Hot Springs National Park

Hi from Hot Springs, 

We arrived in Hot Springs, Arkansas yesterday afternoon after driving the first few hours from Memphis in the rain.  Fortunately it was a travel day and it was sunny and warm by the time we arrived here.

Today we toured Hot Springs NP which includes downtown Hot Springs and parts of the surrounding area.  It is the smallest of the national parks.  The downtown area has many old bathhouses which are beautifully restored.  Other than the bathhouses, the downtown area is somewhat run down with many old hotels boarded up.  There have been new hotels built but it's too bad they didn't restore some of the older ones.

Later this afternoon we visited a lovely botanical garden.  

Tomorrow morning we start the home stretch, traveling 1,750 miles in four or five days (will see how much we can tolerate - much slower going while towing the trailer).  We will be on I-40 (the old Route 66) all the way to Barstow.  Definitely wondering what it will be like to be home again after being on the road for two months.   Most of our drive tomorrow will be in Oklahoma.

Here are two of the bathhouses.  Most have been repurposed as a NP visitor center, museum or restaurant.  Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the visitor center which is in a bathhouse that has been restored to its 1920's glory (closed due to COVID).

The water is 143 degrees.  When Ralph took this picture, I had to have him let me know right before he took the shot because I couldn't take having my fingers in the water more than a second or two.

The water is dripping down off the rocks.  A little hard to see but the steam is coming off the rocks at the top.  While we were on this trail, we walked right by a couple being married.  They paused the nuptials to let us pass by.

Note the blue water at the right edge of the pond.  This was taken right after a little boy's blue ice cream cone had fallen in the water and his dad fished it out.  We watched it slip right out of his hands.  Pretty funny.

Hot Springs was also famous for being the capital of vice from the 1930's to the 1960's.  It was controlled largely by the New York Mafia and included illegal gambling.  Ralph and I listened to the book "The Vapors" on our trip so we were very interested in visiting the casino the book was named after.  It is a fascinating slice of American history.  The Vapors was preparing to reopen as a restaurant, but that got sidelined by COVID.

Here are couple of photos from the botanical garden.  Mums are in full bloom everywhere.  The gardens were impressive and beautiful.