Welcome to Maumelle!

So, backtracking to Little Rock now...  We had seen such glowing reviews of this Army Corp of Engineers (COE) park, we just HAD to stay here!  So from Petit Jean, we headed back down southeast to Maumelle (NW part of Little Rock), down the narrow road that is like most roads to most COE campgrounds!  And all COE parks are water-related, of course, and this one was next to the Arkansas River.  What a gorgeous park!

 The best sunset was the night we got there.

 The place was so booked-up when I made our reservations, we had to settle for one of the less-desirable sites - F1, kind of behind the marina/yacht parking.  But as we soon learned, there really weren't any bad spaces at this place!  It was all good!  And despite being beneath the trees, our rooftop satellite amazingly still found signal, and we had Verizon - like I said, all good!  We got our chairs set up outside and settled in.

  

A pretty morning with sun and fog on the water.

A softer look walking along the riverbank.

The green grass and trees were just perfect at this place.

The whole setting was so idyllic, in fact, we decided to extend our stay (one of the perks of RVing and a flexible schedule!) - and that allowed me to relocate us to another site.  Not bad, eh???

It's nice when you have cool neighbors to meet, but it's also nice having empty spaces next to you (= better view!).

 Nice picnic set-ups for day visitors.

 A view looking down the river, towards the marina (with a family or two of geese heading for the water's edge).

 Somebody enjoying the river.

Looking off to a narrow island strip in the middle of the river, I was surprised to see a momma deer and fawns!  

 Other critters like the park too...

 There have got to be more squirrels per square inch in this park than any other - they're not dumb!  They know a good thing when they find it too!!

 So I figured that since there are so many squirrels,

I should represent their population with A LOT of squirrel photos!

 Proper RVing etiquette involves dedicating at least SOME time to just lazing around (some of us more time than others...).  These two big boxers seem to have it down pat - and on the dashboard, up in the windshield for all to see, no less - that gets extra credit points, I think!  The more unabashed you are about doing nothing at all, the higher your score.

 But even the highest scoring on the lazy scale (cats) have to get up and look busy once in awhile.

Hmm, must be one of those gazillion squirrels...!

But after all that hard work (squirrel-watching), it's back to sleep - until Mom comes around with that damn camera that she sticks in your face all the time...(and she turns the light on since her flash doesn't work - really completes the disruption)

For a big dog, Senny can sure curl up small.  And yes, two pillows are always better than one!

A kitty postcard to all.

(here, they're taking a short walk on a, fortunately, short pier)

 Scratty traverses the corrugated cement boat ramp (hard on the feet but maybe easier when your feet are really small...?).

 We weren't able to get a site on the river when we moved, but we took advantage of one before its new inhabitants showed up.

 It was just across the way from our site.  The kitties said it was nice but that our place was the best!

 Another Tractor-approved picnic table.

Scratty liked it fine too but wasn't as sure about the caterpillars it came with.

Seems an unlikely spot for a nap.  And this is an armadillo, not an opossum so pretty sure it's not playing dead.  Poor thing.  It looks so perfect, just laying there but it was victim of our automotive world.  Morbid, I know.  But I love armadillos, and this was the only way I saw them on this year's trip - this one being in the "best" condition...

And from armadillos to hogs - razorbacks to be precise!  The AR Razorbacks are the subject of wall art here at Larry's Pizza, a pizza buffet place I found through someone else's blog.  I LOVE this place!!!  Awesome pizza, including...

 Yup, dessert pizzas!!!!!!!!!!  My favorite was the chocolate pizza (hmm, big surprise, huh?!), but they had all sorts of fruity ones and Bavarian cream and cinnamon sticks, etc.  YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Worth driving back to Arkansas for!  Well, almost.

I was going to say we'll end this post with a sunset, but I think this is another sunrise.  Oh well, what the hell!