South to North: Day 9...Hot Springs, AR

DAY 9

Monday, July 21, 2014
Little Rock, Arkansas... to Hot Springs, Arkansas... to Dallas, Texas, USA
Weather: Sunny with clouds, 30 celsius

My stomach woke me up today at 8:00am and I headed over to the lobby to look for some food. Even on vacation, the one time when you can sleep in, my brain is programmed to wake up early. I was expecting the typical continental fare, but was pleasantly surprised by the extras like hard boiled eggs, fresh cut fruit and whole wheat bread. I grabbed a couple coffees for the guys and headed back to wake them up for breakfast. After scarfing down some food, we were ready to hit the road.

We definitely underestimated the duration of our trip, as I thought we would already be in Mexico by now. We checked out the map ... still 1450 km to go. According to Google, that's about 13.5 hours of driving. I had a fleeting thought that we could be there by tomorrow if we really hustled. We were eager to get back on the road so we didn't spend much time in Little Rock, and instead hopped onto the highway, taking the 30W bound for Dallas. Somewhere along the road, we passed a sign for "Hot Springs."  I did a quick search on the town and thought it would be a neat place to stop, so we took the exit. This little detour turned out to be a bigger detour than expected, but well worth the trip. As you can tell from the sign below, Hot Springs, Arkansas is the hometown of Bill Clinton. 

We took the scenic route through town and parked at the tourism office (for free!). It was mid-morning so we decided to walk around. Central Ave is the main street, full of stores and restaurants on one side, and bath houses on the other, connected to the Ouachita Mountains. It reminded me of Niagara-on-the-Lake, although instead of Lake Ontario, they have hot springs.

Many people come from around the world to visit the bath houses. Apparently it was a popular place for baseball teams to come during training season. 

There are several fountains along the street. This one had cool water, but some of them are filled with water directly from the Hot Springs and you can see the steam coming off the surface.

There are plenty of interesting stores along Central Ave.

Of course, every tourist town needs a fudge store.

We even came across Zoltar! You can find him in Niagara Falls too.

This is a little park on Central Ave that's perfect for live music. There is a small fountain in the back and the sound echoes off the brick walls. This gentleman was playing some nice country music as we walked by.

After taking a tour up and down the street, we stopped at the Ohio Bar for lunch.

This is a snapshot of the back of the menu, with some history about the Ohio Club.

Our view of the bar, looking down from the second floor.

You can see the beautiful woodwork along the top with the horses and mermaid busts. 

Apparently everything is made of one giant piece of mahogany. 

Among many other things, the Ohio Club is well-known for their burgers, so we had to see if the rumours were true. This burger comes with grilled pineapple and yes, it was delicious. Although, at this point in our journey, I was really craving some vegetables.

Here's our table on the second floor and the stage for live music behind us.

The Ohio Club is one of many stops on the Haunted Tours of Hot Springs. 

With it's history and dark hallways, it's not hard to imagine why.

Here's an original black jack table from the old casino that was hidden behind the false wall.

An old slot machine, sitting on the bar front.

This beautiful chandelier hanging near the entrance made me think of Beauty & the Beast.

After lunch, we walked up the street ,past the Hot Springs Reserve.

Apparently the US Hot Springs Reservation was created in 1832 to protect the natural springs, and the name was later changed to the Hot Springs National Park in 1921.

A little further up Central Avenue, you can find an open part of the Hot Springs. The area is very lush and green, enriched by the minerals from the springs.

A nearby sign reads that the average temperature of the springs is around 148 degrees Fahrenheit... I dipped my fingers in, just to see what 148 degrees feels like.

We headed back to Central Ave along Bathhouse Row.

There are currently eight bath houses in Hot Springs, and three of them are still functional.

The other five bath houses are now museums and tourist attractions.

Each house has a little sign outside with historical information.

This one reminded me of my brother-in-law.

The friendly woman at the tourism office told us a little about the houses. 

Only one of them is co-ed, so we headed down the street in search of the Quapaw Baths.

We popped in to take a look around. From the front desk in the entrance, you can look through windows into the baths. We saw around 15 or 20 people reclining in the water. It looked very relaxing, but it was also a little smaller than we expected. I think we were also imagining natural rock baths like the ones you can find in British Colombia or Quebec.

In the end, we decided to skip the bath house and continue on the trip. I know you must be thinking that we keep skipping all the best parts, but walking around town and popping our heads into the bath houses made for a perfect day. So here we are back on the 30 West, hoping to make it to Dallas before nightfall. During this part of the journey, we listened to some country music on the radio.

Javier is a superstar, doing all the driving since we left Niagara. 

We had to make a couple stops for gas and some energy drinks along the way. I snapped a photo of this stop because I liked the name of the store... "Soul Mart."

Somewhere along the way, we spotted this sign and I felt a sense of excitement.

The sun was setting but we were getting close.

We rolled into Dallas around 9:30pm and found our way through the massive subdivisions.

Javier's friend, Ben, lives in Dallas and offered to host us for the night. We parked the trailer and headed out for dinner with Ben at Buffalo Wild Wings. Finally made it to Texas!

Back at Ben's place, we played a couple games of pool before crashing for the night.

We're almost there! Next up... Day 10!