Had you been listening to Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion this weekend on NPR, and more importantly, had they read my Greeting, you would've heard something like this:

"To the *four* devoted readers of nonsensical gibberish dot com, andarios says he's having a great time and wishes you were here!"

Unfortunately, my greeting wasn't creative or interesting enough and was probably passed over. In actuality, they probably just never got to reading it because I thought it was extremely interesting and creative. Heh.

Jen and I had a wonderful weekend away, and the show was pretty good as well. Apparently the promoter who got PHC to come to Hot Springs had to resort to sharing some lurid, juicy historical tidbits from Hot Springs' not so pleasant past to make it interesting enough Garrison Keillor to consider broadcasting from this city. "Hot Springs - a loose buckle on the Bible belt," was his actual quote that I thought was rather amusing.

We arrived at our hotel (the Velda Rose) just shortly after 3pm Saturday afternoon, giving us just enough time to check-in and get ready for the show. The hotel was probably only a mile from the venue so we decided to hoof it down Bathhouse Row instead of driving the short distance and then having to fight for parking spaces. The temperature was fairly chilly as we walked with our coats zipped up and wind gusting around our ears. A brief respite was had while we ordered some eggrolls to go at a small Chinese hole in the wall, seeing as how we hadn't had any lunch yet. We arrived at the convention center/arena close to 4:20pm and ended up getting stuck in a huge throng of people waiting to get into the arena. I was worried that we wouldn't make it in in time for the pre-show festivities as the crush of people moved exceedingly slowly forward.

As we walked up the steps to the arena proper, we were greeted by the singing of the National Anthem so it looked like we had made it just in time. The entire arena was sold out, and 6,300+ people waited anxiously for the live broadcast to start. Garrison treated the audience by singing a little ditty as walked down the floor level aisle before he went on the air. And not long after that, the "on air" light lit up on stage and we heard the familiar tones and voice introducing the show, "From Minnesota Public Radio..." followed by Garrison Keillor's intro song.

We were treated to Guy Noir, Private Eye, a skit with "Bill Clinton", and musical performances by Sam Bush, Billy Joe Shaver, and Charlotte Crosmer, the 12-year old Arkansas fiddle champion. One of the neatest parts about attending the live broadcast was being able to see Fred Newman do all the sound effects that we've been so accustomed to hearing while listening to the weekly show. I found myself getting so immersed in "watching" the show that at times I had to take a step back, close my eyes, and actually listen to the show. It was almost a surreal feeling watching the show at times.

All in all, we enjoyed the show and were glad to be a part of the first broadcast from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Listen close to the web rebroadcast of the show and you might hear me clapping or laughing. ;)

After the show ended, not wanting to fight the crowd leaving, Jen & I waited inside the arena until the crowd had thinned somewhat and then proceeded to make our way out. We were fortunate enough to see Garrison Keillor outside signing autographs but being starved for food and not wanting to wait for who knew how long to get his autograph, we passed up the opportunity. At this point, we were glad we had walked since the traffic outside was absolutely dreadful. However, we later regretted this decision when we were nearly frozen stiff from walking in the nearly freezing temperatures.

We had scoped out a couple of restaurants on the walk down but seeing how cold it was, we ducked into the first one we could find. A place called Shapiro's I believe. In a word, the restaraunt sucked. If you could call it a restaurant. We never saw any evidence of food so we're not sure if it could be classified as such. We should have been clued in to the fact that the restaurant sucked when it took more than five minutes to get seated. And that wasn't because the place was busy. In fact, it was the antithesis of being busy. It couldn't have been less busy, IMO. And then it took another 10 minutes before the waitress came to get our drinks and our order. Funny, but it seemed like after she served our drinks, she disappeared for the rest of the night. After waiting for nearly a half hour with no sign of anyone being served any food, our drinks long drained, we left a few dollars on the table and promptly left the dining, I mean, drinking establishment. Ugh. Worse service I had ever had. Or does non-existant service still count?

We ended up eating at The Faded Rose, a previously tried-and-true Cajun restaurant which I should have chosen in the first place. The place was busy, and there was a wait, but it was worth it in the end. Once we got seated, we were served immediately and was never really kept waiting for our food. Sometimes it pays not to experiment.

The rest of the night....well, never mind...you don't want to know anyway. ;)

We woke up around 9am Sunday morning and decided to go get breakfast at The Pancake Shop which was recommended to us from a co-worker of mine. It was to be a twenty minute wait so we took the time to walk over to see some of the hot springs that were located just across the street. While we walked over there, we noticed that one of the people walking in front of us was Craig O'Neill, a Little Rock sportscaster and local celebrity. He and his wife didn't seem to like the attention that was focused upon them by us and others around us so they promptly left the springs and walked off by themselves. We had seen him at the show the night before and I also saw him once again getting into their car parked outside of the Pancake Shop. Anyway, the food at the Pancake Shop was delicious and the service was phenomenal. After that, Jen had an appointment for a massage and spa at the Velda Rose so we ate quickly and returned to our hotel. She thoroughly enjoyed the pampering treatment that she was given and recommended that I try it out sometime myself.

Before we left our little weekend retreat, we went and bought some small souvenirs for the Kiddos and also bought 6 gallon jugs in which we could fill up with free spring water from one of the many water distribution centers found in downtown Hot Springs. With all the places in the world suffering from drought, it amazed us that free spring water was so readily and easily available.

The Kiddos were overjoyed to see us after we returned home later that afternoon. Even better, Braden was very cooperative with Jen's friend who watched him and Ariel so that gives us even more hope that we'll be able to get away more often in the future! We are definitely fortunate to live so close to one of the tourist spots in the U.S. - we have plans to return in the springtime when the Garvan Woodland Gardens should be in full bloom. It was definitely a much-needed Couples-Only time for me and Jen, seeing as how that was the first time we've been able to get away in about 6 years. Hopefully we won't wait another 30 years for Garrison Keillor to come to Arkansas before we go on another Couples-Only Getaway.

Only this time, Craig O'Neill is not welcome.