Arkansas 5/23/08

We decided in the morning to go on the train ride out of Van Buren. Since we had to wait an hour before leaving we strolled around the antique stores downtown which was a lot of fun and people were quite friendly. The train ride actually turned out better than I expected even though it cost us $30 per person. Before the train arrived I actually met a principal of an elementary school in Texas who going on the same trip as us and we had a great talk before we left. The ride took 3 hours round trip and went up to Winslow, which looked like a ghost town. The best part of the trip was the conductor who was quite entertaining. Hardly anyone was in our car so he was able to spend some time talking to all of us individually. When my husband asked about where the cars came from and what kind of shape they were in, the conductor took us to another car to see the photos of what it looked like before they were restored.

When we left there we headed towards Hot Springs along the scenic route that the welcome center lady suggested (I-40 to Exit 35 to 23 to 309 to 10 to 7 to Hot Springs). It was an okay route but if I had to get to Hot Springs, I would just take the interstate or major highway instead of this scenic route. Of course it took us over Mt. Magazine which is Arkansas’s highest point and was socked in fog when we drove through there.

I’m glad we got to Hot Springs National Park because we can mark it off our list of national parks to visit but I wouldn’t go out of the way to visit there. The town looked like a Gatlinburg, TN kind of tourist area. There was a 3 1/2/ mile one way loop road that lead to the top of the mountain to a tower. There were also some overlooks to admire the scenery and look down on the area. After driving around the park and looking at the sites, we headed towards Malvern, Arkansas to find a place to sleep.

Before arriving, I checked online for Super 8 rates and availability at the Malvern, Arkansas location and the website said $59.99. When I walked into the lobby at 8pm on 5/23/08, the woman there tells me that it is $69.99. When I asked if there were any AAA or AARP rates, she said that was those rates. I feel that she said this because she looked at me and saw that I was Asian and she was discriminating against me. I went back out to the car and called the toll free number to check the rates at this location and I was told that there was a room available and it was $59.99. Obviously the phone operator could not tell what race I was so the rate did not change. When I asked if there was an AAA or AARP rate, the operator said it would be around $54. After being discriminated against, we drove across the street to an America's Best Value Inn and was thrilled to find that the same room we were asking for at Super 8 was actually cheaper than Super 8’s online rate and only cost us $55. When we got in our room, I connected to the internet and sent Super 8 a complaint giving them the date, time, location and the whole story and I felt much better. So, it was a happy ending after all!