Sam Peck that ran a hotel in Little Rock that was a popular spot for journalists and dignitaries, and he is credited with bringing fine dining to Little Rock in the 1940s, so he could possibly be the source of the room name as well.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Bob and I spent the day exploring more of Fayetteville, Arkansas. With a population of over 100,000, Fayetteville is the second largest city in the state. It is located in the Ozark Mountains and is home to the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas.

Our goal for the day was to explore the university campus, but we saw some other highlights as well. The main “drag” to campus is called Dickson Street. It had a mix of bars, restaurants, retail, cultural structures. As we have found Fayetteville in general, it was definitely cleaner than many other campus areas we have visited.

Established in 1871, the U of A is the oldest publicly funded institution in the state. It has a student population of over 33,500 from all 50 states and over 120 countries. It has 10 colleges and schools that offer nearly 200 academic programs. We were impressed with the attractive campus, beginning from our first steps on the sidewalk leading to the Old Main Building.

From the university, we walked back to the Fayetteville Public Library that was closed when we saw it on Sunday to check out the inside of the building. It was bright and spacious, but I am hesitant to take photos inside libraries since getting scolded by a librarian in England. The library did have a great terrace though that we went out on.

Tomorrow we drive a short 3 hours to get reacquainted with Little Rock, Arkansas, for one afternoon/night. That was the plan anyway. There are storms forecasted for the next couple of days on our route of travel that we hope to avoid while driving but which may keep us inside when we get there.

This portion of our journey to Destin was to be based in Bentonville, Arkansas, instead of Fayetteville, but the hotel prices in Bentonville are pricier, so we opted to stay in Fayetteville and do a day trip to Bentonville. This way we are seeing a bit of both cities and getting another notch in our Graduate Hotel list.

Both cities have so far really impressed us with their natural beauty (rolling hills and lots of trees) and also with the cleanliness and attractiveness of their downtown areas.

One might say that Bentonville is the city that Sam Walton built. While the founder of Walmart didn’t physically build any buildings, his first self-named store is located there, the first Walmart store was located in the nearby Rogers, Arkansas, and the Walmart dollars continue to fund a lot of cultural activities in the area. We took advantage of some of these today.

At some point in his reading, Bob had learned about the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, which is supported by Walmart so that there is no entry fee. It sits on a beautiful wooded 134 acre campus near a creek that also houses the Heartland Whole Health Institute, the Alice Walton School of Medicine, and lots of walking and art trails throughout the grounds. The art museum was our goal for the day, but in planning our visit we also learned that there was a Frank Lloyd Wright designed building near the museum, so we started there this morning with a $12 per person guided tour. Self-guided tours are free.

We learned that the home was built for the Bachmans from designs by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the home was originally located in New Jersey. The house had four owners after being built, the last of which looked to have the house moved to save it as it had gone through several floods and two hurricanes. It was taken apart (without the extra rooms that had been added) and moved to a site near the museum and rebuilt 10 years ago to match Wright’s original design.

After the tour, we walked back to the Crystal Bridges Art Museum to look at the art. The art is impressive, but we loved the architecture of the building almost as much.

A few samples of some of the American art on display—

After we had looked through the museum and walked some of the trails, we drove into downtown Bentonville to the Walmart Museum which is located in the former Walton’s store.

The museum provided a good general overview of Sam Walton’s life and career. He was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma in 1918, and at 13, he became the youngest Eagle Scout in Missouri. He met his wife Helen in Claremore, Oklahoma, where he was waiting to be called up for service. Another fun fact for us was that he started his retail career in Des Moines, Iowa, as a management trainee with J. C. Penney.

The store that the museum is located in was their second store, but the first one with their name, Walton. In this store he began using the new self-service method of retail which allowed customers to peruse aisles of goods instead of having to ask clerks for what they wanted.

He opened the first Walmart in 1962; however, he opened 17 variety stores before focusing exclusively on Walmart.

