The Arkansas Blizzard of 2012

Now that we live here, Arkansas had their first Blizzard Warning announcement ever. Ever. It was the deepest snow in 86 years or something crazy like that. We always laugh and say Oh, no, it never really snows in Arkansas. 

Snow means Bonnie the dog is wearing shoes to protect her deliciate, furry little paws. 

This better not happen again for another 86 years.
It was really pretty the first morning but now it's just a cold icy-patched mess. 

A cool dude did donuts in this parking lot. 

Glad I saved some of my key winter items. 

Luckily, with the crazy way Arkansas weather works, it could turn around and be really warm any moment now. Any moment now, OK? 

My Flickr set of all my blizzard related photos is here. 

First Little Rock Bike Date

It's been a long time since we put on nice outfits and rode bicycles to an event.


Sunday we got ready to bike a very short distance from our apartment downtown to the Bernice Garden for an Arkansas Local Food Network dinner. Which was delicious, by the way.






Matt has a bushy beard this season.


Matt's commuter bike has a busted tube and I've got to go get a spare for him. He rode his new road bike. We were eating outside and I figured our bikes would be in our sight and the threat of having bikes stolen has diminished greatly here in this car-dependent place.

For example: I'm zero percent worried my saddle will be stolen here in Arkansas. I think it's more likely that the entire bike would be stolen, and I don't feel much of a threat about that either. (I'm talking about my Linus, not my new Trek.)

Yes, my single-speed now feels like I'm riding a molases whale compared to my new road bike. 
But I still love her cargo capacity. 

She doesn't have a name

I got a road bike. A fast and furious carbon bike. I rode it about 40 miles in the first 24 hours.

Yes, I rode in this outfit! I didn't even mean to go that far, just a jot around the neighborhood, but before I knew it, I was five miles out of town. Things happen fast on this bike.

Matt's pretty embarrassed for me using the flat pedals, but I think I need to adjust to all these other changes and upgrade the pedals (to clips or dual-clip) in a few weeks.

We did about 16 or so miles on the Arkansas River Trail today. We went from the bridge at the Clinton Library west to the Big Dam Bridge and back through North Little Rock.


The weirdest thing to me, about riding in these conditions is how many miles you can go without stopping at a stop light. I'm used to stop and go NYC traffic. This is free riding for miles, uninterrupted.

It's extremely peaceful and pretty desolate for miles.




This bike is an insanely fast, fancy, and lightweight machine. It's not for living my life; it's for sport and recreation. I even ordered a bike jersey.

I'm going to write a post on the selection process, but I'm too pooped from all the excitement. 

When too clean is a bad sign

See how this bike rack is clean and perfect?
It's not banged up. It doesn't have a rusty bike skeleton chained to it.
It doesn't have a hint of spray paint or a faded sticker.

It's brand new and shiny.


While it's nice to see this, and the other plentiful perfect racks, I am reminded of this. Arkansas ranks the lowest of the states in bicycle commuters.

Sad! But hopefully, it will get better.

Sorry for the trash can, but take pleasure in the extremely clean small town feel.




I rode about one whole mile to see Harry Belafonte speak at the end of a screening for a documentary about his activist life. It was really wonderful. I had no idea what a major role he played in the civil rights movement.

Field Trip: Historic Central High School by Bike

I made the long-overdue trip to the Little Rock Central High historic site & visitor center. I enjoyed the peacefulness that the middle of a week-day brought to the streets. I rode on the sidewalk a teeny-tiny bit but mostly the streets are wide enough that there's room for all of us. 

Mural of the Little Rock Nine. 

Bike rack all to myself! This bike rack, like many in Little Rock, I feel, is so fresh and new that I feel like I'm the first one locking up here. Ever. 

I've got on overalls and TOMS and a big LeSport Sac bag. 

