Epic Arkansas Roadtrip Itinerary on US 82 from Texarkana to Lake Village.

Explore Lower Arkansas on a great stretch of highway, affectionately referred to as Arkansas's Bandit Gambit. Find out what US Highway 82 between Texarkana and Lake Village has to offer with this great itinerary.

El Dorado Creamery Offers Great Sweet Treats.

Headed to L.A. this Spring Break?  Here, L.A. stands for Lower Arkansas, and its epicenter is El Dorado. And for ice cold creamy treats, El Dorado Creamery is the stop you need to make.

Walking Through the South Arkansas Arboretum.

Hunter and I are exploring Scenic Arkansas Highway 7 from end-to-end this week. Watch my Twitterfeed @TieDyeTravels for updates each day on where we've been and where we're headed.

The South Arkansas Arboretum in El Dorado is an Arkansas State Park run by South Arkansas Community College.  It's a Timberlands oasis in a growing city once known as Boomtown.  Here's a walk through the park I'd like to share.

It was an absolutely perfect day to visit... with a temperature of 74 degrees and
almost cloudless skies.

The Arboretum was originally opened in 1965.  The 12 acre park, located
around part of the old El Dorado High School campus, was the 50th Arkansas
State Park, and it's the only one within a city.

These artworks are part of the ARTboretum Arts in Education program with
students at Washington Middle School.  There's also a display at the SouthArkansas Arts Center.

We found camillias blooming in a couple of different places in the Active Use
section of the park.  This is the section close to the main entrance where the
gazebo and restrooms are located.

You have to stop and smell the flowers.

We also saw clusters of berries.  There were a few daffodils as well.

Throughout the park, small interpretive signs indicate the sort of tree you're
looking at, along with its characteristics.

The Timberlands are covered with smallbark and Loblolly pine trees, and they are
well represented here.  Pines tend to grow tall rather than wide, and that allows
for some pretty impressive views.

There's a small pooling brook that separates the Active Use area from the
Transitional Area of the park.  Here, you'll find paths on either side with benches
for relaxing.

Hunter was really excited to cross this bridge, until she saw the snake
habitat sign on it.  That was about the point where I spotted an actual snake.

This Broad-Banded Watersnake was maybe half a foot long, but it was enough
to unnerve Hunter.

The sign clearly told us this was a non-venemous snake, which was good.
We also saw frog eggs in this little pool.

In the transitional areas, trees and shrubs are encouraged
to grow more freely, while paths are still nicely maintained.

This map is located at the edge of the Natural Area, where the plants are allowed
to grow freely.  This area is particularly popular with walkers and joggers, who enjoy
the natural setting while exercising.

This particular shortleaf pine twists a bit on its way
reaching up towards the sky.

Pink camellias in bloom in the Active Use Area.

There's a small butterfly garden at the entrance to the park. That's
where we found this lilac in bloom. 

Hunter loved the fountain by the gazebo.

If you're interested in learning more about the South Arkansas Arboretum, or would like to visit, head to this Arkansas State Parks website.

Lunch at the Last Minute Man Restaurant.

Hunter and I are exploring Scenic Arkansas Highway 7 from end-to-end this week. Watch my Twitterfeed @TieDyeTravels for updates each day on where we've been and where we're headed.

I've talked extensively about Wes Hall's Minute Man Restaurants before.  The chain, which started in downtown Little Rock in 1948, was once a very big deal with locations all over the place.  Today, the final location still operates in downtown El Dorado.

We made the Minute Man our first lunch stop on our trip.  When you pull up and open the car door, the scent of hamburgers broiling over a charcoal grill will hit you like a brick.  It's like walking up to a backyard barbecue.  The whole neighborhood has this essence over it.

Just inside the door, we encountered a line.  Two people were working behind the counter - an older woman and a younger man.  They took turns checking the burger patties on the grill.  Orders were taken, slowly.  One order would finish up and another would be on the grill, and the hostess would take the order from the next person in line.  There was no hurry whatsoever.

