Tatum, TX to Louisiana to Hot Springs National Park, AR

Friday – March 10   Woke up at the state park still a little miffed that this is considered a state park. I mean, the coal plant runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  The train cars bringing coal into the plant are continuous. And what the heck is this thingamajig? Are they catching mutated bass that they hang from these hooks? Just saying….

Left the park, and calmed down when I saw a pretty red bird, a turtle at the end of a driveway and a flock of 20 or so vultures.  And some beautiful purple flowers that were climbing trees like ivy.

We were soon into the NE corner of Louisiana. We stopped at the visitor’s center just over the state line and I asked about any kind of history to do with Shreveport and the Louisiana Hayride show.  The lady said that an old theater was downtown and there was a statute of Elvis out front.  The theater was usually closed except for special events but had lots of pictures of the old stars inside.  We bypassed Shreveport and headed north.  We saw some fields that looked like cotton had been harvested.  We found a sign stating that Cotton was King in NE Louisiana.  But there were also fields of cattle and fields of oil wells.

I began to see trees that looked like cypress trees.  We stopped to take some pictures and found that there was an oil leak in the water where the trees were.  Well that never happens. Hmmm. I’m sure someone will be right on it.  I’m sure this hasn’t been leaking long.  I’m sure somebody cares.

We decided to cross the Red River while still in Louisiana. “Come and sit by my side if you love me….”

Drove into Arkansas and soon was into some forest.  But the forest looked planted as the trees were in rows, for miles and miles.  And we discovered game farms again.  High deer fences to keep the deer in and hunting stands to help you wait for your deer to walk by.  This was also popular in Texas.

I said to Jim, “are we going to Hope, Arkansas?”  He said, yes, it’s on the way to Hot Springs.  So we stopped for a look around Bill Clinton’s boyhood town and home.  We had lunch at Tailgates.  This restaurant had three pickup tailgates attached to the wall and we used them instead of chairs. That was kinda cool.

Then we drove to the National Historical Park of the boyhood home of William Jefferson Clinton.  The home was on a main street and was owned by his mother’s parents.  His mother and he moved in with his grandparents when his father was killed in a car accident three months before he was born. 

We drove on to Hot Springs, AR and went to the KOA campground.  After getting settled, we had dinner downtown at the Brick House Grill.  Nice spot for dinner in the old historic downtown.

We walked down Bathhouse Row in the National Park and marveled at the beautiful bathhouses preserved by the National Parks.  We learned that the hot springs had been used by the natives and then were discovered by settlers when Andrew Jackson was president. He set the area aside as a National Preserve.  This was to keep the healing springs open to all Americans at a time when only a few people wanted to lay claim to them.

The park had closed by the time we finished dinner, so we will come back to look around tomorrow.