R & R: From A to Z

List of summertime activities in state presents ideas on how to beat the heat — or join it

Air conditioning isn’t the only cool thing at the Governor Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff.
Air conditioning isn’t the only cool thing at the Governor Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff.

The season of great grief and deep despair has returned to Arkansas. Of moaning, groaning and complaining that once again the evil summer is here, enfolding Arkansans and visitors in a warm, damp blanket of heat and humidity.

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F is for fireworks. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette presents the 33rd annual Pops on the River to make your summer better July 4.

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The Old State House exhibits cover all manner of state history, including state links to cinema.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Bargains Galore on 64 has become a summertime staple, with three days of yard sales, antiques, collectibles and flea markets from Fort Smith to Beebe on U.S. 64.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Urban trails such as the Arkansas River Trail in central Arkansas are leisure meccas at dawn and dusk.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Q is for Queen Wilhelmina State Park, where a remodeled mountain lodge stands ready to help citizens escape the summertime swelter of the lowlands.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette A to Z illustration.

There's no avoiding these coming 88 days of remaining summer, outside of vacations, until fall arrives Sept. 22.

What to do for a distraction besides grumble and await the fall?

Sure, there are detours to the lake and the river. Spelunking into cool caverns. Afternoons spent lounging around the pool. But those pursuits offer only brief respites. How else to while away the hours and days of this oppressive time, besides constantly carping about the weather? Besides locking ourselves indoors in the cold embrace of air conditioning?

How do we escape what God hath wrought?

There are ways! There are activities -- some even outdoors -- that not even the unwelcomed embrace of an Arkansas summer can smother.

Here are 26 ways one can either outfox, outlast or even fully accept the Arkansas summer. And just to make this listicle interesting, it's an A-to-Z list of besting an Arkansas summer.

Arkansas' Urban Trails

A Granted, walking, running, cycling or even rollerblading the Razorback Regional Greenway in the Northwest or the Arkansas River Trail along the river in Little Rock and North Little Rock -- in the midafternoon of an Arkansas summer -- is not wise. But just as the sun is rising in the morning sky? When the temperature is still a bearable 78 degrees and the heat index isn't 108? That's the time for some

exercise along these networks of trails that all Arkansans should enjoy at their leisure. (arkansasrivertrail.org, nwatrails.org)

Bluegrass

BBeer -- that's the easy answer here, but then beer should never be the sole answer, only part of the solution. No, for "B" we offer up bluegrass in the form of the annual Northwest Arkansas Bluegrass Festival in Harrison. The three-day event -- Aug. 18-20 -- is held at Beacon Park. Admission is $10 Thursday and Friday, and $12 Saturday. A three-day pass is available for $25. There's gospel and bluegrass music starting as early as 7 a.m. (bit.ly/1HHtoxF)

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

C Granted, this is an easy answer, because the Bentonville museum is filled with art from around the country and also is air-conditioned. And it's large enough you can spend a whole day inside. Plus, the permanent collection is free. Starting Saturday, the museum welcomes the exhibit "American Made: Treasures From the American Folk Art Museum." (crystalbridges.org)

Delta Rivers Nature Center

D Technically, the name of this Pine Bluff museum is the Governor Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center, but we already have a "G" entry (see "G"), so head down to Pine Bluff and check out this center dedicated to the Arkansas Delta. (deltarivers.com)

Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway

E The Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway allows visitors to enjoy lunch or dinner in its Eurekan Dining Car and ride along while eating for a 4.5-mile round trip. Dinner options include prime rib and trout, wine and champagne. The railway also features 4.5-mile narrated excursion rides. (esnarailway.com)

Fireworks

F Pops on the River -- presented by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette -- returns for its 33rd year to the River Market Pavilions and the First Security Amphitheater in downtown Little Rock. The state's largest Fourth of July celebration is free, opens at noon and includes shopping, food trucks, a car show, music from the Big Damn Horns and a performance by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Fireworks close the day at 9:30 p.m. (pops.arkansasonline.com)

In Northwest Arkansas, the birth of the nation is celebrated in and around the Walmart AMP with the city of Rogers Family Festival, a performance by the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas and fireworks ending the evening at 9:30 p.m. (bit.ly/1ttL005)

Galore

G For three days -- Aug. 11-13 -- U.S. 64 from Fort Smith to Beebe is transformed into 160 miles of yard sales, antiques, collectibles and flea markets for Bargains Galore on 64, now in its 17th year. (bargainsgaloreon64.org)

Hoppy Days

H Now we get to beer -- offering assistance to surviving an Arkansas summer. In the past few years, the craft beer scene in Arkansas has exploded, with more than 25 breweries in the state brewing or coming soon. All this beer means brewery tours, brewery trails and more, including beer festivals such as the Great Arkansas Beer Festival on Aug. 6 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Tickets are $30 in advance or $40 at the event. (garbf.com)

"Ice Ice Baby"

I OK, the official name of this July 29 concert at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock is I Love the 90s, and the show features '90s musical acts such as Salt-N-Pepa ("Push It," "Shoop"), Kid 'n Play ("Funhouse"), Rob Base ("It Takes Two"), Tone Loc ("Wild Thing"), Young MC ("Bust a Move") and, of course, Vanilla Ice, he of the aforementioned "Ice Ice Baby." The show starts at 7:30 p.m.; tickets start at $55. (bit.ly/21qXBw2)

