Wednesday we drove to Hot Springs Arkansas (Goodbye to the Lone Star and Hello to the Natural state) and stayed at the Hot Springs KOA. We needed a full service spot to do laundry and they also had wireless INTERNET so I was able to get email and do a posting to the “blog” for the prior weekend.Thursday, (April 13) we moved to the campground in the Hot Springs National Park.
Both days is it was very hot - high’s in the 90’s. We relaxed at the campsite under the trees and beside a nice little creek. Linda was very careful to keep an eye open after she saw a couple of water snakes swimming in the creek. Later in the afternoon we hiked over the mountain to Bathhouse row. It was a very interesting hike up switchback trails (about 1 ½ miles with about 500’ elevation). The panoramic view at the top was great. The trip down into town was also interesting since for the last ¼ mile the trail went straight down (at what seemed to be a 45 degree angle) which made it tough to keep your footing.
We did get to see a couple of the natural hot springs but we were too late to get inside the Welcome center which includes a fully restored functional bathhouse.. After a short tour of the downtown area we walked back via the “low trail” --- a little longer but not as much climbing.We met a newly wed couple while we were looking at the natural hot spring. We told them that we had been married almost 40 years and asked God’s blessings on their marriage – When they found out that we had walked over they wanted to give us a ride back but we declined since we had just gotten there. Nice people.
Friday (from Linda’s journal) We were sorry to leave our lovely campsite. We traveled a “snake” (windy) road to Garvan Gardens. A lovely forested area by a lake with many small streams & waterfall. Beautiful azaleas & many other flowers-lots of little lizards. Over 40 acres of wooded gardens. Enjoyed it very much but quite warm.In the posting for April 4 (Time began in a garden) I explained about Linda’s passion for gardens. This experience was much more satisfying than the wild seed farms since woodland gardens are more like the situation she has in our yard at home. She took a lot of pictures and I’m sure “we” will have several projects this summer as a result of this experience. Linda bought several CD’s of “serenity” music.
After the tour we rested for a while with the air conditioning going and then traveled to my brother Elwood’s place south of Little Rock (near East end ) We can in via Sheridan on Rte 167 and arrived there after supper around 7:00 p.m.
The temperatures from Wednesday through Sunday were at or near record highs –topping ut at 95 on Wednesday but hitting above 90 most of that period. God seemed to be telling us that it was time to head for the cooler climes of the north
p.s. It is now Friday April 20 and we are at our son Chris' place in Aurora Illinois. Iwill do some more "catch-up" posts over the weekend since I've finally got back to the "civilized" world where I can get a wireless connection (Thanks to one of his neighbors who thankfully has an unsecured router)
p.p.s. John Dobbs commented on one of my recent posts that he was enjoying the "Chronicles of Whitfield". I don't know if he had the Isrealites in mind or if it was the fact he had watched the chronicles of Nardia -- but we are reading in Chronicles now about the Isrealites taking possession of the promised land. The descriptions of their wandering in the desert and then the allotment of the of territory to the tribes is pretty dry reading -- I hope the record of our journey isn't quite that dry. The other thing Linda & I have commented on is that there don't seem to be a lot of "life lessons" in parts of the books like Chronicles. -- however, since God wanted us to know about them there must be some value - we just have to keep looking. My point is that I have wanted to include some lessons we are learning and not have this become a pure travelog. I hope that like Chronicles the lessons are there -- it just may take a little more digging to see them.
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