Day 19 - Home!

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Posted from: Home, Iowa
Miles driven: 683
Total trip miles: 4280

We are home!!! 

We are glad to be home for multiple reasons. The first is that it is always nice to be home after a long vacation. The second is that Cameron became quite ill last night. It was very uncertain whether we would be able to travel with him at all.

He decided he wanted to try to go home, so the plan was to see how far we could get and take a different route to stay on interstates in case we needed medical care. My parents were on standby to help us find a campground if we needed to stop. I did not think we would make it more than 2-4 hours. My goal was to get closer to home in case Matt also got sick and we needed someone to come help us.

We delayed our start time and got everything hooked up and ready before we had him get up and move to the truck. He sat in the front seat and we laid it back as far as it would go. Blankets, pillows, and off we went! 

We made it as far as Chester, AR before we needed to stop. I’m sure you’ve heard of Chester. It is five square blocks and one lane roads. Matt did a good job turning the camper down these one lane roads. We pulled off on the side of block two. And here we sit with me looking up campgrounds and hospitals…just in case. It’s a mom thing. We worry. And when we worry, we plan. 

There are very few pictures of the rest of the day. I just took this one from the backseat of this awesome guy who made this whole trip possible. 



Long story short: The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. As the afternoon went on, Cameron improved and we arrived home at 7:30pm. 

We are exhausted, and the wrap up post will have to wait for another day. 

Day 18 - Hot Springs National Park

Friday, June 23, 2023

Posted from: Treasure Isle RV Park, Hot Springs, AR
Miles driven: 74
Total trip miles: 3597

A few cool things happened today:

1. Matt and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. As high school sweethearts, we’ve been together for 25.5 years, and it’s been a pretty great ride!
2. We celebrated placing the last sticker on our 48 state camper map! Arkansas was the last state on our map. This really wasn’t our goal at the beginning, but as we started filling in the states, everyone got kind of excited about exploring all of the different parts of our country. Soooo…here we are! 
3. We visited our 30th of the 63 National Parks. Considering all of the travel we have done and our overall focus on national parks, it seems like it would be more, but these parks are spread out a bit further than we could travel, and it is sometimes the wrong time of year to visit the park (i.e. Death Valley in July).

We agreed Dad should have the honor of placing the last sticker on the map. 

DONE!!!

We had a celebration breakfast at the Waffle House. Caleb has asked to go during the entire vacation, but it was hard to choose Waffle House over New Orleans restaurants. 



Caleb is the happiest guy in this picture.

I had a surprise planned for everyone this morning. The Garvan Woodland Gardens is located in Hot Springs. Anthony Chapel is located in the gardens. I’ve seen pictures of this place as has my family, but we’ve never been. They did not know it was located here. It was a really good surprise. 

This place is amazing.

Cameron’s selfie skills are next level.

It was our anniversary after all…


They boys figured out it looked really cool if you lie down and look up.

The full moon bridge is very picturesque. 


These gardens are a large natural playground. It goes on forever and has so many places to walk, climb, play, etc. 


Cameron needed a rest. (We didn’t realize until later that this was likely him beginning to feel unwell.) 




This place was so interactive and cool. You could explore and climb everywhere!


This is the treehouse. It’s kind of hard to describe, but it was really fun and four levels.








Raised walkways


Fairy garden




The treehouse from another angle.


This natural pool was under the treehouse. They had it full of beach balls. They were so much fun! We hung out here for awhile. 








The trains!! They have a very nice train scape set up with five separate tracks. Caleb could have stayed here all day.








Caleb found a leaf with legs.


The first and only obligatory national park sign picture of the trip!

This park (space in blue) was odd. It used to only be a very small space that lined Bathhouse Row. The park has slowly purchased additional surrounding land as it comes up for sale. The goal is to obtain all land within the watershed that feeds the hot springs. 

Cameron wasn’t feeling very well at this point so he sat in the comfy rocking chairs downstairs while the rest of us walked through a preserved bathhouse. 

This was one of the showers. Caleb thought this shower looked good. 

The facts on this infographic were so interesting!

The ceiling of the men’s bath…the women’s was not this ornate. 

The lovely upstairs sitting room.

The floors were all this tiny tile. Wow.


This was novel for its time. Exercise and gyms were a new concept. This place was on the top floor and was considered revolutionary.

After the bathhouse, we went to a brewery at the National Park that brews beer and root beer using the hot spring water. Matt thought the Beer Bath looked okay…until we saw one at someone’s table. It was SO MUCH!!! (And no, we never actually considered it.)

It was hot and they were desperately trying to get the misters going. Grace noticed there was a leak, and Matt heard them say they couldn’t get pressure. So Matt walked over and told her she had a leak. She fixed the leak and the misters worked! They felt wonderful. 

By now Cameron needed to go back to the camper to rest, so Matt drove Cameron back to the camper, and Caleb stayed with him to keep an eye on him.

Grace and I walked into the National park gift shop while Matt was gone. They sell these growler jugs for $13 that you can fill with the hot springs water. While we did drink the water while in town, we weren’t going to spend this much money to take some with us.

The extent of our “hiking” was along the Grand Promenade trail. Without a doubt the fanciest hiking trail we’ve ever been on in a National park. Doctors would prescribe walks on this path as part of treatment. 

One of the hot spring fountains. The water was definitely hot!

Another natural spring. The water was even hotter here.

Matt found the Greatful Head Pizza place. 



The pizza was amazing!

Grace found another wing photo op.

Grace was very fascinated with the Army Navy Hospital. The place was enormous, and unfortunately it is recently abandoned. I cannot imagine what it would cost to renovate this place. There are a couple You Tune documentaries about the place. 

We drove through the park. The middle of the park that is not park land is part of the town that is mostly abandoned hotels, businesses and houses. 

The park itself was a beautiful drive. 



We drove to the campground that felt similar to the Ledges park in Iowa. 

On the way back to the camper we saw several amazing houses and noticed a lot of neon in town. 

When we arrived at the camper, they guys were watching a movie and chilling out.


Tomorrow is our last day!