Oklahoma and Arkansas

March 1 through 5, 2000 - Arkansas

The problem we had goes back to about the time that we got to Fredrickburg, Texas. At that time, we had just gotten into the part of Texas where there are juniper forests. At the same time I started developing a raw throat, runny nose, and sneezing. We figured it was probably an allergic reaction. When I started becoming feverish, I thought it was part of a reaction to one of my cholesterol medications. This was all probably just wishful thinking.

When we got into Oklahoma, Linda finally caught it, and as is her way, it immediately turned into bronchitis. By the time we got to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, we stopped at a hospital emergency room, and now she is being treated. I wouldn’t recommend this as a way to meet people, but I will say that during the time we were trying to get her some help, we met some of the nicest, most considerate people.

In the mean time, on Wednesday, March 1, we went for a volkswalk in Norman, OK. The walk included some very nice residential areas, the Oklahoma University campus, and a strip mall (including a very nice Viet Namese restaurant). Although the walk was very nice, it didn’t include much that was photogenic. I did get a picture of the OU library. The significant thing there is that I took it by keeping my back to the football stadium. Texas and Oklahoma really do give a great deal of importance to the football stadiums (both high school and college).

After we left Norman, we headed east to the Arkansas border. Traveling north in Texas on Tuesday, and east through Oklahoma on Wednesday, brings to mind the fact that my prejudices regarding the geography of the areas have been wrong. My mental image of both of the areas is that of the west Texas terrain that we encountered after we left Carlsbad. In fact, the terrain is actually quite varied, and almost always pretty. It is not the same kind of beauty that the Northwest offers, but pretty none the less. Most of the areas that we passed through on Tuesday and Wednesday were rolling hills and it looked like fertile prairie lands.

One of the things that struck us is that, once we got into Arkansas, the center of the communities no longer seemed to be the high school football stadium, but the community church. In general, these tend to be very fundamentalist churches. (Coming from a more liberal United Church of Christ tradition, we check phone directories for the presence of that denomination. In much of this area they are very scarce or non-existent.) Wednesday was a great day for weather – the temperatures were in the high 60’s, and it was sunny. On Thursday morning when we got up, it had clouded over, and there were thunderstorms around us (although we just had some light rains where we were). While at the hospital in Ft. Smith, the TV news talked about some severe weather coming through the area later in the day. By the time we left, we figured we could get to Hot Springs, even by way of the back roads, before the weather came in. We were right, and drove through some pretty parts of the Ozark Mountains. Shortly after we got to Hot Springs and got a motel room, the TV posted thunderstorm warnings for this area, and we could hear them around us. We didn’t ever experience any of that weather directly, though.

Friday morning we didn’t feel much like doing anything ambitious. As a result, we found a bathhouse, and spent the middle part of the day indulging ourselves. We went into the thermal pools first. They have a variety of temperatures from 98 degrees to (the hotest one I found, anyway) 112 degrees Fahrenheit. For an hour and a half we just went from one pool to another. The hottest one I couldn’t stay in vary long, but the coolest was right at body temperature, and it was as though there was nothing around me. It was really a pleasant sensation. After bouncing between the pools, we each had a massage set up. After an hour of getting our muscles pummeled, and we were feeling pretty good.

After that, since the weather was still cloudy and quite cold, we didn’t want to do anything outside, so we went to the Hot Springs National Park Visitor’s Center. This is in the Fordyce - one of the old (1920’s to 1940’s) bathhouses - that has been restored to some of its grandeur. It was obvious to see the elegance that was afforded the bathers in the height of the era. I got a couple of pictures of the art in one of the rooms, and that kind of portrays the general ambiance. After that, we just kind of relaxed for the rest of the day.

Friday morning, the weather was supposed to get better, so we first washed the car. (It sort of needed it, after a month of driving through dust and deserts, with an occasional shower thrown in.) Then we did some driving tours of the national park. There is a volkswalk in the park, but it is vary vigorous, and neither on of us really felt up to it. By the time we had finished the drive, stopped at the various view points, and went up to the top of the Hot Springs Mountain Tower, the weather had gotten quite a bit better, sunny but not yet warm. At the top of the tower, I tried taking a couple of pictures down onto where the Bathhouse row is. Using some of the software that came with the camera, I spliced them together to form a panorama of Bathhouse Row. At the north end of the row is the Arlington Hotel. It looks to still be a grand old place, but we didn’t go in to check. At the south end is a big rehabilitation center that was originally built by the military as an army/navy hospital. After doing a little shopping and having some lunch we headed off to Little Rock for the next part of our adventure. One of the unusual things about all of these hot springs is that there is no odor of sulfur. As a matter of fact, there is no odor of anything. The water is purported to be very pure, and we can’t see anything that would lead us to believe anything different.

Sunday Morning (3/5) in Little Rock we went for another volkswalk. It was a very nice walk past the state capitol, the Governor’s Mansion Historic District (as well as the Governor’s Mansion, itself), some additional historic districts, and even walked by the Rose Law Firm. r It was a good walk, and we saw some really nice architecture, but I think that I am ready for something other than an urban walk. I got what I think are some nice pictures of some of the buildings, but I need something other than architecture as a subject.

After the walk we went back to the Villa Marre – Linda wanted to take a tour. When we got there, I checked one of the tires to see why it kept clicking every time the wheel turned. I figured there was a rock in the tread. What there really was, was a ¼ inch screw that was driven through the tread. Obviously, when I took it out, the tire went flat. When I set about trying to change it, I couldn’t even think about turning the lug nut. It was really frozen. I got hold of AAA, and they came out and changed the tire (even with his equipment, the man that came still had trouble turning the nuts).

After that, we headed south to go to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and to start to see some of the Civil War battlefields. The trip down covered some of the southeast portion of Arkansas. It is completely different from the northwest portion. Instead of mountains, we are now in flat, agricultural land. It seems like this is cotton, rice, and soy bean growing area. Another thing that we have noticed over the last few weeks of traveling is that there are a lot of prisons (correction centers, detention centers, etc.) that we have passed. That is obviously the current growth industry, but there has to be something wrong with a society for which that is where the growth is.