Western Adventure #4-Bathhouses & the Hotel

Day 4 -8/6/2024

I took a walk around the campground this morning. If it's a large enough campground, and it's not raining, this is my usual routine. Later, Vince and I will head into Hot Springs to wander through Bathhouse Row.

We took a picture by the Hot Springs National Park sign and wandered over to the Fordyce Bathhouse for more information about the area. We are taking the 10:00 tour with the ranger. But we had some time to kill. So we went to the gift shop and looked around. Vince got our Passport stamped. I bought his hiking medallion and a magnet. We wandered around Bathhouse Row taking pictures of the bathhouses. Then we went on the very interesting and very full tour. There was a large family reunion group on this tour, so the ranger had to make accommodations for us. The interesting thing was that the men's side of the bathhouse was very elaborate while the women's side was pretty plain. Nothing fancy. You'd think it'd be the opposite.

Fordyce Bathhouse & NPS Visitor Center

Ranger tour--this is the men's side

Stained glass ceiling in the men's side

We went back to Faye, our RV, and had lunch. Then we drove back to Hot Springs and toured more of Fordyce. It is a very beautiful building. I think Anna Marie would be really interested in the history of the devices used to rehabilitate people in the bathhouses. A lot of the devices are precursors to our modern devices.

The tour was mostly on the first floor of Fordyce. We could go to the second and third floors, and even the basement of the bathhouse. The third floor was the best! I saw a grand piano in the parlor. The parlor had very beautiful mosaic tile floors. We found the gymnasium. I took a video of it for Christi Bartels and sent it to her. She loved it. All very interesting. 

Beautiful mosaic tiles in the parlor

Grand piano in the parlor

Stained glass ceilings in the parlor.

Gymnasium

Old weights

Indian clubs

Video of whole gymnasium

We walked down to the historic hotel, The Arlington. 

The Arlington Hotel

We wandered in there and found some mineral water to drink. 

Here's to our health!!

We went all over that hotel, or at least as much as we were allowed to. Then we headed to Hot Springs Mountain Scenic Drive and took that drive. Very pretty area.

After a full day of exploring Hot Springs Bathhouse Row, we came back to Faye, had dinner, and sat around the Roths' campsite visiting.