It’s Monday, October 21^st (Jim’s birthday) and we are now heading to Hot Springs, Arkansas.  This is my first time going to Arkansas – I have never been in this state before.  My cousin Jim said that we should stop in Hot Springs since we were planning to go to Arkansas.  I found out when we were visiting that this is where he was born.

We made it to Arkansas!

Our destination is the Cloud 9 Campground located east of Hot Springs downtown area.  This is a private campground that is part of the “Good Sam” campgrounds associated with Camping World which Jim joined earlier this year.  The drive to this camping stop is about 259 miles (from Pleasant Hill, Louisiana to Hot Springs, Arkansas).

What I liked about this campground:

1. Water, electricity and dump stations at each campsite
2. Nice club house which has a big screen tv, pool table, small gym area and plenty of room to hang out if you have a big group. Air conditioned as well
3. Bath house – very nice with lots of homey touches to it
4. Laundry area with several washers and dryers; quarters are available at the office – I have now found a new reason that one must have quarters!
5. Trail to walk the dogs – there was a nice, wooded trail to take the dogs for a walk each day
6. WiFi – this was welcome as we were able to get a few channels on our tv and also use the apps that we had downloaded like we do at home.  Keep in mind that before we left on this trip we had been without electricity for a week – so just being able to watch tv was a novelty

What I wasn’t crazy about:

1. The campground was primarily rock, shells; Since it had not rain in over 3 weeks in Arkansas it was dry and very dusty
2. Campsites were very close together without much privacy; not like what we were used to in the state parks

NOTE: later on in our trip we did learn that there are several really pretty campgrounds to the west of where we were staying.  Perhaps if we are in this area again, we might try one of those.   I don’t know the names of them but a Google search shows: Gulpha Gorge Campground or Lake Catherine State Park.  Of course, neither of these would have WiFi.  My experience thus far is that state parks don’t have WiFi at the campsites.  Private campgrounds do.

We arrived around 5pm at the campgrounds.  There was a mix up on our campsite and we had to get in touch with the office to see about getting a different campsite (someone had an RV in our spot already).  Once this was resolved, we were able to setup for the 3 nights that we were planning to stay.  I decided 3 nights was a good amount because if the weather was bad, then we would still have one day (hopefully) that we could explore the location.

It's Monday evening and with WiFi at the park, we decided to relax and watch the Bucs play on our small RV television.

On our first full day there in Hot Springs, we weren’t all that sure what to do.  Unfortunately, we booked our trip back in August, so I knew where we were going and how long we were going to be at each location.  But, I thought that I would have plenty of time to get some potential things to do at each location.  I had not banked on what we were dealt.

• On Thursday, September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene was bearing down on us (and of course the week before we were busy getting ready).
• For a few days after this, we had cleanup work to do from the storm and were without power for 18 hours.
• So, in about 3 days we were back to normal (September 29^th)
• However, now Hurricane Milton was coming, and this one was going to be bad….so we now went into a bigger scrabble to get ready for the next storm because I knew we would lose power – but for how long?  (and hopefully that was the only thing that happened).
• On Wednesday, October 9^th we were finally hit by Milton (seems to me that storm was a little later than we originally thought, so we were in wait mode for getting slammed).
• Our power went out that night and it didn’t come back before we left on the 15^th to start our trip…so I had no time nor internet (except my phone) to do any research on things to do at each location…
• So we winged it!

The funny thing was, I was trying to figure out exactly what the Hot Springs National Park was and where it was – but we finally found it!  And we also found the famous ‘bath houses’ and then we figured out where to spend the day.

This was a long day – first we drove around in circles (literally) because I was a poor navigator, and Jim was trying to do what Google was saying.  Anyway, we finally found one of those brown signs that says, “Hot Springs National Park” and pointed us in the correct direction!

Next challenge was, what do we do now?  Having little clue, we decided to head up a path that was a driving tour up to the top of the Hot Springs Mountain Tower.  When we arrived, the dogs wanted out for a walk – it was potty time and then let’s explore.

There is a fee to go up to the top of the tower, we decided not to do it - but it's an option if you want to.

After spending some time here and grabbing an ice cream at the shop, we headed back towards the downtown area.  We needed somewhere to park, so we found a place, fed the meter and started walking.  Found the bath house row – kinda cool. 

They had an area where you could see a ‘natural hot spring’ that was not changed.  We went to see that – Abby found out real quick this water wasn’t for swimming – she got up close and then backed off almost immediately – I believe that water is about 120 degrees.  Glad she is smart.

I went into the visitor center which is also a museum and got a map – and saw a little of the inside of the museum (free) and what the bath houses were like.

Now it was time for some food, lunch. I googled to find dog friendly places to eat.  The closest place to our current location was a burger place Bubbalu’s.  Jim went in to figure out whether they were indeed pet friendly and where did we go with the dogs.  Apparently, yes, they are pet friendly and sit anywhere you want (inside) – that’s a first.  We ordered our food at the counter, then found a table to sit down at. 

Abby

Rue (between my feet again! and under the table)

Ollie

The one thing I remember is that I thought the place was a lot larger than it is because they have the back wall as a mirror – so it looked that way, but it wasn’t (good joke – they said they have had a lot of people and kids run right into that mirror before they realize it!).

We are heading back to our car; it is about 3 in the afternoon.  Stopped in front of the wax museum and there was a woman asking if we wanted to take the ‘duck tour’ – the next one was at 4pm.  Dogs were allowed.  Ok – I will give it a try.  While we waited, she said we could buy a combo ticket to see the wax museum, or we could do a wine tasting.  Any idea what we did? Did you need 2 guesses?

Patience little girls, it's air conditioned in here - a narrow walkway to where the wine tasting was happening.

Wine tasting it is!  They said when remodeling they found a recipe for the “southern pour” and created it.  Then they created combinations added fruit (peach, blackberry, etc) for different flavors.  Jim bought several bottles.

That's the duck vehicle on the left - and the wax museum where we did the wine tasting.

We had to wait a little while before the next tour started, so here the dogs are either sacked out or at least resting for a bit.

Wow, she actually let the hat stay on long enough to get a quick photo!

Eventually it was time to start our duck tour.  The dogs hated it.  They were scared, freaked out and just plain couldn’t handle what I had gotten them into (they wanted off this duck bad).  Needless to say, I spent all my time with the dogs trying to keep them from jumping off and didn’t see much and didn’t take any photos.  Put that on the list of “do not do again!” with the dogs.

It's late now and we are heading back to the campground to chill.  We had a simple dinner, I don’t recall what though.  It had been a long day – remember that photo from the previous blog post of the dogs passed out? That same thing occurs just about every evening of this trip - the dogs were both physically and mentally maxed out.

The next day was a ‘chill day’.  I did a load of laundry after getting enough quarters from the office.  We went to a local place to grab some ice cream (Jim loves ice cream).  They told us about a local city park in Lonsdale, Arkansas (about 10 minutes from the campground) that had a stream the dogs could go play in – Abby loves to play in the water.  So we hung out at the park and let them play – no one else was around. 

Nice chill way to spend some time.   Eventually we headed back to the campground and relaxed.  Photos of the campground. Starting with the women's bath house (it was empty except me).

The club house

Our campsite and hookup (I didn't get the entire truck because the spaces were pretty much right next to each other).

For more photographs, click on the link Hot Springs, Arkansas

The next morning, we were headed to Mountain View, Arkansas.  Why you ask?  Because Jim saw some photographs that he thought were really nice and so I booked us 3 nights at a campground there.