With not much more to see in Little Rock we hit the road in our jeep for Hot Springs, Arkansas for an over night trip. The town of Hot Springs was established in the early 1800’s when white men discovered the hot springs that Indian’s had been using for centuries. In the mid 1800’s it became home to major league baseball spring training, illegal gambling, gangsters and the bath houses.

We started at the Hot Springs mountain tower, a 216′ high tower that overlooks the town. The temperature was about 60 degrees and a little windy on the ground but when we got to the top the wind was howling and it felt like 40 degrees. Our thin Florida blood couldn’t take much of that so we kept that visit short. From there we had lunch at a great little place called Grateful Head pizza. Got some scoop from the bartender and decided to try one of the bath houses on his recommendation. The one we tried was called Quapaw and was still set up like it originally was in the early 1900’s. It was very different from any hot springs experience we ever had before. The baths separated men and women and it literally was a bath tub filled with water from hot springs. So you start with a bath, then you lay down with a warm towel for about 10-15 minutes, then you go into a sauna for about 10 minutes then shower. All this while being led from station to station by an attendee buck naked. It was different but we both enjoyed it. Jamie even got a massage.

After that we went to look at the Arlington Hotel which was a fancy hotel built in 1923. They had a piano player in the lobby bar so we had a couple drinks there and listened to the music. Then we went to a casino on the way to our hotel and had dinner and lost a little bit of money before calling it a night.

The next day they were having their annual crawfish festival. Doesn’t that sound exciting. There were about 15 booths set up where you try the cook’s crawfish and vote for your favorite and they had a couple of bands. Not exactly my thing but we had fun. After that we headed back to Little Rock.