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Hot Springs, Arkansas: Gangsters, Bathhouses, Motor Courts, and Fried Pies

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October 29 – November 1, 2026 Steven and I spent Halloween weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and I'm not entirely sure how to describe this place. It's a little bit of Colorado, a little bit of Utah, a little bit of Western Canada, and somehow parts of it feel European. There are mountains, lakes, forests, grand old hotels, little historic motor courts, and a national park woven right into the city. And then there are the gangsters. Hot Springs was once a fashionable health resort, a major destination for professional baseball players, and a haven for some of America's most notorious criminals. Quite a combination for a city of fewer than 40,000 people. Thursday, October 29: A Little Piece of 1937 As usual, our plans to leave Dallas early didn't quite materialize. We arrived in Hot Springs shortly after sunset and checked into Cove Tourist Court , a beautifully restored motor court built in 1937. The original nine-unit property was built by Carl Crocker, with accommodat...
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A Birthday Weekend in the Texas Hill Country

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We’ve stayed in a few different places in the Texas Hill Country over the years, including Johnson City and Fredericksburg. This time we stayed in Center Point because I had found Texas Wildlife Park nearby and really wanted to go. I didn't actually look to see how far Center Point was from Fredericksburg until about two weeks before we left, which probably would have been useful information to have before I booked the Airbnb. It turned out to be only about 45 minutes away, so it worked out really well. We left Dallas much later than we had planned on Thursday, sometime around 2:30 or 3:00, and didn't get to Center Point until after 8:00. It was a beautiful drive, though, and after we arrived we picked up a late dinner from Zanzenberg Tavern and took it back to the Airbnb. We had chicken cordon bleu and sea bass, and the food was fantastic. That was our first surprise about Center Point. It's a very small town, and I wasn't expecting to find food that good there. Our Ai...
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There Is Always Something to See

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How Steven and I turned one small weekend into a miniature travel book Who Thought We Would Be Eating Vegan Food on a Mountain? On Saturday afternoon, Steven and I were sitting in the back seat of a rental car with the air conditioning running, eating vegan food from the Healthy Hippie while looking down from Mount Scott onto a lake and miles of Oklahoma prairie. Who thought we would be eating vegan food atop a short mountain in Oklahoma on a Saturday? Not us. We had ordered takeout because I did not feel like being lifted out of the car and settled into my wheelchair just to sit inside the restaurant, then made the overlook our dining room. The cashew queso with walnut chorizo was delicious. The view was enormous. The arrangement was not glamorous. It was perfect. Thursday: The Trip Begins We picked Burkburnett because we wanted to check out Hotter’N Hell in nearby Wichita Falls. Neither of us had been. We saw the preparations and Friday evening criterium, but the cycling event became...
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