Saturday, June 25, 2011
Post #2 - Arkansas & Eastern Texas
Hello Everybody,
We left Little Rock with the car repaired for free and made it to Hot Springs, NP in less than a hour. It was hot. Uncomfortably hot. After a quiet and restless sleep, we took a six mile roundtrip trail into and out of town to check out the "park". Hot Springs is the smallest NP in the States, and it's basically just a couple of hills on either side of a main drag; Bathhouse Row. During the the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Hot Springs blew up as a healing sanctuary for the wealthy. Doctors thought the naturally occurring hot water (140 degrees) had a lot of healing properties. We took a self guided tour of one of the old bathhouses that has been refurbished to show the lavish way in which the patients were treated. It actually was fairly interesting. Besides that, there isn't much to hold your attention for more than a day or so. The hike into town and back to our campsite was the most rewarding part of the park. We decided to drive back into town and get some real food after we realized it was just too hot to cook soup or Ramen. We went to The Ohio Club, supposedly the oldest bar in Arkansas. Hot Springs was a destination city as well. A lot of the famous movie stars like Mae West and gangsters like Al Capone used to frequent The Ohio Club. It was cool to see their autographs on the wall, and the burger was amazing. We also had some great conversation with locals and tourists alike. One guy from southeast Missouri literally was Farmer Fran from The Water Boy. His name was Kendall and he was really nice, but you had to pay close attention to get everything he was saying. Shauna understood more as she sat next to him, but Pat had to simply nod and smile through much of what he said. It was hilarious.
We moved on to the Dallas area for a night and a baseball game. After setting up camp in a state park nearby, we made our way to the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. It was built in the early 90s but looks brand new. We liked it better than a lot of the new ball parks we've seen. We got eight dollar tickets but were never hassled from leaving the $100+ seats. It was also dollar hot dog night. Score! One more beer for us! The weather cooled from the previous couple of nights so it was bearable to be outside (at least in the shade). The game was a lot of fun. The Houston Astros suddenly came alive in the top of the 9th and scored 3 runs to win 5-3. The only other thing to note here is that there are a lot of bugs in Texas. Ants, beetles, and chiggers all over the place.
We left Dallas and "splurged" on three nights at the Red Roof Inn in Austin. It was great. We didn't do a thing the first night, simply enjoying the room and relaxing. Well, we did go out to dinner. In the area around the hotel there was a Chili's, TGI Fridays, and a Twin Peaks. We thought Twin Peaks was some Texan or southern chain, so we went with that over the more familiar choices. We were so hungry we didn't at first realize what we had walked into. Shauna sat down while Pat went to the bathroom. Going back to the table, Pat realized there wasn't one woman (besides Shauna) eating while there was not one waiter. Furthermore, all the waitresses were extremely attractive and not wearing much clothing. We quickly realized that Twin Peaks is a risque Hooters. At this point our waitress was asking us for drinks and we were so hungry we just stayed at ate. There were large tables of loud and happy servicemen going in out out, slapping each other on the back. Shauna obviously felt uncomfortable with the situation, and Pat felt uncomfortable being "that guy" who brings his fiancee to Twin Peaks. It was one of the quicker meals we've had on the trip. The following day we trucked through the 95 degree heat and saw a lot of the city. UT (The Longhorns) is a nice (and huge) campus, and the football stadium is ridiculous. The university brings a lot to the city. Besides that, Austin is apparently the "Live Music Capital of the World". In the Warehouse District there was venue after venue advertising live shows. Very cool area. The BBQ is amazing too. We went to Ruby's as the line was too long at Franklin, but it didn't disappoint. Brisket. We may try Salt Lick tonight. Of course Austin also has 6th St. Good times. We would say that if one could live and work in two cities six months each, Austin would be ideal for the six coldest months. The problem is the intense heat of the summer. We're not yet in July and it's about 100 degrees everyday.
It just gets better from here. We go back into the tent for the next week and we're going south! We're doing three or four days in Big Bend NP on the Rio Grande and the border of Mexico. Average daily temperature: 110. After that we move north to Guadalupe Mountains NP on the border of New Mexico where the temperature cools down to 95 degrees.
