Arkansas, Hot Springs: Sporty Family of Villainous Ve-hickles

After a quick, but fun, weekend in the state capital of Arkansas (Little Rock), Kyle's mum, Judy, drove us to Little Rock International Airport so we could pick up Kyle's stepdad, Marc, who was flying in from a trip he had taken to Georgia. Once he had arrived, we waited for his luggage to come out on the carousel and then we were on the road to Hot Springs, Arkansas, our second US destination. We were due to spend the next five days in Hot Springs, taking it easy and acclimatising to the simplicity of travelling in the United States. We certainly were looking forward to the change of pace that we would experience by hanging out with Kyle's family and friends for a few weeks.

Everyone was hungry by the time we left the airport, so we agreed to stop somewhere on the road for lunch. The Dixie Cafe in Benton was our selected restaurant, as we all wanted some good southern cooking, aka "comfort food". When we arrived in Hot Springs, we unpacked our bags and then hung out with Judy, Marc, Marc's dad Hassell, Marc's son Chad and daughter-in-law Brandi, and their two cute kids, Caleb and Ally. Marc grilled hamburgers and hot dogs later that afternoon, which everyone loved.

A stop at Taco Bell and Sonic was also in order so that we could get our first fast food fix

After dinner, Judy played her new keyboard, Marc accompanied with his drums and Hassell joined in with an acoustic guitar. During the concert, we played a few card games to pass the time. After the three musicians were finished playing, we taught Judy and Marc how to play the card game and we had fun playing a few games of it. The name of the game was not very polite and in order to tone it down, we'll refer to it as "poophead". You can probably guess what the actual name was.

By that time, Marc's family had left and we had fun playing cards with Judy and Marc. Marc brought out a small casino table game that he had gotten as a gift and we set it up to play blackjack. Kyle was the dealer while Dan, Judy and Marc were the players. We ended up playing for a couple of hours and then decided to call it a night because it had gotten really late - plus, Judy and Marc had an appointment the next morning to close the deal on a new truck that they had purchased.

The next morning, we had cereal for breakfast and we were both very excited to enjoy it with some delicious pasteurised milk that we had been craving for a long time, as mentioned in a few of our previous Asia journals. We also drank milk tea, something that we brought with us from China, and it made a nice combination. After eating, we challenged Judy to some racquetball games at her gym, Hot Springs Fitness Centre, so that we could get some exercise. We played a few games of cutthroat with her, where three people played a game at the same time; she kicked our butts every game but we had guessed that would have happened, since we challenged one of the top women racquetball players in Arkansas!

To take a break from cutthroat and to give Dan a bit more time to get used to the game, since he normally played squash, which was actually much different than racquetball, we played a game against each other while Judy sat out to watch. During our game, Judy received a call from Marc and then told us that she had to go to the bank to sort something out for the truck they had bought, a huge, red Dodge Ram 2500 truck. We were reassured that she would be back in a few minutes and that we should keep playing until she returned.

A couple of hours later, in the true Judy fashion, when we were exhausted after playing several more games of racquetball and shooting baskets (basketball) on the indoor courts inside the gym, Judy returned from her errand. At that point, she expected us to keep playing and we gave in, deciding to play more games of cutthroat with her. She won the first game again - no surprise there - and Dan had to sit out the next game due to some nasty blisters he had acquired on his feet. Judy and Kyle played another game and Kyle put up a good fight even though he was pretty exhausted from the few hours already spent at the gym; he only lost to Judy 15-12.

A dip in the swimming pool was needed when we had finished playing, so we all changed in the locker rooms and headed out to swim. We only used the pool to cool off as there were some menacing clouds in the distance, moving towards us. When we went inside to relax in the jacuzzi and steam room, the heavens opened up and it started pouring down rain outside. We must have timed our exit from the gym at just the right moment, because the rain stopped when we stepped outside to leave. Lucky us!

Now it was our time to run some errands and Judy loaned us her car to do so. We sorted out Kyle's US mobile SIM card so we would have a phone to use over the next three months whilst travelling around the United States. A stop at Taco Bell and Sonic was also in order so that we could get our first fast food fix from those two places; we shared a frito chili pie wrap from Sonic and an order of beef and cheese quesadillas as well as a ranchero chicken soft taco from Taco Bell. People eating near our table inside Taco Bell looked at us strangely for sharing food there, but we still held the Asia (and particularly Chinese) mentality, whereby everyone around the table shared different dishes laid out for a meal. That was something we really enjoyed in Asia so we will probably try to spread the thinking around in the places we visit this summer, by sharing dishes at mealtimes; it will also give us the opportunity to taste more foods that way.

Kyle's MeeMaw (aka his grandmother), Jenny, and her husband, Bob, received a visit from us that evening. On the way to their home, Judy and Marc showed us a large camper that they had just bought; Marc's job in Hot Springs was being made obsolete and he was going to have to start working in Little Rock during the week. As a result, he would have to commute and he will be pulling their new camper with the new Dodge truck that they had bought. The camper was huge and decked out with everything needed for a home away from home, including air conditioning, a flatscreen TV and DVD player!

When we arrived at Jenny and Bob's house, we gave them leftover food from the previous day's barbecue, but we then brought Jenny (with her portion of the food) back to Judy and Marc's house. She enjoyed eating her dinner with us, but she got restless after finishing her plate and we had to take her home. Kyle's MeeMaw was restless because she had Alztheimer's disease and it was getting really bad. She couldn't stay away from her home for very long before she would get really upset; she kept asking the same questions over and over and she got confused very easily; it was all quite sad.

