The tickets are bound to go fast.
On Nov. 9, a seemingly magical bus tour will take visitors to many of the historic sites in the Delta. Seemingly magical because we aren’t sure how there are enough hours in a day to hit all the places the bus is going.
For $150, the so-called bus “ramble” will start in North Little Rock (maybe there’s a way to catch it down this way somewhere) and head to the Lakeport Plantation Museum near Lake Village, then on to the University of Arkansas at Monticello Taylor Log House, a site near Tillar; the Selma Rosenwald School in Selma; the World War II Japanese American Internment Camp Museum at McGehee; the Rohwer Relocation Center Cemetery at Rohwer; the John H. Johnson House at Arkansas City; and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Museum and Cultural Center. They also keep you plied with snacks and drinks on the bus and end the day with dinner at the Colonial Steakhouse in Pine Bluff.
It is tiring just to list all of those stops in one sentence!
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“The ramble explores Arkansas heritage sites for an exceptional experience filled with history and fun,” stated a news release. Yes, quite the exceptional experience.
Any one of these sites is worth a day’s adventure all its own. So you might think of this as a taster where one just gets a nibble or sip of what the site has to offer and then make a point of luxuriating in a longer visit to the site at another time. But like a tour bus driving around a big city, when the driver points out that Elvis slept there, some of the stops on the ramble might be just all you need.
The whole adventure reminds us of the plan for downtown Pine Bluff with the Delta Rhythm and Bayou district that is designed to capitalize on the many storylines Pine Bluff has — storylines that are interesting enough to bring tourists to town for a look-see. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the ramble will swing by the Bluff and let travelers get a feel for the texture of the fabric that helped shape our fair city.
It rather goes without saying that seating is limited, with a registration deadline of Oct. 29. (There’s also an option for taking your own car.) The whole affair is put on by Preserve Arkansas, which is a statewide nonprofit organization aimed at “building stronger communities by reconnecting Arkansans to their heritage and empowering people to save and rehabilitate historic places,” according to a news release. Or they could have just said: Come on, it’ll be informative and fun!
So if you’re of a mind, grab a spouse or another friend and make a day of it — a big, long day of it. We imagine the hours spent on the tour will be way more profitable than raking leaves, which will be still there when you get home.