2025 Adventures Begin!!

Well we stared at our two RVs in our driveway all winter awaiting our first early trip of the season in Milt the Motor Home!

We departed Saturday March 8th and worked our way to Arkansas to meet up with our new friends Shari and Gary. We packed on the miles and in 3 days drove about 1400 miles! Thanks to a Bass Pro Shop right over the border in Tennessee and a nice winery in Tennessee we were able have a few good overnight stops.

The Horseshoe Bend Farm Wines in Centerville, TN was just what we needed. Very nice folks and great wine!

We arrived in Lonsdale, Arkansas on Monday, March 10th. Our friends Shari and Gary, from Michigan, (they are on a year trip visiting every state) arrived on Tuesday and we visited Hot Springs National Park on Wednesday and Thursday. We knew pretty much nothing about Hot Springs, Arkansas so we had a lot to learn!

Our first stop was The Gangster Museum. We learned that the area of Hot Springs was transformed into a bathing and healing mecca by some pretty rich and influential people. Many well known gangsters in the 1930’s such as Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bugs Moran, and Frank Costello, came to rest and vacation there. The residents learned how to ignore a lot because these men spent a lot of money in Hot Springs.

The hot springs are pretty interesting. Native Americans found them and later on as settlers moved in they found the hot springs coming out of the ground healing. So bath houses were built right over the springs and the water was pumped up into tubs for people-rich people that is - to enjoy. Baseball players came here for spring training too.

The water that comes out of the ground can be as hot as 143 degrees! This water comes from rain that fell nearly 4500 years ago! As rainwater seeps down through layers of novaculite, sandstone, and shale it is heated by a naturally occurring geothermal gradient. More than a mile below the earth’s surface, a narrow fault allows the hot water to shoot back toward the surface, where it emerges as thermal springs. There are also cold springs that come from different areas and these are more shallow than the hot springs. We brought some gallons jugs and filled them!

We also went up a tower that is 216 feet above the ground and saw some nice views. The first tower was built in 1877 but was struck by lightning and burned. Another one was erected in 1906 but was declared unsafe. The current one is made of steel and opened its doors in June of 1983. We ended the first day with a visit to the Superior Bathhouse Brewery, the only brewery in the National Park. The building was a bathhouse at one time and they use the water from the springs for brewing!

The National Park Visitor Center was also a bathhouse. The entire building is a museum and a visitor can learn a lot about how the bathhouses came to be and the people who used them.

People not only bathed but could get massages and saunas and there was even a gym with workout machines! People came from all over to experience the hot springs and entertainment along with lots of gambling!

It certainly was an educational visit to Hot Springs National Park! It was so interesting to learn the history of the bathhouses. There are two today that still operate and people use them- for a price.