Rockin' It in Hot Springs, AR

The point of this trip was to get out on the road and see the sights.  Imagine our surprise, therefore, when it turns out that the only sights we see consistently are churches.  There are Baptist churches, Pentecostal, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Evangelical,  the ever popular Church of the Highway and, of course, Harvey's Church.  In some areas, there are more churches than there are people.

 Poor RRR…… she's developing sore arms from blessing herself every time we pass one.  We had to stop her from kneeling because she was getting blisters on her knees.

 We arrived at the KOA in Hot Springs, Arkansas on Sunday.  Imagine our surprise when we spotted our old friends, Syd and Lynda, sitting on a campsite just up the hill from us.  Their trip to South Dakota was cancelled on account of 50 inches of snow, which would discourage most RV'ers .  We spent Canadian Thanksgiving with them at Cracker Barrel Restaurant - loads of fun and, for once, all we bought was food.  All the Xmas stuff is out and it's been pretty tempting.  Lynda and Syd are heading for Yuma tomorrow. 

Yesterday we went rock hounding - or at least rock shopping.  The area is known for its crystal rock formations and we spent several hours browsing through piles of coloured rocks on Mount Ida.  It is amazing what comes out of the earth!  Nui had to be forcibly stopped from buying massive amethyst and aquamarine rocks - the poor Beast couldn’t carry that much more weight.  We bought bags of dirt which contain emeralds, topaz, rubies, garnet, tourmaline and a variety of unpronounceable semi-precious stones.   Unfortunately, today it's pouring rain so we can't do our mining thing so we may just end up going to one of the mineral baths for a spa day.  The idea of sitting in a hot mineral bath and then being wrapped in hot towels sounds pretty appealing.