Hot Springs, Arkansas

I was told by someone at the Blacksmithing Conference to visit Hot Springs and Eureka Springs when I drove west to Texas. Hot Springs is drop-dead gorgeous if you can overlook the minor issue of temps and humidity in the 90's. From the late 1800's through 1940 or so, it was a major spa town with people coming in to "take the waters". There are six or seven gorgeous bathing houses along the main road -- one of which is a National Park museum and two are still in operation as bath houses. Those people knew how to live -- staying at the Arlington Hotel. My only nit so far was that I walked around town looking at restaurants and decided to eat at the hotel. I ordered Spaghetti Bolognese and received something that was most definitely not sauced with a Bolognese sauce. What I got was a quarter pound of pork sausage meat saut�ed in about a half-stick of butter (there was a lot of butter) and this was dumped over some cold cooked noodles. Here is what I was expecting. Kinda close but no cigar. The noodles were fine where the sauce had covered them but on the periphery of the plate, they were room temperature and throughout, the edges of them had dried out to the point of being crunchy. I took a couple bites, paid my tab and walked out to an Italian joint I had seen earlier and had a wonderful meal for about ten bucks cheaper... Talk about a blast from the past -- I was parking my truck in the hotel garage and saw a very familiar piece of machinery in the corner. Here are two closeups:

This is a Humphrey Manlift. I remember these from my yoot in Pittsburgh. My Mom would sometimes take me shopping Downtown (capital "D" intended -- it was a big event) and we would leave our car at the Horne's Department Store garage. There, cheerful people would drop down out of a hole in the roof and come over and park our car for us. When we were done, they would whisk up and bring our car down. Think a vertical conveyor belt with small platforms (second pic) and handholds (first pic). There is an up side and a down side. I Googled to see if I could find anything -- a commemorative web site or something and it turns out that they are still strongly in business. I thought NIOSH would have shut them down long ago but they seem to be cool. Check out Humphrey Manlifts (operating out of Faribault, MN since 1887)