Two Rivers Bridge Again

I made another trip out to Two Rivers Bridge, the newest pedestrian bridge in Little Rock. I tried to time it so that I got there at dusk, when there would be some nice color in the sky to go behind the bridge. I got there, found a spot to set up the camera, and waited for dusk to settle in.

While the Two Rivers Bridge doesn't have the same colorful lighting scheme as the Big Dam Bridge, it does look neat at night.


The lights also somehow manage to shine on the steel section in the middle, so that it seems to glow from within.

(In this shot you can see the I-430 bridge and the Big Dam Bridge in the distance).

The bridge was full of people that night, even if it was another hot and sultry summer evening.

Two Rivers, One Bridge

Went out a few weeks back to visit the newest pedestrian bridge in town, the Two Rivers Bridge. The bridge's name is a kind of a misnomer, it doesn't actually go over two rivers. However, it does run into Two Rivers Park, which sits on a peninsula between the Arkansas River and the Little Maumelle River.


The bridge was designed by the same people who did the Big Dam Bridge, just downriver. The bridges are similar in style, and I hope that the unofficial nickname for the new bridge is maybe the "Little Dam Bridge," or perhaps the "Baby Dam Bridge, or if you're feeling British - the "Wee Dam Bridge."

The significant difference between the two bridges is the addition of steel section in the middle of the bridge that is reminiscent of an old rail bridge. It's a nice touch...

This visit was made on a warm summer day, when the high temps were up around 100 degrees. But it cooled off around dusk, and there was a nice breeze coming in from the river. It was actually pleasant to be out on the bridge, and there were a lot of people out there enjoying the views from the bridge.

And the views are nice, probably surpassing the Big Dam Bridge as the best place in Little Rock to watch the sunset.


And here is the sunset that night, with Pinnacle Mountain in the distance...


On the opposite side of the bridge, you have a view of the Arkansas River and the distant I-430 bridge and the Big Dam Bridge. Here's a shot of the lighted Big Dam Bridge, framed by the I-430 bridge...


And here's a wider shot of the two bridges again...

Scott

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, it has really just been too hot to go out and take pictures. The high yesterday was 114 in Little Rock, which was the highest temperature ever recorded since they decided to keep track of that sort of thing. It's the kind of heat where the local tv news decides to cook eggs on the sidewalk, or bake cookies on the dashboard of a car.

So when it's this hot outside, you really are wise to not be away from air conditioning too much. I learned this valuable lesson Tuesday afternoon, during my drive home from work. It was about 106 degrees or so, and one of the tires on my car decided that it finally had enough of the heat. It called it quits, blowing out in a quite spectacular fashion.

My commute home from work is about 15 miles, and of course, the tire picked the very worst possible spot to blow out. I was driving north on the I-430 bridge when the tire decided to end it. Since it's not very wise to pull over on the side of a bridge, I tried to make it to the Maumelle exit on the freeway. But when I made it over the bridge, I saw blue smoke in the rear-view mirror, and thought it best to pull over there on the side of the interstate.

I got out of the car to inspect the damage, and the tire was shredded. So it was time to change the tire, in 106 degree temps. Oh yeah, did I mention that heat index that day was 118 degrees?

Now I haven't actually changed a tire since I was 16. So I spent a few minutes digging the spare tire out of the car. Now my car is only two years old, and I have barely paid any attention to the spare that sits in the trunk. The only time I really looked at the spare tire was when I was buying the car, when the saleslady showed me the tire with a brief wave of her hand. So now I was standing on the side of the road, sweating profusely, trying to figure out where the car manufacturers had hidden away all the necessary parts to change a tire.

After pulling out various jacks and handles, I laid them out on the hot pavement and set out to change the tire. It took me about 20 minutes or so (although it seemed like I was out there much longer). I would have had it changed much earlier, but I had problems getting the spare tire on. Turns out I was trying to put it on backwards. After getting the tire safely on, I went into the car and cranked up the air conditioning. As I looked in the rear-view mirror, my face was bright red and my eyes were bloodshot. Changing a tire in 106 degree weather (with a 118 heat index) was not how I wanted to spend my afternoon.

But I had been out a few days before to take pictures, when it wasn't quite as hot (in the upper 90s, which is quite chilly compared to my time spent on the side of the freeway). I had gone out to visit the small town of Scott, which sits about 20 miles to the east of Little Rock. Luckily I wasn't driving, so there wasn't any car trouble.

Scott is a really neat place. While the suburbs are slowly encroaching on the town, it still retains an air of an old farming community. There are numerous old farm buildings, barns and plantation homes all around Scott. I've been out there many times and still find new things to take pictures of.

We went through Scott, and then drove through the farmland south of town. There were acres upon acres of farmland, mostly corn and rice. The corn looked a bit rough in places, slowing burning into a rusty brown in the heat of the summer. But amongst the endless rows of farmland, we stopped at this old church along the road. It looked to have been abandoned, with tall grass growing up beside the church.


The front door of the church was left open, so I decided to take a quick look inside. The entrance was serving a congregation of wasps, who decided to attack my head and face like kamikaze pilots. So I quickly left the church, and may or may not have been screaming like a little girl as I ran.


