Day 1
I left my house at 5:45 a.m. on Monday morning so that I could miss Dallas traffic and get to Nacogodoches to pick Mom and Dad up around 9. I got to Nacogdoches at 9:06. First mission accomplished. We loaded up all of our luggage, cameras, an ice chest and a bag of snacks that we will discuss later in the back of my trusty Kia Soul which I call ET (he is "alien" green and he is equipped with bluetooth, so he can call home if I tell him too) and headed for Hot Springs. I drove the first leg of the trip. We stopped for gas and Dad took over the wheel so that I could rest since I had been driving since Dallas. Rather than taking all interstate we had planned to go on some smaller roads so that we could see a little bit of scenery and just enjoy ourselves.
Our first real stop was in Jefferson, Tx. at around 12:30. I am not sure that I had ever been there. But they have a famous hotel which is supposed to be haunted and I think it has been on some of those Discovery or Travel Channel ghost shows. So, we walked through it and also walked through the general store which was pretty neat. I was starving since I had been up since 4:30 and had eaten breakfast at 6 a.m. But Mom and Dad weren't hungry yet and I didn't want to eat by myself so I decided to wait until they were hungry. There are some pretty houses in Jefferson. They have ghost tours most evenings and it looks like a cute little town to just go and relax in. But I would guess that the average age of their tourist is about 65. This will be a common theme throughout this trip report.
We got back into the car and headed north again. Dad drove at first and then we switched and I started driving just before we got to Texarkana. Once we got to Arkansas they finally got hungry and we started looking for a place to eat along the interstate after we left Texarkana. Let me just clue you in. If you don't want fast food, then the signs along the interstate are not going to help you out a lot. We had all decided that it had been a long time since we had eaten at Dairy Queen and that was what we wanted. So we started looking for DQ's and found nothing. We put it in the GPS and tried looking it up on my droid but couldn't find one. Finally, at Hope, AK the GPS found one downtown. So we got off of the interstate and drove all over Hope. I'm sure that we passed Bill Clinton's birthplace, but if it didn't have a DQ sign over it, we didn't notice it. Finally, in the middle of town the GPS told us that we had arrived at our destination. It was an old run down former Dairy Queen that had probably been closed for several years. (Insert eye roll here). Once that wild goose chase was over, we found a Wendy's/Conoco Station on the interstate that we decided would do just fine.
After our LATE lunch, we headed on to Hot Springs via Hwy 7 which is a fairly scenic route. It is very windy and there are a lot of homes and businesses along that route so the speed limit never rises above 45 mpg. If you are in a hurry this is not the way to go. If you have your parents in the car, you might not want to go this way either because they do not like it if you go around one of those winding corners too fast and they can be very vocal about it.
We arrived in Hot Springs fairly early in the evening. We were staying at the Clarion on the Lake. It was a nice enough hotel. Nothing fancy, but nice views for many rooms and balconies for every room. I had gotten a cheap room with no view and had reserved a room with a view for my parents which cost $20 more. When we checked in, the guy said he would give me the best view he could at my rate, I guess due to my winning personality. I'm posting below the view from my room.
Could have been much worse right? It was on the second floor and the beach volleyball court was directly below my window. So, in summer when kids are out of school, this could really suck. But since kids were still in school, it wasn't too bad. Here is the view if I don't use the telephoto lens. Still not horrible.
So, after I got settled in for my two night stay in this room, I went upstairs to Mom and Dad's room since that was where the wine and the companionship were and this was the view from their room on the 6th floor.
So, that is what an extra $20 gets you. No playground, no volleyball court, just serene lakeviews. Once I got upstairs Dad opened the wine and we both had some. Did I mention that the ice chest contained Gin, Vermouth and Olives???? No?!!?!??! Well, there may have been a Martini fixed, but since I was driving to dinner, I didn't have one.... YET. While I enjoyed my wine, I got on Trip Advisor. Mom wanted Mexican food for dinner, so I found a taqueria that was highly rated. May I just say, El Amigo Taqueria in Hot Springs is probably the best Mexican food you will ever have north of the border.
