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.