Arkansas, Hot Springs: Magical Water Amusement and Some Fleas

The scenery we observed during our journey back to Hot Springs, Arkansas, from Fort Smith, Arkansas, was just as beautiful as it was during our previous journey. If you haven't read the first journal entry for Fort Smith, then you should click back to it so we don't have to retype everything we have already said. Plus, you just might enjoy the stories!

Every state in the United States had a nickname and the nickname for Arkansas was "The Natural State". During the drive back, both of us thought that the state nickname held true; we passed so many forests, small mountains and lakes, all of which were extremely green and picturesque. Now that you are itching to find out more, you really should click back and read that entry.

The ride had gotten stuck a week before and people hung upside down for almost an hour

When we made it back to Hot Springs, it was just after noon. Kyle's mum, Judy, was off work that day and we asked her if she wanted to see "Shrek the Third" at the cinema. Maybe it was the early start that day, or maybe it was because the film was just not that great, but Kyle had trouble staying awake throughout the middle of the film. Dan kept his attention alive during the film but found the film boring, so we think that Kyle fell asleep because of the latter cause. Judy seemed to really enjoy the film and we know that Kyle's sister, Kelli, also really liked it, so please don't neglect the film on account of us if you are a big Shrek fan.

A film was a good way to pass the time during the hot afternoon. We needed to kill a few hours before Marc, Kyle's stepdad, got off work; we were supposed to play racquetball with him and Judy that evening. Racquetball has been a newfound pastime for us in Hot Springs and we have played as often as possible during our time there. Kyle played a lot when he was younger, when his dad owned a gym in Fort Smith called Olympic Health Club, and he quickly picked the game up again. Since Dan has played a lot of squash in London over the last couple of years, he picked the game up very well and was good competition for everyone.

After playing several games, we had to leave Hot Springs Health and Fitness because they were closing; we would have loved to have played longer but they would have kicked us out! Appetites were in full force when we had all showered and left the gym and we went in search of somewhere to eat, but first we stopped to buy dinner for Kyle's grandmother, Jenny (MeeMaw), and her husband, Bob. After dropping off their food, we had trouble finding some place open (besides fast food joints) past 10:00pm that would serve us; since Hot Springs only had 50,000 people, there was not much demand for late night dinners at the start of the week.

What we settled on was dinner at the American restaurant chain, Chili's. It was late, so we shared a meal, which was a good thing since the portions were huge there. We tried the cajun chicken sandwich and it came with fries. The sandwich was okay, but not a favourite for either of us; we have had better meals at other Chili's restaurants. For an appetiser, we shared tortilla chips, chili con carne queso (melted cheese) dip and salsa with Judy and Marc and it was tasty but some of the chips were stale.

Sleep came easily for everyone that night, with such full stomachs. The next morning was a lazy morning, especially for Dan, who slept until 12:30pm because he was feeling a bit unwell. Kyle woke up at a decent time and spent all morning reinstalling Windows on the laptop that we bought in Hong Kong; it had been infected with a virus in Beijing and we think the virus was causing some strange things to happen. The reinstallation took longer than expected, as these things tended to do, so the work continued into the early afternoon.

Once Dan had woken up and Judy had come home from running various errands, Kyle was in a position with the laptop to leave it until later that evening. Therefore, the three of us went to Magic Springs and Crystal Falls, an amusement and water park that was located in downtown Hot Springs. A nice surprise was in store for us that day; Kyle's sister, brother-in-law and niece (aka Kelli, Clay and Samantha) were waiting at the park for us.

The weather was really pleasant that day; the sun was actually shining and, even though there were still many clouds in the sky, the sky appeared blue in several places; we don't need to mention anything about the heat because there has been no question of hot days in Arkansas since we have been there. However, since we arrived in the United States on 15th June, the sky had been cloudy and the weather forecast had constantly stated a chance for scattered thunderstorms. You can understand why we welcomed that somewhat more beautiful summer day.

Magic Springs has been in Hot Springs since Kyle was a little boy, but the Crystal Falls part of the park was a newer addition. In fact, the year 2007 marked the introduction of a brand new set of innertube and body slides in the water park. There was already a wave pool and an older set of innertube slides, as well as a large children's water playground and a lazy lagoon, where people float around the park, laying on innertubes atop a narrow, pool of moving water.

With the weather as good as it was, we all chose to spend time in Crystal Springs before drying off and trying our hand at some of the amusement park rides in Magic Springs. By the way, the two sections of the park were connected so people could move easily between them.

Clay and Kelli tried the body slides with us, but Judy and Samantha opted out. There were three slides, one that went straight down very steeply, one that had a break in the middle of the descent and one built as a covered tube that went exceedingly fast. The first one was probably the easiest and most pleasant (if we would say the slides were pleasant, which we won't).

The reason the covered tube slide was not pleasant was because speed picked up very quickly and, towards the end of the slide, before breaking into the open air, water was gushing at us so fast we couldn't see anything. It was also easy for the body to rotate inside the slide, which caused both Clay and Kyle to hit their heads on the side walls of the tube. They were both okay but the bump on Clay's head swelled up as quickly as it would in a Tom and Jerry cartoon!

If you could have seen Dan's back, you would understand why the slide with the break in the middle of the descent was not pleasant. He had HUGE welts on his back, just under his shoulder blades. Even some of the staff at the water park said they were the largest welts they had seen and it was poor Kelli who decided to try that slide because it looked the easiest; looks can be deceiving and she was crying when she finished the quick ride.

When we had had enough of the self-inflicted bodily harm, we moved over to the tame and more enjoyable innertube slides. We took turns riding doubles with each other and those turns were the best because everyone went down the slides faster when two people were on one innertube. Some of the innertube slides were covered and completely dark inside and some of them had sections that opened up to let light in. There were also a couple of new slides that opened out into large bowls that looked like fishbowls (but they weren't clear); when the innertubes entered the bowls, they would spin around a few times before shooting down the next part of the slide.

Once we were watered out, we visited the neighbouring amusement park, Magic Springs, to experience the fun rollercoasters and other rides there. Everyone rode the rides that they wanted to; the only exception to that was the X Coaster, which we could not ride because it was closed for maintenance. It was probably a good thing that it was closed for maintenance because the ride had gotten stuck just over a week before and people were hanging upside down for almost an hour - the fire department had to rescue them!

Judy received the award for "Most Brave" during the afternoon because she was completely gung ho and rode everything that we asked her to ride. There were a couple of occasions where she was almost in tears, though. For instance, on Dr. Dean's Rocket Machine, a ride that shot people 100 feet up into the air before dropping them back down in a free-fall fashion, she looked as though she was about to die when the ride finished (she actually had a couple of tears streaming down her face).

The funny thing about that ride was that no one wanted to ride it at first, except for Kyle. However, he was able to talk Clay and Samantha into riding it with him. Once they rode it and agreed it was not that bad, Dan then took a turn while Kyle and Samantha rode a second time with him. After that, Dan convinced Kelli to ride with Kyle and Samantha and so the three of them rode it. By that point, Judy had worked up enough courage from everyone nagging her to get on the ride and she rode it with Kyle and Samantha, who took their final turn of the day.

Another memorable ride that day was Plummet Summit. That ride involved a large boat that went up a steep ramp and turned a corner before it descended down an equally steep slide. The ride itself was not scary or as thrilling as the other rides in the park, but the anticipation of getting really wet was the key to its enjoyment. And really wet was exactly what Dan, Judy, Kelli and Samantha got from their experience.

Kyle and Clay opted to sit that ride out and take photos and you will see from those in this journal entry's photo album that a large gush of water splashed up onto the boat, soaking everyone through and through. After the ride, the four of them were laughing hysterically because they had no idea how much water would be pushed into the air when the boat struck the pool at the base of the slide.

As they exited the ride, they decided to wait on the small bridge at the base of the ride, to watch the next boat speed down the large slide. This was another hysterically funny moment because the huge wave of water that got the boat wet was actually bigger when it hit the bridge and Dan, Kelli and Samantha got completely soaked again. Judy was wise and had gone to talk to Kyle and Clay after the ride had finished, so she didn't get any wetter than she already was.

We had a great time at Magic Springs and Crystal Falls, but not so great that we could go again the next day. Therefore, when Kelli, Clay and Sam decided to venture back out there, we decided to see the new film "Evan Almighty" instead, after spending some time in a Starbucks cafe first. When the movie was over and the Doss family had returned to the house, we had some beers with them until Judy and Marc came home.

Food was a necessity at that point so we all went to dinner at Salsa's, a great Mexican restaurant in Hot Springs; we stuffed ourselves and had a great time talking throughout the meal. Afterwards, when we were leaving, we each decided to strike a funny pose for the camera, and you can see the evidence of these silly facial antics in the photo album for this journal entry.

Even though we didn't go back to Magic Springs and Crystal Falls that next day, we ended up going back there a few days later, when a friend of ours arrived from London. On her first full day in Arkansas, we took Sophia to the amusement and water park to enjoy a day in the sun. Kyle's mum also came with us that day, but she (Judy) only stayed for a couple of hours because she had to help Marc with the fire pit he was building in the back of their house. You can read more about this part of the trip further down the page.

Kelli, Clay and Samantha had to go back to Fayetteville to sort out their car problems. Their car was totalled a few days earlier and there were several things that required their attention back at their home. Luckily, the accident was not their fault and no one was hurt; a Russian student had driven into their car and wrecked it pretty badly. Unluckily, though, as most people who have dealt with insurance companies and totalled cars (that were not the insured's fault) will know, they did not receive much in compensation and they had to figure out a way to buy a new car with little money to do so. After the Mexican dinner and photo funnies, they were on their way home, eager to sort things out.

After arriving back at Judy's and Marc's house, we checked out film times on the Fandango website to see what films were opening the next day, which was a Friday. Judy and Marc were both scheduled to work the next day, so we decided to look into films at Little Rock movie theatres for a change of pace from the two small ones in Hot Springs.

We came across a dollar movie theatre on McCain Blvd in North Little Rock that was called Cinemark Tandy 10 and that actually only charged $1.00 (50p!) a ticket for films. There was one exception for films that showed on Friday and Saturday evenings after 7:00pm; tickets for those films were priced at $1.75 (90p!).

Not only did we get a good deal pricewise, but the dollar movie theatre showed films that were released earlier in the year when we were in the middle of our travels in Asia. This meant that we were able to choose from many films that we had not yet seen. We made a full day of it and ended up seeing four films throughout the day, only paying $4.75 (£2.30!) each. In between films, we spent time in a neighbouring Starbucks cafe, working on the travel journal and planning out more of our trip, and we enjoyed a large lunch at CiCi's Pizza, an all-you-can-eat pizza and salad buffet that left us feeling very large, indeed.

Two films were watched before lunch and the other two films were watched after lunch. By the time the last of the four films was over, we had actually built up an appetite again, despite having eaten such a huge meal earlier. Since we needed to get back to Hot Springs - it was getting late by that point - fast food was really the best option and, since Taco Bell was located right down the road from the movie theatre, we went there to eat. The quality of that Taco Bell in North Little Rock held no candle to the quality of the one in Hot Springs that we had been frequenting and we were a little disappointed in the food.

For those of you who have been reading our travel journals, you will know about Dan's ability to attract chiggers in Arkansas, those nasty little harvest mites that have been foresting in the skin of his feet and ankles. In Hot Springs, Dan had begun to attract another equally annoying pest, the flea. It wasn't just one flea, either, that jumped onto Dan's feet and legs and started biting him; there were at least four or five a day on him, sometimes as many as nine.

An explanation is probably required here, so let's start at the beginning in order to give you an overview of how we got to that point. The Doss family dog was an adorable beagle named Sassy, who was normally rather clean and was taken care of very well. On one occasion, though, the Dosses went to visit a friend of theirs whose back yard was infested with fleas, and those fleas decided to make their homes in poor Sassy's fur.

When Kelli, Clay and Samantha left their friend's house, they visited Judy and Marc in Hot Springs and Sassy came inside the house. She was an active little dog and ran around the house, giving the fleas ample opportunity to hop off and start spreading themselves around inside. No one really thought about it at that time because the main concern was to get rid of the fleas on Sassy, so nothing was done to the house in Hot Springs then. Fast forward to a few weeks later and - voila - the Huneycutt abode had a flea infestation problem that was primarily occurring in the same room where Dan was sleeping...

How did we tackle the problem, you may ask? Well, the best thing we could have done was to bomb the house, NOT literally, of course, but with those magical flea bombs that you could find in any neighbourhood Wal-Mart. The bombs were aerosol cans that were required to be set off in a home and then left to work their magic for at least four hours, killing all fleas and other insects in the house at that time. In addition to the bombs, since the infestation was pretty severe, Judy purchased some flea killing powder that was spread all over the carpets and left alone for 24 hours before vacuuming it up.

After the vacuuming and bombing, the problem seemed to have gone away, but there was one occasion a couple of weeks later when Dan noticed a flea on his leg when he jumped into Judy's car. No one knew where that flea had come from, but we imagined it was a one-off incident because we haven't had any other problems since. Thank goodness the problem was sorted before Sophia and Brady arrived, as that would have been embarrassing for them to have gone back home to tell their friends and family that Arkansas homes are infested with fleas.

