Wednesday August 5th 2020

The weather forecasters weren’t kidding when they forecast bellow normal temperatures. I woke up this morning just before sunrise to close a few windows in my RV home. The temperature was in the sixties. Today’s high temperature was a little over eighty once the sun broke through the high cloud cover late in the day. Tonight is forecast to be similarly cool.

This is my last full day here at Maumelle Park on the Arkansas river. It is hard to believe I’ve been here for two weeks. I’ve really enjoyed my stay. There is the right mix of relaxation, easy hikes and action on the river to watch. This was my second visit and I wouldn’t be surprised if I find a reason to stop here again.

I found the Amazon Locker at the Wholefoods store easily this time around. The part for my water pump was waiting in the same bin as my last pickup. I thought for a moment that I was going to have difficulties picking up the package. Just before I went to scan the bar code on my smart phone to open the locker my phone shutdown. The battery management hardware in my old phone decides out of the blue that there isn’t enough charge in phone battery and shuts down my phone. Usually I have to put it on the charger before it restarts. This time I got lucky and it restarted right up with about 80% battery life remaining. I’m going to have to put more effort into upgrading my phone. It’s almost five years old, so it’s time.

Similar to yesterday, there was very little breeze today. The river was very calm. It seems to draw family fishing trips when it’s like this. Tonight there were several families along the banks of the river in the park. They all had lines in the water trying for an illusive fish. On the hotter, breezier nights there aren’t nearly as many people along the banks of the river. Tonight they even had some comic relief. Three adults with an old plastic peddle boat and an electric trolling motor attempted to cruise around in the river. The three people almost swamped the boat with their weight and the motor didn’t have the horsepower to move them. They got out fifty to one hundred feet from the boat launch before they decided to fight their way back to shore. The combination of peddle power and the motor got them back before anyone ended up in the river, but it took forever. When I left the show they were trying to decide which of the three was going to stay on land. This is the kind of entertainment I’m going to miss at this park.