But that was okay.  We weren't in a rush.  The phone rang and orders were taken there.  People pulled up to the drive-thru and waited.  Burger patties would be plopped onto the ancient brick-and-bars grill right behind the cash register and burgers would be assembled on the counter next to the grill.

It took more than 20 minutes for us to reach the head of the line to order.  A lady in line asked me about my camera lens.  Hunter flirted.  The scent of those burgers grilling had stirred up an appetite for both of us.

We ordered our meals. Turns out, they were out of the junior sized burgers that normally came with a Magic Meal (the concept of which came along before the Happy Meal, thank you very much), so Hunter got a full sized

burger.  We had ourselves a seat.  As orders were completed, the hostess hollered out numbers and they'd be picked up at the counter. An older gentleman came out of the back and bussed tables.  It wasn't long before ours came up.

This is a lot like what Minute Man meals looked like when I was a kid.  Burgers wrapped in paper and fries in paper sheaths, brightly colored drinks - yes, and it all had that sort of charbroiled scent.  Except the cheese dip, of course.  This Minute Man added items to its menu in later years (like a few other locations), putting Mexican-esque items on the menu like burritos and a taco salad, and of course that old Arkansas favorite, cheese dip.

The cheese dip isn't all that thick, but it's fine with the thick round tortilla chips. I dipped my fries in it and that was pretty good.  It's a yellow American cheese dip, very smooth and with a little seasoning.

Hunter actually ate almost all of her burger, along with all but a few of the chips.  She sipped on a pink lemonade while we ate and talked.

Me?  The Big M tempted me, as did the Hickory Burger, but I ended up choosing a Salad Burger. This is a burger that

comes with shredded lettuce, tomato and relish sauce, that special sauce that preceded Special Sauce.  I was actually gifted with the recipe but never make it myself, since the recipe is sized in gallons.  It's a tart, sweet sauce that's somewhat pink, and it's very good with burgers.  The meat was thin but has that nice barbecue grill flavor, and the bun was seedless.

We took our time but eventually had to get up and go to our next destination, the South Arkansas Arboretum.  I think I'd eat pretty regularly at a Minute Man if it was brought back in Little Rock.  I'm glad I still have a chance to enjoy those old flavors, even if it does require a drive to El Dorado.

Minute Man
318 West Main Street
El Dorado, AR 71730
(870) 862-7995

Explore El Dorado From Above It All at Union Square Guest Quarters.

Can a place to stay spark interest in the revitalization of a downtown? In the case of Union Square Guest Quarters, the answer is a hearty YES. Let's take a look at the unique lodging that’s transformed downtown El Dorado into a great place to stay, play and dine in Lower Arkansas.

Spudnuts: Potato Flour Goodness.

This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.

South Arkansas boasts two bakeries with a similar product – a singular item that ties them to a 70+ year shared history with more than 600 other locations.

Mr. Spudnut

A Spudnut.  (Kat Robinson)

Spudnuts were the creation of Al and Bob Pelton, two Salt Lake City boys who first encountered potato-flour doughnuts in Germany. They came back to the States in the late 30s and attempted to recreate the addictive rounds themselves – and succeeded with a recipe they started utilizing in 1940 – which became the heart of their Spudnut Shop franchise. Six years later they had 200 stores that utilized their dry spudnut flour in the making of golden rounds. 20 years after that they were stretched coast to coast with more than 600 outlets.

Spudnut stamp in Magnolia (Kat Robinson)

Spudnut was a big deal… but big deals lead to the end of that franchise. It started with the Peltons selling their company in 1968 to National Oven Products, owned by Pace Industries. Pace turned around a few years later and sold off National Oven Products to Dakota Bake-N-Serv… which itself went away after some bad business by its owner. The company and its company and Spudnuts the franchise all evaporated with a conviction of fraud and conspiracy in 1979. Franchisees were left holding the bag and most disappeared within 10 years.