Juice

J The 33rd annual Altus Grape Festival is about juice ... the fermented kind. And the festival in Arkansas wine country is July 29-30 in Altus City Park, and includes grape-stomp competitions, free wine and juice tastings, free winery tours, an amateur winemaking competition, food vendors and more. (altusgrapefest.com)

Kayaking

K Arkansas' rivers and lakes offer some of the best kayaking around, and one of the newer kayaking spots is the human-engineered Siloam Springs Kayak Park, a series of whitewater rapids and "standing waves" for kayakers about 4 miles south of the city. The city park along the Illinois River is free -- take your own kayak, though. (siloamspringskayakpark.com)

The Lego Movie

L This 2014 computer-animated film is the free film showing Wednesday at Little Rock's First Security Amphitheater as part of Movies in the Park. The rest of the summer's schedule includes The Campaign, July 6; Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, July 13; Dirty Dancing, July 20; and Captain America: The First Avenger, July 27. Movies start at sunset every Wednesday. (moviesintheparklr.net)

Monty Python's Spamalot

M The Arkansas Repertory Theatre ends its 2015-16 season today with the dark comedy Windfall, but it's not too soon to start thinking about the 2016-17 season, which starts Aug. 31 with the Tony Award-winning Monty Python's Spamalot. The comedy runs through Oct. 2. Tickets go on sale Aug. 8. (therep.org)

Natural Resources

N The Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources -- 2 miles south of Smackover -- allows guests to learn more about the important natural resources of southern Arkansas through a 25,000-square-foot main exhibition and research building. (bit.ly/1Qc2U1L)

Old State House Museum

O The Natural State's history comes alive during a visit to this Little Rock landmark, which served as the original state Capitol. There are permanent exhibits and rotating exhibits to explore. (oldstatehouse.com)

Parton, Dolly

P The country music legend appears at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on Aug. 13 as part of her Pure & Simple tour, which supports the country singer-songwriter's new album, Pure & Simple With Dolly's Biggest Hits, which is being released Aug. 19. Plus, Parton has promised she'll play the hits along with songs fans haven't heard live in decades. Tickets start at $66 with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m. (bit.ly/1YxaYvP)

Queen Wilhelmina State Park

Q There are 52 state parks in Arkansas (visit one this summer), but this Polk County park fortunately starts with "Q," making this list a little easier to complete. (Unfortunately, no parks starts with "X," "Y" or "Z.") Stay at the renovated Queen Wilhelmina Lodge or at one of its campsites, hike its trails and gaze upon Arkansas' second highest peak, the 2,681-foot Rich Mountain. (queenwilhelmina.com)

Ribs

R While there's no official state food of Arkansas, there are a few obvious candidates, including barbecue. Many towns around the state offer some type of barbecue, and a lot of places feature ribs. Hit the Arkansas Barbecue Trail this summer and gobble down some delicious ribs, from Blytheville to Texarkana. (bit.ly/1UgqSLd)

Southland Park Gaming and Racing

S This West Memphis greyhound track is about more than racing. There are video gambling machines, poker tournaments and Sammy Hagar's Red Rocker Bar and Grill, too. (southlandpark.com)

That Bookstore in Blytheville

T Sometimes to avoid the heat of an Arkansas summer it's best just to stay indoors, crank up the air conditioning and crack open a good book. This independent bookstore in Blytheville is a good location for finding that perfect book. (thatbookstoreinblytheville.com)

Also of note for discovering that perfect book? WordsWorth Books & Co. in Little Rock (wordsworthar.com) and Dickson St. Bookshop in Fayetteville (dicksonstreetbooks.com).

The Unexpected: Festival of Murals

U Curated by JUSTKIDS, this arts and culture initiative -- with urban, street-art inspired murals -- once again will bring world-class art to downtown Fort Smith from Sept. 5-11. (unexpectedfs.com)

Vince Gill

V The Country Music Hall of Fame musician visits Oaklawn Racing and Gaming's Finish Line Theater in Hot Springs on Aug. 18. Tickets go on sale at a to-be-announced date. Other concerts this summer in the 2016 Concert Series (which started May 27) include The Monkees on July 22 and Peter Cetera of Chicago fame Sept. 9. The last show in this year's series is Bob Newhart on Oct. 14. (bit.ly/1Qc7jBN)

Walmart AMP

W Concerts at this amphitheater in Rogers continue throughout the summer, including Meghan Trainor on Aug. 2 and Styx on Sept. 1. (bit.ly/1QclxTg)

X marks the spot, but not when it comes to geocaching, where GPS coordinates mark the spot. The Arkansas State Parks system is geocaching-friendly -- that is, open to the hobby of hunting for and finding hidden objects through global positioning system coordinates -- as are several other places around the state. (geocaching.com/play)

Yelling

Y Sure, there are canyons and valleys in Arkansas where a person can yell and get a pretty good echo in return ... return ... return. But the kind of yelling we're talking about is yelling over the roaring exhausts of a few thousand motorcycles during the annual Mountains, Music and Motorcycles in Mountain View on Aug. 18-21. (mountainsmusicmotorcycles.com)

Zombies

Z The Arkansas Travelers host the Tulsa Drillers during a four-game home stand July 13-16. It's a Super Hero Themed Weekend, and on July 16 the promotional action is all about zombies with Zombie Survival Theme Night. Not into zombies? The Travs play into early September at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. (travs.com)

Style on 06/26/2016

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