Gemini Rising

50 State Travel Blog - Arkansas smells like 1 BIG pine cone

Well, I’d never been to Arkansas before, but I knew someone in the Army from there. Lyn's a Witchy Woman thought it would be a great idea to visit these botanical gardens at the University of Arkansas in Hot Springs and the party bus got rolling toward Arkansas with all the usual suspects: Princess Megan Rose
Sung'manitu
AmyJo-Downhill slide begins!
SandraLynn
AmyJo-Downhill slide begins!
Richard ~ Looking for Luck!
WakeUpAndLive~Petra's Vacay
Krista
Jellyfish
Noisy Wren

Princess Megan Rose brought Petyon the Wolf and Sung'manitu brought his pet rock, “Peachy.”

Me, I brought my Instagram account. Gotta put my pictures somewhere.

The party bus drove for 2 days straight and we made it time for the 4th of July. Jellyfish couldn’t wait to see real American fireworks. Krista was already humming patriotic music. God Bless America! Noisy Wren was not impressed with the bus driver. He had a bad habit of chewing tobacco and spitting it out the window. She thought that was gross.

So we got to the gardens and all signed up for the Golf Cart tour. I dunno how we did it, but we all packed into 10 seat golf cart. Peyton sat in the front next to the driver like a good wolf, and they gave him the dog rate - $5.00.

Needless to say when the golf cart hit a rut, we all bounced up in the air. AmyJo-Downhill slide begins! wanted to find the hot springs. I didn’t think there was any in the gardens, but I kept my mouth shut. Didn’t want to bust her bubble.

The gardens were surrounded by a lake, and honestly, they reminded me of the gorges in the Fingers Lakes region of New York. It was really green this time of year. Pine trees lined the forest, their large canopies keeping us shaded. The scent of earthy pine cones filled the air. We drove past waterfalls and brooks. There wasn't a tree that wasn't a pine tree. In fact, it was pretty piney.

I got some great pictures for my Instagram. Sung'manitu said Peachy wanted to play in the water, but honestly, that wasn’t a good idea. Peachy could get lost. Lyn's a Witchy Woman kept telling the driver to take us to the Anthony Chapel but he didn’t know where it was. And English was not his first language. Finally, he took a wrong turn and we saw it in the distance. Then boom! The golf cart hit a rut, went up in the air, came down on a tree branch and got three flat tires. Lyn's a Witchy Woman herded us like cats (Peyton and Peachy were offended again) and we went and saw the chapel. The inside buttresses reminded me of knights who cross their swords so the wedding couple can walk underneath them as they leave the church.

Richard ~ Looking for Luck! helped the driver put the spares on (and don’t ask me where the spares came from because I didn’t think there was any extra room on that golf cart and we drove really slow back to the entrance. When we got there, there were a bunch of food trucks and we stuffed ourselves silly. Afterwards, we mixed and mingled with the locals and when it got dark, we watched the fireworks while listening to the USC marching band play patriotic from my Iphone. Can’t wait to see where the party bus takes us in California.