
The campsites at Maumelle Park (on the southern bank of the Arkansas River just west of I-430) are spacious, tree-shaded and equipped with picnic tables.
This weekend is a try-out… figuring out how much time it takes me to do certain things, like my wake-up routine (3 hours, including personal hygiene, getting dressed, general housekeeping, cooking breakfast, making coffee and watching the news on TV); how long it takes me to catalog and optimize a batch of photos (1 hour) and post a note here (1 hour), so that when I go on a long roadtrip I have some idea about how much time it takes me to do the things I want to do… <smile>.

Yes, that’s me, grinning like a Cheshire Cat… I mean, who doesn’t like to get beautiful, thoughtful gifts… most especially when they come from our kids…!!!
Before I dwell on these resplendent pleasures, a bit of catch-up is in order.
Firstly, I want to send HUGE (((hugs))) to my youngest son, a Navy enlistee, who is stationed in Japan, for the BEAUTIFUL necklace he sent me. He is such a thoughtful lad…
I love him and ALL of my darling grown-up children with y whole heart and cannot thank them enough for every wonderful thing they do for me.
Also, for those who wonder what I do when I’m not camping, last week one of my little projects included dehydrating a p0und of mushrooms (pics below), getting stuff organized for the next publication of Help YourSelf, updating my gozarks ezine, and playing with a papier mache / mixed-medium sculpture that I started last December — and I’ll post pics of that when it’s done.
Back to the near present… <grin> yesterday I enjoyed a lovely visit with Carolyn Patterson, a long-time traveler and all around interesting woman.

Carolyn and I enjoyed a marvelous afternoon chatting, enjoying the cool breeze and watching the river.
This morning, out the front window of “Sweet Louise” (aka: ’02 Great West Van 20′) I saw a barge heading downstream.

With the ‘privacy drape’ of the front window of my RV half-way taken down, I saw this long tug-pushed train of barges.
So, that’s it for me in the here-and-now. Below are the promised pics of dehydrating mushrooms. Hope all is good by you. (((hugs))) ~Christine
gozarks goes mobile February 22, 2016
Tags: commentary, family, road trip, travel, travel planning
This morning, immersed in the riverside quietude of Maumelle Park, sipping coffee (lightly laced with Irish Cream), pseudo-watching ‘the news’ on airwaves TV and puffing, occasionally, on a corncob pipe stuffed with “Tin Star Menthol Pipe Tobacco” (yes, I still enjoy the ‘rush’ of nicotine <smile>), I imagined myself to be on the road to Somewhere Else and imagined what I would be doing along the way.
With ‘along the way’ being ‘any place’ that I might like to relax for a week or so as I travel to Somewhere Else…
And with knowing that my travels will be more comfortable by me ‘earning my keep’ as I go…
Thus I thought about what I am good at and would most enjoy doing to accommodate such a mutually beneficial business transaction and decided to simply go mobile with my longstanding credentialed skill-set in graphic design, promotional copy-writing, special event production and strategic marketing… updating or designing new logos, brochures, custom newsletters, website content, display ads, etc. (as was my professional mainstay for decades up until 2011) as I move about from place to place.
So, over the next short while I’m going to put into practice the marketing strategy thus designed <smile>, the first step of which shall be to develop a promotional flier for ‘gozarks goes mobile’… and when I have it done, I’ll pass it along to RV campgrounds along my projected route to Somewhere… which, given I can get all my ducks in a row, will be to Alaska for the summer… wow… wouldn’t that be a hoot…!!!
PS: Here are a couple more pics from my Maumelle Campout… FYI: for more about this darling daughter, click here…
Shawna (aka: my youngest daughter), me and (in the background) “Louise” (’02 GWV 20′).
Yes… it all tastes better when kissed by Mother Nature and partaken al fresco…