Spa-a-a-h

20 AUGUST 2013, 12:35
Okawville, Illinois is east of St. Louis, off I-64, exit 41. Small town, with a Pilot truck stop right off the exit and the town about a half-mile down the road. And in the town is The Original Springs Hotel.

The spring in question runs under the hotel. It's not a hot spring,* but lots of minerals. So they set up a spa in 1867, and it's still here.

I had to do a restart--34 hours doing nothing trucking-related. So I said what the heck. A moderate walk, too much money,** a long soak in a mineral-laden hot tub, and half an hour on a massage table--and the time wasn't wasted. I had an Experience.

The walls of the spa proper were lined with tin panels that dated back to the grand opening, they said--decorative in a Victorian fashion and still valiantly shielding the walls from moisture.

The tubs were modern whirlpool types, but that was no great disillusionment. This isn't a hot spring, so they always heated the water before piping it into the tubs anyway. And it was indeed relaxing. They offered to let me soak longer than the time I'd paid for, but I didn't --because it was a proper Victorian-era spa. No air conditioning. Sitting in a hot tub is ok.  Sitting in a Turkish bath is ok. Both  at once?

The masseuse*** was not quite as period--a proper massage therapist, with just the proper streak of New Age. She went beyond what I paid for (hot stones, at least--extra charge, the flyer said) because "the universe told her to." I won't argue.

Suddenly the whole spa thing makes much more sense to me. Another reason to get rich. And maybe to look forward to getting stuck here again.
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*(geothermal but merely non-cold--about 60°, they said)

**(not really--I'm just cheap)

***(I use the old term in honor of the age of the place--built when "masseur" and "masseuse" had not become snicker-words)