Photos

There are not a lot of photos here from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and only two of them depict anything in Hot Springs National Park, so I thought I would add one, maybe two so people have an idea as to what's shakin' in this place.

To begin with - history. This is the first National Park in the United States, ever. Everyone from prehistoric native Americans to Presidents have bathed in these springs. Heck, Bill Clinton grew up around here! There aren't many restaurants in town that don't have a picture of him shaking the owner's hand - probably no McDonalds burger joints that he didn't visit.

Secondly, this is a place to come to relax. The Hot Springs National Park (Wikipedia link) is right downtown in Hot Springs, Arkansas (tourist info link). There are hotels where you can stay and get bath and massage packages and just a couple walk-in bathhouses in the park itself. One of them is this place - The Buckstaff Bathhouse. There is also a plethora of outdoor and indoor activities near here, lots of excellent golf courses, fantastic fishing lakes and great restaurants (that's what we like best!).

I took this photograph at night, along with several others as the weather was fairly overcast the days we were there last time - some of these old bathhouses look more interesting in the dark. Plus, there are few people walking around there at night. Hot Springs pretty much rolls up the sidewalks early, this was shot shortly after 8pm on a Tuesday night. I used a tripod and my trusty ol' Olympus C-8080WZ point n' shoot for a fairly long exposure of 4 seconds. The Buckstaff Bathhouse is lit up at night with outdoor lighting, pretty unobtrusive lighting at that. The glare on the metal doors comes from car headlights reflecting as they were driving down the street.

Linda and I were here for our ten-year anniversary. Yep, we got married in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I'm glad you asked why!

We were high school sweethearts, Linda was 15 and I was 16 when we started dating. Our parents hated this because we spent every minute possible together. They also suspected the worst about us - that perhaps we were sleeping together! After one particularly nasty argument with her father, Linda decided she needed to leave, permanently if possible. I, being the chivalrous boyfriend, told her that we should go to Hot Springs, Arkansas because we could get married down there at 16 without parental permission. This is happening in the 1970's, we don't even have our own car, but I have two jobs! I talk my buddy into driving us down to Arkansas, on the way the car breaks down and we stay the night in a dump with 6 of our friends (it was a station wagon). Of course, we didn't make it and didn't get married then, but we did get in one heck of a lot of trouble from our folks. Linda's dad never laid a hand on her again, though, so something good came out of it. My folks put the pressure on me to break the relationship off and I finally buckled under. Heck, I was 17, there were lots of girls out there!

Fast forward to 1993. I am in Egypt with the Navy and call home and speak with my sister who tells me she saw Linda at the grocery and that she still carries a torch for me. When my ship returned, I came home on leave and looked up Linda's number, called and left a message for her to call me. A few days later, she called back - she had been out of town. Where had she been? You guessed it, Hot Springs, Arkansas. In fact at about the moment I first called, she was in the airport with her friends telling them the story of when she almost ran away and got married.

Needless to say, this was fate. A couple years later we really ran away and got married. We stayed in the Majestic Hotel in the honeymoon suite, the following Monday I got back to my ship and left for a 3 month Caribbean cruise. Me and 349 of my closest friends, my new wife was stuck in St. Louis. The next time I talked to her was almost 1 month later, from Cartegena, Colombia.

Those were the days.