The new truck wouldn't start for some reason when Judy and Marc tried to take Jenny home. It wasn't the battery; that was proven after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to jump the truck using Marc's car. Kyle and Dan finally took Jenny home in Judy's car, a Mitsubishi Outlander, while Judy and Marc remained behind to see what was wrong. After taking Jenny home, we went to see the new Fantastic Four film and, after the film, we were stuck at the cinema because Judy's car battery was dead.

Apparently, the sport utility ve-hickle (this was the great way that Kyle's mum said the word, a way that Dan loved hearing every time she or another Arkansan used the word in a sentence) had an automatic function for the car headlights, whereby the lights switched off when the car's engine was turned off. Judy slightly scolded Kyle for turning off the lights earlier that evening, because she never turned them off manually. So, when Kyle later pulled into the cinema and turned the ve-hickle off, he remembered what his mother had said and he quickly turned the headlights on. When we bought our tickets and looked back at the car, the lights were still on, and Dan said that the car battery would probably go flat. Kyle just kept repeating what his mum said, that the lights would switch off automatically...

The reason the ve-hickle died was because the automatic headlight function only worked if the lights were on when someone switched the ve-hickle off. If the headlights were turned on after the ve-hickle was turned off, they would not switch off automatically and they would run a perfectly good battery down completely. We can all laugh at this now, but Kyle's mum had to wake up and come to the cinema in order to give her dead ve-hickle a jump using Marc's ve-hickle. To add to the drama of the evening's event, it was midnight when Judy left her house to meet up with us and she had a lot of trouble backing Marc's ve-hickle out of the driveway, around the stalled truck there.

It wasn't until we reached Judy's house that we realised the headlights had been turned on after the car's engine was shut down. When we told Judy that we had solved the problem, she was much happier to know that there was nothing wrong with her car, and that the problem was simply an operational error by her brilliant son. The next day, there were no further problems with her car, and we were very happy about that, especially since Judy was loaning it to us to drive to Fort Smith a couple of days later!

The problem with the truck was eventually solved, too, but that was an unexpected expense for Judy and Marc. The previous owner of the truck was a rather large guy (okay, he was enormously FAT) who used the steering wheel to help haul himself into the high seats of the truck. All of the pulling on the wheel caused some wires to disconnect from the engine's starter and the truck wouldn't start at all. Once the problem was diagnosed and fixed, the truck was made right and both Judy and Marc could breathe a sigh of relief. Since the purchase of the truck, they have added many features to it, including a rail running along the sides of the truck, which would serve as a step to get inside. From then on, pulling on the steering column to get inside the truck was no longer an option!

On one of the days that we were in Hot Springs, we went to DeGray Lake with Judy and Marc because many people from Marc's family were there for a week-long camping reunion. People in his family put a lot of effort into the week of camping and most of the campsites in the area of DeGray Lake that we visited were booked up by his family. A large camper was parked at each campsite - his relatives went all out each summer to ensure the week was an enjoyable one.

It was "Hot Dog Day" on the day that we went to the lake; each day of the camping week had a special theme such as "hot dogs", "homemade ice cream" or "singing around the campfire". Everyone brought food and the hot dogs were cooked on a campfire next to a large marquee with many tables and chairs. Judy and Marc had brought MeeMaw along with us, and we all had a great meal. Marc's son Chad and his wife Brandi, as well as their two children, Caleb and Ally, were also at the cookout and we ate our hot dogs with them. Around the campsite, there was a small, but nice, sandy beach on the water, with a wide view overlooking the lake and forest in the distance and clear water for swimming. We didn't bring our bathing suits (that's the same as a "swimming costume" for the British people reading this), but we were able to enjoy the beautiful view.

Throughout the rest of our time in Hot Springs, we watched several DVD movies with Judy and Marc; Judy even managed to stay awake during all but one of the DVDs (there is a great photo of her snoozing during "In Dreams" with Annette Bening and Robert Downey, Jr.). When Kyle had come back to Arkansas for Christmas last December, he brought a large suitcase full of books and DVDs, so that there would be a new supply of entertainment for the second half of our year-long trip. He also thought ahead and brought some new warm weather clothes for both himself and Dan, so that the few articles of clothing we brought on our trip could be rotated over the summer, allowing us to get rid of the old, dirty things we grew tired of in Asia, and to start wearing new, clean clothes that we could grow tired of during the next six months of our voyage.

Judy and Marc lived right behind a large Wal-Mart Supercenter store and our first days in Arkansas, as well as some of our later days there, included some trips to that Wal-Mart and others dotted around the state. For those of you reading who do not know that the Wal-Mart headquarters is located in Bentonville, Arkansas, now you do. Bentonville is a town situated about 30 miles north of Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Kyle's sister, Kelli, and his brother-in-law, Clay, live with their daughter, Samantha. Later in the month, we were scheduled to visit that part of Arkansas and we were looking forward to the trip. With Wal-Mart making up one of Arkansas' larger claims to fame, Bill Clinton makes up another. He was born and raised in Arkansas and was governor of the state for many years before running for President. He actually grew up in Hot Springs as a child before moving to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas.