Clinton Presidential Library

We packed up in the rain at our campground in Texarkana after a disappointing day at the RV repair shop -- not only were they not able to fix our leak, they weren't able to help us get our passenger slide to work.  We will have to live with it in until we return to Florida in the fall and can take it to a place that has the ability to take out the slide and fix it.

But we did finish our day in a nice little park that sits right on the Arkansas River and right across from the Clinton Presidential Library/Museum in downtown North Little Rock. Here I am standing on the bridge with the camera looking back at the campground.  Our RV is at the back close to the bridge (in front of my left shoulder).

Ken then stood on the other side of the bridge we could get a shot of the library behind him

All of the rain we have been experiencing came right along with us - we drove through some of it and it spit off and on throughout the day.  The worst part is the Arkansas River is at flood stage.  Any more rain and it will go over its banks.  In fact it already has flowed into the little wetlands park by the museum such that all you can see is the roofs of a couple of shelters and the nose of this bird statue.

Presently they have a special exhibition on dinosaurs which seems a little strange for a presidential museum but it apparently has attracted a fair amount of interest.  Their was a well dressed group busy taking pictures and getting a special tour when we arrived.  Here is Ken by one of the dinosaurs at the entrance.

The museum itself is very long and narrow.  We found out that locals refer to it as Bill's double wide and we could see why.  It does look like a long park model trailer/home.  The inside is rather unique. It takes advantage of electronics in a big way with many different videos going in showcases that display items related to the theme such as making education more available to the downtrodden.

In addition there was a huge flat screen for each of the years he was in office that contained information about events of that year in which he was involved. along with 12 loose leafs - one for each month - filled with Clintons daily schedule for that month.

Here is a sample of a daily schedule

What appeared to be pillars separating each area were shelves filled with cases filled with archival papers from his term in office.  Actually only about 2-3% of them.  And that was massive.

The building design was based on this long room of Trinity College Dublin

And here is a shot of the major two floors of displays

Besides these displays there was also a replica of the cabinet room as it was when he was president

And a replica of the oval office as it was when he was president. You will note a small item on the coffee table - it is a moon rock.  The following sign mentioned this about it.

It was amazing to see just how much different the furniture, rug, desk, etc was from the George W. Bush years which we saw just last week while in Dallas.  Each president does a total redecoration of many of the areas they use regularly.

Some of the display cases on the top floor showed many of the different gifts that were given to the president along with this sign explaining why they are accepted

 It is difficult to photograph things behind glass but this gives an idea of what those cases were like

There were also many unique gifts given by citizens of the US such as this Saxaphone Chair

And this knitted blanket

We wandered down to the area where the flooded wet lands gardens were just to take a peek and also get a good view of the entire museum.

Then we walked back across the Presidential Bridge (formerly a railroad bridge that was remodeled in 2011) admiring the lights (which we found out after dark provided a light show that we could see out our RV windows)

In the evening we enjoyed the beautiful lights on the bridge that kept changing throughout the night.

as well as the lights from the city in the other direction