Skip to main content

Adventures in Arkansas

Saturday morning, 6:50 am. My phone bleeps. The assistant manager at work: Could you possibly come in today for a few hours? It's really busy.
7:10 am, after some deliberation: Yes, if I have to, but I'll be on overtime. Is that OK?
7:12 am: Ohhh... better check with the store manager.
Small delay, during which Graham and I, being both well awake by this time, cook and eat a pancake breakfast.
7:55 am: Never mind about today. And you're not working tomorrow either.
7:57 am: What time do I come in on Monday?
8:04 am: You're off on Monday too.
8:05 am: Graham rushes to computer to research places to go for a weekend trip. By 11:30 am we're hitting the I-30 on our way to Hot Springs, Arkansas.



Lake Ouachita (that's WASH-it-ah, not wah-CHEET-ah) at sunset

Thus began one of the most impromptu weekends away I've ever done, going from expecting to work most of the weekend to being on holiday in a few short hours. By evening we had arrived at Lake Ouachita State Park and found our campsite. This featured a nice flat tarmac driveway for the car, a nice flat concrete slab for the picnic table - and a stony slope for the tent! Having no other option, we pitched and prepared to make the best of it, and spent the night sliding down the hill in our slippery nylon sleeping bags. The next day we picked up the tent bodily and moved it to a flatter spot on another site. The following morning we were woken by a guy cruising round in a golf cart to ask us why we were occupying a site we hadn't paid for. This despite the fact that we were the only people on the entire campground!


Hot Springs itself has some resemblance to a British seaside resort in its air of crumbling grandeur. In the early 20th century the city was a hotspot (pun intended) for those wishing to bathe in the healing waters of the 60C natural springs. Imposing spa buildings and grand hotels lined Bathhouse Row, and thousands took advantage of their facilities. With the invention of antibiotics and the rise of the motor car, fewer and fewer people were content to spend their vacation sitting in a warm pond, and the inevitable decline occurred. Today the place is pleasant in a backwaterish kind of a way, but you are constantly reminded that it is a shadow of what it once was.




Actual hot springs

There are only two of the original bath houses open for business, although many of the buildings still stand and are being restored for other purposes. We spent a pleasant couple of hours splashing around in the Quapaw Baths. The four pools range from warm to very hot, and we shared them only with a scattering of retirees.



Quapaw Baths - the name inspired by Native Americans, the architecture by Arabs


Feeling very relaxed and clean, we headed over the road to BubbaLu's Bodacious Burgers for a spot of lunch. As well as great food, this place deserves a mention for its staff, who not only remembered how Graham likes his coffee, but - well, listen to this. We'd parked the car on the street. We came out of BubbaLu's. We walked towards the car. We looked at each other. Said, "This is where we left it, isn't it?" Looked at a sign. The sign said, "Reserved for tour vehicles only". We thought, "oh no!". Went dashing back into BubbaLu's. "What do we do if our car has been towed?" Very nice lady called up the city council for us and asked about it. No one knew a thing. We thought, "It's been stolen!" She asks, "Are you sure that's where you left it?" We say, "Yes.... No!" Martha dashes a few yards down the street. The car is sitting smugly just where we parked it - in the opposite direction to where we looked. We feel like a pair of idiots. Very nice lady says, "I'm just glad it's there for you". We are eternally indebted to her and need another spell in the baths to recover from the shock.


It's our car!

Fortunately the calm lakes and tree-covered hills in the area are not conducive to mental tension for long. We enjoyed swimming in the former and walking in the latter in the warm autumn sunshine and felt our spirits soothed and uplifted by the beautiful surroundings.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Models of Contextual Theology: Spiritual Formation Book 7

"A theology that neither issues forth in action nor takes account of the way one lives one's life can hardly be theology that is worth very much." Models of Contextual Theology looks like the most boring book in the world. Dry academic title, weird geometric cover design - you'd definitely only pick this up if you were required to write an essay on it, wouldn't you? Well, I wish the outside did it justice, because the contents are much more exciting than the cover. It asks some very interesting and important questions about how our faith relates to the world around us. Is culture mostly good or bad? Is there such a thing as the "naked gospel", free of context? Do you have to be a trained academic to theologize, or can anyone do it? How much does theology from one culture transfer to a different culture? Bevans describes six models of theology which offer different answers to these questions. All are valid, he says, but they all understand the gospel an

A birthday weekend in York

We were surprised to discover that York is only a 90 minute drive from our house. It's somewhere we'd been thinking of going for a few years, but I'd assumed it was much further away. So when we wanted to go away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday in January, York was the obvious choice. The city did not disappoint us. I'd been to York years ago, and my only clear memory was of a tower on top of a grassy mound. That was Clifford's Tower, owned by English Heritage, and recently updated with a rather snazzy series of platforms and staircases inside. We saw a 13th century toilet which had been inaccessible for 400 years (I think I was more excited about this than the boys) and got a great view of York from the rooftop viewing platform. View from the top of Clifford's Tower Most people's memories of York probably involve the Shambles - an ancient street of shops - and York Minster. Apparently there isn't a clear difference between a minster and a cathe

Unto us a son is given...

Did I mention something about life getting back to normal in October? Oh yes, I was just finishing work and looking forward to at least two weeks off to organise the house, stock up the freezer and buy baby stuff. Then little Toby threw a spanner in the works by turning up five weeks early! Which would put his birthday in... let's see... October. So much for normal! For those who would like the gory details, here goes. If you are a mother who had a long and protracted labour, I advise you to skip the next bit - or if you don't, please don't start sending me hate mail. You have been warned. You see, we'd been to all the childbirth classes (yes, just about managed to finish them) and learned all about the different stages of labour, and how many hours each lasted. We learned some relaxation techniques and various things Graham could do to help coach me through long periods of contractions. And then we turned out not to need any of them, because the entire thing