We woke up in Hot Springs, Arkansas and it absolutely lived up to its name. Good gracious! 90+° by 10am! All exploring today will be from A/C area to A/C area.

The hotel breakfast left much to be desired, like bones of an antelope after the lions finished eating… apparently arriving at 9:16am when the breakfast buffet ends at 10am is not a good idea. So, we decided to pack the car, explore and grab something on the way out of town.

Hot Springs National Park is one of the only National Parks in the middle of a city. It’s quite different from other National Parks where there is so much to see over so much land. Hot Springs is in a very concentrated area, which is a nice way of saying overcrowded. We started our exploring in the Fordyce Bathhouse and Visitors’ Center. The Springs have been around for years, at least as far back as Native American Tribes who believed in the healing properties of the waters.

Scientists believe that it take 4,000 to 7,500 years for rainwater of today to soak into ground and through limestone and then back up into the hot springs. Of course, I’m not sure how you test that theory, but that’s what the plague said, so it’s gotta be true.

The Fordyce was one of the original bathhouses, built around these springs.

People traveled from all over the country to have daily soaks and then steam treatment from the Springs. Doctors even wrote prescriptions for people to travel to the Springs for treatments. Even our military believed this, building a huge Army/Navy Hospital in Hot Springs.

They had rooms for folks who were paralyzed with a systems of pulleys, ropes and gurneys to move them to the pools for treatments. People believed that soaking in the Hot Springs could cure paralysis, and diseases like Polio. FDR even came for treatments.

Many modern physical therapy equipment had its rudimentary beginnings in Hot Springs.

After soaks, visitors would rest in the parlor or their private rooms – rented just to allow you time to rest/recuperate after your soak. (These people sure got tired easy… they needed a nap after soaking in water? 🥴)

If they weren’t too exhausted from soaking, they would go for a workout or massage or maybe to get their hair and makeup done 🤣 or again to lounge in their parlors

All jokes aside, the architecture in the buildings and tile work were beautiful! And the craftsmanship in the wood work was timeless… clearly since it is still in use 60 years later.

Outside the visitors center, we explored one of the hot springs ourselves. Coming straight out of the ground, the water is 140° degrees. Michael said “can you imagine walking along and bending down for a sip of cool water, and get this!”

Hot Springs National Park was definitely worth a stop but in hindsight this should have been a stop on the way somewhere else instead of an overnight stay. We covered the majority of the park in couple of hours and even if weather permitted a long hike, I still would have used as a layover stop… oh well, live and learn.

We left Hot Springs, grabbed a quick “brunch” at Starbucks and off we went to LIttle Rock, Arkansas. The keeping with our tradition, we grapped a photo in front of the Capital Building. We also went by Little Rock Central High School, the first integrated high school in the nation. It is amazing that the school is still in use, and while they have kept the front of the school as it looked in 1957, the back of the school is clearly a functioning school.

As we traveled from Little Rock to North Arkansas, we passed an outpost for the Civilian Conservation Corp that was still in operation. Normally, this is something you see back in the depression to give people jobs and to build National Parks and other areas. Honestly, I don’t think we realized that were still in operation until today.

The drive was really pretty but the roads were twisty turny from Little Rock to Eureka Springs because we, of course, were traveling on the Pig Trail Scenic Byway 🐷🐖. Thankfully our backseat passengers weren’t too effected by the turns 🤣

We were traveling to Eureka Springs to see the Thorncrown Chapel, a beautiful chapel in the woods that we read about and saw in tourism magazine. However (ugh!) when we arrived the Chapel was closed to the public due to a wedding… we (I) tried to walk up and get a closer but didn’t want to effect the wedding so we only got so close.

But hey, we did get to see a big metal dragon in someone’s yard 🤣

We finally made it to Lampe, Missouri to our cabin for the next 3 nights on Table Rock Lake in the Ozarks. The cabin is so comfortable with a bedroom for boys (with thankfully 2 beds) and for us, a washer dryer and nice screened in porch.

We have a pool and playground right outside the Cabin, and are also within walking distance to Baxter Marina and swimming area in Table Rock Lake. After we put some chicken wings on to cook, we took a walk to check everything out.

Tomorrow, we having nothing to do until we head to Branson for a play later in the afternoon, so the plan is to sleep as late as we want to be lake lazy all day.