ARKANSAS TRAVELS, Day 7, June 7, 2012

Our final day of touring, and we woke up to a glorious morning. Quickly we packed, then investigated Grandma's Kitchen, across from Bathhouse Row, where I had one pancake and Dempsey enjoyed a pancake and an omelette. Afterwards we stowed our luggage in the car and left for the Observation Tower, high above Hot Springs. Actually, it is called the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. Since 1877, Hot Springs Mountain Tower has been a HS landmark. Enoch Woolman erected the original 75 foot observatory. When lightning and fire destroyed the structure, a second tower was built. The 165 foot steel structure, later called the Rix Tower, stood for over 60 years. Following years of coordinated efforts between the community and the National Park Service, the New Hot Springs Mountain Tower opened to the public in 1983. The 216 foot structure affords a breathtaking, panorama-encompassing view of 140 miles of Hot Springs, the Ouachita Mountsins, and the surrounding Diamond Lakes area. It is located on top of Hot Springs Mountsin in the National Park. There are two stops--the stop at the very top, breezy and open-air, and then one a few feet below that which contains a marvelous exhibit concerning Hot Springs and the history of the area, as well as the life and work of Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States. On the way out of town we had lunch, again at Fisherman's Wharf, where we had had dinner last evening. This time we sat outside and I enjoyed a very well-seasoned gumbo. On the way to Dallas, we made a rather long stop in Hope, Arkansas to visit the railroad depot, which housed a wonderful exhibit on Bill Clinton, native son who had been born there and had spent his youth (until the age of 11) there before moving to Hot Springs. We also visited a museum devoted to another native son: Paul Klipsch, the acoustic engineer who had invented the famous Klipsch loudspeakers. Afterwards, we drove by the first and second boyhood homes of President Clinton, before proceeding to a cafe, where we enjoyed a homemade piece of pie (Dempsey had cocoanut and I had a piece of sweet potato pie) and coffee. Fortified, we continued our trek to Dallas, arriving just as the sun set. A great trip! My next set of blogs will begin, hopefully, on June 20 from Sweden. Until then, as ever, Peripatetic Sylvia