We have visited fifteen states - California, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
We have Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia still to visit.
We have travelled just over 4,600 miles, with an estimated 1,500 miles to go.
The shortest driving day, apart from rest days, was on Day 5, when we drove between Price City, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah, a distance of 126 miles.
The longest day's drive was on Day 1 when we drove from Malibu to Scottsdale, Arizona, a distance of 453 miles.
We have visited the state capitals of Arizona, Utah, Kansas and Arkansas.
Turning now to today's drive from the small town of Mena to Little Rock, the state capital. This was the second shortest drive of the tour, at 140 miles. First thing in the morning, we talked to Bob and Thelma about going to Little Rock. They decided to go on south and then spend a couple of nights in Mobile, Alabama, where we will catch up with them the day after tomorrow.
We had a good breakfast at a garage diner and then went to see the local railway station museum that had an old police car parked outside. It was rather sad-looking with one of its tyres flat.
Thelma saluting by the old police car.
Wendy and Thelma went into an antiques store and a trading post where there were some very interesting artefacts made by the Navajo Indians. Wendy bought a small bear made of horse hair pottery, which we will place in our Spirit House in our garden in London.
We left Mena for the 60 mile drive to Hot Springs, where we said goodbye to Bob and Thelma. Just before we reached Hot Springs, we turned off the road and drove down to Lake Ouachita where I took the two photos below.
We drove though the centre of Hot Springs where people come to 'take the waters'. There were some large, very grand old spa buildings.
After saying goodbye to Bob and Thelma, we drove the remaining 40 miles into Little Rock. This snazzy red Corvette overtook us on the freeway.
We reached Little Rock at about 2.30pm and checked into the Capital Hotel, which Wendy had found in the AAA road book. It has turned out to be, by far, the best hotel we have stayed in on this drive. We would put it on our list of top ten hotels in the world!
The entrance hall is magnificent...
...and how's this for a bedroom?
We quickly unpacked and drove the short distance to see one of Little Rock's principal attractions, The Clinton Library. As we were waiting for our car to be brought to the front of the hotel, this tram went past.
We reached the library in a few minutes. It is housed in this striking building that cantilevers out towards the Arkansas River.
We paid the $10 entrance fee and spent about an hour looking at the two floors of Clinton archives. There were some displays, including this replica of the Clinton Oval Office.
There were several glass cases, each detailing various aspects of the Clinton presidency.
We saw the foreign leaders he dealt with, including Tony Blair at the upper right of this photo.
On the back of the entrance ticket was a list of the thirteen presidents who have libraries:
Herbert Hoover (1929 - 1933) - Iowa
Franklin D Roosevelt (1933 - 1945) - New York
Harry S Truman (1945 - 1953) - Missouri
Dwight D Eisenhower (1953 - 1961) - Kansas
John F Kennedy (1961 - 1963) - Massachusetts
Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963 - 1969) - Texas
Richard M Nixon (1969 - 1974) - California
Gerald R Ford (1974 - 1977) - Michigan
Jimmy Carter (1977 - 1981) - Georgia
Ronald Reagan (1981 - 1989) - California
George Bush (1989 - 1993) - Texas
William J Clinton (1993 - 2001) - Arkansas
George W Bush (2001 - 2009) - Texas
Since returning to the UK, we have learned there are in fact fifteen libraries. Both Richard Nixon (California and Maryland) and Gerald Ford (Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, Michigan) have two libraries each.
We left the library and walked over the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge, which spans the Arkansas River. It was dedicated by Bill Clinton in 2011 after its transformation from the Rock Island Railway Bridge.
We then drove for a short while through the centre of the city, passing the Old State House.
We returned to the hotel and, at around 5pm, we heard from Bob and Thelma that they had arrived in Vicksburg, Mississippi and checked into the Cedar Lodge, where we had stayed during our drive across the States in 2007. We have reserved a room there for tomorrow night.
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