Arkansas Hotsprings

4/21/2014
We spent Monday not doing a whole lot. After several long days of driving it is good to take some time off and catch up on household chores and rest up for a round of sight seeing. I drove around in the rain getting some propane, dropping off mail and going to Wal Mart for new tubes for Patrick's bike and stopping at Scuba and Archery Center. Seems a strange combination but they cover their bases for winter and summer fun and in Arkansas it is legal to spear fish for game fish.

4/22 We headed out for Hot Springs National Park. It happens to be in the middle of the city and back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was the place to be to take the waters to cure what was ailing you. The National Park service took the place over after several large fires that destroyed the buildings over the hot springs and regulated that the buildings be built of stone to prevent fires and rot from all the hot water swirling around.

The entrance to the grand walkway where people strolled between baths to take in the clean mountain air and to exercise.

The park service capped all the hot springs to keep them from being contaminated but they left this small one near the base of the grand staircase to show what they looked like in nature.

Another hot spring cascaded out of the mountain, ran under the walkway and into this pool before dropping below. Look close at the small green dot at the bottom of the run and that is a person sitting beside the water. The railing on the left was for stairs running down to the street below.

The Park Service turned Fordyce Bathhouse, the most ornate of the bathhouses into the National Park headquarters and restored it to its formal glory.

Stained glass in the ceiling of the men's bathing area.

The fountain/statue in the middle of the men's bathing area

I loved the extensive use of marble and the intricate hand laid tiles on the floor. In the sitting room, there were intricate patterns that must have taken extensive time to lay and each had precise spacing around it. I marveled at the craftsmanship.

Patrick stands in the carwash shower before they became cool to have in your house.

Men sat in these contraptions and heated their bodies. I always thing of the James Bond movie where Bond locked a guy into one of these things.

The gymnasium where the men worked out. The men and women were separated from each other while in the bathhouses. 

Loved the wooden barbells.

The entrance to the Grand Staircase is flanked by fountains on each side. They spewed forth hot water from the springs. You could see the steam rising off the 100+ degree water.

After touring bathhouse row and Patrick earned his Jr. Ranger badge, we ate lunch and drove around Hot Springs. We ended up at the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. It stands 216 feet high with an outside observation platform and an inside observation platform with a historical time line in it.

There were several other places we wanted to stop but we were running out of time and they were closing down. We ended up stopping for dinner at Bill Clinton's favorite bar-b-que  joint in town, McClard's. It wasn't the best we have eaten but it was still filling and unique. That is what is great about trying new places and not eating in chain restaurants, everything is unique and everyplace is unique.
Finally it was home again to enjoy the evening. Weather reports were forecasting heavy thunderstorms and tornadoes coming into the area and that made up our minds for the next move. We were packing in the morning and making a run towards home.
That had already been decided in ABQ because I needed to work on apartments and some on our house so we were sneaking our way across the country to surprise the folks back home.