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Day 32: Hot Springs National Park

Wednesday, Oct 5, 2022

 

The Victorian cottage I stayed in Little Rock was only 2 blocks from a National Historic Site, the Little Rock Central High School. It was the epicenter of confrontation in 1957 for civil rights and desegregation of schools. I took a morning walk around the school as school buses dropped students off at the school. Interestingly, most of these students were black. It was an all white school before 1957. 

 

 

As I started my short drive towards Hot Springs National Park, the creaking sound from the front of my Tesla was quite loud on the local streets and it had me very worried. I hoped it would be fine for the 400+ mile drive today before I got to the Tesla Service center in Tulsa tomorrow. 

The Hot Springs National Park is quite an interesting place, very different from other national parks. The natural hot springs, the mountains and creeks are all in the center of the town and a key focus of the park are the grand, historic bathhouses. Many of these hot springs spas are still open. 

 

 

 

The visitor center is in the Fordyce Bathhouse, now converted into a museum showcasing the opulence of that time. 







After the therapeutic baths in the water of the hot springs, the rich and famous used to take walks on this wide boulevard in the mountains.  I walked on this for a few minutes and then went off to a short hike, the Peak Trail to the highest point in these hills.





From Hot Springs, it was a long drive to Joplin, Missouri and then to the OK-KA-MO Tri-State Marker, so I could take a few steps in Kansas. I am still on track to visit all 48 states, but does taking only a few steps in a state count? Spending more meaningful time in each state would have stretched my trip even longer, so I am definitely counting these state visits.

It was getting dark and I drove straight to my hotel in Catoosa, Oklahoma. It was new and quite nice, and the Tesla destination charger was a welcome bonus.


The raw numbers for the day:

  • 419 miles driving, 10200 steps walking
  • 3 Tesla supercharger stops, Tesla destination charger overnight at hotel
  • 4 states - Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma

 

Comments

  1. ManeeshaOctober 9, 2022 at 7:14 PM

    May be we should change our bedroom curtains. Lets use a fabric that has Tesla supercharger print.. Seems just the sight of it gets you in a good mood ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
  2. VisheshOctober 9, 2022 at 7:31 PM

    "The natural hot springs, the mountains and creeks are all in the center of the town and a key focus of the park are the grand, historic bathhouses." That's fascinating. So the town was built around the springs, and then they turned the center into a national park?

    ReplyDelete

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