Date: 2005-04-08
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

There's the good, there's the bad, and then there's the unbelievablyawesome, in the third category would be my day today in Hot Springs.Woke up, comfortable in my bed after a great night of sleep, walk downto the store and grab a newspaper(Elmer's doesn't have any TV) andspend a good hour or so relaxing and reading the newspaper beforebreakfast. Then the breakfast bell rang.Oh your god, what a way to start the day. Let's start off with somehomemade granola, not just oats and honey type stuff, there wasgood-tasting-shit in that granola that I didn't even know existed. Iswear that something from volcan was in my cereal. Round two:waffles. I'm not talkin sissy pansy eggos, I'm talking thick homemadewaffles, with maple or apple syrup, or some blueberry type stuff thatwas awesome as all get out. To make things better, throw somecantelope in the mix. Breakfast was served, and served well.With my new second-trimester-esque abdomen I was ready to face a dayof doing...just about nothing. I strolled to the outfitter, talked toBaltimore Jack for a while, bought a resupply, and finally found a 175gram discraft ultrastar. I made some quick plans with Red, Capt Pat,Freeze Dried and Bubbletoes to throw around a bit later and then hitthe hot springs and then just chilled for a bit. I called home,checked on Bubbletoes who was so graciously doing our laundry, youknow, the little stuff that is really the big stuff.Captain Patagonia had some postcards to write and Freeze Dried waswell, being himself and zoning out, so Red and I threw frisbee for awhile in a big open grassy field while we waited for the other threemembers of the party to show up. After about a half hour or so, I ranback to find out what they were doing and ran into them near the Ben &Jerry's in the outfitter. Pint of "Everything but the..." in hand, Iwaddled back over to the grassy field and Red, who was relaxing in theshade by a tree. Now a fivesome, we threw some more disc, while Istill ate my ice cream, and then finally headed toward the hot springplace. They informed us that their hot tubs were booked all exceptfor an opening at 4:30, great, more time to kill now what? Oh yeah,the bar.What's better than beer? FREE BEER! What's better than the trail? TRAIL MAGIC! That's right, Cumberland, class of '01 was waiting forsome thru-hikers at the bar, and offered to buy us drinks. Now, trailmagic comes in all shapes and sizes, but the kind that gets you freestuff at a bar is some A+ stuff right there.   Full of beer (and somefried mushroom caps, thanks again Cumberland) it was finally time forthe hot springs.After we checked in at the hot springs place, they took us to astaging area before we made it to the actual tub. If you're ever inHot Springs, and you want to know what the culture and the people wholive there are like, just hang out here for a while. Under theawnings we met four locals who were, well...locals. So I was kindaexpecting some sort of hole in the ground and a rock enclosure,instead, they just throw you in your run of the mill hot tub, butit's full of mineral water. I felt kinda ripped off, but oh well.Back in town, sunburnt, soaked, and satiated, there wasn't much to dobut hang out until dinner. Freeze Dried and I played some chess, andwere halfway through a game when the dinner bell rang. Dinner wasagain amazing, this time however the desert was freakin' out of thisworld awesome, go Elmer's.