Hot Springs National Park | Arkansas

Thursday - 6 May 2004 - Hot Springs, Arkansas: I will never know what happened to my website late last night. As I was sending over the update, I lost the satellite signal due to high winds and could not get back on-line for several hours, so if any of you night owls were trying to read... sorry! It's a new science, and I know I am a guinea pig, but it works 95% of the time! We were up and out early again this morning, knowing we had a long day ahead of us. We didn't know where we were going. Is this confusing for you?

Not to us. We just drive around.

My Driver headed east on Highway 106 and then turned south on 177 to connect with I-40. The route took us through bucolic farmland, mansions on horse property - through the Iowa Nation - and miles and miles of Indian Paintbrush on the sides of the road. It was a gauntlet though! Tortoises were all over the road. (Why did the turtle cross the road?) DT had to judge very carefully to miss smishing the poor creatures - the motor coach axles are wider than the Honda behind us. Surprisingly, when approached, the turtles stick their necks OUT and bring their feet IN. What is the reason behind this? Not all creatures were lucky on this route - we saw pizzafied turtles, opossums, raccoons, fox, weasels, skunks and armadillos. But we saw a LIVE deer!

We stopped for diesel (86 gallons, $134 - cheapest of the trip) at a huge Love's Truck Stop. They are having a special promotion for the month. If you buy 1,000 gallons of fuel, you receive free showers all next month! Truck stops are also the place to get a southern delicacy - Pork Rinds. OK, so I have never eaten a pork rind, but I have seen them in the snack aisle. For 48 years I have assumed they were some sort of cracker, maybe fried in pork fat or something. I had no idea they were pig skin, which would actually make them some sort of dog treat, right? Pork rinds alone could be the reason The Chosen People are forbidden to eat pork. While I'm on the subject of food, I must also comment on a delicacy we have seen on menus in Kansas and Oklahoma - also the subject of several cookbooks. I am referring to Calf Fries - also known as Prairie Oysters and Rocky Mountain Oysters: testicles. I was browsing through a Calf Fries specialty cookbook and read a cook should place them in hot, not boiling, water for one minute, and then remove the membrane... that's when I put the book down, so I will never learn the recipe! The author of the cookbook was a woman. Duh.

Alrighty then... we entered Arkansas. It was 89 degrees. Remember, we don't have (working) air conditioning! We stopped at a rest area and fired up the generator to make a pot of coffee, so I turned on the roof air conditioner and that really cooled us off! I also made friends with another dog - my new friend is from New Mexico! After spending too much time on the Interstate, we exited at Russellville and took Scenic Route 7 south to Hot Springs. We were in Yell County and this weekend they are celebrating Yell Fest! The ride down to Hot Springs IS scenic - the route goes through the Ouachita National Forest and past Nimrod Lake. The forest has a few pines, but is mostly deciduous. It was "cooler" in the mountains (mountains, meaning 1,800 feet elevation) too. The temperature dropped to 87 degrees!  One wild turkey along the road was the only wild life sighting of the afternoon. The road was good, but winding and it had many "narrow bridges". We would go miles without meeting another car, but EVERY TIME we came to a "narrow bridge" wouldn't you know it? It was never a car either - UPS truck, log truck or school bus!

Finally we arrived to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Bill Clinton moved when he was eight years old and where he graduated high school! Hot Springs is a resort town, because of the fabulous hot springs. It is believed Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited the springs in 1541. Thomas Jefferson had the area plotted in 1803, and kept in reserve for all time. (I tell you, TJ was so ahead of his time!) We settled-in to a nice campground on a lake, Young's Lakeshore RV Resort, then drove the Honda into town.

The steaming water from the local springs is unique because it has no sulfur smell, as is common in most hot springs. Many bath houses were built in the early 1900's and though most of them are no longer in business, the buildings are being restored to their former glory. The once-again-fabulous Fordyce Bath House is now the headquarters for Hot Springs National Park - the park that surrounds the town.

A row of bathhouses


Park Headquarters


Hot Springs National Park Headquarters - difficult to see
in the photo, but the water in the fountain is so hot,
it is steaming and it was 85 degrees outside!

Forty-seven springs are in the area. They gush 850,000 gallons of water every day at the average temperature of 143°. In all but one place, the water is protected, covered and pumped into air-tight pipes where it is cooled, without ever reaching outside air, and used in the bath houses and bottled for drinking. It also flows freely from fountains all around town. Shops sell plastic gallon jugs so people can take water home. We toured through the park. Hot Springs National Park is divided in two parts, East and West. Both parks have a one-way driving loop and numerous hiking trails and picnic areas.

 
Ouachita National Forest and the pretty lane through Hot Springs NP


Fragrant wildflowers in Hot Springs National Park

It was getting late and we were getting hungry and I was curious to learn if Ross would finally win Rachel's heart, so we came back to the camper and called it a night!

RV Park: Young's Lakeshore RV Resort