It is a family owned business. The son runs the front of the house and dad is the cook. They said that the mom works there on the weekends. When we arrived we were the only ones there and it was kind of intimidating. Without my Dad, I probably would have left. It was kind of a dive. You had to park on the street. There were probably 10 tables in the front and two pool tables in the back with a couple of TV's tuned to soccer games being broadcast in Spanish. They didn't have crispy tacos. Only authentic soft tacos in a corn tortilla. Mom wanted beef.... no ground beef, only fajita meat. Dad and I got carritas (pork) tacos. Everything was a la carte and prices ranged from .99 cents to $4. So, I got a taco, tostada and beer and I think my bill was around $7. It was delicious! The salsa was terrific and they had a green one too but it wasn't that weird creamy green salsa. It was green due to the lack of tomato in it. If you mixed it with the red salsa it just made it hotter. Mom and I decided to play a game of pool while we waited for our meal. It was fun. While we played some other tables came in. They seemed to know most of their customers. Everybody was very friendly. If we had spent a week in Hot Springs I think we would have gone back there many times. It sort of ruined us for Mexican food for the rest of the trip since we knew we wouldn't be able to top it.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and then I got to have my Martini. It was soooooo yummy!!!! We sat on Mom and Dad's balcony and watched a bass fisherman troll by while we chatted and had our after dinner drinks and planned our activities for Tuesday.
Day 2
We met for breakfast at the hotel bar/restaurant around 9. Very good bacon and eggs with hashbrowns and toast for about $7 including coffee. After breakfast we hopped in ET and headed toward the old part of town where the bathhouses are. We knew that we wanted to walk down bathhouse row and go to the Mountain Tower but we weren't sure what order we wanted to do everything in. So we just started driving. As we got into town, I saw a sign for the Mountain Tower so I turned and we started winding up the hill. It is a really neat drive. Here's a picture of ET when we stopped to look around part of the way up to the tower.
And here's a picture taken after we were at the top of the tower. It was really cold up there. At this point Mom and I decided that we would need to buy hoodies to take home from Hot Springs. Who knew that you needed cool weather clothes in Arkansas in May?
There are two levels to the tower. The picture was taken on the top level. There is a lower level just below this that is all indoors and as you walk around it is a little like a museum with bits of history of Hot Springs that you can read about.
After we left the tower, we went to bathhouse row and went into the visitors center. It is an old bathhouse and you can do a self guided tour of the three story facility. It took about an hour to walk all the way through it. I'll post a few pictures of it to the side. It was interesting. Some of the things that they believed improved their health in the late 1800's were a little strange. After we left the bathhouse we walked down the street sightseeing and shopping and found a place found a place to buy some hoodies.
We left that area around 12:30 and went for a ride out toward Lake Ouchita. We stopped up there at the lake and took a few pictures and collected a couple of rocks. I'm not sure why, it is just something that my family does when we go somewhere. Here is a picture of a family of geese that were in the cove where we stopped. In case you can't tell, there are three little babies between the two adult geese.
Once we got back to town, we drove by The Winery which was a tasting room and stopped in for a taste. I'll get into the Arkansas wine tasting experience tomorrow. But for now I will just say that Arkansas wines are a little sweet for my taste. After leaving the tasting room, we went back to the hotel and then to dinner on the Belle of Hot Springs which we had made reservations for earlier in the day. It is one of those steamboat dinner cruises. It takes you around the lake during your dinner and there is dancing as well. We all had prime rib. It is prepared on land and then served to you about 30 minutes into the cruise. It was still hot and it was good enough. Not the best meal I ever had, but pretty much exactly what I anticipated. We did order a Brandy Alexander after dinner that we all three sipped and it was delicious! I had to look up the recipe and I am going to make them soon. Here are a couple of pictures from the "cruise".
Following the cruise we went back to the hotel. The next morning we left Hot Springs for a day of wine tasting and a night at the Mt. Magazine Lodge. I'll tell you all about that tomorrow. Have a great day!
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