Saturday August 28th 2021

The weather pattern of a nearly cloudless sky, high humidity and temperature in the high nineties changed today. There were plenty of clouds in the sky to block the sun from time to time. The temperature and humidity were also a little lower. It peaked in the low to mid nineties instead of the upper nineties.

I was up early this morning to make sure I caught the local weather forecast. The hurricane didn’t make any dramatic moves over night and it continued to follow the expected path during the day. As long as it doesn’t do anything completely unexpected, I should be alright staying here. The current forecast for this area is up to an inch of rain with wind gusts as high as 25mph. As always I’ll continue to monitor the situation.

Another reason for getting up early was to make another reservation for next March in one of the federal controlled parks in Florida. The reservation window for federal controlled parks like the Army Crop of Engineers parks is six months. I was unsuccessful at my first attempt, but was able to get my second choice. As of now I have reservations from October 22nd to March 14th in Florida. March 14th to April 2nd remain open. On September 14th I’ll try to fill in the next fourteen days.

Another of today’s task was refilling the refrigerator and pantry. It has been more than two weeks since my last grocery run. When I go that long, I usually make a shopping list to make sure I get the more obscure items I’ve consumed. Today I forgot to bring the list to the store, but only managed to miss one of the items on the list. The act of creating the list is more important that actually using it.

The Walmart in this area has been updated. Earlier in the year Walmart announced they were upgrading their stores to align with the online shopping experience and the Walmart App. It sounds like nonsense to me. There is new signage over each aisle and some things may have been moved around. The change I have the biggest issue with is the checkouts. At this Walmart there were only a small handful of checkouts that had people assigned. The majority of the checkouts were self service. To rub in the change in the level of service the signs have been changed. Instead of calling them self service checkouts the sign calls the do it yourself registers “checkouts”. The old staffed registers are know called “Assisted Checkouts”. It seems they want you to believe that you are incapable if you want the service that is built into the cost of the items your buying. Why should I give them my labor and my money? It isn’t any faster or more convenient. Once they get to point where taking an item off the shelf and putting it into my cart rings up the sale, I’ll consider it progress.

Friday August 27th 2021

I got a late start to the day. The shaded location of my campsite doesn’t allow enough sun in to brighten the inside of my RV home. Combined with the quiet of the location, it was after 10AM before I was up and moving. I found a bright sunny day that eventually peaked in the upper nineties once I opened all the blinds in my RV home.

My main concern today was getting a handle on approaching tropical system Ida. It is moving fast enough that I’d have to move tomorrow (Saturday) if this area is in the cross hairs. The projected track remains pretty stable east of here. That puts the Little Rock area on the drier side of the storm. The local TV weather talkers are talking about scattered thunderstorms resulting in about an inch or rain for Little Rock and points west. Near the Mississippi River, where I was earlier in the week, six to eight inches of rain are possible. As of now, I’m sticking it out here while I continue to monitor the forecast. Running west toward Oklahoma is still a possibility.

While I’ve managed to escape the brunt of all of the tropical systems that I’ve encountered on my Rambling Road Trip, my record is about fifty-fifty on making the best decisions. In 2016, I didn’t run from Hurricane Hermine. I was in Jacksonville FL when the hurricane came ashore in the Florida Big Bend area. The wind and rain in the Jacksonville area made for some tense hours, but no real danger. Later that year I correctly and successfully ran from Hurricane Matthew.

I was in the west during the 2017 and 2019 hurricane seasons. In 2018 I was in the northeast until after the official hurricane season ended, but had a couple of storms come up the coast that needed a little attention. Last year (2020) there were two near misses that I could have made better decisions. I was close enough on the east side of Hurricane Sally to get flooded out of the campground I was staying in. The campground staff moved everyone in the campground to another campground after several campsites were under several inches of water. The site I was on would have been fine.

In November of 2020 I was in the Florida Keys when Hurricane Eta approached Florida. I left Curry Hammock State Park a day early to avoid the storm, but probably should have departed even earlier. After two days of traveling north in the outer bands of the tropical system I stopped in Titusville Florida on the assumption that I was safe. Two days later the storm had looped around and was heading straight for me. It slipped north and weakened before having more impact on me.

This year I’ve already run from one tropical system. At the beginning of July I departed a day early to run west away from Hurricane Elsa. That proved to be the right solution. The area I departed got several inches of rain. I did not feel the impact of Elsa in Louisiana, but got plenty of rain from other sources. Escaping from the storm to the west changed my entire summer travel approach. Now I have Ida to deal with.

