Days 15-22 Whewww Freezing Rain Sleet And Snow in Arkansas Overnight and Valentine's Day

On Monday, we experienced a pretty yucky day. It started out with rain and later as the temperatures dropped, it became an icy freezing rain and sleet and even snowflakes falling!!! 

Even here in Northern Arkansas, at Craighead Forest in Jonesboro, we can get some snow!  Got down to 29°. Our holding tanks are also heated. We have an extra space heater as well as the propane furnace. Above 40° or so the electric heat strips up in the air conditioner also work. 

We snuggled up inside, cozy and warm. We played some cribbage, and the loser had to bundle up to go let the dogs out! (It was Steve)

As the end of our 7-day stay here neared an end, it happened to land on Wednesday (which was Valentine's Day).

Steve asked what I would like for a Valentine's Day present? Well, I suggested to stay here one more week!

The people next to us on site 41 were leaving Wednesday morning. Their site is just wonderful and located at the end of the peninsula. It has about 180° view of all water. If we would park nose-in first, we would have water views out the front windshield, all the way down the whole side of the rig with our best windows, and also out the back window! So we went up and registered with the host for another 7 days for that site. 

For Steve's Valentine's Day present, I got up early and baked him his absolute most favorite coffee cake.

He did share some with me and the dogs. How nice of him. Sure made the camper smell great early in the morning with perking coffee and cinnamon coffee cake. We brought two pieces up to the campground host as a little gift. 

These two little cuddle bugs are becoming quite the pair. It's hard to believe that only a month and a half ago he was caught up in the woods on a snagged leash, and scared to death. He was skin and bones with barely any energy. The vet said he was dangerously close to death from dehydration and starved down to skin and bones. 

Back to our campsite:

Since we knew we had to pull in the slides and move the motorhome to the next site, it was a good time to run into town and replenish a few perishable grocery supplies. We were low on milk and bread, and we could use another dozen eggs. We are pretty well stocked up on everything else. I brought a freezer full of our own meat. We are keeping one extra tote down below in a compartment with extra canned goods and dry grocery goods to supplement our menus. 

We made a stop, in the pouring rain, at Walmart. We stocked up on a few more supplies and bought a couple cuddly fleece blankets for the dogs when they sleep down on their beds on the floor on each side of our bed. We found some cute little fleece blankets with doggy paw prints on them. How cute is that? Each dog has a little bed placed on each side of our bed. It's so funny, they share the one side bed together at the beginning of the night, and in the morning we will find them both curled up together on the other side on the other bed! 

Their doggy beds are actually two mattress pads from baby diaper changing tables! They are vinyl and washable, and fit just perfectly between our bed and the wall. 

I bought one more blanket and a big hank of elastic. I'm going to cut it in half and make two nice matching bed covers that are removable and washable. 

Speaking of sleeping, this Nicholas has a built-in alarm clock in his little head. His brain tells him when it is 6:50 a.m. on the dot. He stands up shakes his fur and jingles his collar tags. Then he launches himself and lands in a heap right in the middle of our bed between us! "GET UP GET UP! START THE DAY! WHAT IS EXCITING TODAY! BARK BARK BARK!!!" 

Okay, back to our errands in the town of Jonesboro. It was really really busy and we wanted to get the heck out of town and back to the campground. 

While we were there, we stopped at the local Ace hardware store. We had looked up online and saw that they had a nice little portable dehumidifier. Since the rainy icky snowy sleedy slushy day earlier in the week, we did have a lot of moisture building up on the single pane windows on the inside. We had used up a few towels mopping the windows and the wallpaper below of wetness and run off.  Our last motorhome had dual pane windows and we really weren't used to this during humid damp cold weather. 

So this little portable dehumidifier was our Valentine's Day present to each other. Lol! 

We got back to the campground around 10:00 a.m. The neighbors had just left and pulled out. We waved to them as they were heading to the dump station. Then we were able to slide right into the spot that they had vacated. Which of course, we had already paid for with the host earlier that morning. 

Once that weather had passed, by Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we were in a beautiful stretch of weather with sunny skies and temperature in the mid '60s!

The skies turned bright blue. The temps were climbing and we were going to have an absolutely gorgeous day. 

Just look at this view all around the end most site of this peninsula. I really think it's the best campsite in the entire park!

This morning we woke up to an even better weather forecast. This time up into the '70s! This is the view out of the kitchen window because we had pulled in nose first to the site. Yes, I know it means our power cord crosses over underneath the rig to reach the post. But it's worth it. 

Here's the view out the front windshield. There's a little cove in the woods where the water comes into a little inlet. The Canadian geese seem to sneak up in there to sleep at night. 

Here's the view out the bedroom window and around the back. I just can't believe we get a water view about 180° in this campsite. There is a narrow walking path along the edge that people walk past. But mostly it is just like a big huge yard, just for us. 

We decided to take out the e-bikes and try out some of these trails. We want to try the new little bike trailer for the dogs, but first we wanted to go on the trails ourselves. 

Here is our little cargo trailer with the bikes and all of our extra gear arranged inside. 

The easiest trail is about 3 miles around the lake. The entire trail is paved and smooth and only one major hill up and down. 

With the e-bikes and the pedal assist, it's pretty easy to tackle those hills and not even break a sweat. 

We made it around the entire lake in about 20 minutes. Even with a little stop on the bridge for a Valentine's Day kiss. It's just over 3 miles. 

Since we bought these bikes back in November, we haven't put that many miles on them because of the snow and the cold. It feels so good to get out and use them now. 

One of our neighbors came over to ask about the bikes, and he is considering ordering one himself. He is thinking his wife might like the trike version. These are the Lectric brand bikes and we are really happy with them. 

Today we decided to pop the dogs in to the little trailer that we bought. I will put that adventure in my next blog.