Hot Springs & Forts

 The excitement continues! I have a pretty boring post again but we actually hit New Orleans tomorrow evening so bear with me.

We went into Hot Springs to the (wait for it!) bath houses. This was quite a big thing in the early 1900's. 

The first picture is of Hot Springs Park.

The steam was rising & blurred the pic a bit.

These are all the bath houses. Most have been converted to restaurants.

This one you can actually book for steam rooms, mineral pools. hot spring baths & massages.

Amazing architecture!!

The inside of one of the bath houses shows all the different rooms.

When people would arrive by stagecoach, the ride was so harrowing that the people were mental & physical wrecks.

Steve was playing elevator operator.

We stopped at a pretty Park for lunch.

We  spent the afternoon winding all through country roads & hills. Everything is green, lots of trees, grass & farms. 

We camped at a State Park called Lake Bistineau. A picture of the lake from our campsite. This is near Shreveport, Louisiana

Sunday

We continued our meanderings on many two-lane highways. Everyone was curvy & bumpy. All had beautiful scenery. We saw deer in a field. Beautiful in Louisiana but lousy roads!

We first visited a ward at Rusdon. We were late because we stopped at a Mcdonald's for breakfast. It took 20 minutes to get our food.They say everything is slow in the South

The people were very nice & friendly. The sister missionaries were from St. George & Las Vegas. We met a lady who does the St. George Marathon every year, & another who has friends she visits in all 3 cities. Talk about a small 🌎 world.

Our next stop was Natchitoches. We stopped at Fort St. Jean Baptiste.

The chapel.

The Commandant's house.

This fort was run by the French & helped to protect the Indians from the Spanish, which also had a settlement.

Our next stop was Cane River Creole. First they grew tobacco & indigo around late 1700's. It wasn't worth it to grow cotton until Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin. Then they made good money in the 1800's. This was on the backs of the "enslaved people"

After the war, some stayed & became indentured servants.

These pictures were of the Oakland Plantation. There was also the Magnolia Plantation but we didn't see that.

Kitchen was updated to the 50's Time period covered about 1790-1960

These pics were of the Plantation store. It was well-stocked & they issued credit to the servants. The gas station pumps were from a later era. 

The house was the overseers & the Dr's.

Other buildings.

Next stop was Fort Randall & Buelow in Alexandria. These forts were built across the Red River to protect the town from the Union soldiers. It didn't work & the entire town was burned to the ground by retreating Union soldiers.

It was disappointing that we couldn't find any parts of the Fort except the dirt piles. This is the Red River.

We found an RV park in town. We didn't feel like driving out to Kincaid Lake.

Tomorrow we go to Baton Rouge & then down to New Orleans.

Some of you were worried about gas prices. Actually, most gas has been $3.59-$3.79.

A few are about $4.00. The car is getting on

average 15-17 mpg towing.

We finally warmed up to near 80 degrees. We are really happy to be out of the cold!