Hot Springs, Arkansas

We stayed a little longer in Memphis than we had intended, in order to escape the 30 mph winds and thunder storms west of there. We were just leaving the grocery store in Memphis when the tornado sirens started wailing. No one seemed the least concerned. Stacy stopped a fire fighter in the parking lot and asked "what do those sirens mean?" His first response was "What sirens?". Then he cocked his head to listen and said, "Oh, that's just a tornado warning. We usually just ignore them"  So we did.

We did check at the RV park though. If a tornado had actually appeared we would have evacuated Irv and taken sanctuary in the Heartbreak Hotel.  Fortunately it didn't happen, and an hour later everything was calm again.

On our drive from Memphis to Hot Springs we stopped in Little Rock to go to the William Clinton Presidential Library. It is a beautiful, modern, environmentally "green" structure reaching out over the Arkansas River. The Cabinet room and the Oval Office are replicated there exactly as they were in the White House during Clinton's tenure. Stacy sat in the Defense Secretary's seat, Jack in Al Gore's. Way cool. Clinton's history, and the history of his presidency, are presented beautifully. It was very impressive.

Hot Springs, Arkansas. We loved it! The town is in the Oachita Mountains surrounded by woods, lakes and rivers. It has natural mineral hot springs (143 degrees out of the ground) and was quite a destination in the early 1900's. "Bath House Row" consists of a series of about six different bath houses, each beautifully preserved. Some are still offering mineral baths, while others are closed or operating as museums or restaurants. Naturally, we decided to "take the waters" and squeezed in a massage as well. It was lovely.

Wooded area overlooking Hot Springs

In the 1920s, Hot Springs was a haven for gangsters. The unwritten rule was that gangster differences were laid aside here, and everyone had to get along. Al Capone had a suite at the Arlington Hotel, a massive Art Deco hotel in the middle of town. If the "Feds" were on their way, Capone's pal the Governor would alert him, and he would disappear down a secret staircase in his closet, through a secret tunnel, and surface across the street in a speak easy that is now a Wax Museum.

The old Grand Hotel, now a Rehabilitation Center

The lobby of the Arlington, home of the Al Capone Suite

Before we left, we went to see Maxwell Blade's Magic Show. Maxwell is in his 50s, but had played keyboard in a rock band in his younger days. Some years ago he opened this little theater in Hot Springs where he "raised his daughters right". His theater is a small storefront, done in classic "Magician" motif. When buying our tickets Jack asked Maxwell if the show was any good. He guaranteed it, saying if we didn't like it he'd refund our tickets and buy us dinner. The show was great!

Maxwell Blade, magician extrordinare