Petit Jean State Park; Morrilton, Arkansas

Good morning, my friends. We've moved along to Petit Jean State Park in Morrilton, Arkansas. When I plan trips, I'm using this book to choose the best state parks in a given state. 

Originally, I had one other park selected (Mt. Magazine), but decided against it when this trip got too darned long. There's always so much to see on a road trip like this one, and never enough time. We're here for two more nights. It's supposed to start raining around lunch time, and so we're going to try to get out early to see 95-foot Cedar Creek Falls. There is a 2-mile hike to the pool below. The trail descends steeply down, and so we'll have to take a look at it before deciding if we're hale and hearty enough for something like that. Also, if it starts raining, all bets are off.

Before leaving Hot Springs yesterday, I spent some time on the Kitten block. The body and head of the kitten are finished now.

Just the tail remains. I should be able to finish this up today if there's time to work on it.

When we'd killed enough time, we headed out. Our plan was to visit a quilt shop...check!

I'll tell you about the quilt shop in a separate post. 

From there, we did our grocery shopping before heading for Morrilton...77 miles down the road. The journey started with trees lining both sides of the road. When we were farther north, the views opened up to some scenes that were more pastoral. We saw yellow wildflowers growing in little tufts.

We saw more than a few barns. Sorry for the blur on this first one.

We drove some backroads that made us wonder if we'd start hearing someone strumming Dueling Banjos.

I almost missed this one. 

We passed by many ranches...or maybe they're dairy farms. Hard to tell by looking at the cow.

Eventually Petit Jean Mountain came into view, and we traveled up and up and up...

Until we reached this very nice campground.

And this is why I love the state parks. They are always much more scenic and quiet than the private RV parks. This one happens to have full hook-ups.

Well, Smitty took one look around, and then nothing would do until we got him out for a good walk.

He likes this Bark'nPaw grass.

I didn't notice many wildflowers right by our RV, but there were a few buttercups.

So, we've had our breakfast. We'll probably get Smitty out for another walk this morning. Also, I want to bake some cookies for two to enjoy with our afternoon cup of espresso. We're going to try to see the waterfall before the rain starts up (forecast to begin around noon). Tomorrow is supposed to be a better day, and I have my eyes on an interesting hike. 

For now, Sadie is blissed out and warm in her cocoon of quilts. 

Smitty is enjoying the morning on his catio. It's a slow morning, and we're enjoying the peace and quiet of this place.

Next, I'll bake some cookies, and then spend a little time on my slow-stitching. We'll get out early to see the waterfall. You might want to bring your rain gear. In my experience, bringing rain gear is the best insurance policy against rain. Conversely, leaving it behind pretty much guarantees a drenching downpour. Choose wisely, my friends.

Hot Springs National Park: Part Two

 A second good morning to you, my friends. This is Part Two of our visit to Hot Springs National Park. You can find my Part One post right here. So let's start again at the beginning of Bathhouse Row.

We were preparing to walk this main walkway along the bathhouses.

This first structure was "Superior Baths." It was a bathhouse, restaurant, and craft brewery. We had lunch here on the walk back. I was hoping to pick up a t-shirt for Erik here, but the only one in his size was kind of dumb. I passed. 😞

Walking on, we came to the Hale Bathhouse. I'll post the informational signs below each one.

Turning directly around, The Waters was right across the street. This wasn't a part of Bathhouse Row, but I thought the building was interesting. You can read a little about it at its website.

Walking on, we came to Maurice Bathhouse. The information sign follows.

This fountain spouts hot water, and it too was producing steam.

This structure is the Fordyce Bathhouse. It is the park’s visitor center, and there is a self-guided tour available. You can read more about it at that link I’ve given you.

Except for our lunch, this was the only other structure where we went inside. There was a self-guided tour of the place. Mike has to wait for me while I take picture after picture. After nearly 49 years of marriage, he's used to this.

The beautiful tile floors in here were impressive. It reminded me of our Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Looking left it looked like this. 

Looking right, it looked like this. The self-guided tour started at the far end of this room.

These were essentially spas, as we know them today. Folks traveled for miles around to soak in the therapeutic mineral waters. This is what one might expect checking in here for a treatment.

I'm posting the rooms and signs as we came to them.

Apparently, I didn't take a picture of the "pack room" because it looked just like the cooling room.

Mike thought this next part looked like a torture chamber. I can imagine it would feel a little claustrophobic to be encased in one of these "cabinets."

Not surprisingly, bath attendants were expected to be more professional as interest and popularity gained.

Men and women were separated, as you might expect.

These stained glass skylights extended the whole length of the room. They seemed partially covered during our visit, but I can imagine they let in a lot of sunlight when fully opened.

This was in the middle of the men's bathhall.

Both men and ladies' had a parlor room. The men's was under renovation.

They offered a full slate of services.

This is where you would have slept on a multi-day stay.

And, of course, any therapeutic treatment would have been improved with the use of the gymnasium.

And look at this historical version of what we know as a hot tub today.

If you were going to use this pool, you'd first need to don your swimsuit...nothing too revealing, please.

And again, look at this beautiful tile work.

We were nearly finished with our tour. There was a large sign with bits of information. We were amused by this.

That was the end of our tour of the Fordyce Bathhouse. Walking on, we came to the Quapaw Bathhouse.

Here's a little closer look at the dome.

I must have missed the sign for this one, but here's a little information from the website: The Quapaw Bathhouse opened in 1922. It is the longest building on Bathhouse Row, occupying the site of two previous bathhouses, the Horseshoe and Magnesia. Vacant since closing in 1984, it was the first to be leased for adaptive reuse. It reopened as a family-oriented spa in late June 2008.

Next was the Ozark Bathhouse.

Next was the Buckstaff Bathhouse.

And, finally, the Lamar Bathhouse.

From there, we turned and walked back to the beginning and had some lunch. After lunch we returned to the RV. After drinking a beer and some hard cider, we both took short naps.

Today we'll move along to Morrilton, Arkansas, and spend three nights at Petite Jean State Park. We have until noon to check out here in Hot Springs, but then we can't check in at the state park until 3:00 p.m. Since our drive is short at 77 miles today, we'll visit a quilt shop in Hot Springs, and then do some grocery shopping as a way to kill time. Our three nights at the state park will complete our visit to Arkansas for this trip, and we'll move on to certain points in Missouri next. There is still lots to see my friends. Don't forget, Paducah and Missouri Star Quilt Company are coming up.