LATE VISION QUEST

After visiting with some family in Jonesboro, AR for a few days I was ready to get on the road. Over the previous week I had slowly started accustoming myself to the hardships of camping, trail mix, sweating more, and all this talking to people and staying in air conditioning I was thinking was going to make it hard to get back to the traveling routine again... I was wrong. After I was just outside of Jonesboro on my bike I was already back in the groove. I knew that rain was coming too so I made sure as always to have my rain gear packed in the most accessible place so it was easy to get to. I was about 30 minutes outside of town when I looked up ahead and saw the clouds opening up and pouring down on the road. It is really cool when you can see the actual line of where the rain starts. I immediately pulled off the road to suit up. I thought I was pulling into a driveway of a house, but it turned out to be about the most creepy "maybe" abandoned house I'd ever seen. I pulled up to an overhang from the garage next to it and snapped pictures of what I could see from there. I wasn't too interested in exploring... well I was interested, but I guess I've seen to many movies to go looking around when I'm out in the middle of nowhere. There literally was nothing else around this place for miles and there were some signs that someone might still be around.





Doesn't this make you want to go inside and say hi?


I didn't get a picture of it, but there was a big zip loc bag of water nailed on the wall next to the door..... strange.

Suited up I headed out and hit more rain. I rode through about 45 minutes of rain on the way to Hot Springs. It was only about a 3 hour ride there. Really pretty country though.


I found a campsite and threw up my tent and then headed to town since it was only about 4pm.



I made it downtown and parked the bike to take a stroll down and check out some shops and the area.
Here's a shot of some of the main drag in Hot Springs where all the shops are.





There were quite a few of these things. They were the "Duck Tour" and it was $4 bucks for a ride. I'm not sure where they get in the water at though.


I ended up stopping at a bar called "Capones, Ohio Club." This happens to be the oldest standing bar in Arkansas. I talked with the owner and I think he said it was established in 1905. The gangsters back in the day would come from up north to the nice weather in Hot Springs to vacation and this was one of the spots where they would have a few drinks. The cops had a bit of a unsaid understanding with the gangsters while they were there and didn't harass them if they didn't cause any trouble. I don't think I'd want to mess with Al Capone if I was an Andy Griffith small town cop anyway.








I don't usually drink more than maybe one beer with some food if I'm riding, but I planned on staying here for awhile because it was still very early... and they were serving free pretzels which happen to be one of my favorite snack foods... or for dinner.

I had a Jack and coke and then a Heineken.



I talked with a few other people at the bar besides the owner and ended up meeting Sharon and Joe who just retired to Hot Springs about 3 years ago from Dallas. He ended up buying me a beer and they wished me well on the trip before taking off to entertain their visiting son and his girlfriend. I was told by Sharon that she wasn't the one for him among other things. People just seem to open up to you when they hear you are doing something like I'm doing it seems. Very nice people.


I'm now back at my campsite which costs me $26 for a tent!! But I do get water,electric, and wifi so I guess it's not so bad since I was able to get caught up on my trip here.

When I wake up in the morning I'll decide what to do and where to go then...