Thursday we drove into Hot Springs to look over the town and get our bearings. To get there from Arkadelphia was a pretty drive through the country. Hot Springs is a resort town, nestled among a couple of lakes, and these lakes weave in 
and out of the city. In the historic section of Hot Springs is where the national park is, and during the heydays of the early 1900's, thousands of people would come to the bath houses every day where the natural hot springs would be brought up into the houses for use. Very elaborate production, there is one surviving bath house today - the Buckstaff. You can go through one bath house to see how things were, and during the heyday there were over 40 bath houses lined this street. If we wanted to 'do the bath' at the Buckstaff - and for 
$65 you could get a steam bath, manicure, pedicure, 20 minute massage and you get to keep your loofa mitt that the attendant used on you! What a deal, not. The picture to the right shows a sitz bath (you sit in it for ailments of the liver, kidney, etc.) and also a steam chamber. I would not be able to do this - don't like to be enclosed in any thing. We did not partake of this activity - didn't interest us. We walked the town, went through the visitor center and from videos experienced what it was like to come for the baths. We both felt that the town was a tidge too commercial, so many shops for trinkets, etc. There are a number of hot fountains where people can fill up jugs of hot spring water for their use - no charge. They have analyzed the water and there is no medicinal benefit of the water other than it is drinkable and hot. While walking around we noticed the headquarters for the National Park Service's Forestry Unit so I went inside to get brochures while Dave stayed outside with the cameras. Cannot go into any federal building with a camera. Dave struck up a conversation with a federal emloyee outside taking a smoke break and turns out that he was President Clinton's boyhood friend. As an adult this man became a state trooper and was assigned to Clinton and Hillary while 'home' in Arkansas. He did not like Hillary - was actually quite hilarious as to the description he gave her. On our way back from Hot Springs we passed DeGray State Park, right down the road from where we are camping. Told ourselves we wanted to go back and explore there another day.
and out of the city. In the historic section of Hot Springs is where the national park is, and during the heydays of the early 1900's, thousands of people would come to the bath houses every day where the natural hot springs would be brought up into the houses for use. Very elaborate production, there is one surviving bath house today - the Buckstaff. You can go through one bath house to see how things were, and during the heyday there were over 40 bath houses lined this street. If we wanted to 'do the bath' at the Buckstaff - and for 
$65 you could get a steam bath, manicure, pedicure, 20 minute massage and you get to keep your loofa mitt that the attendant used on you! What a deal, not. The picture to the right shows a sitz bath (you sit in it for ailments of the liver, kidney, etc.) and also a steam chamber. I would not be able to do this - don't like to be enclosed in any thing. We did not partake of this activity - didn't interest us. We walked the town, went through the visitor center and from videos experienced what it was like to come for the baths. We both felt that the town was a tidge too commercial, so many shops for trinkets, etc. There are a number of hot fountains where people can fill up jugs of hot spring water for their use - no charge. They have analyzed the water and there is no medicinal benefit of the water other than it is drinkable and hot. While walking around we noticed the headquarters for the National Park Service's Forestry Unit so I went inside to get brochures while Dave stayed outside with the cameras. Cannot go into any federal building with a camera. Dave struck up a conversation with a federal emloyee outside taking a smoke break and turns out that he was President Clinton's boyhood friend. As an adult this man became a state trooper and was assigned to Clinton and Hillary while 'home' in Arkansas. He did not like Hillary - was actually quite hilarious as to the description he gave her. On our way back from Hot Springs we passed DeGray State Park, right down the road from where we are camping. Told ourselves we wanted to go back and explore there another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment