Hot Springs, Arkansas

The drive from Jonesboro to Hot Springs was a bit of just about everything. The first part was flat agricultural land with occasional tiny towns built around heavy-duty crop storage facilities. Next there were the miles and miles of interstate highway with the right lane worn by all the truck traffic into rhythmic bumps. Mostly it was just annoying, but at one point the cadence had me singing "a Wimoweh, a Wimoweh" in my head (I had to look up how to spell that -- here's the song if you don't get the reference or if you just want to listen to it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7mDzwYcZiM ). Next was the messy road construction and urban congestion in the Little Rock area that commanded my undivided attention and a firm grip on the steering wheel. Finally there was the relaxing drive through the forested hills between the interstate and Hot Springs National Park.

Along the way I stopped for lunch at Greek restaurant in Searcy, Arkansas. Tripadvisor and a smart phone are a great defense against falling into a chain restaurant habit on the road. The Greek salad greens were fresh and delicious -- a real treat in the midwest -- no lettuce from a bag at that restaurant!

I was pretty tired when I rolled into the town of Hot Springs. Three days of travel in a row and I'm ready for a day to just stay in one place. I didn't even want to move the van to go out to dinner. Fortunately, there was a well-reviewed pizza place right next door to the motel where I was staying. Pizza sounded perfectly fine to me. Eat too much, walk back to my room, zone out to a bit of TV, and early to bed. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My day of vacationing in Hot Springs was pretty much the opposite of what I expected it to be, but it turned out just fine. I lounged around in the morning doing research on weather and routes for the next legs of my trip. I read my favorite weekly astrology column, and enjoyed his suggestion that I (along with the rest of the people born in the same 1/12th of the year) play with saying the phrase "open sesame" to "put you in a playful, experimental frame of mind." I said it a time or two, chuckled, then I hopped in the van to go to the Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center to find out where to go to fill up my water bottles with free, delicious water from the springs.

The visitor center is unusual for a state park because it's on the main street in downtown Hot Springs. The town itself is mostly surrounded by the national park. I'm used to visitor centers having their own parking lot. This one is inside one of the historic bath houses on
"Bathhouse Row" which is the main street through downtown -- no parking except parallel parking on the busy street. Everyone seems to really be in a hurry here for some reason -- I'm not sure what there is to be in a hurry about, but people drive fast and a bit aggressively compared to what I'm used to lately. Also compared to Jonesboro, for sure.

So, I drove on until I found a convenient parking lot to pull into and I called the visitor center to ask about parking. She directed me to a parking garage on a side street that has 8' clearance. I was thinking my van was 8' tall but even if so, I wasn't going to risk going into a garage with clearance exactly as tall as my van. Turns out my van is more like 8'4" tall, so that was a good call on my part. I did find three consecutive open parking spaces on the street in front of the parking garage that provided me with an easy place to pull into, and just as close to the visitor center as the parking garage. I am still nursing a sore foot, so close parking matters.

The visitor center and museum was a real treat. They've preserved one of the historic bath houses and it houses displays of equipment that was used back in the day. I took too many pictures to include here, but here are a couple to give the feel of it. Lots of natural marble, tile, and interesting plumbing.

I asked directions to one of the fountains where you can get free water from the hot springs. It sounded like I could access it easily from my van, so I took an empty one-gallon bottle to fill it up. I wanted to see what it tastes like -- if I like it, I'll fill up all three of my bottles before I leave town. I wanted to wait for it to cool down before tasting it, so I brought it back to my room and let it sit for a few hours.

I was hungry and ready for lunch and didn't want to break my streak of finding locally-owned restaurants, so I went for a drive down the main drag to see what was there that had easy parking. A restaurant that advertised "hibachi and sushi buffet" caught my eye so I parked and went in. While I was getting my food, another woman about my age who had come in at about the same time as me approached me and invited me to join her for lunch. Normally eating with strangers isn't my thing, but she seemed friendly and harmless and, what the heck, "Open sesame!" 

We found a lot to talk about over lunch, and I agreed to take a look at the first chapter of a book she's writing to let her know whether I think I can be useful as an editor for her. Looks like I have at the very least a new acquaintance -- possibly a new friend, possibly a collaborator.

Next was my appointment to experience a floatation chamber. Ever since I saw the movie, "Altered States" when it first came out in 1980, I've been intrigued by the concept. At some point, experiencing it became a bucket list item for me. When I saw that was an option for a soak here in Hot Springs, I decided to go for it. I had lots of ideas of what it might be like, none of them anything like the experience I had. You see, what makes a person float in one of these chambers is salty water. Very, very salty water. And do you know what very, very salty water does when you have some broken skin that you didn't know that you have? It burns. And when the irritated skin that you didn't know that you have is actually a mucous membrane located in one's nether regions, it burns in a most spectacularly vivid way. I was in and out of that salt water in less than 2 minutes, and back in the shower again getting it off me as fast as I could. Oh well, at least I can remove this from my bucket list if I want to now. :^)

The water from the park spring does taste pretty good, so I'll fill up before heading out of town this morning.