Hot Springs, Arkansas

I arrived at Gulpha Gorge Campground late and the sun was already well put to bed.  I was able to find my campsite without too much difficulty and proceeded to put my tent up in the dark.  It was a great opportunity for me to pull out my Every Moment Holy book from my homemade portable library and read a Liturgy for People Who Sleep in Tents.  

After a good nights sleep, I packed my tent back up and stowed it all back up in my car and left the quiet of the campground to find a parking spot on a busy street in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  I fed the meter and then walked the promenade behind bathhouse row until the visitors center opened.  The steam rose up in the morning air, where the hot springs were exposed and the heat felt good in the chill of the day.  The water comes out of the ground at 147 degrees and felt quite warm to the touch.  There is no place to soak in the water outside and most of the bathhouses have been converted to other uses, though two of them still function as bathhouses/spas.  I, however, had neither the time or inclination to pay for the experience so I contented myself with trailing my fingers through the water in the display pool and bottling some water to drink on the road.  

Once the visitors center opened, I explored Fordyce Bathhouse which has been restored and is full of history.  You can see the opulence that surrounded the bathers of the day and learn about the different types of treatment that they practiced.  Some that made you raise your eyebrows and say what?!? and others that made me think, oh we kind of doing something like that in therapy.  After I had had my fill of learning, I headed back out in the street and found a place to do a quick sketch before taking a drive up to over look the city and then head back down the road towards Texas.

My morning reading.

Stain glass windows at Fordyce.

A statue in the men's bathing area.

Looking up towards the Grand Promenade behind the Bathhouses.

Steam rising in the morning air.

One of my PT friends said she had never seen such an ornate Hubbard Tub.

The Delta

 After I left my friends in Oxford, Mississippi and walked the grounds of Rowan Oak, I made my way west towards the Mississippi and south into the Mississippi Delta to learn about the start of blues music.  By the end of the day, music by people I had never heard of before crooned from my radio as I crossed the Mississippi into Arkansas.  Muddy Waters, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Wade Walton, and more.  My first stop was Clarkdale, Mississippi where I wished I had planned to spend more time.  I had originally planned to go through Memphis and see the civil rights museum there, but my friends suggested they thought I would like the Mississippi Delta.  So in the end I headed that way.   I knew nothing about Blues music, but after spending a couple hours at The Delta Blues Museum and making a visit to Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Arts Store I was wishing I had more time.  There was live blues music at various venues that afternoon/evening and a walking tour around town taunted me to stay long, but sunlight would be fleeting till I reached my destination in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  So if you ever find yourself near Clarksdale, Mississippi spend a few more hours there for me.

I continued on south stopping at a pottery shop which had a very pleasant garden to walk through, drove through miles of farm land with dust kicked up by combines in the field, and chatted with a farmer who asked if I had driven through rain.  I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a rainbow stretched out across the sky.  Then in Greenville I got an afternoon snack of hot tamales at Doe's Eat Place and took a hike through a cypress brake before turn west and traversed the mighty Mississippi.  

Taking this route I went right by Hoot's BBQ, a favorite restaurant of mine that I had been to on a road trip to Louisiana a number of years ago with my friend Sara.  I ordered a Pig Pie to go and I wasn't disappointed, it was as good as I remembered.  In the end it was dark when I pulled into my campsite at Hot Springs National Park.  

Clarksdale, Mississippi

A Garden to Explore

Rainbow in the Sky over the Delta

Hot Tamales at Doe's Eat Place

Cypress Brake

                       

Pig Pies make me happy.

               

South to Mississipi

After I left my sister, I headed south through Kentucky and Tennessee to Mississippi.  My GPS tried to divert me because of thunderstorms and risk of flash flooding but I stuck to the highway in hopes to make it to my friend's son's soccer game.  I drove through some pretty heavy rain, but it didn't last too long and it ended up being the most rain I had the entire six weeks I was gone, so I feel very blessed.  I made it in time to go to the soccer game, which ended up being cancelled about half way through because of lightening, but we had a good time and then went out for tacos and ice cream.

I found Oxford Mississippi to be a nice town.  I wandered around William Faulkner's home - Rowan Oak and then walked through Bailey Woods to University Museum on the campus of Ole Miss before I headed out of town.

Rowan Oak - the home of William Faulkner

Sketching at Rowan Oak

Outline of one of Faulkner's books on the wall --solution to his notes blowing away in the wind.

Circular Garden overgrown by moss

Bailey Woods - path from Rowan Oak to University Museum

Great Evening with Friends

It's November!

Where in the world have I been? That is a good question. These days I am spending time at my computer writing. NaNoWriMo 2022 started last week and I decided to participate. As of now I am ahead of schedule, but my main goal (aside from writing 50,000 words) is to finish my story. I pulled out a manuscript of over 50,000 words from five years ago which was a good story but despite having 50,000 words was still unfinished, so the plan is to get to the end of the story. 

