Arkansas part 2- Where it all began and more

As I said before, Joel was born in the town of Russellville, Arkansas and lived there until he was 6 years old.

He had fun seeing the old family home (added onto and changed a bit)

and the church his dad worked at as an associational missionary.

One day we drove about 70 miles south through the hills to the little town of Mount Ida.

They lived here while he was between 6 and 9 years old

while his dad was an associational missionary here too.

After leaving Mount Ida we headed east to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Most of the town was just typical town, but in the old part of town was Bathhouse Row, a truly fun place to see.

Behind the Row, up on the hill, was the Grand Promenade.

This was built back when the bathhouses were in their heyday in the 1940's to encourage exercise between bathing sessions.

It's a beautiful little 30 minute walk- if you walk faster and get distracted less than we did :-)

As you walk along you can see areas where the springs are coming up from the ground, and they are hot and steamy!

The bathhouses were grand and amazing.

There at the end of the row is "THE ARLINGTON". This grand hotel is a bit more, well, 'grand' than my little home town, but it found a soft place in my heart simply by sharing the name.