Majestic Hotel Resort Spa Hot Springs

... a lone thriving fall tree amidst a field of yellow grass; horses; long fences; the biggest yards in the USA; thats what she said's; trailors on stilts; the inside of hills where roads have been '"dug", big skies.

RV Newbie Rule #2 Take drinks and all other things off of flat surfaces before driving away...

Take a Load Off Fanny, Tom Petty, Hotel California, Queen...good riding music.

Sumner's driven us into Oklahoma and it's my turn to drive...until next time.

... yet again, you guessed it) Bathhouse Row. There are no areas available just to sit in the hot springs in the woods so you have to go to a Bathhouse. The water is extremely hot so unless it was near some cold water you could mix in you wouldn't want to just sit in it.

We spent some of our time strolling around the downtown area and visiting some of the springs that come straight out of the hillside then it was off ...

... the way it was back in the time. We continued to walk the street and look at the various hot springs and seeing the occasional cold spring. The temperatures of the springs varied from 62 degrees F to 142 degrees F depending on the location of the spring. There also happened to be a huge Geocache that was an earth-cache that had 6 pictures to be taken and 10 questions to be answered. Once we completed the street portion of the tour we went on the ...

... around the house and grounds to explain things. We decided to get the platinum tour since it included the cars and planes as well as Graceland and some other exhibits. As we toured the grounds I started feeling slightly transported to the 60's. Very much 60's decor which was how it was when he lived there, it just made things seem different. He had a very elaborate house for the time period, however, today I am sure the TV and other things that made Graceland ...

... everywhere for hundreds of years. It comes out of the ground at 143 degrees and gets reduced to 105 degrees for the hot baths we took.

Chilled and damp we arrived at the Buckstaff Bath House, one of the two houses that have been restored to active spas after closing down in the '50's. Andy and I went for the "bath special". Hot mineral bath soak with a lufa sponge scrub down, then a sitz bath ...

... my parents didn't even know I was in Arkansas).

The plan went off without a hitch (except for going the wrong way on a bypass once), and my family was very surprised. Luke and Jenna ate dinner with us and then kept going on their way. We stayed at the lake house until Monday afternoon, swimming and watching movies and eating burgers, then I finally headed home.

... Yeah right.

Both my aunt's live in cute little houses in cute little neighborhoods. They have family pictures lining the walls and both even had my graduation picture from high school. My sister, mom, and I looked through family photo albums and found pictures of my grandmother when she was younger. It's crazy to think of my grandmother as a little kid.

Last night we went to dinner at their friends house. Turns out their town is dry on Sundays but her friends greeted us ...

... there is a beautiful creek that runs just by the campsite that provides white noise to drown out the nearby road. We plan on seeing the Hot Springs later this afternoon and tomorrow along with the historic district of town. Love, Tom and Christine Total Miles Driven: ~1500 miles Altitude: ~ .3 miles (although was near .6 during Ozark driving) Different State License Plates Seen: 19

... a great BBQ taste. The baked potatoes were also cooked in the hickory pit and you haven't had a baked potato until you get one cooked like these. The BBQ samdwiches were also good. This small hole in the wall restaurant is hard to beat. I highly recommend it if you get near Hot Springs, Arkansas!

... none of the burns were bad enough for me to feel this morning. After dinner and a short trip to see the quaint little town of Hot Springs, and some great pictures of the almost-full moon through the trees and clouds, we hit the sack at around 11:30. Got up late, of course, but decided we would go to Buckstaff Bathouse - the oldest bathouse in town - and get a bath. This was an experience I would not trade for the world, and probably the best thing we've ...