We passed by another church and decided to stop in the heat to take a few pictures. This old church was also closed, and probably doesn't see too many other visitors.


There is a small cemetery sitting just between the church and farmland. While the grass looked like it had been mowed recently in a few places, there were parts of the cemetery that were covered in tall grass and weeds. Some of the grave markers were from the 1920s, but were all but hidden by tall grass.


A tornado passed by Scott a few months ago, and I regret to report that it damaged or destroyed some neat photo locations. The road, which ran through a line of old and distinguished pecan trees, was hit. The tornado took out several trees, and left many others damaged. The road was lined with fallen trees and broken limbs.

This is what it looked like last year. But this view is irreversibly changed, thanks to the missing trees and debris still laying next to the road.

Another casualty were the two old sharecropper cabins that stood next to the road by the pecan trees. This was taken during the visit last year, when the cabins had gotten a fresh coat of paint:

But they're gone now, a victim of the storm. Now all that is left is a hole with a small pile of debris. Which goes to show that we really need to make sure to get pictures of these old buildings, since there's no telling how long they will be around...

Roark Bluff

I asked for, and was granted, a day off from work last week. I got Friday off, which resulted in the luxury of having two 3-day weekends in a row. As my mini-vacation approached, I realized that I should do something proper with the time off (besides just being lazy and sleeping in at my apartment). I thought about embarking on another camping trip. But the downside to this idea was that it would take place in Arkansas during the summer. The temperature was running dangerously close to 100 degrees, which really isn't the ideal time to be anywhere that isn't air conditioned.

I managed to find someone else crazy enough to go camping in the summer - Zack. We agreed to meet up in Conway on Thursday afternoon, and then drove up to the Buffalo National River. The plan was to camp at Steele Creek, which is one of the prettiest places along the river. An added benefit to camping here is the proximity of the Ozark Cafe in Jasper. Whenever things got too brutally hot, we could always make the drive to the air conditioned comforts of the best restaurant in Jasper.

We drove up to the Steele Creek campground, and managed to snag a good campsite. When you go camping in the heat of the summer, one of the luxuries that you seek out is shade. The spot we claimed had a good deal of shade during the day, which made it like the Taj Mahal of campsites.

After getting everything set up at the campsite, we headed down to the river. There hasn't been much rain here this summer, and the Buffalo River was running very low. As dusk settled in over the Ozarks, we set out to take a few pictures. This is a view of the bluffs along the Buffalo River, near where Steele Creek usually flows in (it was bone dry that day).

This shot was taken while actually standing in the middle of the Buffalo River. It wasn't very deep, but I had to try to stand as still as possible in order to not ruin the reflection the water. And also I was extremely scared that I would drop my camera in the river.

This shot was also taken while standing in the middle of the river...


We both woke up early the next morning (sometime around 5am) and headed back to the river. There is a short trail that leads to an amazing overlook along Roark Bluff, about 200 feet above the river. To get there you have to cross the Buffalo River (which was an easy crossing considering the water was low), and then hike into the woods along a faint trail. The trail runs through woods, which I assumed were full of snakes.

We made it to the overlook, which sits on a narrow stretch of rock sitting high above the river. This is not a place to visit if you are scared of heights. It's also not a place to visit if you don't like blood-thirsty bugs. I plucked several ticks off of my legs while out on the bluff that morning, happily flinging them over the edge into the abyss below.

The hike through tick-infested woods was worth it, considering the amazing views you get. Roark Bluff runs for nearly three-quarters of a mile, and is the longest bluff along the Buffalo River.


It is an awesome place to go, but you have to be uber-careful. If you venture too close to the edge, one clumsy step could be fatal. This is a wider shot of the view...


And a shot from almost the same exact spot, taken last autumn:


But before the sun came out, we retreated back to our campsite. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the shade of the campsite, cooling off in the waters of the Buffalo, or basking in the air conditioned luxury of the Ozark Cafe. It was a nice and lazy day, even in the heat and humidity of an Arkansas summer.

4th of July

Independence Day is a great holiday - my office was kind enough to give me a three day weekend, and I delightfully slept in on as many days as I could. But the holiday is one where you must reflect on the effort made by our forefathers back in the 1776, who revolted against English tyranny so that today we can sleep till noon, then drink beer and shoot off explosives. USA! USA!

There is a fireworks display on the 4th of July in downtown Little Rock. So I headed downtown, and stopped to get a few pictures. This is a view of an old church, and the newer AT&T building, with it's competing steeple:


Eventually, I made it to Riverfront Park in downtown North Little Rock. There is a spot there along the river, just by the Baring Cross Bridge, that provides a nice view of the skyline. I thought it might be an interesting angle to take pictures of the fireworks too. Eventually a small brigade of photographers were there, and the cameras and tripods were strategically placed. Of course, as people walked along the River Trail by us, they asked the question that one usually hears when standing next to a camera on a tripod: "So you out taking pictures?" I'm always tempted to say, "No, actually I'm baking a cake right now."

But it finally grew dark, and the fireworks show began. The best thing about this view was that the fireworks were reflected in the buildings along the skyline. This is my favorite shot from the night: