You have probably never heard of Robert Burns, but he is attributed with being the first man to utter the infamous phrase – “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
Beth and I made our best plans for our National Parks escapade over a six month period, and in a matter of 58 hours, our plan went slightly awry. Our original plan was to arrive at our first campground in South Carolina on Wednesday, spend Thursday at Congaree National Park, leave Friday morning for an overnight in Alabama at the Clear Creek campground near Jasper, then continue to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas on Saturday.
Wednesday and Thursday went as planned. On Friday we experienced several hiccups. We stopped for fresh ice for our cooler and a bottle of windshield wiper fluid to fill our reservoir and clear a low fluid warning from our dash, we headed out of South Carolina, destination Jasper, Alabama.
Feeling hungry we stopped for lunch around Atlanta. Unfortunately, there are no rest stops heading west on the highway to Atlanta, so I decided to stop just east of the city to get gas and hopefully find a church parking lot in which to have lunch. We found such a church about a quarter of a mile from where we got gas, but when we got to it, the entrance to their parking lot was chained. So much for plan B. We returned to the interstate and as it was getting close to 2 o’clock, we settled for the parking lot of the first shopping center we encountered and enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich lunch in the shade of our rear lift gate. It wasn’t a palm tree, but it sufficed.
We finished lunch and headed back on the road. Within 5 minutes of leaving the parking lot of the shopping center, the “Change Oil Soon” message suddenly appeared on our dash. Great. If the message had popped up 5 minutes earlier, we could have had it changed at the 5 Minute Express Oil Change that was located literally right across the street from our lunch stop. Oh well, that’s why we have smart phones. After a few minutes, we found on-line an Express Oil Change location on our route to Jasper. While an oil change in Alabama wasn’t scheduled on our itinerary, we thought it best to get it done before traveling the whole way to Arkansas.
Fortunately, the garage was right off of the interstate and we were able to pull in for service after only a five minute wait. I popped the hood latch and the service tech raised the hood and began the oil change process. After a minute or so, he walked over and poked his head in the window and asked if our car had an Ecoboost engine. “I don’t know,” I answered, “I don’t think so.” Wrong answer. He informed me that our car did, indeed, have such an engine. “Why, then,” I wondered to myself, “did he even ask me the question in the first place?” He then proceeded to tell me the dangers of using conventional oil in an Ecoboost engine, and coerced…or I mean convinced me that I needed the more expensive synthetic blend oil to extend the engine life. We just wanted to get out of there, so I gave in to the pressure and sprung for the more expensive synthetic blend oil. 15 minutes and $55 later, we were on the road again.
The closer we go to our campground, the darker the skies were becoming. About 10 minutes away, the rains came. When we arrived at our destination, it was raining quite hard. I ran in to the camp office and obtained our parking pass and got directions to our site, and after jokingly telling me the swimming pool was opened, the clerk sent me on my way.
When Beth and I reached our campsite, you could see a pretty big puddle right where we would need to put our tent. I checked with Accuweather and saw that the rain was to continue off and on through the night. I then checked the weather for Hot Springs National Park and learned that Sunday, the full day we wanted to spend in the park, was to be a wash out with heavy rain, thunderstorms, and potential flash flooding. Now what, we thought? It was approaching 7:00 in the evening, and neither of us really wanted to put up our tent in the mud and rain. Remember Robert Burn’s “best made plans” line?
After some back and forth on what to do, we finally came up with a viable solution. Saturday in Hot Springs was to be a pretty nice day, with just a slight chance of a scattered afternoon thunderstorm. We decided to continue driving for a couple of more hours, hoping to reach Tupelo, Mississippi, where we would spring for a hotel room for the night, leave early the following morning and have most of the day at Hot Springs. Tupelo was only about 4 and a half hours from the park. We patted ourselves on the back for being flexible enough to make a last minute decision, and veered from our carefully crafted plan.
After stopping at a Hardees restaurant for a late evening dinner, we rolled up to a Motel 6 in Tupelo. I got on Booking.com, found a non-smoking room that I could get for $65 plus tax, and we checked in around 9:45 p.m. (which was actually 10:45 p.m. for us, since we had entered the Central Time Zone earlier in the day and gained an hour to our day). We were on road for a little over 12 hours, but we were grateful that we had arrived safely to a place with a bathroom and shower, and a soft bed. And could sleep without first setting up a tent and inflating the air mattress. We also had a plan to salvage a day in Hot Springs, so all was well as our heads hitthe pillow and we nodded quickly off to sleep.
We were on the road on Saturday morning at 7:00 and arrived in downtown Hot Springs right around noon. We stopped at the town of Hot Springs visitor center and Beth got all the information on how to make the most of our time in the park from a very helpful clerk. We parked our car for free on a nearby street and headed to “Bathhouse Row” to see what the park had to offer.
Turns out, it has a lot to offer. Following the clerk’s instructions, we proceeded along main street stopping at several of the large ornate private bathouses gracing the street. There are a number of bathhouse that were originally built in the early 1900’s to view, and several of them still offer massages and baths in the thermal waters originating from 47 natural hot springs in the area. While we did not opt to have a bath (we had showered at the Motel 6 in the morning and were still relatively clean, haha), we did see a number of people waiting their turns to take a dunk.
We stopped at the National Park Visitor Center, which is housed in the former Fordyce Bathhouse, one of, if not the most opulent and popular house in its hayday, and toured the three floor structure which contains exhibits ranging from cooling and hydrotherapy rooms, locker rooms, massage area and of course, large porcelain tubs. It was a fascinating way to spend an hour or so and we really enjoyed it.
Before the invention of modern plumbing and hot water heaters people had to heat water on a cook stove or over a fire and fill a tub to have a hot bath. Wagon trails and then trains made the natural hot springs in Arkansas available to anyone who could afford a ticket. These springs aren’t heated by a volcano so the water has no sulphur smell and is clean for drinking. Thousands of suffering and afflicted people flocked to the springs believing in their healing qualities. Soldiers injured in the Civil War and people with anything from arthritis to heart disease traveled great distances seeking a miracle. Interestingly the most common ailment the people sought healing for was venereal disease. In 1868 the U.S. government built a huge 412 bed hospital on the hillside above the springs for wounded Civil War soldiers. The brave and battle wounded union and confederate soldiers both received treatment at this facility. The hospital was in continued use through World Wars I and II and the Korean War. In 1960 it became a rehabilitation center.
From there, we crossed the street for a quick bite to eat at a little restaurant called “Bubbalu’s”, which was highly recommended by the clerk at the visitor’s center. We splurged for a burger and a BLT, with a large order of fries, and enjoyed our second restaurant meal in two days. I was glad that Beth had a break from cooking.
After lunch, we walked the famous “Promenade”, a brick walkway that extends about a half mile on the hillside behind the bathhouses and provides an elevated view of the town. It was a beautiful walk. We were able to see and touch the water from two hot springs near the walkway.
There were even fountains availble for drinking the once thought healing elixir of the natural hot springs. The water was much hotter than we expected; a steamy 134 degrees leaving the ground. It was neat to experience this and we can see why the town was and still is so popular.
We filled an empty water jug with some water at the thermal water dispensing station downtown, and headed to our campground for supper. Beth continued to amaze me with a ham steak for dinner, along with mashed potatoes and peas. There were no leftovers once again.
Since the weather was still calling for heavy rain on Sunday, we decided to set up our small pup tent, which does not fit the air mattress, for the night. It’s easier to take down and put away quickly in the morning. Our next stop was Abilene State Park, Texas. Our revised plan had us getting to Abilene a day early, which was fine, because we would then have an extra day at Big Bend National Park. That would put us back to our original schedule.
We went to sleep knowing that while our plans had changed slightly, we were still moving forward and in the right direction. And besides, even with the motel stay, and the two purchased meals, we were still under budget!