Little Rock and Hot Springs Arkansas

 

October 13-18,

Arkansas is the 36th US state we have visited since leaving California and our first time to ever visit Arkansas. Our first stop in the “Natural” state was North Little Rock. We stayed at the Riverside RV Park right on the Arkansas River directly across from the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. The RV Park is just a parking lot but it was good access to Little Rock. We could ride our bikes or walk across a foot bridge to the Clinton Museum and 30 acre riverfront park.  At night the bridge is  lit up changing light patterns. The days we were there were cloudy and rainy during so we couldn’t take advantage of the bike path.

The Clinton Library and Museum is an impressive five story structure. The main building cantilevers over the Arkansas River reflecting Clinton’s campaign promise of “building a bridge to the 21st century”. There is an 110-foot timeline, representing each of Clinton’s years as president, many artifacts, a theater, and our favorite, full scale replicas of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. The presidential limousine, Cadillac One, used during his presidency is there too. The museum also hosts visiting exhibits and the Beatles was their current feature. We had fun walking down memory lane when the Beatles toured America in the early 60’s. Omar even played the drums with Ringo instructing! Even though we are not Clinton fans it was interesting to look at the life of our 42nd president.

From Little Rock, we stayed in Hot Springs at Catherine’s Landing RV Resort. This is a very nice resort, all paved and well maintained. Previously it was an old 400 acre dairy farm on the Ouachita River. They have a very nice heated pool, a boat launch and small marina. You can kayak, stand up paddle board and go boating but the water isn’t clear and we read there are alligators in the lower third of Arkansas so we chose to pass on the river activities!

Besides swimming in the pool, relaxing and catching up we spent one day at Hot Springs National Park. This is the smallest national park and it borders a city that has made an industry out of tapping and dispensing the park’s mineral-rich hot springs water. It is also the oldest park initially known as Hot Springs Reservation. It was created by an act of the United States Congress on April 20, 1832 to be preserved for future recreation. It was the first time that a piece of land was set aside by the federal government to preserve its use as an area for recreation and before the concept of a National Park existed. In 1921 it became Hot Springs National Park and today still preserves 47 hot springs and their watershed, plus there are hiking trails, scenic drives, camping and picnic areas. But the biggest feature is the preserved Bathhouse Row on Central Avenue, the main street of Hot Springs, Arkansas. People have been coming to Hot Springs for thousands of years to seek healing for all kinds of ailments. The last 200 years therapeutic baths and bath houses were developed. It was the original wholistic day spas with gymnasiums, a variety of messages, steam baths, showers and restaurants. The old wooden structures which burnt have been replaced by a row of luxurious stone and masonry bathhouses constructed in the early 1900s. We toured the Fordyce Bath House which also serves as the parks visitor center.
Each day about 700,000 gallons of water—at 143°F—flow from the springs into a complex piping and reservoir system. This supplies water to commercial baths and to free “jug fountains,” where people flock daily to fill containers with the odorless, fresh-tasting, chemical-free water. We filled our jugs!!

We also went up the 216 ft Hot Springs Mountain Tower for a 360 degree view of the Ouachita Mountains.

Now it is finally time to visit Lauren, Justin and our grandchildren in Fort Polk, Louisiana!