But not all of them. Two of the franchises held ground here in Arkansas – one in Magnolia, opened in 1959 – and the other in El Dorado, opened in 1948. The two stores have differently styled buildings and different vibes… but they both still sell the golden rings six mornings a week.

The El Dorado location (via Facebook)

Daisy Stringfellow started the one in El Dorado. She discovered them on a trip to visit relatives in Oregon, and visited one of the original Salt Lake City Spudnut Shops on her way home. By the time she arrived back in LA (Lower Arkansas), she had decided she wanted to own one of those franchises. Her daughter Nancy Varnell and son-in-law William Varnell are co-owners today – and Bud McCann is still the only manager the store has ever had.

The Magnolia location (Kat Robinson)

The El Dorado store is more art deco, more stylized on the outside with a tiny dining room within. In Magnolia, it’s more of a country-style diner. Magnolia’s store sells more than pastries, though… in fact, they do sell something called Pigs which seem to be a pastry-wrapped turn on the traditional pigs-in-a-blanket. They also do some weird varieties of Spudnuts, such as peanut butter and jelly – and bacon maple. Indeed.

Spudnut making in Magnolia

While the two stores have a different atmosphere, they do share their mix with each other when one or t’other is running low. That’s saying a lot – since it has been made from scratch since the franchise disappeared.

If you haven’t gone for a Spudnut before – you start with the plain Jane glazed round. For one, Spudnuts seem to be thicker to me. Not in the consistency, mind you, but in the fluff. That potato flour fluffs up high. One bite, and you get it. There’s a substance to it – yes, it still melts on the tongue like all good doughnuts, but you feel as if you’re eating something more than just sugar and air.

Spudnuts are the sort of doughnut that prefers coffee to chocolate milk or cocoa. The round has heft. It has delight.

It has an addictive quality that doesn’t leave your system. Nay, I have indeed heard time after time about individuals who have driven three or four hours to arrive while a Spudnut shop is still open. I know – I’ve been one of them.

Other Spudnut creations (Kat Robinson)

Spudnuts and coffee: it's
what's for breakfast.
Kat Robinson

Here’s the other thing about a Spudnut: they don’t keep.
After six hours you might as well give up on them, put what you have left in a bread pudding or something. The same pliancy that makes the rounds rise so high also pulls them back to Earth and makes them chewy.

Strange Magnolia Spudnut creations

Hungry now? Good. Tomorrow morning get up early and drive to either El Dorado or Magnolia and have yourself one. The Spudnut Shoppe is at 810 West Faulkner in El Dorado, (870) 863-9914 – or find the other Spudnut Shop in Magnolia at 612 East Main Suite B, (870) 234-2005.

If you’re a Spudnut fan, do yourself a favor and check out this website. And you might be interested in this website if you are a home cook.

Minute Man: Smoke on the Burger.

This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.

At the end of 56th Street, the cut-through to University Avenue, there was a Minute Man restaurant. It was on the south side of the intersection, across from Zimmerman’s gas station, and from time to time if we could afford it I could have a nice, mean and hot burger on a toasted bun. And if I was really good, I got ice cream.

There was also a Minute Man on Broadway, and it was there through my high school years. I recall going in as a little girl with my mom. They had just introduced their first kids meal called the Magic Meal (this is the late 70s) and my first one had come with a little green army man. The second one, my mom pulled out the burger and I took a bite and started to cry. There was a piece of gristle inside, or maybe some hard cheese or something – and I thought they’d put the little green army man on the burger and it had melted.

My memories of Minute Man come from childhood. Today they’re all gone, save for one lone holdout in El Dorado – too far for me to grab a #2 on my lunch break. You remember the #2, right? The smoke burger? Char-grilled and dolloped with a liquid smoke goo, never equaled by Sonic (funny, I don’t think they offer a smoke burger any more, either). I can still recall that exact slightly woody flavor.