The museum part was great, but my favorite part, and where I spent about two hours was watching these little oral history documentary films that they have in kind-of a phone booth setting. You can sit on this big bench and dial up the documentaries in chronological order and they're narrated by the Little Rock Nine and other people who were involved. I learned so much. I didn't realize the crisis went on for over a year. I always had it in my mind as a quick event, but oh, no. And even though there were army guards outside the school, the Little Rock Nine were bullied beyond comprehension all year long inside the school. Even anyone who was nice to them really, also got bullied.

Those students were really so young to be so amazing and brave. I'm glad I went.

This was an excellent field trip by bike. I ran errands, visited this historic place, then stopped off for lunch. I sat outside because I was so sweaty and gross. 

Tiny excursions by bike

I am still not in the mindset to go for joy rides on my bicycle. But I did go for a joy-jog on Sunday on the same path. I have to have a mission, no matter how small. Saturday morning I biked across the river to the Argenta Farmer's Market. It's legit, and I'll be back there soon.

I sat down and ate breakfast, bought goat's milk lip-balms and eggplants and more.






I rode down the very quiet Main street using the empty parking spots as my bike lane.

I'm studying for a new volunteer gig and I needed index cards so I decided that there was somewhere I could get them by bike (most stores that would offer stuff like that involve a highway that I don't deem suitable for my bike rides)

I locked up at the USA Drug store and got my index cards then basically took myself home.

I think of the San Fran bike blog girls when I ride around the trolley tracks.




Building blocks of tiny excursions.

Oh, wait! I had a big bike date planned last Thursday but Matt had a seriously flat tube and we had time constraints so we drove but a Little Rock bike date almost happened. 

Southern Saturday - The Lassis Inn

After reading about The Lassis Inn in Garden & Gun magazine several months ago, we've been dying to go there. Saturday night was the right time to execute this very classy date.

Yes, we shared a 40oz at the suggestion of our lovely waitress. Yes, there's juke-box music. Yes, we ate fried catfish dinners. I used hot sauce. It was a good time. I didn't stress over what to wear. It was really cute and extremely southern. I don't know if we'll frequent on our own but this is the kind of special place we will bring guests. 

Now serving... #BikeLR

My first Bike ride in Little Rock!

I thought I could finally go for a simple joy-ride but I can't. I can't just head out to roam aimlessly, I require a mission. I decided to find the AR Obama head quarters.

I found it pretty quickly.


I could be slightly embarrassed about the short duration of today's bicycle trip, but remember, this is my very first bicycle ride in my brand new town. Tiny rides are the building blocks of confident city handling, I believe. And I ran three miles as fast as I could on the treadmill before I did this, so I was beat. 

There are trolley-train tracks here so now I feel solidarity over this obstacle with the San Fran bike blog girls.



And my outfit was pretty wild, so I'm pleased that this is blurry. It's better this way. 



The bridge at the Clinton Library. 



I am also happy that I went ahead and tested the waters on a Sunday afternoon. That's a tip I would give to anyone trying out biking in a brand new town- Sunday typically means less traffic. 




Looks pretty good, huh? I think we're gonna be just fine! 

Probably the best $32 I ever spent

When I walked into the thrift store it was like "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?"

Then I scored all this awesome stuff for $32. Not $32 each piece, but for the whole freaking lot of items. -Just wait for the grand finale!

Made in USA too.

Vintage black Umbros. I know you're jealous.


Gloria Venderbilt jean skirt for conservative times.





Both pairs of these printed shorts are vintage brands and made in USA.


Brand spankin' new Sevens in a light wash - Made in USA!


This looks like a karate kid workout top, and maybe it is, but it fits cute and would be great for some iron-on letters or a patch.


The Big Kahuna snag of the day was this gorgeous black coat with fur trim. Sorry, I usually don't mess with fur but-


Tag details. And yes, the fact that she was five dollars had me jumping up and down at the register like a maniac. (Jumping up and down in my crazy head.)

This coat is so rich black, classy and divine I almost wish for a split second we still lived in NYC because this coat would strike people down on the streets it looks so good.

The new photo background is an assembly of FLOR carpet tiles. We don't yet have our furniture so we're basically camping in our new apartment and that's for a different post.