So I’ve been back for about 3 days now but it’s been a crazy week. Before I get into it, do not listen to the people that tell you to wait till the timing is right. It’s never going to be right so go do what you want to do. NOW!
It was five days before 60 or so people would be at my house celebrating my high school graduation and in the midst of me saving for college and to replace my recently deceased car – RIP P Ditty – but I took the four days off anyways. My sister Kate and I went to visit and old friend in an even older town. So that’s how I ended up in Arkansas on a Tuesday morning at 8 am. We had 13 dollars and 17 cents as a budget and a killer road trip playlist. Nothing was getting us down.
Bad taste in politics and pouring rain were not going to be enough to ruin our day. Upon arrival we booted up and headed to the race tracks to see what all this horse business was all about. Our friend Sterling had been a groom for the legendary Jack Van Berg for a few months now and growing up around horses we couldn’t wait to see the professional side of things.
A few hours and a failed attempt at grilled cheese in an unstocked kitchen we were smuggled in bed and ready for a hopefully sunnier next few days. And that’s when the real fun started. Old lady sweaters on, we headed downtown to see what all the buzz was about. With no idea where we were going we set out walking and immediately found a trail.
And the adventure had began. The trail lead to a road
Which I of course wanted to find out where it lead. But we left that for a different day and headed back into town to see what other adventures there were to embark on. And oh boy did we. My favorite way to travel is to have no prior knowledge of the place. That way every discovery is a new one. Well I learned that the entirety of downtown Hot Springs is connected by various trials. Some paved:
Others dangerous
But all worth traveling down.. If only we had had the time. We spent all morning going down every interesting path we could find. Before we had even scrapped the surface we had to return to home base and meet Sterling for lunch and some errands. We took a quick nap and when he returned from the evening feed we squeezed in his truck and headed out to find the road we had discovered earlier.
Mountain Drive lead us up and up around countless curves until we found ourselves here:
And as I was looking out at the Arkansas sunset I thought “hey this is the perfect time to learn how to drive a standard.” So we hopped back in the truck and drove around the little loop on the top of that hill until I figured out how to shift well enough to get us home (and my mom said I wouldn’t get anything out of this trip). We add stir fry and had a dance party and tried to think about it being our last night. So instead we fell asleep to Ruffian in preparation for spending the next day at the races.
-yes this is just a random picture but look how pretty that rock is-
You don’t actually visit Hot Springs if you don’t spend a little time betting your money away at Oaklawn. So that’s where we spent our last day. Although our visit was a little better than anticipated because one of Sterlings “coworkers” horses won his race and we got to jump in for the winner picture and I also discovered my unknown desire to be a race horse.
-another random picture because I didn’t actually take any at Oaklawn-
After a long day at the tracks we grabbed some of Arkansas best pizza and headed back to Missouri because as hard as it was to leave, that’ll only make it that much better when I get to go back.
So here’s to next time Hot Springs!
Photography by Kateland Kissinger
Selfies by me
That Letter C 
Reblogged this on Mark DeWitt.
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