I know what you’re thinking: Little Rock Chronicles III?

If you go to Little Rock, you’d be lucky to get ONE Chronicle. But me and two friends sucked the marrow out of the bones that are Little Rock and Chronicled as if we’d never chronicled before. Even if our stay was only 24 hours.

After we ate a steak (I didn’t because mine was too tough) Friday night and after we’d enjoyed the fruits of the Little Rock Farmers Market Saturday mid-morning, we cased downtown, which last Saturday was like walking along the equator. Like paddling a heavy boat through a hot steam bath. So instead of casing the WHOLE downtown, we opted for mainly the downtown parts with air conditioning.

We started to stumble into Jimmy’s Serious Sandwiches, whose sign is pictured above. But we couldn’t find the door and, besides, we had not come to Little Rock to be serious. We didn’t want a sandwich that would hold us to a higher standard.

We moved on.

The bookstore we found by chance was River Market Books & Gifts, which you see pictured on the home page with the Daily Happen/Chronicle. It smelled as you’d hope, of aging paper, Serious Sandwiches That Could Read, and air conditioning. If I worked there, when customers asked me a question or were ready to check out, first I’m sure I’d have to mark my page. Constantly. We wanted to buy a couple of books and the Big Globe they had, but we’d have had to carry it in the heat so…

Our final stop before heading back to the Big Expensive Hotel (we stayed there only because one of us had magical points!), we pulled into the Tuf Nut Tap Room and Andina’s Cafe and Coffee Roastry. We were such Tuf Nuts that we ordered lattes and we sipped them with our pinkies extended and solved the world’s problems. Or so we thought, until we discovered that night that the American League was still using the Designated Hitter.

Still, we were happy. The Main Event of our trip was only a few short hours away…

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