Big Dam Blues

Last Monday, at about 10:30 at night, I went to take out some trash to the apartment dumpster. As I stepped outside, I was quickly engulfed in a thick fog. The fog would definitely qualify for being high on the pea-soup scale. It was probably the thickest fog that I had seen in awhile.

So I hurried to the dumpster and then went back to my place and grabbed the camera. It was kinda late, especially since I had to work the next day. But I thought that the fog might make for some interesting pictures. I got in the car and started driving to the Big Dam Bridge. It was eerie - the fog was so thick that I could barely see 15 feet in front of me.

I go to the bridge and set up the camera for a few pictures. The lights on the bridge shuffled through several color schemes. For some reason, the blue lights seemed to reflect off of the fog more than any other color.




I was out there for about an hour, mostly because the anticipation of the alarm clock going off at 6:40 the next morning was not a pleasant thought. And also, it was about 34 degrees outside, which cast a bit of a chill.


Not surprisingly, there wasn't anyone else out at the bridge. Usually, you can hear cars or people talking on the bridge. But it was silent, with the only noise being the hushed sound of the river, the buzz of the streetlights, and the distant rumble of traffic on the I-430 bridge.

Truth In Advertising

This may come as a shock to the three loyal people who read this - but when I was a young lad in college, I would partake in an occasional alcoholic beverage. My venue of higher learning was, unfortunately, located in a dry county. So to go and purchase our 6-pack of the devil's brew, we would have to travel to one of the nearby wet counties. Luckily for us, one was located just about 10 miles away in the town of Scranton, located just across the river from our stodgy dry county.

Just outside of Scranton you will see this old barn along the side of the road.

As a fan of old barns, it's always nice to see an old barn that is easy to get a few pictures of. And also, one that even labels itself as an old barn.

I got a few pictures of The Old Barn back in the college days, but hadn't paid it a visit in the years since. I was passing through over the weekend, and stopped to get another shot on a cold and rainy day...

Center Street

Recently, I've been looking at a lot of old photos of downtown Little Rock. It is amazing to see the changes that have taken hold in this small city over the past century. Scores of old buildings have been constructed and then torn down, entire blocks changed and then changed again. Our collection of skyscrapers have grown, but for the most part, a good deal of the old buildings in the fair city of Little Rock have been torn down and replaced with sprawling parking lots.

One old building that has survived is the Centre Place Building, along Center Street. It was built in 1917, then called the Union Life Building. The narrow architecture of the building makes it somewhat unique, there really isn't any other building in downtown quite like it. It also stands out because it sits amidst a sea of parking lots, most of the buildings around it have long been torn down.
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More nearby buildings are being torn down now, just as this post is being written. Two buildings, along Third Street, have already had their final reckoning with the wrecking ball, or are in the process of slowly being demolished. The result of this will be, what? You guessed it, more parking lots.

This is all a bit frustrating. I guess parking might be a problem in downtown - I don't really know since my office I work at is in the suburbs. But while a few new buildings have been built or renovated downtown, it seems like we are losing more buildings than we are replacing. It might be the bad economy, but still. It's a shame to lose any part of the city's character, especially to replace it with yet another parking lot. It just takes the heart out of what should be the city center.

The worst is the empty lot that now sits along Main Street. An entire block was cleared, and still just sits as a gravel void that is surrounded by a fence. There is a vague promise that it will someday be turned into a new office building, but nothing has been said of when that might actually happen. Instead, we have this depressing hole, sitting along what was once the main street through the city.

If a new office building is to be constructed there, it will probably be a few years before that happens. Until then, what will become of that spot? Will it sit fenced off and empty for the conceivable future? Now my knowledge of city planning and construction is based only on having played SimCity - but you'd think that there could be something worthwhile placed there in the short-term. How about turning that empty lot into a small plaza? Or lay down some sod and make it into a nice little park. At least have it be something. Or perhaps, just go all out and put up something like the Dublin Spire there - something much more unique and imaginative than just another empty lot.

The city budget is tight, and probably can't afford such trivial things like that. But still, is this what we really want our downtown to become? Just a set of buildings surrounded by parking lots? It might not be what everyone wants, but it's what we are getting...

Downtown

I took a day off from work on Friday, so I spoiled myself by having a good sleep-in. But I finally decided to actually do something productive with my free time, and decided to take the camera out for some pictures. I didn't really know where to go or what to shoot, so I just aimlessly drove around some. My wandering finally brought me to downtown Little Rock, but I had zero inspiration for any new sights to capture with the camera. I almost gave up and drove back home, not finding anything worthwhile in the gloomy overcast light.

But to drive home then would mean joining the throng of commuters. So I ended up stopping at Riverfront Park in North Little Rock, trying to find a new spot to get a view of the downtown skyline. I passed by this spot, with these strange posts in the water. I guess they were used to dock boats at one point?


This is looking up river, with the Broadway Bridge standing above the distant Baring Cross Bridge.


I walked under the Broadway Bridge, and ended up setting the camera up along the river, and waited for it to get dark. When the sky finally turned to dusk, I was distracted by a call on my cellphone. An old friend from college who I hadn't talked to in years decided to randomly call. I tried to take pictures and talk at the same time, which meant that I really wasn't paying much attention to the camera. Luckily, a few of the shots actually turned out.


During the call, my friend reported that he had found a coffee table book at a store in Fayetteville that had a few of my pictures in it. I laughed and asked him if he bought a copy of the book so that I could autograph it for him. He laughed back and said "no, of course not..."