After a free breakfast at the Cyrus Hotel in Topeka this morning, Bob and I walked a couple of blocks to get a photo of the capitol of Kansas.

After our short walk in downtown Topeka, we headed out for a 4:25 hour drive to Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was an easy drive in good weather.

We did a walkabout near the hotel after we arrived.

Bob and I will spend 3 nights in Fayetteville.

Bob and I left Des Moines, Iowa, yesterday about mid-day to start our slow drive to Destin, Florida, for a family gathering and then a housesit. We were headed yesterday to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, just outside of Omaha to stay with Bob’s sister Shelli and her husband John. We drove I-80 out of Des Moines and started seeing signs for the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn, Iowa. We decided to take the short 6-mile detour off the interstate to check it out. It did not disappoint.

The information at the windmill talked about the efforts the community of 750 people made to raise $100,000 from 1975-77 to locate, purchase, move, and rebuild an authentic Danish windmill.

As a side note, Bob and I did a housesit in Pella, Iowa, a couple of years ago, which is home to a Dutch windmill.

Elk Horn is also home to a Danish museum and genealogy center. We had a lovely visit in the gift shop with a very personable clerk, and we bought some goodies to take to Bob’s sister and brother-in-law.

We had a great dinner and visit with Shelli and John. We did a load of laundry, and we caught up on their recent and upcoming travels as well as what their kids are up to. After dinner, we went to a nearby event space that just opened for some drinks and to listen to music. It was lovely.

This morning we had coffee and a light breakfast at Shelli and John’s before leaving to head towards Nebraska City and then on to Topeka. After almost having left my phone, which John found, and a bag of Bob’s, which John also found, they still had to call us back after a few minutes on the road, as Bob had left his coat there.

The second departure was successful, and we headed 30 minutes down the road to Nebraska City, Nebraska, to visit the Arbor Mansion. This is the home of Julius Sterling Morton, his wife, and his four sons, all of whom contributed a great deal to Nebraska and the country. Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902) was a Nebraska newspaper editor and politician who served as the Secretary of Agriculture under President Grover Cleveland. He is credited with founding Arbor Day in 1872.

Each of the four sons were successful in business and/or railroads, but the most famous for most Americans might be Joy, the eldest, who founded the Morton Salt company, with the famous dark blue container with the logo of a little girl pouring salt under an umbrella as it rains.

The home and grounds are now part of a 72 acre park that includes the mansion, carriage house, gift shop and wine tasting room, tree adventure area, tree nursery, and a hotel and convention center.

After our walk through the mansion, carriage house, and gift shop, we headed on to Topeka, where we will spend the night. We arrived about 3:00 pm and were able to check in. Bob was thrilled to see his impressive status duly noted on the board behind the check-in desk of the Marriott Cyrus Hotel in downtown Topeka (haha).

Since it was early we decided to walk about 15-20 minutes to the Brown vs Board of Education museum.

Brown vs the Board of Education is a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1955 that mandated the desegregation of public schools in the United States. It was a combination of five separate lawsuits challenging segregation in states around the country. The museum is in Monroe School, the Topeka school challenging segregation. Other schools included in the lawsuit were from Delaware, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and X.

One thing we read that we hadn’t thought about before as that Black teachers were against the lawsuit as they knew it would likely mean the loss of their jobs.

Today was our last day at our Rockridge housesit in Oakland, CA. It has been a lovely, relaxing housesit in a beautiful neighborhood in Oakland, which has allowed Bob’s new hip to “settle in.” We have also enjoyed our second sit for the loveable and oh so cute Spot, Rubie, and Kimchi.

We left the Rockridge housesit at 4:00 pm. We walked to the BART station to catch the 55 minute stress free ride to the San Francisco Airport. Once we were at the airport we caught the airport’s Air Train to the Grand Hyatt hotel at the airport to facilitate us catching an 8:00 am flight to Des Moines via Denver tomorrow.

We will be in Des Moines from Tuesday evening through midday Friday when we will start a leisurely drive to Destin, Florida.