Until then,
S&P
We left Little Rock with the car repaired for free and made it to Hot Springs, NP in less than a hour. It was hot. Uncomfortably hot. After a quiet and restless sleep, we took a six mile roundtrip trail into and out of town to check out the "park". Hot Springs is the smallest NP in the States, and it's basically just a couple of hills on either side of a main drag; Bathhouse Row. During the the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Hot Springs blew up as a healing sanctuary for the wealthy. Doctors thought the naturally occurring hot water (140 degrees) had a lot of healing properties. We took a self guided tour of one of the old bathhouses that has been refurbished to show the lavish way in which the patients were treated. It actually was fairly interesting. Besides that, there isn't much to hold your attention for more than a day or so. The hike into town and back to our campsite was the most rewarding part of the park. We decided to drive back into town and get some real food after we realized it was just too hot to cook soup or Ramen. We went to The Ohio Club, supposedly the oldest bar in Arkansas. Hot Springs was a destination city as well. A lot of the famous movie stars like Mae West and gangsters like Al Capone used to frequent The Ohio Club. It was cool to see their autographs on the wall, and the burger was amazing. We also had some great conversation with locals and tourists alike. One guy from southeast Missouri literally was Farmer Fran from The Water Boy. His name was Kendall and he was really nice, but you had to pay close attention to get everything he was saying. Shauna understood more as she sat next to him, but Pat had to simply nod and smile through much of what he said. It was hilarious.
We moved on to the Dallas area for a night and a baseball game. After setting up camp in a state park nearby, we made our way to the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. It was built in the early 90s but looks brand new. We liked it better than a lot of the new ball parks we've seen. We got eight dollar tickets but were never hassled from leaving the $100+ seats. It was also dollar hot dog night. Score! One more beer for us! The weather cooled from the previous couple of nights so it was bearable to be outside (at least in the shade). The game was a lot of fun. The Houston Astros suddenly came alive in the top of the 9th and scored 3 runs to win 5-3. The only other thing to note here is that there are a lot of bugs in Texas. Ants, beetles, and chiggers all over the place.
We left Dallas and "splurged" on three nights at the Red Roof Inn in Austin. It was great. We didn't do a thing the first night, simply enjoying the room and relaxing. Well, we did go out to dinner. In the area around the hotel there was a Chili's, TGI Fridays, and a Twin Peaks. We thought Twin Peaks was some Texan or southern chain, so we went with that over the more familiar choices. We were so hungry we didn't at first realize what we had walked into. Shauna sat down while Pat went to the bathroom. Going back to the table, Pat realized there wasn't one woman (besides Shauna) eating while there was not one waiter. Furthermore, all the waitresses were extremely attractive and not wearing much clothing. We quickly realized that Twin Peaks is a risque Hooters. At this point our waitress was asking us for drinks and we were so hungry we just stayed at ate. There were large tables of loud and happy servicemen going in out out, slapping each other on the back. Shauna obviously felt uncomfortable with the situation, and Pat felt uncomfortable being "that guy" who brings his fiancee to Twin Peaks. It was one of the quicker meals we've had on the trip. The following day we trucked through the 95 degree heat and saw a lot of the city. UT (The Longhorns) is a nice (and huge) campus, and the football stadium is ridiculous. The university brings a lot to the city. Besides that, Austin is apparently the "Live Music Capital of the World". In the Warehouse District there was venue after venue advertising live shows. Very cool area. The BBQ is amazing too. We went to Ruby's as the line was too long at Franklin, but it didn't disappoint. Brisket. We may try Salt Lick tonight. Of course Austin also has 6th St. Good times. We would say that if one could live and work in two cities six months each, Austin would be ideal for the six coldest months. The problem is the intense heat of the summer. We're not yet in July and it's about 100 degrees everyday.
It just gets better from here. We go back into the tent for the next week and we're going south! We're doing three or four days in Big Bend NP on the Rio Grande and the border of Mexico. Average daily temperature: 110. After that we move north to Guadalupe Mountains NP on the border of New Mexico where the temperature cools down to 95 degrees.
Until then,
S&P
Monday, June 20, 2011
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