Blogs from Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States, North America - page 3

Monday morning in Perryville, Shelby made some delicious omelets for our breakfast. Barbara and I wanted to ride and explore the area, and Leta and Shelby just wanted to hang out at camp. Perryville is located about 50 miles north of Hot Springs with Quachita National Forest and many small side roads and lakes between here and there. Our first adventure was to Sylvia Lake. Started out on a gravel road with center and side lines to a gravel road with no lines to a dirt-rock road to a one lane dirt-rock road with small pull offs on the improbable chance of meeting some other idiot on this road. Later found that we crossed Wildcat Mountain by one of the locals. After crossing the mountain we continued to Hot Springs (home of Bill Clinton). The ... read more

The drive to Hot Springs AR was convoluted by design -the road less traveled. We set out for Magnolia on US 278 and 371 via Rosston AR. Since we had seen much of Magnolia on Saturday, I pulled the Pilgrim onto the truck route around town and headed east on US 82 towards El Dorado - a town that had intrigued me since I first read about the historic downtown area. We were not disappointed. About two blocks from the historic courthouse, I found an open half block to parallel park the rig. The short walk past the well-preserved storefronts was delightful. Sculptures pay tribute to the oil heritage of the area. Sidewalk cafes blend the old with the new. Well-weathered advertisements on the sides of buildings reminisce of businesses long gone. Plaques mark the location ... read more

We've spend a whole day in Hot Springs today. In the afternoon we actually wanted to go to the lake, but then a thunderstorm came thru and it rained pretty much the remainder of the day. So what better to do in Hot Springs than go to the hot springs? We went to Quapaw Baths & Spa to bath in the thermal waters. Very relaxing. The water has between 95 and 104 degrees in different pools. After the visit we were kind of tired and also hungry. Since there's not a lot of food choices in Hot Springs, we decided for Mexican at Ronaldo's. Very good, although not as good as Senor Tequila (oh how I miss that). After dinner we drove around town and were amazed that a lot of big hotels were closed and ... read more

Sunday, June 28 (St. Louis West KOA to Hot Springs KOA): Well, another day of mostly travel. We left St. Louis a bit after 8am, stopped at a TA Travel Center for a very good lunch at their Country Pride Restaurant, then continued on to Hot Springs, Arkansas. This KOA is a bit different, in that it is laid out on a series of hills. Very nice though, with a big office/store, a pool, game room, two laundry rooms, and a separate mini golf area. After checking in, we decided to head into Hot Springs to find a good place to eat dinner. The road we entered town on was Grand Ave., straight from the KOA, and until we got near the center of town and Central Ave., it seemed like a ghost town. Granted, it ... read more

Sam and I got up early and headed over the Buckstaff Bath House. There, we each got a traditional bath package including a mineral bath, steam and massage. It was a unique experience for each of us - we both came out "glowing" in the words of the guys. It was a nice relaxing way to start of the day before our next long drive. We had decided to extend the drive on this day to almost 500 miles to get us all the way to Austin. Gabe has a client there who, in exchange for a bit of work, agreed to let us stay in their guest house. While we were on the road, we saw a lot of thunderstorms and rain in the distance. The sky made for great entertainment for the drive. I ... read more