Goal: Hot Springs, Arkansas
So far since leaving Deering, New Hampshire we have put a total of 3470 miles on Clyde.
[Set Rant Mode On] With all this driving we have done on US highways and Interstates we have concluded that US Interstates are in terrible condition! The US has been neglecting our roads for to long. The patching that has been done is now at the point where the traffic that travels on our roads is causing more damage due to the bouncing of vehicles. Unfortunately, our government (Federal, State, and Local levels) has been raiding the dedicated infrastructure maintenance funds for too long. The United States is at a point where most of our roads need to be completely rebuilt. [Set Rant Mode Off]
The drive to Hot Springs is about 200 miles. We are camping at J & J RV Park and Storage. It is not far from US 70, and perhaps not far enough as we heard traffic all night long. The campground itself is very nice, right along creek side. The site we were in was a pull through with full 50 Amp electric, water, and sewer. It was an easy drive in and unhook.
J&J is lovely small campground right on a creek. Spaces are reasonable sized gravel beds, hookups are at mid trailer location, and ours is a pull through. Host shows us to our site and we make quick work of hooking up in the very level site.
After getting fully undocked, and the cats settled with their dinner, we headed into town.
We go out and explore Hot Springs area. We find fuel at a nice price and refill Clyde. We selected a small fuel station in town $.44 less per gallon than the larger stations out near the highway.
We then drive to Kroger for a few groceries, mostly breakfast stuff since we know we will eat out tonight and perhaps tomorrow.
Next on the agenda is dinner. Deryl found a listing on TripAdvisor for a restaurant that offers Hickory smoked rib eye steaks. While Rob has been monitoring the amount of beef and red wine he consumes to keep his system in check. He decides that since he has avoided beef for 2 weeks, a Hickory Smoked Rib Eye sounds too delicious to pass up.
We find the restaurant on the far side of town from the location of the campground. All of 15 minutes, BIG WHOP! It is EARLY for dinner for us, but why not, we are hungry. Therefore we hope to be able to get a table at 6:00 PM. Which is rush hour at many restaurants, and with lots of restaurants still at 1/2 the tables they had pre Covid-19, even more wait times.
We are seated immediately, which is kind of amazing as the restaurant is obviously still at half the tables due to Covid-19 protocols. We have an AMAZING waitress, who is attentive, polite, efficient, and all around NICE!
We order our Hickory Smoked Rib Eyes… The waitress doesn’t bat an eye when Deryl asks for it still Mooing. The steaks come with a salad and a side. Rob chooses a baked potato and Deryl selects the asparagus. A bottle of wine, and our order is placed.
Our wine arrives, and the waitress has a proper corkscrew, and knows how to use it. This is accompanied with a small loaf of very fresh baked, light, and fluffy, white bread. Ok white bread isn’t usually special, but this is obviously made fresh in the restaurant, not something reheated. (Deryl knows the difference, because she bakes her own bread from time to time.) The bread is served in its loaf form with fluffy butter.
The waitress then returns with our salads, which are lovely mixed baby leaf lettuces, sweet red onion slices, cucumber slices, and halved cherry tomatoes. We selected the blue cheese dressing, which was again is obviously made in house and done well!
We finish our salads and our waitress clears our salad plates, then returns with our steaks. Deryl cuts into hers while the waitress is placing Rob’s plate to discover that the steaks was to Deryl’s preference of VERY RARE! Rob then cuts into his steak and again, PERFECTION! A perfect “No More Than Medium Rare”. The waitress grins and leaves us to actually taste our steaks.
OMG! The steaks are really cooked perfectly, and the FLAVOR! WOW! It is obvious that the steaks were part of a whole beef loin, that was seasoned and cold smoked, then portioned out to individual steaks.
When the waitress returns to check on how we are liking our meal, we can easily reply, “Perfect”. We then work on devouring the awesome meal. As is our norm these days, only able to eat about 1/2 of the 12 oz steaks. We both grin… Leftovers? Yes! Steak and Egg brunch!
Since it is still early we clear our tab so that the waitress can seat another couple. We decide to walk through the bar and see what this restaurant’s bar looks like.
We are immediately greeted like long lost friends by restaurant regulars who are dining at the bar. One of the patrons even moves over to make two seats together for us. We are enjoying our after dinner drink with these new old friends, and learning more about the town. We share our adventures and the evening passes quickly.
We say good-bye to our friends and head back to camp. Another fun filled day for the Wols.