Hot Springs - First Adventure

Our first adventure was Saturday 1/9/10 with a trip to Hot Springs, AR. Actually it was kind

of a spur of the moment thing that we decided Friday night. We had a few things to take care of early in the morning and then we got on the road.

We Mapquest-d and it said it would take us 1 hour and 55 minutes. In reality it only took us a

little over an hour and maybe 15 minutes to get to the beginning of the town. The road itself to HS is a 2-lane divided highway that was good driving … if you don’t mind 18-wheelers whizzing by and having to pass them. Interstate 30 is the main west \ east route thru Texas and Arkansas to wherever it finally goes. And there is a lot of commercial traffic with lots of different company trucks using it.

I frequently made mention to Jenia that the road reminded me of many roads I’ve taken back east… lots of shrubs and trees and rolling highway. Of course, at this time of the year everything is so stark and desolate looking. In another couple of months when all the trees and shrubs start blooming it is going to look lovely. But right now it looks so bleak.

As we were driving on route AR 7, we came across so many sights we want to explore. The biggest one was DeGray State Park. All the signs indicated it was a nice lake with cabins for rent which would be lots of fun in the summer. On the way home we took a detour and went down the road leading to the state park. The lake seems quite large and when our Internet gets up and going within a day or so, I’ll check out their site and see what there is in the way of

accommodations and such.

We noticed a lot of indications for horse riding which thrilled Stasia since she is an avid fan of horses and learned how to ride in Colorado. There is also a cruise on Lake Hamilton on Dixie-type paddle wheel boat.

That should be a fun thing to do. There is a duck-boat tour of Hot Springs and Lake Hamilton

. That will be fun since I’ve never gotten to do that kind of a tour in Boston which also has the duck-boats. It seems “season” starts around the first of March, weather permitting. So we will have to put all these things on our calendar for next trip to Hot Springs.

Since it was getting close to lunch time we stopped at a seafood restaurant attached to a nice hotel / condo complex. The shrimp was marvelous – what little there was of it to my salad. It was bay shrimp probably from local fishermen since all the catches were daily fresh. These shrimp have a little kick to them… a bit spicy for my tastes. But they were quite large and very delicious. The restaurant had the look of a tourist spot, to some degree, and looked like it would

be a hopping place in season.

I should say, at this juncture, that it was cold, cold and more cold for our trip. The south has been having some chilly temps lately and Saturday was no exception. It was about 24 degrees Farenheight and there was a slight wind blowing which made it feel much colder. My still-used-

to-So-Cal-weather body has been taking quite a beating over the last week or so. And this cold is more so because there is humidity in the air and the wind seems to go right thru your body (well mine in any case). So even though there were things to see near the restaurant, we all headed for the car- pronto.

There were several local fruit / vegetable and other things stands as we went along this lovely

country road. It truly was a “back road” even though it’s the main entrance to Hot Springs. It was windy and hilly and pretty and just a delightful drive from the interstate to the town.

Since Jenia had been to Hot Springs at one point

earlier in her life, she had a general idea of what the town was like. We found the Arlington Hotel and used its facilities and then walked around.

The Arlington was the epitome of elegance and sophistication in the 20’s when the baths and curative powers of the hot springs were at their prime. We took a tour of the baths and decided when we come back again (which we will in the spring or summer) we would take the baths and massage. The prices are quite reasonable and it looked like a fun thing to do.

It was interesting that the Arlington and all the other baths in the town were pretty much shut down for the day because the pipes had frozen in much of the city. I thought that was a crack up because this part of the country and certainly this particular city, hardly ever get weather this cold. It was a new adventure for the gal giving us the tour.
We did walk down the street from the Arlington and looked at “bathhouse row.” A lot of the baths have been shut down over the years, for various reasons. We did go into the Ozark Bath House which doubles as an Information Center for the city. We took the tour and viewed the different rooms. The gift shop had a book of the women’s fashions at that time… early 20’s. I picked it up and looked at it and saw many pictures which looked like some of the fashions my mother wore when she was a young woman. This whole area of Hot Springs must have been a very “happening” place in the 20’s and early 30’s.

On the way out of town we noticed the winery (and how we missed that going in is up for conjecture) and decided we would check it out on our next trip since we were all beginning to feel tired and were too cold to get out of the car. But it will definitely be a spot we will check on whence we make our return trip.

On the way home, we did stop at the DeGray Lake and took a slight look at the lake. It seemed quite huge and has lots of swimming spots. That will definitely be a fun thing to do even if we just take a lunch, some sunny afternoon… when it’s warm, and just spend a few hours sitting at the benches eating our lunch and swimming in the lake.

We are definitely planning a trip back to Hot Springs and will probably make it a weekend trip renting a cabin so we have the time to enjoy the many amenities available and get a good look at the town and all its historical sites.