Listing Through Life

How I spent the first day of my vacation — or — The splendor of Toad Suck

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Roger

My in-laws live in the thriving city of Conway. It was a dinky half-dead town when I first visited 29 years ago, but since then it has become a commuter community for Little Rock and the place where every franchise in America simply must have a store/restaurant. The population has more than tripled in those 29 years and shows no signs of stopping.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I went in search of adventure. I didn’t want to go far, having just spent 14 hours in the car the day before. Fortunately, the most exciting attraction in the area is a mere five miles or so from my in-laws’ house — Toad Suck.

This was the location of a ferry crossing on the Arkansas River until 1970 or so. At some point, a tavern called Toad Suck served travelers on the river. Legend has it that bargemen would drink there until they swelled up like toads — hence the name. The problem is that this legend is neither believable or particularly creative. If you’re interested, here’s a website that discusses other possible origins for the name. I find the “stupid American mispronunciation of a French word” theory to be much more believable and more amusing.

Anyway, in 1970, the Army Corps of Engineers built a lock, dam and bridge on the site and lined both shores with picnic groves and campgrounds. For many years a spring fair called Toad Suck Daze was held in the campgrounds, but lately the town of Conway has appropriated the event for tourism purposes, and the fair is now held downtown. There’s even a Toad Suck Square complete with a painting of a frog in the middle of the road.

It was here that I went in search of entertainment and photo opportunities, with some success.

Here’s an overview from the trail that climbs the nearby bluff.

Toad Suck Lock and Dam

This is one of the towboats that pulled the barges that carried cars across the river. To give you an idea of how exciting the Conway area is, this boat is listed as an attraction on several Arkansas websites. (You thought I was kidding, didn’t you?)

Toad Suck towboat

Autumn apparently happened the day before I arrived.

Here’s a view looking north along the river. The towboat on the left is waiting to lock through. The row of barges it was pushing was so long that only half could fit in the lock at a time. The boats and barges in the background were there all day dredging or building up the shore or somesuch.

After seeing everything there was to see and then some on the east bank, I crossed the bridge and wandered around on the west bank.

The upriver side of Toad Suck dam

I walked downstream until I ran out of park. There were sandbars along the shore for as far as I could see, and nobody else was around. I hopped a short fence and walked along the river for about a mile. I took this pan looking back at the dam from the west side of the river. I think it’s the longest successful pan I’ve ever posted. You can click on it twice to enlarge if you wish.

I took several other photos that I’ll post later on but I think that’s enough toad suckiness for one day.

Posted in Arkansas, Conway | 1 Comment

Toad Suck Rock Stack

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Roger

I’ll bet you haven’t seen many blog posts with that title.

Having totally exhausted the sightseeing possibilities of Toad Suck, but still having an hour or so before needing to be back at the house for supper — and not wanting to waste a minute of vaction time — I decided to stack rocks.

There was a rock bar extending well out into the water, created to control the current I imagine. (You can see the bar in the long panorama in my previous post.) I walked out to the end, which put me pretty much in the middle of the river. It was a bit odd to be at the same time so alone and so exposed. I made an effort to find rocks that were not only stackable but interesting. Here’s what I came up with.

Here they are in the context of the surroundings.

Posted in Photos | 4 Comments

Dog n Suds — Paragould, Arkansas

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Roger

Let me say right at the start that if this had been my first visit to a Dog n Suds, I would not have embarked on my quest to visit them all. I had an idea of what I would find when I phoned the restaurant last week to make sure they would be open. The conversation went something like this.

Girl who answered the phone: Daw’n’Sus

Me: Are you open year round?

Girl: yeh

Me: Are you open every day?

Girl: not Suday

Me: What are your hours?

Girl (after pausing to consider how she could answer in less than three syllables): ten t’a

Which utterance I took to mean 10:00 am to 8:00 pm.

I knew Paragould wasn’t a large town, and I knew Dog n Suds was on the main drag, so I didn’t bother with directions. But when we’d driven the entire distance of the main drag in both directions without finding it, I began to wonder. I stopped at a gas station to ask directions and found out, to my surprise, that Paragould has two main drags.

We finally found the Dog n Suds tucked away on the older end of town. The sign was only half lit and the place was empty. This was striking because everybody in northeast Arkansas seemed to be driving around Paragould on this Monday night. A nearby Sonic was packed, as were most of the other restaurants in town.

We parked next to the building and ordered through the antiquated intercom. While waiting for our food, I got out and took pictures. The only evidence of life was our server, a friendly girl whose first language was obviously not English. We all got corn dogs. They were pretty good, if overdone. My wife had spicy fries and said they were delicious. My daughter and I had onion rings. They were the processed, rubbery, disgusting kind. The root beer was fine.

Here are the two sides of the street sign. If you combine the two, you can almost come up with one completely lit sign. Almost.

With advertising like this, is it any wonder the place was empty?

The whole place was a little creepy, so we drove up the street to a McDonald’s and ate in its parking lot.

I’ve now been to eight of the remaining 16 Dog n Suds. My quest is half completed.

Posted in Arkansas | 4 Comments

Oasis Music at the Pickwick

Posted on November 22, 2008 by Roger

I went with my wife and daughter to see Lorie Line at the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge on Friday night. The Pickwick was build in 1928, and it looked impressive against the night sky. It probably would have looked even more impressive if all the lights were working.

Pickwick Theatre - Park Ridge

Here’s what it looked like inside just before the concert began.

Inside the Pickwick Theatre - Park Ridge

At best, the place was one-third full. Our seats were in the very first row on the right, smack up against the stage. And I mean right up against. We would have been in danger of getting kicked. But some guy came by and said he had some emergency seats available in row six if we’d prefer them. We said we would, and ended up to the left of the piano but still pretty close to the front. It turned out that the guy who had spoken to us was the head usher, the emcee of the concert and Lorie Line’s husband Tim all wrapped into one.

Lorie Line is pianist who plays oasis music. I call it this because when I was a kid traveling with my parents, we’d stop in all-night diners at 5:00 in the morning and this was exactly the sort of music that was always playing. Whenever I hear it, I’m immediately taken back 40 years …

First the good stuff:

Lorie Line (all during the concert she was referred to by her entire name like it was one word) is an excellent piano player, no doubt about it.
She and everybody else on the stage seemed to be enjoying themselves and had a lot of enthusiasm.
I was surprised and impressed by their frequent references to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I hadn’t know she was a Christian, but it’s obvious from what went on and from the program that she is.

But …

The concert didn’t really feature Lorie Line. She played during most of the numbers, but was often in the background.
Several of the numbers featured members of the orchestra who came up front and danced. It was obvious they weren’t dancers. They were about as good as I’ve seen in a well-rehearsed high-school production.
The concert was supposed to feature music from around the world. Lorie Line and the orchestra kept changing costumes — from Mexican to African to Chinese to German — but with the exception of Feliz Navidad, all the songs were American with a few variations in style to sort of copy the music of whatever country they were dressed in the garb of. The whole thing felt a little bit cheesy.
Tim dressed up as Martin Luther and explained the Reformation, and as Irving Berlin to give the history of White Christmas. He also had the mic several other times during the concert and messed up his lines frequently.
During one song, all the kids in the audience went up on stage. They dressed them in North Pole costumes and had them wander about the stage. If there’s one thing I don’t want to see when I pay $50+ to see a concert, it’s OPK. My kid was eligible to go up, but she thinks she’s way too cool. I think she would have made a good reindeer butt.

The concert wasn’t very long, but it was evidently long enough for an intermission. We amused ourselves during the break by taking photos of each other and of the theater (sorry) theatre.