Wednesday July 15th

I am a day behind on posting. After the morning routine we headed to Hot Springs. It was a little farther than Little Rock. We arrived just before noon and parked on the street in the Central Ave. district. It wasn't at all what I expected. Don has been doing all the planning and I haven't done any background work on these places. I only know the general information that you hear over your lifetime. I wish I could stop having preconceived ideas about places. Not that it matters all the time but sometimes the expectations out weigh the events and the sites. The row of hotels that line the Central Ave is called Bath House row. These hotels are huge and offer mineral spring baths and messages. The prices are fairly reasonable considering. The motel rates are not too bad either. There are lots of tourists shops on the other side of the street similar too but not as many as Gatlinburg and Myrtle Beach. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Capone's Ohio Club. This club was Al Capone's hang out while in Hot Springs. During Prohibition the club was fronted by the signs of a Cigar, Cane Tobacco shop to cover the gambling and bar establishment that it truly was - a "Speak Easy" so to speak. When they were remodeling the building some transom windows were uncovered that still had (and has) the words painted on them advertising the type of shop it was. It was very hot and most of the shops were ill equipped with air conditioning. Our temperature on the car read 102 degrees in the early afternoon. We left Central Ave. and went up to the mountain tower. Don wanted me to go up with him but I just couldn't do it. We stopped on the way up at a lookout spot and that was enough for me to know that I didn't want to go up in the tower. Don went up by himself and got some great pictures. After the tower we headed back down the mountain and stopped at the Hot Springs National Park across from the Arlington Hotel. This is the public spring that you can actually put your hands and feet in the water (if you could stand it). I had heard during the day that the water temperature was 140 something degrees coming out of the ground. But you know the blond in me - it just didn't register. I stuck my hand in the water and quickly jerked it back. I couldn't believe how hot it was. You could not hold your finger tips let alone your entire hand in that water. I was sitting on the stone wall around the spring and the heat coming from that was so hot that I couldn't sit there long either. Another tourist volunteered to take a picture of Don & I together and that was nice. Something maybe we should all think about when traveling. It is so nice to have someone offer to take a picture of the two of us together at these landmarks. It only takes a couple of minutes and it is such a blessing on the receiving end or at least it was for me. We left the park and headed back to the campground. After dinner we both just sat around. I finished one of the crochet items I was working on. We watched some movie on the Western channel called Wild Times. We watched from 9:30 to 12:00 to find out that there was a second part that would follow and be on from 12:00 to 1:30. So you know we had to stay up and watch the conclusion. Why do we do that to ourselves? Anyway on another note. Donnie seems to have another one of the places coming up on his arm. He is waiting to hear from the doctor. Kristi went for her second opinion on her shoulder and they confirmed what the first doctor told her which is to have surgery on her shoulder first which will be 2 -3 months recovery and then surgery on her knee which will be 6-8 weeks recovery. Please keep us all in your prayers. Today's picture is from Hot Springs Park.