Monday, July 15
Lake Catherine State Park
We had to pack up in the rain, but it didn’t take long. The rain was hit-and-miss at our next campsite at Lake Catherine State Park, and Lisa had no problems driving. There was even one four-mile section of road construction with intimidating concrete barriers. The trip took us longer than usual because of the rain and distance, close to 3 ½ hours of driving. We arrived at the campground mid-afternoon. When I plugged in my EMS to the 30-amp box, it stated that I had 255 volts and it gave me an E3 error code saying that this was too high. I flagged down a park worker who called a technician to take a look. We decided to stop setting up until they agreed whether we would have to move.
After an hour or so, the technician replaced the plug because he thought it looked instead fried. Afterward, another technician came over and put a multimeter across the circuit to prove it was 120v. I had no choice but to acknowledge that my EMS was wrong.
Anthony Chapel
We took off to the Anthony Chapel nearby when we finished setting up. This chapel mainly was glass nestled deep into a wooded area. The effect was beautiful. The area around it was called Garvan Woodland Gardens, and there were stone bridges and a cascading stream around the chapel. Despite the rainfall, we had a great time walking around and admiring the place.
Phil’s Family Restaurant
We then went to a small family restaurant called Phil’s and enjoyed a large serving of lasagna, spaghetti, and salad. It was not the best food, but it was good, and we enjoyed the atmosphere.
Hot Springs National Park
We then took a ride up to the National Park, and after driving through the bathhouse row, we first drove up to West Mountain and then up to Mountain Drive up to the tower. At the top of each mountain, the clouds and the vegetation were so thick that we could not see much except the immediate city below.
We also drove by Gopher Gulch NPS campground to check it out. The campground did not have bathhouses, but it looked good otherwise for $30 per night. The only negative is that it is first-come-first-serve. My spot next to Lake Catherine was only $22 and reserved.
Afterward, we drove back to the trailer and watched the last episode of season three of The Designated Survivor.
Tuesday, July 16
We woke up to thunder and lightning happening most of the night and expected a pretty soggy day.
Old Colonial House
We had decided to go to the Old Colonial House in downtown Hot Springs for breakfast the previous day. We were looking for this breakfast since the restaurant was highly rated, and we had not gone out for breakfast in a while. Unfortunately, it did not meet expectations as the coffee was weak, the biscuits and gravy were watery, the cinnamon roll was doughy and small, and the rest was so-so.
Downtown Hot Springs
After breakfast, we walked down the bathhouse row. Fortunately, it stopped raining, but I brought my umbrella just in case. We felt the water of a hot spring coming out of a spring at the public park across from the Arlington Hotel, walked down the street on the side with all the bathhouses, walked through the National Park Service visitor center museum, and got our passport stamped, and then walked back along the storefront side back to the truck. We stopped at all the signs and commemorative sidewalk tiles along the way. It was still early, and few people were around, so it was a nice walk.
Bill Clinton Presidential Library
When we returned to the truck, I set Google Maps to avoid highways and headed out to Little Rock. The first stop is the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. For most of the way, Google took us on a nice rural road called the Old Military Road, past small rural towns and countryside, but for the last half of the trip, Google directed me to take the service road along the highway. Instead of exit ramps, I-30 had a service road alongside it with exits and entrances to the highway. I had seen a similar setup in Texas. I did not like them because you could never tell when someone would cut quickly over the highway from one of these entrances.
When we got to the library, they had a tour starting up in 30 minutes so we decided to look at a temporary exhibit they had called “Washed Ashore – Art to Save the Sea”. Artists had taken trash collected along the seashores and made sculptures, paintings, and other displays with it to draw awareness of pollution. It was both sad and fascinating to see.
Before we joined a guided tour, we watched a small 12-minute film narrated by Bill Clinton that summarized Clinton’s goals during his presidency. I think it set the tone nicely for the museum displays that strive to show a President who cared deeply about social change.
Besides the various timelines that talked about his accomplishments, it had a mock cabinet room, mock Oval Office, some of the gifts given to his presidency, a couple of sections devoted to his election campaigns, and a dedicated display for Hillary’s accomplishments. Though his goal of improving the economy got him elected, the museum highlighted his drive to improve the lives of all human beings worldwide. For me, it also helped frame a world leading up to 9/11.
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site
After touring the museum for several hours, we visited the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. This was one of the battlegrounds for racial integration in our schools in 1963. We had seen displays for this at the Civil Rights Museum and in the Clinton Presidential Library. It was hard for either of us to imagine a society that treated others so horribly based on nothing more than the color of their skin. After visiting the small museum at the site, we were allowed to walk to the beautiful high school even though it was still an active school. We climbed the stairs at the school and took pictures, and then we just sat at the top of the stairs and tried to think about what had happened here. It was just surreal and unbelievable. We also visited a small memorial park next door with a small arch memorial.
Old Mill
We then went to the Old Mill. This was another creation by the same artist who built the Crystal Grotto in Memphis. Made to look like an Old Mill, it was a concrete structure made to look wooden. It was surrounded by concrete bridges and benches that also looked like they were made of wood. It also had the infamy of being shown in the beginning credits of the movie Gone with the Wind.
Lost Forty Brewery
We then headed to the Lost Forty Brewery for beers and something to eat. When we arrived, I recognized it as one of the places that Jessica and Zev had taken us to when they were doing Shakespeare in Conway. They did not have much for food, but we ordered some Hummus, which came out in a large basket with butter pickles, ginger carrots, celery, and a large pile of cracker bread. We ordered a flight of four beers and enjoyed all but one.
Rebel Kettle Brewery
We then texted Zev and Jessica and asked for their recommendation for another brewery. They suggested the Rebel Kettle, which is located nearby and has a nice outdoor seating area. Five minutes later, we sat on their back deck overlooking an astroturf and an empty stage. It was nice and shady on this hot and humid day. They did not offer flights, and most of their beers seemed to be mixed with fruit. So we ordered a strawberry cream beer, a DinoSour Rasberry beer, and another beer mixed with boysenberries. We did not like any of them, but I have never liked fruity beers.
Little Rock Riverfront
Lisa was not ready to return, so we decided to go toward the river and look at a WW2 submarine they had docked there. It was closed when we arrived, so we ran around and took a few pictures from shore instead. We noticed an RV park nearby that looked like a parking lot. It’s not something we would enjoy staying at.
Museum of Oddities
We drove along the river for a while and then decided to visit a Museum of Oddities in Hot Springs that a local magician owned. I took the service road back until it finally connected up to the military road and took us through the back roads back to Hot Springs. Google Maps brought us to the wrong location (probably a previous one), but we could finally locate the correct address.
The museum only had three small rooms of about a hundred items that might be considered freaky. Freak show performers had owned some of the items. There were some skeletons of weird creatures and some African and Asian tribal artifacts like shrunken heads and voodoo dolls. It took us about 15 minutes to browse the collection.
Confederate Statue, Hot Springs
Our truck was parked next to a statue honoring Confederate soldiers that was erected in 1933 by the Daughters of the Confederacy. Seeing things like this now does give me pause to consider whether they are appropriate anymore. The jury is still out, though.
Falls Branch Trail
We only had about an hour of daylight left when we returned to the trailer. Since we were leaving in the morning, I talked Lisa into going to the waterfall about a mile down a trail from the camping ground. The ground was a little muddy and rough, but we got to the waterfall for a brief look before we had to get back to camp before we lost our light. I also took pictures of the lake and power plant across the lake from the campground.
And here is some bonus video of a cute bunny we found during the day.