UALR Center for Arkansas
History and Culture

Vernon Rodgers and Wes Hall.
(UALR Center for Arkansas
History and Culture)

The original location at 407 South Broadway in Little Rock was a low-slung building sitting out back of a parking lot. Raymond Merritt remembers it was originally the Lido Minute Man, but I was born significantly later and only remember it as Wes Hall’s Minute Man. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says Hall opened the place on May 26th of 1948 as a 24-hour coffee shop with three partners that he

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

eventually bought out before franchising the operation.

It grew, first to Hayes Street (named University Avenue by my time) and then onwards and outwards, eventually spreading to seven states with 57 different restaurants. And the ideas it seeded out spread through the fast food industry. That Magic Meal? It came along before McDonald’s Happy Meal. The #12, known as the “Big M,” was a great double-pattied burger that came along

The #12, or Big M. UALR Center for
Arkansas History and Culture)

before the Big Mac. And about half the burgers if you ordered them as they came (which really was the deal before Burger King started telling people to “have it your way” in the 80s), came with a smattering of “relish sauce” on the bun instead of mustard or mayo – relish sauce being very close to the Thousand Island-type sauce slathered on the Big Mac today. Oh, and if you wanted the lettuce and tomato on a burger like they’re all about served today, you had to order the #6 – the salad burger.

Minute Man was also one of the three restaurants to receive Raytheon’s experimental Radar Ranges. We’re talking a microwave oven – in 1948. While McDonald’s chain restaurants had their fried pies back then (IMHO superior to the baked pies offered today), Minute Man had the Radar Deep Dish Pie – a pot pie that if you were smart you ordered when you got your food so it had enough time to cool on the inside as to not burn your mouth. I only ever remember apple being offered, though the menu Merritt has on his website also shows peach, cherry and strawberry – “Served with Real Butter CREAM 5 cents Extra.”’

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

My mom and I moved to Little Rock in the mid-70s, and I grew up half a mile away from one of the University Avenue locations. It was absolutely as far as I dared to walk from the house, being on the other side of Geyer Springs Elementary by about three blocks. One of those most poignant childhood “fails” I recall was when the place started serving hard-scoop ice cream out the window. I was thrilled to get an ice cream cone with two scoops, side by side in what I believe was called a Sweetheart Cone. I remember going up to the window and waiting while my mom sat in the car. I paid for the treat (I think it was a dollar), turned around and promptly faceplanted on the concrete. Saved most of the cone – except for the very bottom. There was a rush to finish the ice cream before it melted out onto my lap, I remember.

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

By the time I was driving, the Minute Man still open in Little Rock was a block up from the original at 311 South Broadway. The building, if I recall correctly, was painted a pungent green. The interior was dark, and it was often quiet… unless you went at the lunch hour, when generations of traditionalists and Boomers squeezed in for a pick-up order or to quickly manage to consume a burger and fries. It closed for good in June of 2002 to make way for the new Federal Courthouse expansion. By that point, most of the other franchised restaurants had also met their demise – with the exception of that lone El Dorado holdout. Wes Hall didn’t live to see the end of that dream – he passed away a month beforehand.

The El Dorado Minute Man location. (Roadfood.com)

Will the Minute Man ever come back again? According to a posting on Roadfood.com’s forums, the El Dorado restaurant is still serving the same recipes up (I know it also serves cheese dip and burritos, which I don’t recall from the original) – and there was as of December 2012 someone considering opening a new Minute Man in Little Rock. I’m sure if the recipes are followed, that old smoke sauce is brought back and the prices are reasonable, the crowds will follow.

One more note. There's a man who's claimed to have raised me... that'd be the newscaster known as Craig O'Neill. One of these days I'll tell you why. For now, here's a link to the report he did for THV 11 (my old station) about Minute Man and its place in Arkansas history.