“Maritimes 2012” – Saturday, May 12-Monday, May 14, 2012

Our next destination was the Malvern-Hot Springs, AR, area to see our good friends, Larry and Sharon Thoresen, who are also our neighbors at home in Retama Village, Mission, TX. As soon as we were parked at the Cloud Nine RV Park, Larry and Sharon picked us up (including our “Miss Dixie” dog) to dine on burgers back at their house. And what a lovely home it is!! Really large to accommodate Sharon’s parents’ visits (they have their own bedroom, bath, and sitting room), and it’s such a welcoming home indeed. Larry and Sharon have many beautiful antiques and mementos. We had a wonderful evening, catching up with each other, dining on delicious burgers, brats, salads, and fresh fruit, and Dixie enjoyed playing with her buddies, Milo and Lady Bug, the Thoresen’s two cocker spaniels. What a wonderful time!
Continuing the festivities, the next day Sunday 5/13 was “Mother’s Day”. The Thoresen’s picked us up and took us to the Hotel Arlington in Hot Springs for Sunday brunch. It was elegant, bountiful, delicious, and the four of us naturally over-ate! After lunch (and to prevent us all from becoming comatose!), we wandered down a block or two to tour the Fordyce Bathhouse Museum on Bathhouse Row. Fascinating! Many of the bathhouses are to be restored. The Buckstaff is the only one already restored and functioning as a traditional bathhouse. Others, also restored or renovated, now contain more modern “spa”-type businesses while maintaining much of the buildings’ original character inside. All of the restorations have to be done according to strict National Park Service guidelines.
There are “water stations”, public access mineral water fountains throughout the Bathhouse Row area, though an additional number have had to be capped off. We also drove out to look at Lake Hamilton, a nearby summer destination—resorts, boating, fishing, and other recreation.
The whole city of Hot Springs is a National Park! Discover more at this link Hot Springs National Park. It has a rich and colorful past: the mineral waters historically have been a real draw (said to alleviate the symptoms of or cure any number of ailments!), many film stars and other popular figures often visited here, and it was also renown for being a gangster-era hang-out in the 1920-30’s. We barely scratched the surface  of it and would love to return.
Our respective “schedules” the next day, Monday 5/14, didn’t work out so said fond farewells to the Thoresen’s by phone and readied ourselves for the road. Later, Richard and I drove back into town for dinner at “On the Border”, then filled 3 gallon jugs with mineral water at the water station nearest the Arlington Hotel, where we’d had Sunday brunch.