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A photo of Rayleigh, Ainsley, Grayson, and Dillon standing on a stone monument shaped like steps. The younger children are on the higher steps. The girls are on the left and the boys are on the right.

32 Days in America, Day 24

Stats

  • Miles traveled: 177.7
  • Miles traveled to date: 4468.0
  • States visited today: 2 – Arkansas, Oklahoma
  • States visited to date: 14
  • Tanks of gas pumped to date: 15
  • Meltdowns: 15
  • Loads of Laundry: 19
  • Illness: 4
  • Socks lost or destroyed: 5

Daily recap

Today, we visited the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, then drove across Arkansas to the Oklahoma border to visit Fort Smith, and had dinner at a brewpub.

Highlights

  • Visiting Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site
A photo of Kelsey and Kevin in front of Little Rock Central High School
Little Rock Central High School is still being used today. We visited on a Saturday, so it was pretty quiet.
  • Exploring Fort Smith
A photo of Kelsey in front of a cannon with a flag on a flagpole in the background
The flagpole in the background was several stories tall.

Other photos from today

A photo of Ainsley reading a display about the rights different people would have at the nation's founding. The page she is on lists the rights for white men and white women.
This display listed the rights different types of people would have had in the 18th century, depending on the color of your skin, your sex, and whether or not you owned property or paid taxes.
A photo of Ainsley standing in front of a quote on the wall of a brick building that says "[No State shall] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. - Fourteenth Amendment"
This National Park required a lot of reading and learning in order to answer the questions to get the Junior Ranger badge. Ainsley did a great job reading a lot of big and unfamiliar words.
A photo of Ainsley reading an exhibit about the history of "separate but equal" while Kevin looks on
Ainsley stopped partway through reading this passage about “separate but equal” to exclaim “but that’s not fair!”
A photo of Rayleigh in a hoodie interacting with a display at the museum
Rayleigh and Dillon were really interested in the interactive displays.
A photo of Grayson working on his Junior Ranger booklet on the floor.
Grayson made himself cozy on the carpet while he worked on his Junior Ranger booklet.
A photo of Dillon standing in front of a museum display about the Little Rock Nine that says "getting the attention of the nation"
Dillon exploring the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.
A photo of a Black national park ranger leading Ainsley and Grayson through the Junior Ranger pledge. All three have their right hands raised.
Ainsley and Grayson took the pledge for their Junior Ranger badges at Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.
A photo of Dillon pretending to poop in a bucket in a fireplace in the Fort Smith jail.
There would have been up to 50 prisoners in this jail at once. A ratio of 50 prisoners to 2 buckets used as toilets is much worse than our ratio of 6 people to 1 bathroom in our house!
A photo of Ainsley laying on a spartan bedroll on the floor of the Fort Smith jail
Ainsley trying out the prisoners’ sleeping accommodations. This place wasn’t called “Hell on the Border” for nothing.
A photo of Grayson and Ainsley behind bars in a replica jail cell making sad faces
We’re sorry, Dad! We won’t do it again!
A photo of Ainsley, Rayleigh, Grayson, and Dillon taking the Junior Ranger pledge in the visitor's center at Fort Smith
Second Junior Ranger badge for the day: check!
A photo of Rayleigh, Ainsley, Dillon, and Grayson standing in the ruins of an old fort with trees and a river in the background
Part of the original Fort Smith site. The foundations were made out of stone, but the walls were made out of wood, so only the foundations survived.
A photo of Grayson standing on top of a cistern, most of which is underground, except for some stone and a wooden trapdoor, which Grayson is standing on
This was the cistern for the officers’ quarters at Fort Smith.

And now for your moment of zen…

A photo of a screen with an educational display about the trail of tears with an error message dialog that says "Your computer's clock is set to a date before March 24, 2001. This may cause some applications to behave erratically."
I bet it’s set to January 1st, 1970, at midnight UTC.

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Kevin Fodness

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