Texarkana USA

The local weathermen have been talking about the rain storms that will be covering this part of the country for over a week now. We have been watching their forecasts with much trepidation, trying to make a plan for where we want to be when the water works begin. This was one of their forecast maps and rainfall predictions. The bad news is we are in the middle of that storm, with the 7-8 inch rain forecast bulls-eye. The good news is that since we were so close to Easter, we thought it was fitting that the storm outline looked so much like a crucifix.

We looked for a place that was high and dry to ride out the multi-day storms. That brought us to Texarkana RV Park--a passport America park with up to three days of half-price camping. More importantly, it provided paved full hook-up sites on a hill. Bingo!

The storm was a little slow in arriving, so we had some time to explore our new home town. Because the state line runs right through the center, it's confusing whether to call this Texarkana, Texas, or Texarkana, Arkansas. Because it's the only town with this name anywhere, they prefer Texarkana, USA.

Their claim to fame is this federal post office, built right on the state line. It's the only post office in the United States split between two states, and the court house in the upper floors also has that unique characteristic. We learned that the post office equipment is old and it will cost too much to bring it up to date. Some leaders want a new post office, but the citizens keep voting it down. So the mail is only collected here, and then sent on to Shreveport, Louisiana for sorting and postmarking. We know that the Texas and Arkansas citizens of Texarkana are not very happy that their mail is postmarked in Louisiana now.

We are obviously in the south, and the large statue out front is to honor the Confederate soldiers that served in the Civil War. It is interesting that it also honors the Mothers "who bore and nurtured hero sons."

We are in dogwood country, and we are enjoying the spring blooms of these trees.

It seems fitting to point out that they bloom right around Easter, and their four petal flowers symbolize the cross. Each of those petals has an brown indention at the end, symbolizing the blood stains. The yellow center of the bloom represents that crown of thorns.

With the lousy weather, we didn't find much to do while we were hiding from the rain in Texarkana. One of our highlights was a visit to the old theater downtown. Originally built in 1924, it was a masterpiece with ornate carvings throughout. This is an example of the detail in the side wall of the theatre.

But this grand theatre was sold to the Paramount chain in 1931, and became a movie theater. They quickly covered all that beautiful detailing with black paint in order to project movies in a dark room. As we looked up at the ornate ceiling, we had utter, "What a waste to paint this black!"

Eventually, low ticket sales caused the closure of the movie theater in 1977. Soon after, the town of Texarkana began a fund-raising campaign to refurbish the old theater and bring it back to its original glory. It took $2.5 million for the repairs, including stripping off all that black paint and replacing it with gold leaf.

When a native son of Texarkana made a sizable donation, they decided to rename the theater in his family's honor. So today we are touring the Perot Theater, named in honor of Ross Perot's parents who lived all their adult lives in Texarkana.

Our tour guide shared many interesting stories about the building and the town. She also added stories of Ross Perot's visits to the theater. Even at 87, he still zips up the steps to see the portrait of his Mother in the upstairs foyer.

Besides all the local information we learned at our theatre tour, we also visited the Texas visitor's center down the road. We were looking for a good place to take a walk, and a helpful woman told us about Bringle Lake Park. We had great weather, so we headed that way. But our visit to the park ended differently than we had hoped. That's a story for a whole different blog of its own.