Monday, May 21
That's right, I stayed at some dam place - it's another Corps of Engineers park - Springhill Park, near Fort Smith, AR.
But, let's back-up. (I'm sitting in a welcome center - OK - on Tues. morn)
Left the KOA about 9 (it was worth the extra $$ as the bathrooms/showers/laundry facility, as well as the campgrounds were pristine and lovely - a nice break PLUS "In the event of severe weather, shelter is available in the main building in our storm cellar". That was so reassuring!
First I went to the Garvan Woodland Gardens run by the U of AR. They were WONDERFUL! I only visited the Japanese gardens as to see it all would have taken all day.
Me standing on the Moon Bridge
Then I went downtown Hot Springs and toured the National Park run Bath Houses - the restored, museum ones. There are still a couple in business but they are still even controlled by the National Park - an interesting concept for the Park system. The concept is the same as in the Roman Baths except that in these baths you had a big soaking tub and an attendant for each step of the about 6 step process. Very interesting.
Then I took the "scenic" route - you know those dotted roads?? The whole Rt. 7 then 10 was called The Civil War Trail but I didn't see a single marker along the way showing any reason why it was called such. Well, basically it was just not an interstate - not very scenic at all and curvy - oh my goodness, one curve after another so they must have really been following an old Indian trail because there was no reason I could see for avoiding boulders or cliffs. And all the state parks that were on the map - no signs for them so had to go all the way to Fort Smith and use an awesome app to find this dam place:
The view from my campsite
DATA:
mileage: 165 miles gardens: $8
gas: $36 @ $3.53 camp: $9
weather - very enjoyable - warm but not overly hot
Interesting town name of the day: Ola and Magazine
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