Thursday August 26th 2021

The temperature reached the mid to upper nineties, but the location of my site made a big difference. Ever since I left Louisiana over a month ago, my campsites have been in the open without any shade. Here along the Arkansas River at Maumelle Army Corp of Engineers park I am parked in the shade. The direct sunlight doesn’t reach my RV. It is dark later in the morning and earlier at night. The end result is it is naturally cooler. This level of heat in the direct sunlight results in the AC running continuously from 9AM to 9PM. Here in the shade it gets to cycle on and off.

The shade is the good part of my campsite. The same trees that provide the shade prevent my satellite TV dish from getting a signal. I’m forced to watch one of the 51 over the air channels I receive on the regular antenna for entertainment. It is actually the first time in weeks that I’ve had access to all four of the major TV networks.

The other downside to my campsite is a little more concerning. It looks like this site fills up with water from the hill behind it in heavy rain. Since it hasn’t rained significantly since I got here, I don’t know the level of concern. It could be an inch or several inches based on the accumulated mud I’ve observed in some areas. This is important considering the weather forecast. Tropical storm Ida is heading this way. The current track isn’t a major concern, but if it moves to the west, several inches of rain may fall in this area. I’m paying close attention to the developing forecast and will take action as necessary. Moving to another site after the weekend is a possibility as is escaping the area all together.

In addition to finishing setting up my campsite I checked out the changes to the park since last summer. Not much has changed. The only significant thing I observed was the height of the river. The water level is a little higher than last year. Since the level is controlled by the Murray Lock and Dam a little way down river, it is probably by design.

Wednesday August 25th 2021

Today was a hot travel day. The temperature was in the high nineties with plenty of accompanying humidity. It seemed to get a little warmer as I traveled west into the center of Arkansas.

I got a later start on the road than I had planned. Annoying little things like a leak in my sewer hose delayed my departure. Luckily I always test the hose with the gray water before dumping the black tank. After watching a fountain of gray water coming out of the hose, I swapped out the bad hose for another one before continuing with the dumping process. There was very little gray water spillage to clean up.

The travel came in two parts. The first part, going north to Memphis, was easy. Traffic was very light. The second part of the travel was on Interstate 40 crossing Arkansas. Traffic was very heavy. Most of vehicles were big trucks and the road was only two lanes wide. I settled in behind a truck that was traveling at a comfortable speed and stuck it out for 115 miles or so. Other trucks passed in the left lane in a continuous line. One construction zone slowed everything down even more. On top of everything else the road wasn’t the best. My RV home bounced around violently a few times.

The next issue on the trip was my recollection of how to find the campground. I’ve been to the Maumelle Corp of Engineers campground twice before, but each time I arrived from the west. This time I was approaching from the east and the campground is on the west side of Little Rock Arkansas. I managed to turn south on the wrong interstate (I-30) and found myself heading for downtown Little Rock. My solution was to take an exit and reverse direction back to Interstate 40. The next time I turned south on Interstate 430 I was on the right road, but my troubles weren’t over yet.

The bridge over the Arkansas River was under construction and so was the first intersection south of the river. A cloud burst of rain decided to start at about this time too. The signs for the exit were either a casualty of the construction or I missed them in the rain. Either way, I realized that it was the exit I wanted as I passed by. Another U-turn was called for at the next intersection. Both of my direction issues would have been solved if I had reviewed my route before starting my trip. Just because I’ve been somewhere twice doesn’t mean I remember all the route numbers or road names.

I arrived at the campground a little before 3PM. It took a while to get setup in the heat after passing the first hurdle of dealing with the welcoming committee. To get into my site I had to wait while the local population of Canada Geese got out of the way. They wouldn’t be hurried.

I plan to be here until the second of September. The only possible wrinkle is the tropical system that seems to be forming in the Caribbean. One path for the storm takes it into the Gulf of Mexico toward the Houston TX area. That track would send a lot of rain this way. I need to keep track of the development.

Tuesday August 24th 2021

The hot weather continues. The temperature peaked in the mid nineties with a heat index close to 110. It was not an outside kind of day. I spent most of the day reading, watching TV and searching for various things on the Internet.

I don’t have much to write about tonight. Today was my last day in the Tunica Resort area. I’m moving west to the Little Rock, AR area tomorrow.

