Day 4: Shawnee, OK to Hot Springs, AR

I went running on the most beautiful country road ever this morning. The sun was just starting to rise and everything was so green and so lush and smelled so earthy and amazing. This was a run to remember! I think I made quite an impression on some good ole boys - a couple of dudes in old pick up trucks hanging out of their window smoking slowed down to get a better look. Guess they're not used to seeing 6' tall runners on their roads?? The run was so great that I totally didn't care.

East Oklahoma is very lush and green and beautiful. Rolling hills, millions of trees - I think it might be pretty similar to where I am moving in Massachusetts, though I am not sure. Despite the beautiful scenery I had a hard time getting into driving this morning. I tried my standard albums on my iPod and nothing worked. I had to make a stop at a pharmacy so I ended up stopping in two tiny Oklahoma towns, Henryetta and Sallisaw. These are not rich areas by any means and judging by the number of pawn shops, gun shops and junk yards people in this area are struggling. According to my guidebook Oklahoma is in the bottom 10 states for amount spent on public education. I was lured to stop in Sallisaw by a sign on the 40 that said "Trail of Tears next exit". They had a tiny long cabin about the size of a large bathroom with an "interpretive exhibit" on the trail of tears. Interesting but tiny so there wasn't really enough info to learn a lot that was new.

Texas is into beef; Oklahoma and Arkansas are pork country. Literally. There are signs all over the freeway boasting of pork products at restaurants. I thought it was the humidity that was making me lose my appetite . . . The driving got easier as a I crossed the Arkansas state line and traffic picked up about 50 miles from Little Rock. I did Marilyn Monroe proud by singing "We're Just Two Little Girls from Little Rock" from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I love that movie!

My first stop in Little Rock was the William J Clinton Presidential Museum and Library. I love Bill! I miss Bill! I have been to a lot of presidential libraries - I always find them interesting and I always learn something new. This one was pretty good. They set it up so for each year in office you could see what was happening in the world and what Clinton's accomplishments were. I must confess I got chills looking at the exhibits. I really respect and support the Clintons and I am not yet over the fact that Hilary isn't going to be one of the presidential candidates. Upstairs was an interesting exhibit by Muslim women called "Behind the Veil" (I think). Several of the works were really powerful:

I must confess that I wasn't overly impressed with Oklahoma City. The downtown area was kind of blah and except for a couple of people I met in Stockyard City I found OKC-ers to be kind of cranky. Little Rockians, on the other hand, I love! A very open and friendly bunch! Little Rock is the kind of place where if you need to be somewhere in a half hour you'd better allot an extra 30 minutes to chat along the way. The volunteers at the museum were so nice and the security guard actually escorted me out of the building! No, not because I was in trouble! But because he wanted to be sure he was directing me to the Riverfront District in a way I could follow and then to discuss the muddiness of the Arkansas River. My hotel co-habitors immediately struck up conversations when I went to check out the pool and again when I went to get something from my car. A beautiful state! A friendly people! I love Arkansas! (except for the conservatism and religious zeal!) The Riverfront District is an emerging trendy area with shops, cafes and restaurants. It looked like they were setting up for an outdoor concert which was cool. Lots of smokers. It's been years since I've spent time in areas in the US where smoking is so common.

My next stop was in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I had read that there was a Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs where in the 1920s everyone went to rejuvenate. I loved going to the onsen (hot baths) in Japan and I just had to see what it was like in the US. Bathhouse Row is really cool though all of the baths were closed to the public and are now just historic sights.

It was hard to get a good shot of the bathhouses because of all of the beautiful trees!

I did take a hot springs bath and it was marvelous!!! 15 minutes of soaking the absolutely scalding water. Unlike in Japan where it's often communal bathing (usually divided by sex), here I got my own private soak. All of the sunscreen on my face started melting less than a minute into it. I persevered and eventually became one with the water and was kind of disappointed when my time was up. The water was kind of salty so my skin feels a little tight now. After the soak they wrapped me in scalding hot towels (with a cold one on my face) for about 15 minutes. This actually felt pretty good though I resisted it at first thinking I was going to die. I am pretty sure at one point every pore in my body was sweating - yippee! When that was up I wrapped up in a cool sheet and sat in this weird room for a while trying to cool down. I was actually trying to calm down because my heart rate was sky high. Sorry, no pictures from inside the bath, but as you can see by the after shot that though tired and a little sunburned/pink from the bath I am very very happy and having a great trip so far!
Total miles for today: 394.8