Arkansas

I just want to take a paragraph and thank Jess, Meris and Melissa for being amazing hosts this week. They gave me food and conversation, two elements I have been sorely lacking on this trip. It's amazing how I met all of them at the Ranch and we have connected beyond that to form lasting friendships. Thanks, girls! Now you all need to visit in New York!!

So after saying farewell to Austin, I headed to Arkansas. I made a brief detour in Texarkana to see the half and half post office. What I didn't realize is there's a street that runs through town called state line and one side is Arkansas and one side is Texas. It was pretty neat. It rained on me most of the way which was novel considering I've been in the desert for the last couple weeks. It was so nice to be surrounded by green again. It makes me feel a lot closer to home. Now my trip is more about cities and driving longer distances every day since I have to make it home by August 9th. I grabbed a campsite at the Gulpha Gorge campground and while I was using the automated machine to pay this guy came in and said it wasn't printing receipts. It wouldn't take my credit card and I didn't have cash to try so he gave me $5 and it took it but it still didn't print my receipt. He went and found a ranger and told him they better not get me in trouble for not having a tag and that he would vouch for me. It was so nice.
I went into downtown Hot Springs. What's weird is that it is a National Park but it is the central part of the downtown historic district. It is the smallest National Park but it was really nice. It had stopped raining but it was cloudy and only in the 70's which felt nice. It was also so muggy that when I was hiking my glasses fogged up. I walked along Bathhouse row and at the Visitor Center you can tour an old bathhouse. It was so neat to read about how men and women used separate rooms and even elevators. There was a process you went through for the bath which was supposed to cure your ails. They even had a hydrotherapy room where they mixed electricity and water and surprisingly there are no reports of death. Another fact is that the men's bathhouse was ornate with stained glass ceilings and 30 rooms. The ladies bathhouse had 10 stalls in a cramped room. I would have thought ladies got more but I guess men are sicklier ;)

I also learned this was the boyhood home of President Clinton. There's only one functioning bathhouse and the rest are preserved as buildings. I went hiking around and there's places you can stop and fill up your bottle with the mineral water. It didn't taste that weird. I ended up on a trail that ended at a huge hotel on the sixth floor so I walked right in and got some ice for my water bottle and had to take the elevator down to the lobby.
I also did a drive up to a mountain overlook with an observation tower. I didn't pay to go up it but the road offered a pretty good view. I love this town. It's so lush and green and historical.