I'm back. Just a few impressions of Hot Springs:

1. I had forgotten how resort areas ream your wallet for everything they can get out of it. $3 to park for two hours?!?!? When they "expect" you to shop and eat in the restaurants, spending more money there? And there's a 12.63% (what's up with that?) hotel tax.

2. I didn't do the bath thing. I watched the 9 minute "orientation" video that the National Park shows on it and got so creeped out - someone I don't know touching me when I'm naked? Sitting in a porcelain bath that thousands of others have sat in before me? Having to lie still for 20 minutes while hot packs raise my body temperature? (I don't do elevated body temperatures well; that is one of my migraine triggers). Also, it was $42, which I spent at the Books-A-Million at the mall instead while I was waiting to get hungry enough to go and eat dinner.

3. Climbing to the top of the "mountain" was fun. I consider the pulled muscles in my calves one of my souvenirs.

4. Garvan Woodland Gardens was totally worth the price of admission. I think it was the best thing I saw in town. If you go to Hot Springs, make sure you take a couple of hours and go to them.

5. The trip to the top of the Mountain Tower probably isn't worth the price of admission, but I did it anyway. (It might be worth it if you're a photographer, or if you have kids who are impressed by such things).

6. I could not find any trace of Moss Wool Shop. I assume it has closed up.

7. It's worth taking some time to walk on the Grand Promenade and the trails up around behind Bathhouse Row. It's also worth it to go to West Mountain, but I didn't have time to take any of the hikes while I was there (there is a 9.8 mile loop hike for the hardcore hikers).

8. If you come into town on 7 ("Central Avenue") from the south, don't be too discouraged by the shabby/scariness of the part of town you go through (for example, you pass a place called "Shapes", which I am reasonably sure is not a fitness club).

9. If I were to go back, I'd try to get a hotel downtown (even though they are more expensive) because then you get to park in the hotel's parking garage, and that saves money and frustration trying to find a place to park. (Friday morning I was lucky and found a reasonably cheap place to park by a meter).

10. I was a little disappointed that the Fordyce Bathhouse was the only one of the five or six bathhouses along the row that was actually set up with exhibits. The others are being renovated to eventually become bathhouses again (I suppose, just in time for the "spa" trend to cease being trendy...)

11. Going into the park area early in the morning (before 9) so you can park easily and walk around on the trails is a good way to do things, I think. The park buildings open at 9 and the shops mostly open around 10. It's also prettier first thing in the morning.

12. There's an "alligator farm and petting zoo" (I presume you don't actually pet the alligators; rather that they have deer or other typical petting -zoo animals) but I didn't go.

13. I was not too impressed with a particular restaurant a friend of mine recommended but then maybe I ordered the wrong thing at it. There are a lot of restaurants in town but except for the one I mention below, I wasn't overly excited by the ones I ate in.

14. I was impressed with the "Bohemia", a little old-looking (been there since '74, I think it said) German-Czech place. The owner came out to say hi to the people eating and I think it was his wife who waited on me. The food was good and very clearly all homemade - the red cabbage was cut the way my mom cuts it. I'd eat there again if I went back.
It was also not very expensive - I think my meal, with pork schnitzel, dumpling, bread, red cabbage, a cucumber salad, and a dessert (it was the special that day) was like $7.

15. The traffic is not pleasant some times of day. Unfortunately, I got into town shortly after noon on Thursday, which is when the traffic seems to be worst. If you're not careful, you get "tracked" into a way you don't want to go and you just have to kind of continue on until you can turn around or backtrack.