Speaking of Brady, he was not able to come to Arkansas because of work pressures; he cancelled his trip a few days before he was scheduled to come. It was unfortunate because Kyle was trying to arrange lunch in Little Rock with Stan and Sunshine, who Brady also knew from his days teaching camps and working for NCA in Dallas. A huge 60 year reunion for NCA has been planned for 2008 and that will provide them all with a chance to get together and catch up.

While the flea bombs were exterminating the enemy, we had to come up with something to do that would keep us out of the house for several hours. Marc chose to work on the garden behind their house, adding dirt and gravel to the fire pit that we mentioned he was building next to the back patio. Judy and Kyle chose to play racquetball and Dan chose to spend time working on the journal before going for a swim outside at the fitness centre's pool. Kyle held his own against his mum, they played several games and he won 3 of them, but Judy was the victor of the afternoon, winning 5 games.

Later that evening, Marc and Judy took us to Doe's for dinner where we all watched the sun set over Lake Hamilton. Doe's was situated right on the lake and some of the restaurant patrons actually drove up in their boats to enjoy a meal on the large patio outside the place. There was a live singer who played acoustic guitar and sang some classic rock songs very well, but the sound was turned up a little too loudly and we had to shout to hear each other above the noise. The service was really poor, too, as the waitress was terrible, but since we were not in a huge hurry, we enjoyed the leisurely evening meal and experience outside.

One of the best films that we have seen this year was "Die Hard: Live Free or Die Hard". The film had a perfect balance of action, humour and tense moments and whoever did the casting should be mighty proud of themselves; we all thought that the actors were superb. When we got back to the house, we were tired and went to sleep, eagerly awaiting Sophia's arrival in Little Rock the next day.

Several years ago, a film called "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" was released. It was therefore ironic when we ate fried green tomatoes at Whistle Stop Restaurant in Hot Springs the next morning when Judy and Marc took us and Kyle's MeeMaw to eat at the lunch buffet there. The buffet included several vegetable choices that were cooked "southern style" and some different meat choices including meatloaf, chicken and catfish. Everyone stuffed themselves full of food and we all rolled out of the restaurant very satisfied. By the way, the restaurant had nothing to do with the film, but one of the signs inside the restaurant was the actual sign used in the film; the owner had purchased the item at an auction.

Sophia's flight was not scheduled to arrive in Little Rock until late afternoon, so we went for a swim at the gym in Hot Springs before leaving to pick her up. The weather was not with us and it started to rain, so our swim lasted about ten minutes. When we left the pool area, the rain stopped but the clouds were still quite heavy and we decided to leave the gym completely. San Francisco Bread Company was our friend at that point and we worked on the journal whilst drinking cup after cup of sweet iced tea; unlimited refills in the United States are truly wonderful.

The mobile phone that we were using during our summer trip in the United States rang just as San Francisco Bread Company was closing. The incoming call was from Sophia, who told us that there was no way she was going to make her flight connection in Houston, Texas, since she was delayed getting through Customs. The bad thing was that ebookers, the travel company she used to book her flight on the internet, had booked her flight with only an hour connection in Houston after arriving there from London. We both think that ebookers and Continental Airlines, the airline that Sophia flew, should have known that clearing Customs in the US and retrieving luggage from Baggage Claim before catching a connecting flight would take more than an hour, and that she should have been given at least two hours to catch her next flight.

The crux of the situation was that the airline would not automatically put Sophia onto the next flight; instead, she was put on standby and had to wait, along with 20 other people, for a flight to open up. She was finally given a seat on one of the last evening flights from Houston to Little Rock and called us with the good news. After travelling for over 15 hours, we imagined that she was happy to finally be on her way and that she wouldn't have to spend the night in the Houston International Airport, despite arriving late in Little Rock. It was well after midnight when we arrived back in Hot Springs after picking her up from the airport.

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls were mentioned above; we took Sophia there on her first day in Arkansas. The park was great because they served free, unlimited soft drinks and we enjoyed those all day long and we also tried some common American amusement park "treats". Sophia got to eat ranch dressing for the first time (poured over atomic fries, which were french fries covered in nacho cheese and bacon bits) and she also took several bites of a funnel cake, another first for her. The funnel cake tasted like a crispy donut and was a large, twisted mass of fried dough that was half-covered with powdered sugar and half-covered with ice cream and warm apple slices. The final, completely unhealthy thing we tried that day was a portion of deep-fried Oreos, which makes both of us cringe to this day because they were so, so, so heavy to eat.

