Hot Springs, Arkansas

This is my second time to Hot Springs, but the first that I was really able to play tourist.

Hot Springs is known for a few things. Bill Clinton's boyhood home. A home-away-from-home for the mob. The place where so many injured Veterans of WWII came to rehabilitate in the mineral hot springs.

The City itself sits within the Hot Springs National Park, and you can meander through the NP grounds and feel like you are a hundred miles away from the bustling city center.

I camped about 30 miles from Hot Springs at a US Army Corps of Engineers campground on Degray Lake. It was a peaceful campground with huge sites organized along the shores of the lake. The site had an electric hookup and there were a few different public shower/restroom facilities. Unfortunately, it was also a hot spot for fishing, which meant dead fish remains EVERYWHERE. That is only a problem if you're traveling with dogs. At least every 3rd word out of my mouth was "Girls! Leave it!! Come HERE!! NOW!!"

My enormous site.

I spent the first two days there happily checking out the mountain biking scene. My expectations (colored by my miserable 18-months living in Missouri back in the day) were super effing low. But I really really enjoyed the trails. Enough to want to come back to ride them some more.

One of the highlights was a reunion with my Army sister, Natalie Garland. Natalie and I were friends throughout OBC in Charlottesville, and roommates during DCC at Ft. Benning in 2010. Since then, Natalie has gotten married, raised two amazingly intelligent and sassy daughters, and has risen through the ranks of the Arkansas National Guard. I am so effing proud of her and everything she has accomplished. There's never enough time to catch up on these visits, but I'm so glad I finally got to meet her kiddos on this trip.

Natalie's two girls are so much fun and incredibly sassy, just like her.

I also reunited with another friend, Jeremy, with whom I traveled last fall through Utah and Arizona. We hadn't seen each other since he came to Ouray in January, but we picked right up where we left off as if no time had passed.

We ventured into Hot Springs on Saturday, walked through the National Park and the town, took in a couple of museums, and had lunch on a rooftop bar. The town was all abuzz about the eclipse, as Hot Springs was in the direct path of totality. There was a little "festival" in the main square, where scientists from NASA and NOAA were explaining what to expect and handing out glasses and other memorabilia.

Rooftop bar: subpar food, overpriced drinks, but good views.

The next day, we went to an Eclipse Festival sponsored by Atlas Obscura, which I had never heard of before, but am now an obsessed follower. The festival itself seemed to be a lot smaller than the organizers had anticipated, but it was still fun to geek out with a bunch of scientists and people who were passionate about the history, culture, and science of the eclipse. We were able to listen to a few different presenters talk about their work, including Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame.

Adam Savage on stage at the Festival.

Then finally, it was the day we had all been waiting for: the ECLIPSE. I know nothing about the eclipse, or how the moon and sun rotate, or why the moon is exactly the same size as the sun. But Jeremy does. He's a self-proclaimed nerd who understands all of those things, and has the patience to explain the sciency stuff to me (the theatre/psychology major turned lawyer turned artist turned mountain bike addict). He also dabbles in photography, so while the rest of us were Instagramming blurry photos of the sun through eclipse glasses, he was actually using the proper lenses and cameras and things to actually capture what the human eye could see.

Totality. photo credit: Jeremy Pursley

This was taken just after 1 pm. It was a night sky during the day.

I was floored by the reaction of nature during this phenomenon. I mean, the moon crossed in front of the sun, yada yada yada, and we all oohed and aaahed. But what struck me was the reaction of the birds and bugs around us. As the sky started getting darker, the chirping of the birds picked up substantially. They were all atwitter and loud AF. Then, as darkness set in, they quieted down until there was complete silence. And I mean COMPLETE silence. Then the crickets took over. For just a couple of minutes, the chirp of the crickets was deafening. And then, just like that, the sun started to come back out and the birds slowly picked up their song again. I'm so glad we got to experience this on a remote location on a lake, where we could really tune into the natural environment.

Evidence that I can do more than just ride a MTB.

After the thrill of the eclipse was over, we spent the rest of the afternoon paddleboarding and hanging out by the lake. Even Sunday got in on the action, sitting very still like a very good girl on the paddleboard.

Despite my best laid plans to go get the rest of those MTB trails before heading north, the weather did not cooperate. Unrelenting rain, wind & intermittent hail kept me inside and stir crazy.

Hot Springs, I'll see you again. Promise.