Wandering Retirees

Writing from Hot Springs, Arkansas at the end of a fun day. We rode about 225 miles from Cabot, AR mostly by back roads, our favorite kind of route. (If you look at our Spot map, you’ll see a rather convoluted track that avoided Little Rock, but not the National Park Hot Springs Nat’l Park and it’s neat roads.) After 5 days of mostly interstates, it was a welcome day.Early on, we stopped to check our location (and restore feeling to our butts) in front of a repair garage under construction. A man came toward us to find if we needed help. His name is Ron Davis and he took time from rebuilding this shop for his son’s business in Mayflower. Turns out this area was wiped clean by a killer tornado a few years back and the property (pad and land; no building) became available. He impressed us as a kind, hard-working man who enjoyed meeting us as much as we enjoyed his company. Ron, like so many folks we’ve met, was friendly and happy to be of help. He suggested a fun route and shared generously of his knowledge of the area. He also said nice things about our planned trip, which we found endearing.

A couple of hours later, we stopped to rest in a country church parking lot. The church was in Walnut Grove, AR, and, like so many, had a cemetery along side. We walked among the plots for a few minutes and noticed the entire cemetery was beautifully maintained, with nice, even expensive, monuments and flowers marking each grave. A few families were richly represented. We noticed markers for Bates, Fischer, Murders (you read that right) and Battleberry. There were others, of course. But it is clear that generations, from at least the late 1800’s, have visited and beautifully tended these family plots. We noted two brothers from the Bates family, who fought on opposing sides of the Civil War, but were killed in battle but returned home to be buried side-by-side. We found that moving. From what we saw of the area, folks don’t have a lot of money, but where, and who they are, matters to them. Memories matter. And they follow through generation after generation.

We arrived in Hot Springs and are staying in a little family owned Alpine Inn. Turns out the owners are Scottish (Glasgow) and very welcoming. Hot Springs was once famous for having geothermal spas that attracted some impressive people. FDR came here several times to recuperate and refresh during his presidency (though he also died here in early 1945 before his 4th term was completed). Al Capone and other gangsters of that era spent time here for R & R, though they held a perpetual truce while in town. This is also the birthplace of President Bill Clinton.  

Tomorrow it’s on to Ft. Worth to visit family. Looking forward to arriving. More later.