With no plans and 10 days off work, we packed our bags and headed out on another adventure. Last year the Rona Tour took us all over the country and we will revisit a few of those places. Let's get this trip started!
It's Friday morning and I just got out of work. The rental car is booked, bags are packed and the puppy is ready to hit the road. With no destination in mind, we hit the road.
One place we knew we wanted to revisit was the Ron Coleman Quartz Mine in Jessieville Arkansas. We had so much fun last time another visit was in order....so we headed South. [//]:# (!pinmapple 34.660852 lat -93.098662 long Ron Coleman Quartz Mine d3scr)
According to the GoogleBox it will be a 14.5hr drive. We actually combined a few parts of each roadtrip and added a few pit stops along the way. It was night when we were driving so I didn't get many good pics.
After around 17hrs we made it. This time we didn't have to stop at every Welcome Center when entering a new state because we already had all our maps. We found a hotel in Hot Springs for the night and ended our day with a well deserved rest.
Begin Day 2
We woke up early and headed to the Ron Coleman Mine. The views here are amazing. It almost feels like you are on another planet. All this red dirt....are we on Mars???
This visit wasn't nearly as successful as the last trip down. We ended up getting a small sack of Crystals after 5hrs of digging and headed out.
In downtown Hot Springs there is a area called Bathhouse Row. I got a good video of the whole street but haven't figured out how to edit yet. Here is a map of the area from the National Park Service.
Day 1 & 2 were fairly uneventful. I can tell you that the outskirts of Hot Springs seems like a Meth hotspot. Tons of Police and Billboards about rehab and drug use. I have to say I was very impressed with the police presence. They did as amazing job of keeping the Riff Raff out of the tourist area. Overall a very enjoyable couple days.
Stay tuned for the next leg of our adventure. It will have many more pics and some great stories!