Today, as we headed southwest under sunny skies we noticed that the trees are leafing out more. It’s almost like spring is on fast forward.

At daughter Christy’s suggestion, we stopped at the Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock. There, we toured the USS Hoga and the USS Razorback, a WWII Guppy class submarine commissioned in 1944. Because of the crew’s excellent performance, the submarine was part of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. After completing her service in the US Navy, the USS Razorback was given to the Turkish Navy where she served for 30 years. She arrived in Little Rock in June 2004 and was open to the public in May 2005. She is 90% operational.

USS Razorback

The business end.

USS Hoga

The tugboat USS Hoga was a major player during the Japanese attack on working to keep the channel into Pearl Harbor open by pushing the burning USS Nevada out of the mouth of the channel during the bombing, fighting fires on other ships in the harbor and rescuing seamen from sinking ships. She also served to recover bodies from the harbor after the attack. The USS Hoga has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Arkansas River

Following our visit to the Maritime Museum we continued southwest on I 30. The first hour was harrowing as traffic and construction made driving miserable, but then traffic eased up and the last part of the drive to Texarkana was very pleasant. We drove beyond Texarkana to a small town called New Boston where we are about to spend the night. Tomorrow, we head to Killeen, TX.