Maumelle Park

We slept in this morning to catch up on our rest, so it was 10:45 a.m. by the time we hit the road (I-40, that is), heading for Maumelle Park, on the Arkansas River north of Little Rock. The first part of our trip took us through western Tennessee. We crossed the Mighty Mississippi and entered Arkansas. As we moved westward and left the mountains behind, we noticed fields of cotton and large round bales of hay. As we approached Little Rock, we could see the terrain changing again, with gentle rolling hills.

Arkansas is a lovely state, but its highways leave something to be desired. Everything in the truck and trailer was bounced and shaken (including me) by the rough roadway. We were very glad to arrive at the campground about 4:15 p.m. On the way in we dumped, and then we had to go evict some squatters from our site. They admitted they had spent the day in their beach cabana, but quickly began to move when we showed up.

Our site backs up on the Arkansas River, which at this point looks like a large lake. The Corps of Engineers operates a series of locks and dams to make the river navigable.

(This photo was taken the next day because it was too dark by the time we actually got set up.)

As soon as we had unhitched, we headed to the Clinic at Walmart Operated by St. Vincent. It’s a walk-in clinic with care provided by advanced practice nurses and physician’s assistants under the direction of a supervising physician. After we had filled out all the paperwork, a young woman saw me. She said that my rash appeared to be contact dermatitis and that there was no way of knowing what had caused it. She did give me a prescription for steroids, which I started taking this evening. All I can say is, I hope it works! The itching and burning are maddening and painful, and I’ve been having trouble sleeping.

Both of us got our flu shots, so that’s another thing taken care of.