Besides all of the food that we tried, we spent time riding the innertube water rides that were so fun the first time we went to the park with Judy, Kelli, Clay and Sam. However, we avoided the body slides because we didn't want to cause ourselves any pain; plus, Sophia was pretty wimpy when it came to thrill rides, so we didn't want to waste time trying to go on those when there were plenty of tame things to do that we both enjoyed with her.

Once we had our fill of the wave pool, tube rides and lazy lagoon, we dried off and changed back into our clothes so that we could enjoy the food we mentioned above, and so that we could start riding the amusement park rides. We started with Arkansas Twister, a wooden rollercoaster that went pretty fast and that had several dips, a couple of them quite high. Since Sophia was pretty nervous about riding that one, we were both shocked when she agreed to ride The Gauntlet later, which had many loops and twists and also went very fast. She seemed to have enjoyed the ride a lot, so maybe one day she'll be over her phobia and will be the one urging us to ride the white-knuckle rides!

The evening after leaving the park, we met up again with Judy and we took Sophia to a shop where "Everything's Under a Dollar", hence the name. After that, we went to Wal-Mart and walked around while Sophia and Judy shopped. The plan for that evening was to play racquetball with Judy while Sophia shopped at Hot Springs Mall, which was located right next to the fitness centre where we would play. The mall closed at 9:00pm and Sophia came to meet us at the gym at that point so we could all head back to Judy's and Marc's for dinner, which consisted of veggie burgers that we ate without the buns, since it was so late by the time we ate them.

The 4th of July was coming up in a couple of days so we left the next morning to go to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where Kyle's dad, Leon, and his stepmum, Linda, were holding their annual 4th of July party. The party was normally held on 3rd July so that everyone could spend the actual day of the 4th with their families, so this was the day that we headed there to join in on the festivities. Keep reading to find out what we did in Fort Smith and whether or not the three of us - Kyle, Dan and Sophia - thought that the party was a success... you can click the link that takes you to the next journal entry if you are staring at this one now with a confused look on your face!

Not to confuse you any further, but when we returned to Hot Springs from Fort Smith, we spent another day with Judy and Marc before leaving to visit the Doss family in Fayetteville. Rather than writing a separate journal entry for this additional time in Hot Springs, we have decided to include the activities below and we hope that you enjoy reading about them!

We had left Fort Smith early on 5th July so that we could have breakfast at Mt. Ida Cafe and get back to Hot Springs in time to walk around the downtown area. We also arranged some spa time for Sophia, so she could have a massage and bathe in the natural hot springs that give the town its name. Mt. Ida Cafe was brilliant, but the first time we ate there was for lunch on the way to Fort Smith for Leon's 4th of July party, yet another reason to read the next journal entry, because you need to know about that perfect roadside cafe.

We had some extra time before venturing into downtown Hot Springs, so we dropped Sophia off at the mall so she could finish exploring all of the shops there. A couple of hours later, we picked up Judy and Sophia and we all went downtown to have a late lunch at Rolando's, an Ecuadorian restaurant that served an amazing flaming queso dip - we shared two portions of it with Judy. We also shared some delicious guacamole and with all of the appetisers, we didn't have a huge appetite, so we shared a main course with Judy. You can see the dish we chose in our photo album, it was a delicious plate of talapia (fish) with salad, beans and rice.

After eating, we walked along the downtown, historic main street to have a wander through the shops and to see some of the traditional bath houses. Before we knew it, the time had come for Sophia's appointment, so we went to a cafe to have iced coffees whilst Judy took Sophia to the spa. An hour later, Judy had finished some shopping of her own and Sophia was back from her massage, which was given to her by an elderly blind man.

Back at Judy's and Marc's house, we all cleaned up for dinner and, when Marc was home, we then went to pick up Jenny to take her out for a meal. It was her 92nd birthday the next day and we decided to celebrate it that evening since we were still in town. First, we went to Doe's to let her enjoy dinner on the lake, but as soon as the horrible waitress, who had served us before, finally came to our table to take our order (about 15 minutes after we had sat down), we decided to try another place and we went downtown to check out Brick House Grill.

Judy had bought a cake and presents for her mother and a birthday candle that played the "Happy Birthday" tune. We all sang to Jenny and she had a really nice time, as did everyone else there. The food was good and we would like to go back there one more time before we leave Arkansas for good this summer. It was late when we finished eating, so we took Jenny back to her house and visited with Bob for a little while while Marc and Judy took Sophia back to their house. After leaving Jenny's and Bob's home, we made sure our things were packed for the rest of our trip with Sophia that would find us travelling to the Arkansas cities of Fayetteville (via Little Rock) and Eureka Springs, as well as the Missouri city of Springfield.