Well, we are on our final leg of the journey home. We have had a really great visit through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and finally in Hot Springs Arkansas, and the scenery is just beautiful, as I am sure you will agree!
To recap, we left Ohio, then moved toward Kentucky. We had quite some time to get home, so we had time to make some stops and really proceed with no agenda. After years of making the drive up to Ohio to visit family, I had always been curious about Mammoth Caves, so we planned our route to make a stop there. I’m not sure why I just assumed it would be a hole in the ground, which technically it is, but being a National Park, if really has a lot more to offer than just a quick side show. With the 3 kids, and not knowing what to expect, when we arrived at the visitor center, we decided to do the self guided tour, which took you down into the cave, on a 3/4 mile self exploration of one part of the cave. This is not an area where you will see water formations, like stalactites and stalagmites, but it was a great intro cave. They do have a few ranger lead tours, the Historic Cave Tour, and the Domes and Gems Tour (that is probably not the right name), but you get the opportunity to see more formations on those tours. We will definitely hit that stop on a future trip, as it was beautiful and well worth the stop. Definitely will be providing inspiration for some paintings as I get back to the studio
Not too far from Mammoth Caves, we stayed the night at a KOA Resort in Nashville, and it really was a resort. We stayed by the pool. It was hot, and the kids were having a good time.
For the next stop home, we decided to stop at Graceland, just inside Memphis Tennessee. Again, I was not sure how the kids would do, but they had a blast learning about the King, and looking at his home and airplanes. I loved hearing all the music, and for a minute being transported to an earlier time. We kept the fun going in the RV and made the kids watch Viva Las Vegas as we made our way to the next stop. I also reminded them that they could watch Lilo and Stitch, and hear lots of Elvis music in that movie. Not sure that I captured any inspiration for art on this stop, but it was worth it. They had the mansion decorated with Graceland’s Christmas decor, and apparently will be filming a Hallmark movie over the next few weeks.
We stayed the night in a KOA in West Memphis, which is in Arkansas, and it was a quick stop, but surrounded by farm lands and crop fields.
It was a quick overnight, and then we were onward to Hot Springs National Park KOA. Our kids, being the wonderful beings that they are, instantly made friends with the neighboring family, and they turned out to be cool people, and we met up with them for the next day as we explored the town! Bonus of staying at a KOA is that you might make friends to collect along the way. Double bonus is that these friends live in Texas too, and we’re planning to meet up and be camping neighbors in the future!
Now, I had no idea what to expect with Hot Springs, except that I knew you could go to one of the bath houses and have a spa experience. Which is correct… except I guess I didn’t realize that this was part of the National Park! The KOA will provide a shuttle to downtown (for a fee).
There is a wonderful visitors center at Fordyce BathHouse, where you can go on a free ranger lead tour, and there is a gift shop in the La’Mar Bathhouse, where you can fill up on water from the springs at their spring fed-the cooled fountain inside. If you have never been, the bathhouses used to be physician prescribed treatments that were administered by professionals, and utilized the water from the hot springs in the area. Instead of a boiler room in the basements, they have cooling rooms to bring the water temperature down to a tolerable level for human skin. Spa services are still available, and though it might feel healing, it is not physician prescribed, so anyone can set up an appointment.
And don’t forget, if you have kids, you HAVE to pick up the Junior Ranger book and have them work on it during the tour so that they can earn their badges! One of the other perks is that there is a brewery in one of the old bath houses. Which makes it the only brewery in a National Park! Definitely got some inspiration in the architecture here! Looking forward to getting into the studio when I get home! Check back for updates on the art I made during this trip!