Shiloh's Lake Bruin Resort, St. Joseph, LA

Today we left Hot Springs, Arkansas and headed for Monroe, Louisiana to visit one of our two home parks. However, because we had just called the day before for a reservation, there were no rv sites available when we arrived. Hopefully, this will not happen often!

So we continued down to our other home park located much more rurally in St. Joseph, Louisiana. Here we were the only visitors. While our pictures show other rvs, most of them are either rental units or units people leave on site during the summer.

Here's where we sat...one of the only spots without trees overhead.
Here we are on the dock at Shiloh on the shore of Lake Bruin.

These weird-looking trees grew in the lake near the shore.

Doug shot this picture of the sunset as Marlon bobbed around in the water.

That was NOT Marlon in the water...not sure WHAT it was.

Across the road from Shiloh were fields of cotton. It was almost cotton pickin' time as evidenced by this picture.

We would be spending 6 nights here at Shiloh's Lake Bruin Resort. Due to its relative isolation, we would be doing a lot of relaxing.

However, we were only about 50 miles away from the site of the end of The Civil War (The War, as they still call it down here) at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

For more pictures of Shiloh, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/shiloh-rv-resort-st/ .

To be continued...

Bath, Zoo, Santa's Workshop

Today we continued our tour of Hot Springs.

First stop was Buckstaff Baths so that Marlon and David could have the true Hot Springs bath experience. They each had a whirlpool bath, a paraffin hand treatment, hot packs and massage.

Then it was time to head up Hot Springs Mountain to look out over the city.

Then we headed on down to the Arkansas Alligator Farm & Gift Shop & Petting Zoo "Since 1902". That's one long name for one of the oldest Hot Springs attractions.

This guy was at the petting zoo. He is saying "Please feed me...please..."

This guy is saying "stay right where you are, I'll be right over and I can feed myself."

Like most cats in most zoos, this one hardly even noticed we were there.

This little guy could NOT have gotten in a better position for a picture.

See some of these animals in action in the video below.

Next we headed on over to Santa's Workshop just down the street and were entertained with the skills of store owner, glass artisan Patricia.

David commissioned her to make a glass elephant for a co-worker.

See Patricia in action making David's elephant for him in the video below.

Then we headed back to Lake Hamilton RV Park where we fed the resident ducks some more.

To see more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/hot-springs-arkansa/ .

To be continued...

Hot Springs Visitors and Hawgs

Today David and Bobby, two friends of ours who used to live in Kansas City, came down to Hot Springs to visit us from the Memphis area, where they now live.

We showed them the Majestic Hotel below. Built in 1902, the Majestic closed for business in October 2006 when it was sold to ARC of Arkansas.

Their plans are to restore the building with historical accuracy and make it into a residential and commercial development.

Then we went to learn about the history of Hot Springs National Park at the Visitor Center. For inside pictures of the Visitor Center, be sure and use the link at the bottom of the page.

While at the visitor's center, Doug attempted to break the camera by taking this picture. It didn't work.

This is the view from the pool area of The Arlington Hotel...another historic hotel in Downtown Hot Springs. Owned by the previous owners of The Majestic, this hotel is also up for sale. That's the Hot Springs Observation Tower in the distance.

Here's a couple of lushes we encountered at the poolside bar.

Here's several of the motorcycles we encountered while we were in Hot Springs. This is but a few of the THOUSANDS of motorcycles in town this weekend as the 2nd Annual Hot Springs Rally was underway.

And the police escorted Friday Night Parade was just about to begin.

Here's a motorcycle that would be about our speed.

Marlon caught some of the parade on video as evidence that, yes, we WERE there.

Then we went swimming.

For more pictures of today, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/hotspringsarkansaspart1/ .

To be continued...