 However despite being more at home these days, I was gone for over six weeks over the last two months and that is the main reason I haven't been posting here. So I will work to remedy this in the coming weeks, by sharing my adventures. 

 I left on Labor Day and headed south towards Cincinnati.  On the way, I made a stop at the Franklin Park Conservatory.  That evening I stayed with my sister and in the morning enjoyed breakfast on the street at the Bluebird Cafe.

Glasswork at Franklin Park Conservatory.

Breakfast at the Bluebird, complete with watercolors.

Visiting my beautiful sister.

Clearing off the Desk

 Well, August has arrived.  It has been two months in this journey I have set out on, to focus on sketching and finishing projects.  The first month was set aside for cleaning and organizing things in my home that I had let get out of control.  The second month was a lot of time sent sketching at camp, as well as a quick trip to visit my sister in Cincinnati with a "side trip" to Nashville to see a play that I had been wanting to see.  Now August is here and it is time to focus on these projects that I wanted to work on...but so far that hasn't produced much...although it is only August 3rd and I did spend the day at mom and dad's mowing their lawn yesterday and then eating supper with them.  

I set up a nice area on my desk last night when I got home last night in efforts to jump start my morning, but I still got a slow start --although I am starting to feel like I am getting somewhere.  One of the projects that I have been meaning to get down for ages, sits beside me on my desk.  I have had trouble proceeding because I have a great fear of messing up, as well as I think I just wasn't sure how to finish the project.  It is for a good friend of mine and she has been waiting two years for it, perhaps she has given up hope, I will ever finish it ---I desperately hope not.  I just finished pencilling in the next page and then the following two page spread was already lightly sketched, it will need painted yet, but that leaves only two two page spreads to fill, I plan to sketch those out today.  I also ordered some purple bookbinding thread to finish the project.  Praying I have it done by next week.  

Also on my desk you can just see the book I am reading this month - God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson.  I was planning to read a book a month this year but have yet to finish one (my year started in June, so it is not quite as bad as it sounds.)  Hopefully I will focus and finish it in the next week or two so I can start on the next one yet this month (and hopefully finish it by the end of the month).  

Some of my adventures of the past weeks:

The Flower Room at Kingwood Gardens.

Quick sketches from Kingwood Gardens.

Aullwood Audobon Troll's Nest. 

One of my sketches from Aullwood.

Janelle working in her garden.  The wildlife kept eating off her starts, so we bought a few more - on big discount since it was so late in the season, and she tried planting them inside chicken wire.

A sketch of Janelle in her garden.  You can see I was great garden help --with a paint brush in my hand.

Sketching Forest Giants at Bernheim.

Janelle and I on the Canopy Walk at Bernheim.

Janelle in the Living Library at Cheekwood.

Awaiting the start of the play that took me to Nashville.  It was excellent by the way --I would recommend it to anyone...but unfortunately it was closing day when I went.

Lincoln's Boyhood Home at Knob Creek.

More Camp Scenes:

Hall of Fame Balloon Launch

While working on my project today, I was writing out the verse from my friends wedding "Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 3:3. She chose that verse for a wedding, today I chose those words for the prayer of my heart as I go forward this year -- may my love and faithfulness for God and his work in this world never leave me, may I bind them around my neck and write them on the tablet of my heart.  Blessings to all.

Where the Paintbrush has been.

 It is Tuesday morning and I am about to be off on another day of adventure.  I need to learn to sit still a little better, I feel busier right now than when I was working, but I knew that would probably be true of these few weeks at the start, but I feel like I hit the road running a couple of weeks ago and haven't seen the end yet.  I am getting some sketching in and enjoying my self though.

Here are a few sketches from my adventures:

A church I painted one rainy morning while trying to hold my umbrella and palette, along with my sketchbook and paintbrush.

On a hike to Hobo's Cave with campers.

Meal time at camp.

Swim time at camp.

A group activity with Day Campers.

Repelling.

Tall Ships from Voinovich Park, Cleveland.

Progress in my oil painting class.

Well I better get going, off for more adventures.  I was reminded of the gift of each new day over the last week, as I said good bye to young lady who I knew from childhood, her father was my Sunday school teacher many years ago, I go to church with her aunt now, and I lived with her cousin for six years.  I didn't see her often but when I did we always had a good chat with a few laughs and smiles, so it was with sadness that I learned she had been killed in a motorcycle accident going home from her aunt's home on a Friday night.  They say she didn't have a chance because the oncoming driver was fully in her lane passing on a hill.  I thank God for having known her and I remember her family often these days and pray that while I am still granted time on this earth that I allow God to use me each day.