Road Trip 2025: Day 31

In Sulphur Springs, Texas, on Courthouse Square, there are public restrooms constructed of one way glass. You can’t see inside of them, but you can see out. So while you are in the bathroom you can see people on the street and the cars driving by. It’s a bit unsettling. But that is where we stopped this morning because we’ve visited all the cool and interesting spots we planned to see, and now we are desperate to make our drive home a bit less depressing.

Two summers ago, when G3 and I did our road trip together, we stopped in Hot Springs, Arkansas. While there, we ate at Diablos, a Mexican restaurant. G3 loved the nachos. For two years, he has talked about how they are the best nachos he’s ever had. He’s been wanting to go back, but it’s not like Arkansas is close to Jersey. However, today, it was only a minor detour, so I promised him Diabolos for dinner.

We arrived in Hot Springs in the early afternoon and parked in the historic downtown area. Since we hit all the historic and tourist sites last time, there was no pressure or anticipation to do anything specific this time. G3 wanted to walk down the street and wander into the various gift shops, especially ones he liked last time, so that’s what we did. His favorite store was a hat shop, so we spent a significant amount of time there. Two years ago, he left with a hat and a cane that doubles as a sword. Today, he chose not to buy anything because the hat he liked was not in the color he preferred.

You can read about or previous visit to Hot Springs here and here.

For dinner, we ate appetizers at Diablos because that’s what G3 wanted—nachos and chips and queso. It was a pleasure to watch him eat with so much enjoyment. He said the nachos were just as good as he remembered.

After we ate, we walked a bit more and then played mini-golf. G3 had been wanting to play for a couple of weeks now, but we hadn’t come across any mini-golf places. Since there was a Pirate Cove in Hot Springs, and we didn’t have anything else pressing or exciting to do, we went. It’s impossible not to think about Dad when we play. He always enjoyed playing in the summer. And, he always won. I beat G3, but he was happy and excited to get a hole-in-one.

We are camping at Willow Beach Campground, which is on the banks of the Arkansas River. It’s about an hour northeast of Hot Springs. The bugs are vicious. As soon as our tents were up we retreated inside because we were getting bitten so badly. I have never experienced cicadas this loud. They are deafening. I love it. I should sleep well tonight.