Here is my friend Zach and his dog Freya. Zach is in his early 30s and is in the middle of a career change. He is skilled at laying tile and has done well at it. He started out working for someone else and then started out on his own. He is creative and likes the detail work. He's made good money, but recognizes the work is hard on the body and wants to find something that will suit him better long term. He is waiting to hear back on one opportunity. I hope he finds something that will satisfy his goals.
I enjoyed talking with Zach and getting to know him this weekend. I was going to have oatmeal this morning, but Zach was fixing eggs and invited me to have some fried egg sandwiches on garlic bread with him. They tasted great, and I shared some mandarin oranges with him. I haven't fixed eggs since I started my trip. Zach has access to farm eggs, which don't require refrigeration -- a nice bonus for camping.
We talked quite awhile again this morning, and then I broke camp and headed back to downtown Little Rock. I wanted to see what information I could get from the visitor center. That turned out to be harder than I expected. They had closed the downtown visitor center, but still had a tourist information center in the offices by the capitol. Google maps got me close, but couldn't quite get me there, and I wandered the halls a bit before finding it. As it turned out, the only thing they had that I didn't already have was a list of ranger stations, so I took that. The endeavor really wasn't much more than a time sink for me.
I headed toward the Clinton library, but after having hung out around camp talking, and wandering around by the capitol, I was too hungry and ready for lunch. I looked up reviews for lunch places and ended up at David's Burgers. It was not far from the presidential library and near the waterfront market. The waitress was friendly and energetic and the food was good.
I reevaluated my time situation and decided the Presidential library wasn't high enough priority to stick around. I wasn't a big fan of President Clinton, and thought visiting the library might help me understand him and his points of view better. I wasn't a fan of George W. Bush when he was president, either, and reading the book his mother wrote about him made me more accepting of George W. Bush. I thought the Clinton library might serve me in a similar way -- but I needed to do some laundry and wanted to head north, so I skipped the presidential library.
I had wanted to camp near Petit Jean State Park because I had seen some amazing pictures of that park , but the website didn't show availability for today. I wasn't sure if it was actually full or they don't take same day reservations. It would be a half hour drive each way off of the main highway to get there, so I opted for the safer federal campground at Russellville, and I'll backtrack to Petit Jean tomorrow.
I've noticed that a lot of the federal campgrounds are army corp of engineers campgrounds either on the shore of a lake, above a dam, or on the side of a river, below a dam. The Russellville campsite was no exception, being on the river below Lake Dardanelle. The waterways are an important resource here. I saw this comparison sign posted at the campground.
There is a noisy paper plant nearby that is operational all night, but I have earplugs so that isn't a problem for me. Most of the people camping here are in RVs, so it probably isn't a problem for them, either.
As usual, the people here are very friendly, including the campground host. I asked him if he thought I'd get eaten alive by bugs if I slept in my hammock instead of my tent, and he advised against it, so I set up my tent. I don't make a habit of sitting outside after dark for just that reason. I made an exeption when I was camping near little rock. I didn't put on any bug repellent, and you can see the results below.
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