Are you stressed? You look stressed. The way your eyes are pinched together and your shoulders are hunched, like they’re in pain. Seems like you’ve been a bit high strung lately – work, church, family – all those things tend to wear at a person a bit and it ends up making you stressed. Running from one thing to another with little rest. Better get moving, you have things to do. Why do you keep stretching your neck like that? Is it tense? Yeah, rubbing it won’t really make that go away. Maybe some Tylenol. A little caffeine. That is bound it help. Try that. Maybe even one of those energy drinks to get you going or just a Diet Coke because that’s so much better for you. Oh, don’t forget you have that meeting soon and that project is due; it’s important. We’re counting on you. Why are you hunched like that? Does your back hurt? Sitting like that isn’t really good for you. Right. Where am I going? Oh, I have this place. I go there to relax. Now? You want me to tell you about it now? You seem so busy. Are you sure you have the time? Okay.
There’s this place, north of here. Not far north. It seems like its far when you say three hours, but really, that’s just three CD’s of your favorite music away. Think about that. Or just three hours of snacking and talking to family without the television or computers or telephone. Not really that far. We like going in the fall and winter. Last year we drove through a snow storm. Well, not really a storm, more like a whiteout. We couldn’t see the road. Weren’t sure if we were going in the right direction or not. We were scared to slow down or even stop because we knew there were cars behind us. Just kept driving. Kept guessing. Why are you shaking your head? I know THAT doesn’t sound relaxing. It wasn’t. It was incredibly stressful driving through that mess, the wind whipping past the car at incredible speeds, obliterating the road and anything around us. Stressful. I’m just saying that it’s worth driving through storms for. That’s how cool this place is.
It’s hidden. Not secreted, but out of sight if you know what I mean. It’s up a little canyon, surrounded by a little town. And I mean little, maybe twenty buildings in the whole town. Twenty total. Many are closed in the winter just because there are not enough people. Summer is a fun time too. We’ve gone then. But winter is best. Winter The town is close together. Like an old west town. Buildings nearly touching each other, so wherever you stay you can get from one end of town to another in less than ten minutes – on foot. But the only reason you want to go anywhere is to eat. I’ll tell you about that later.
There are maybe three or four hotels in the town. Small hotels. Dinky really. They are perfect. Little rooms. Cozy. But you’re not there for the rooms. The rooms are there so that you can sleep when you’re done and leave your clothes when you go across the street. Across the street is the reason you drove through an ice storm to get here. Across the street are the Lava Hot Pools. There are two major pools and two minor pools. They are cool on this end and hot on that end. You can work your way up. By cool, I mean mid 90’s and by hot, I mean low 100’s. The coolest pool here is hotter than most hot tubs.
This is old Indian land. Indians, years ago, came here and soaked in the river because boiling water bubbles its way to the surface and mixes with icy river water and make the best soaking water in the world. So they would soak. This is what you’re going to do. The pools are now cement lined and have stairs leading down to them; they have canopies over most of them to protect you from the sun or elements. You can soak in complete comfort. They have changing rooms, incredible flower gardens, ice cream for sale, icy cold water and a place where you can get a massage.
Once you walk down those stairs and feel the heat hit your skin, you think you won’t make it. But you will. Just ease yourself down into it. I know it’s hot but your body will adjust. Just slowly lower yourself into the water. The first thing you notice, after the heat, is that the floor of the pool is not solid. Nope. Filled with little tiny gravel about the size of peas maybe six inches deep. When you walk, you have perfect traction. It’s like getting a foot massage every time you move your feet. Just sit down on the stone benches lining the pool. Just sit down and let the heat pull the tension out of your body. Just sit there and move your feet in the gravel floor and feel your feet get more and more relaxed as your back and shoulders get looser and looser just by sitting in the hot water.
Now close your eyes and just relax. All you can hear is the distant highway, sometimes a passing cargo train and the people around you talking. There are not a lot of little kids here. Not a lot for them to do and they don’t like how hot the water is. Some kids. But not a lot. You can hear the people talking. The people at the pools are part of what make them so great. They all seem somehow unique. Like all the unique people in the world have come to Lava Hot Springs just for today. Tomorrow it will be regular, unremarkable people, but today all the unique people are here. There are young couples making lovey face, and touching noses and talking softly and giggling at everything the other says; there are old couples talking quietly and smiling at each other while holding hands. There are hippies with pulled back hair and scraggly beards and hair. There are old men with faded blue tattoos of panthers and crosses and women; they are mostly silent except around more of their kind, but they have old stories to tell. There are women gathered together laughing and gossiping; there are loudmouths and soft-speakers. And there are storytellers and listeners. The pools are never crowded. There is always a place to sit, lie down, and stretch out. I’ve never seen it so crowded I didn’t want to be there.
Once you’ve soaked for a while, you’ll start to get hungry. There’s not much to eat in town if you like fancy. There’s plenty to eat in town if you like home cooked meals, made to order by local people. There are three or four local restaurants and a little ice cream parlor. There are a couple of gift shops with cool stuff in them. You’ll want to walk a bit, stretch, get yourself a good burger or chicken fried steak. Drink some water then get back to the pools sometime after dark. If you’re lucky, it’ll start to snow.
You’ll make your way back into the pools and sit on the stairs of the big pool – the hot pool. The stairs are deep and wide enough that you can lay down on them without discomfort. The stairs are heated by the water so they are comfortable even as it snows. But you want to be in the water for this. Ease yourself down into the water. Remember this is the hottest part of the pools but you get used to it. Your skin feels all prickly because of heat pushing its way into your body and stress leaving it. Sink down into the water and look up into the night sky. No matter what the weather is like, you’ll be rewarded. If it’s clear, you get to lie in the superheated water and look up at the jeweled night sky while your feet push into the graveled floor and your hearing is blocked by the lapping of water. If it’s snowing, well if it’s snowing, you’re in for a treat. You’ll lie there heat pushing into you while snow appears out of the darkness in amazing white downy drifting pieces gently making their way down to you. Most of them won’t make it because of the heat of the pool. Some will make it to your skin and will extinguish themselves on your superheated body as it surfaces out of the pool. You’ll look up into a blank sky and watch the snow come down, listen to the lapping of the water and feel the heat pushing into you and the stress leaving you and you’ll think of… nothing. You’ll just enjoy the moment because that’s all there is. This moment. Snow. Water. Gravel.
You might get out and cool off on the stairs but even then the snow doesn’t bother you. You’ll cool off and then get back in. Cool off then get back in. Until there is nothing left but you. All the stress has been washed off in the pools and pushed away by the gravel and laughed away by the people around you. You might get out and read then get back in again. You might get out and listen to music then get back in again. You might get out and take a nap then get back in again. It’s all really quite simple. Wash and repeat until desired results are obtained.
After a while, you’ll start feeling tired, not tired and stressed, not tired like you need sleep, just tired. You’ll walk back to your hotel room, steam radiated off of your body and slip into your most comfortable pajamas, slip into the simple bed in the simple room and listen to the river outside your hotel room and you’ll sleep. You’ll sleep in total darkness, free of troubles, or cares, or stress. You’ll sleep long and deep and you’ll wake up the next morning feeling more relaxed than you’ve been in a long time. You’ll be hungry again so go get yourself some pancakes and maple syrup with a side of sausage. Then come back and get in the pools again. You have all weekend here. All weekend.
So, I’ve got to get going. Heading there with my family. What? You want to come too? Sure. We’d love to have you. Sure. I’ll meet you there. Three hours north. Lava Hot Springs. I’ll look for you.
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