After a long conversation, he got bored talking to me and said he had to go. Which was cool, the good light in the sky was gone and I was starting to get cold. I packed up the camera and started walking back to the car. Now one really neat thing about Riverfront Park is the view of the skyline. But also there are tons of stately trees growing along the river. They look to be very old, they were probably growing here back when the city first started to develop around them. It's amazing that they have managed to live this long, especially since this has only been a park for a few decades now.

I passed by one huge tree, that must have been centuries old. In fact, the tree had grown up so much that it actually went and engulfed another tree next to it. It was standing tall by a streetlight, which provided some nice illumination during this 10 second exposure...


I had some time to kill, so I headed back into Little Rock and tried to find something else to get pictures of. I rambled back and forth, and eventually decided to visit a parking deck by Main Street. I hadn't been up there since 2009, so why not?

I got the top of the parking deck and found a deep blanket of snow. By this time, most of the snow that we had gotten a few days previous had already melted. The top of this deck must be in shadow during the day, since the snow was still several inches deep. Plus, most of it was fresh. Some people had tried to drive in it, but there weren't that many footprints.


I admit that I had to do some work on the color in these pictures. The parking deck was illuminated by a few streetlights, which cast a yellowish glow on everything. That glow made the snow look yellow - and no one wants to see much yellow snow...

I took advantage of the snow and made a little snowman. My hands were cold, so it was a clumsy attempt and it created an awkward little figure. But he has a nice view, here he is enjoying the downtown skyline.


On the opposite side of the parking deck is this view, looking down on the old Albert Pike Hotel. The old hotel was built in 1929, and was in operation until the 1970s. After that it became an old folk's home. I assume it still is, although it looks like there is a popular little bar in the lobby that was attracting a lot of customers.

Seeing people going into the warm bar made me wonder why exactly I was standing in three inches of slushy snow on a cold night taking pictures of old buildings...

Snow!

I tend to get a bit skeptical when the weather people predict that there will be snow in Little Rock. For the most part, the snow always seems to dodge the city. Maybe it's the lower elevation in the city, or the trapped heat in the concrete, or whatever. But the mountains will get snow and we'll just get a dusting. So I was sure we wouldn't see much snow when it was predicted to hit last Sunday. And if it did hit, I just knew I would have to wake up and drive to work in whatever mess the winter weather caused.

But to my surprise, it did in fact snow. Little Rock got about about 5-6 inches of snow. And it was just snow - no ice or freezing rain. The snow began to fall Sunday afternoon, and quickly it started to accumulate. I was happy, and hoped it would be enough to shut down the office on Monday (it was - and I got a free day off!).

When the snow started to stick, I realized that I should maybe get the camera out for a few pictures. The snow had already begun to stick on the roads, which made me hesitant to head out very far. I ended up visiting a park close to my apartment. I passed by the people rushing to Wal-Mart to get their milk and bread, and instead headed to the Park By The River, in Maumelle.

The snow was falling at a good clip, bringing with it that interesting silence that you can only hear during a snowfall. This was taken while walking down the road through the park, looking back up at my footsteps. I don't know what happened there in the middle part of the shot, where my steps take a weird turn for no apparent reason.


This was taken by the river, where the trees were slowly being covered with snow.


And heading back to the car, I passed by this scene. There is small lake in the park, which did look nice in the snow...


I got back in the car and cranked up the heat. My hands were frozen, and my jacket was covered in snow. The main road by my apartment was covered in a slick white sheen of snow, and cars were already sliding around. I headed home, wondering if I would have to go to work in the snow the next day.

I woke up at 6:30 and called the inclement weather hotline at the office. And lo and behold, they actually shut the office down! I was amazed, especially since I remember trying to drive to work last year during another rare snow fall. The company I work for is headquartered in Detroit, so I'm sure the corporate office doesn't appreciate one of their branches shutting down for a laughable six inches of snow.

I slept in on Monday, and decided to head out into the snow. The roads were slushy, but mostly clear. I grabbed the camera and headed out. My first stop was Burns Park, in North Little Rock. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. I didn't know if the roads would be clear or not. Luckily, a few other people had the same idea as me, since the roads were drivable.

I did slide once on the road through the park. The traction control on the car beeped when this happened, perhaps to let me know that the car was sliding around in the slush.

I stopped at the old pioneer cabin at the park. This old home was built before the Civil War, and was the home to the first family that settled on the lands that is now Burns Park. The snow was deep, and thankfully, not many people had trodden through the snow there.


The next stop was the covered bridge in Burns Park. There were a few people out there, including some taking pictures. This is a shot of the Boy Scout trail, which runs for several miles through the park.


And the covered bridge:




It was getting late, and dusk was starting to settle in. I didn't have much time for another stop, and decided to drive up to Fort Roots. This is a neat spot, it was once a military base, with many neat old buildings that were built in the early 1900s. The fort was built on the "big rock," the hill along the river that was the opposite of the "little rock" just downstream. The hill has perhaps the best view of the downtown Little Rock skyline. But you have to be careful up there. Fort Roots became part of the VA Hospital, and the security guards don't like people up there taking pictures (because it's a hospital, for patient privacy or something like that).

I drove by the parking lot that houses the security guards, and saw several of their cars parked and covered with snow. Still, I didn't stay up there too long (it was cold), and worried that I would get busted. But the view from there is awesome....


And finally, one last shot of the snow from Fort Roots. There is some really neat architecture up at Fort Roots, since many of the buildings were built at the turn of the 20th century. This old building is right next to the road, actually this was taken from inside the car.


It was a cold week here after the snow storm hit. While it was sunny, the temperatures rarely got above freezing. The snow lasted for several days before melting. Coming soon (tomorrow? maybe), will be a new slate of pictures, including some with snow in it...