Goal Tour Hot Springs, Arkansas.
We slept in a little, 9:30 am then spent a few hours working on the website and making a few more trip reservations. While still at camp we made a light lunch out of leftover Popeyes chicken.
We drove around Hot Springs National Park, and up the mountain to the observation tower. There is an elevator that whisks you up to the 3rd floor open observation deck. From the top of the tower we were able to see 20miles out 360 degrees! Most of the scenery are amazingly beautiful view of forested hills in their fall colors.
The sun is very bright and the air is clear with only a few wispy clouds. Up on the 3rd floor observation deck we are well above the tree level so are buffeted by a very cold and strong wind.
The second floor of the observation tower has lots of documentation about the park, and the entire area of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
A quick summary of some of the facts that Deryl found interesting include:
- Park was first of national land protected at federal level, to protect the “healing waters”.
- It has been under federal management since 1832 when it was made Hot Springs Reservation and as such it has been the federal government which has leased out water rights to the spas ever since.
- Between 1882 and 1883 the government enclosed Hot Springs creek in an underground arch for flood and sewage control.
You can read more fascinating information about the area here on the National Park Service history page.
After having our fill of the beautiful natural area we drove down to Grand Ave, which is where grand spa buildings stand. At its height there were eight grand spas. They were Fordyce Bathhouse, the Buckstaff spa, the Maurice, the Ozark, the Hale the Quapaw, the Superior, and the Lamar.
Today only the Buckstaff spa is still in operation. Fordyce spa is now National Park facility and preserved in its early 1900s form. Fordyce is a grand structure with lots of leaded glass windows and ceiling murals. It was interesting to see the facilities, and treatments that were available.
By now our brains were full and it was time to move on to other items on our To-Do list.
Errands:
First on the list was to purchase another 5 gallons of DEF for Clyde. The best price we have found is at Sam’s club. Sam’s club is the “wholesale” club store of the Walmart chain. Sam’s club is very similar to Costco or BJs. Unfortunately BJs only has stores in the north and eastern section of the country. Because it is a member’s only store, Walmart is able to discount items they sell in the Sam’s club. Hence, why DEF is less expensive at Sam’s club than even at a Walmart. Sam’s club is however, limited in the kinds of items they carry. While you can get HUGE packages of toilet paper, you are unlikely to find a toilet paper holder. For that you have to go to Walmart. We did discover that some Sams Clubs have marvelous lamb chops/
Off we went to the local Walmart store as Rob wanted a Y-connector for the automotive electrical outlet in the back of Clyde’s console. The Y-connector looks like a male cigarette lighter connection with two wires connecting two female cigarette lighter sockets. Rob wanted this Y-connector so that we could use two electrical devices in the back seat area. There is a single outlet located on the back side of the center armrest/console, providing an electrical outlet to the back seat area. This Y-connector would allow us to have 2. One for our PepLink cellular router, and one for the back up camera Rob uses when he is docking the truck to the trailer.
An other item we were in search of is a “Milk Crate”. We have discovered that 20 and 30 pound propane cylinders fit perfectly in milk crates, and by being in a milk crate they are less likely to fall over! In addition, by the propane cylinder being in a milk crate, we have places to attach straps that further keep propane cylinders from falling over in the back of the truck and rolling around like a loose cannon. We have run into a number of cases on this trip where we needed to transport one of the 30 pound trailer cylinders some distance in order to get it refilled. So far we still haven’t found the allusive milk crate, but I am sure we will.
Find Dinner:
By this point we were ready to consider dinner. But where? Perhaps we should do barbecue, perhaps we should do fish. We don’t feel like having chicken (we had that for lunch), and we had beef last night. We could do a chain, like Applebys or Chilli’s, but those are the same all over the country. We wanted something local to Hot Springs.
While we were driving around town running the previous two tasks, we looked at various places. Deryl even looked on TripAdvisor for suggestions. We passed on the first barbecue place on Deryl’s list. It was basically a take out restaurant, including a drive-thru window. We crossed that one off the list.
The second barbecue was better in that it did have seating. However, it had all the atmosphere of a diner, and did not look like the kind of place where you get to meet people.
The third place on Deryl’s list was a fish place right by the river. We drove past while Deryl read the menu in detail. Fried shrimp, Fried fish, another fried fish, fried fries, fried onion rings, fried, fried, fried. No that wasn’t what we wanted either.
By this point we were very close to where we had dinner last night at the Lost Creek Grill. While last night we had awesome steaks, Deryl remembered that while we were with our new-old friends, one of those people had frog legs for their dinner. Another person had a very appealing salad with grilled chicken. Deryl then pulled up the entire menu for the Lost Creek Grill… sure enough there was an interesting variety of dishes!
Yep, we ate at Lost Creek Grill two nights in a row! We walk in and are greeted by the hostess, who noted we had returned. It being Friday night there was a line waiting for tables. Since we had fun last night at the bar we asked if there was space for two at the bar. Sure enough a couple had just left.
We are seated, and again meet new-old friends. The bartender takes our drink order then our food order. Deryl ordered the frog leg appetizer with a side of asparagus. Rob ordered the crab stuffed Walleye.
For the second night in a row, the food was WOW! The frog legs were very lightly breaded and sautéed. The asparagus was cooked perfectly, cooked but still a little bit of crisp left. Rob’s Walleye was amazing. The fish was light and flaky, with a delicious crab meat and seasoning stuffing and topped with a roasted red pepper cream sauce. He chose the side salad with blue cheese as one of his sides, for his second he had green beans.
If you have a chance to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas DO go to the Lost Creek Grill, conveniently located on Airport Road.
More conversation and it was time to return to the Roost for the night.