Some of you may be asking, “Hey! What did you do over spring break?” Or maybe you’re not asking that, but whatever. Well kids, buckle your seat belts and sit in the car for about 12 hours as I tell you about Arkansas. (And no, Taylor Swift is not involved in this.)
Day 0: Wow, That’s A Lot Of Driving
I wasn’t over exaggerating the first part. It actually does take about 12 hours to get to Hot Springs, Arkansas… by car. That does not include the times we had to stop for gas and for breakfast. We left at around 4 AM to pick up my uncle, then we were on the road. It’s neat to see the states go by and look at the occasional small towns, billboards, and the abundance of abandoned gas stations.
So why was I going to Arkansas? If you answered “to visit family”, you would be correct! My grandpa lives down here.
We arrived in Hot Springs around 5 PM-ish. We checked into our hotel, went to Grandpa’s place, then went out to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner with Grandpa. After that, we hung out for a bit then went to sleep.
Day 1: Stuff Actually Happens
We’re in Hot Springs now… what is it like? Of course you got the restaurants, the hotels, the pretty dead mall, and of course the downtown buildings. But first we go to IHOP with Grandpa and my other uncle.
Downtown Hot Springs used to have a lot of bathhouses where you could take a bath in the hot water. One of them was turned into a visitor center/museum that was kinda interesting. The bathhouse had a gym at one point, and in the basement we saw how they stored the water and all that for the baths. I think one of them was still open, but I don’t really know.
Downtown also had quite a bit of buildings and hotels, including a toy shop that had fake Legos. I also went to one of those souvenir shops, and some other buildings. Under a hotel was a record shop, which was interesting. There were a lot of old records, cassettes, CDs, and even some of the older stuff like 8 track tapes. There was even a Laserdisc player in there! There was also a big mountain that had a gift shop on top of it.
After this, we went to a game store. I picked up New Super Mario Bros. with my $20 and then we went to Walmart. Walmart is based in Arkansas, so you end up seeing a whole LOT of Walmart there. We usually go to Target, but there’s barely any Targets in Arkansas so we’re just stuck with Walmart.
Then we went back to Grandpa’s, my uncle did Grandpa’s taxes and me and dad played some Nintendo Switch games. For dinner, we went to a place called the Purple Cow. It was just a burger place similar to Red Robin, but they did have a purple milkshake. It just tasted like a vanilla milkshake, but I still liked it quite a bit! My uncle and dad watched some Hallmark show, then we went back to the hotel. That’s really it for the day, though… so let’s just move on.
Day 2: More Driving, But It’s For Motorcycles
We woke up in the morning, like most people usually do. I have a breakfast sandwich and some fruit from Walmart and then we’re off to Texarkana. Texarkana, Texas is about a two hour drive away, and our main destination was to Texarkana Harley-Davidson.
You may not actually know this, but both my dad and my uncle ride Harleys. We went there in my uncle’s rental car and not a motorcycle… obviously. (12 hours on a motorcycle isn’t that fun, in my opinion.) This is also my first time in Texas, so that’s cool! Inside there was… well, motorcycles and some raccoons playing poker. My dad bought two shirts, one for me and one for him, and a poker chip. I’m not too interested in motorcycles, but I do like to ride on the back sometimes and I like to collect the poker chips from the Harley dealers.
After that, we went to a barbecue place. The food was fine, but the sauce I got didn’t appeal to me. There was also a drink called Fanta Red that just tasted like red cream soda. Then we went to a flea market, where I bought a Texas license plate, because… well I like license plates, okay?
We went back to Grandpa’s again, then went to Red Lobster. I got some shrimp and broccoli, then got the brownie with ice cream for dessert later. This day was the halfway point of everything we did, so we’re getting pretty close to the end.
Day 3: It’s Scientific
Woke up, had continental breakfast, then went to the science museum nearby. There were quite a bit of scientific things there including some balloon launcher and the machines from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. There was also a sky walk with a big net and a trail that had some dinosaurs in it. I bought some rock candy at the gift shop, and my uncle bought me Sprite that I drank a bit too fast.
Due to that, I did not feel too fine when I got to a place called The Shack, where I had a grilled chicken sandwich and water. There was only one waiter there so we had to wait a bit, and in that time I felt better by burping. The chicken sandwich with cheese was good, by the way. Then we had some ice cream that was near that record shop. I got the Root Beer Float and the Revenge of the Nerds (cotton candy with Nerds) flavors. Once again, they were good.
We went back to Grandpa’s and hung out once again, but eventually me and dad left. My uncle stayed over for a bit though. We said goodbye to Grandpa and then went to Schlotzsky’s. Schlotzsky’s is a sandwich place that had pretty big sandwiches and a pretty big cup for what I thought was a “medium” cup. My sandwich was fine. We then slept one last time in that hotel room for the final day.
Day 4: It’s A Long, Long, Long Way Back
We checked out of the hotel, and then it was just more driving. We did go to a small cafe for breakfast, stopped for gas, and went to another Harley dealer, but that was pretty much it for most of the day. After that we went to Olive Garden to meet my aunt there. I had some ravioli that was pretty good. Then I FINALLY went home.
That was an eventful trip, wasn’t it? Now what did YOU do for spring break?
Wait, you’re not going to tell me?
Oh… okay.