Monday August 23rd 2021

The high temperature is back along with Excessive Heat warnings. Along with the high humidity the temperature peaked in the low nineties with very little wind. The construction activity across the road seemed to be suspended during the warmest part of the day. The noise started around 7AM and stopped around 11AM. Around 5:30 it the noise and activity at the construction site resumed for another two plus hours. Sunset seems to be the only thing that stopped the work.

The most of the remainder of the weekend visitors to the RV park and resort departed today. Shortly after checkout time there were only four or five RVs left in the RV park. When I walked up around the hotel and casino, there were less than twenty cars in the parking lot near the hotel rooms. There were a few more cars in the lot nearest the casino. The numbers in both sections of the resort improved a little this evening.

Today, I got serious about travel planning. I needed to develop a plan for when I leave here on Wednesday and for the Labor Day weekend that is rapidly approaching. Ideally, I’d like to be in Tennessee near something to do. That “something to do” thing is the catch. Any place that addresses that criteria is full both of the up coming weekends. I identified an Army Corp of Engineers campground not far from here that has openings on the holiday weekend. It isn’t in my target area and it seems to be very isolated. Reviews report that it doesn’t have Verizon cell service and it doesn’t have Over the Air TV reception. Even so, it makes a good destination of last resort.

Thinking about Corp of Engineer parks turned my thinking out of the box. I decided to go west to the Little Rock AR area. I’ve stayed at a Corp of Engineer park on the Arkansas river a couple of times before and really enjoyed my stay. I was able to book a site for eight nights. This still leaves the labor day weekend as a problem, but I should be able to find a site in this area. My desire is to return to the Mississippi River at Tom Sawyer RV park, but they haven’t answered their phone yet. The bottom line is instead of traveling east, I’m going further west for a week.

Sunday August 22nd 2021

The heat is back and the chance of heat relieving rain is down. The overnight temperature was in the upper seventies and today’s high was in the low nineties. I’ve been running the air conditioner to keep the inside comfortable.

With the AC on and the windows closed the noise from the outside world doesn’t filter into my RV home. It was after 9AM before I woke this morning. The trend for the day was set. It was a low energy, low ambition kind of day. I spent the majority of the day inside reading and watching TV. The only real interruption from the pattern was to prepare and eat food. My morning coffee was a two cup affair rather than the usual one and my main meal was a little more elaborate than normal. I grilled a thick pork chop for dinner and baked a package of brownies for desert.

The RV park has reverted from weekend mode to mid week mode. Most of the group of six RVs that were here for the weekend have departed. Two are still here keeping the party going for at least one more night. Late in the day more RVs arrived to fill in some of the empty sites. Most of the new arrivals didn’t unhook there tow vehicles or towed cars so they are probably here for one night.

Friday August 20th 2021

The weather forecast for today was very similar to the last two days. The forecast called for scattered thunderstorms across the region all day. They got it wrong. The majority of the day had a heavy cloud cover that looked like it might rain at any minute, but no rain fell. Late in the day, near sunset, the sun even broke through in some areas. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties, but it was very humid all day. It wasn’t a day to complain about; just different.

I slept with the air conditioner off and both bedroom windows open. There was a nice breeze that provided cross ventilation that kept the bedroom quiet without the noise of the AC unit. I woke to the sound of heavy equipment working at the construction site across the road from the RV park. The noise was expected, but the heavy humidity in the air was a surprise. The temperature was in the low to mid seventies, but just moving around produced a layer of sweat that could easily drip into puddles on the floor. It was even worse after my shower.

The atmosphere at the RV park has changed for the weekend. During the week the people who stay for a night or two remain inside their RVs most of the time. Yesterday six new RVs arrived that are camping together. They gather outside to socialize and interact. This morning they loaded their golf clubs into a couple of cars before heading out. Toward evening they got into the cars and headed out once again, probably to dinner. This behavior is much more common for weekend RVers. It is refreshing for the little bit of normal it represents.

I drove by three of the other casinos in the area. None of them seemed to have many more visitors than this one. If this is caused by the current pandemic surge in the area, then it’s a good thing that people are being cautious. I fear it is more of a change in the casino business and some of the remaining casinos will not be here much longer.

Thursday August 19th 2021

Rain dominated the day once again. Mother nature was quiet overnight, but made up for it during the day. There were many quick heavy rain storms throughout the day. In between the storms it was very still. Sometimes the sun would come out and other times it was just a humid day. The temperature stayed in the lower eighties.

Once again I have very little to write about tonight. I got out for a walk a couple of times between the showers. During the first walk I had to hurry back to the shelter of my RV home, but I got a few pictures during each walk. Here is some of my day in pictures.