April 7th, Sunday 9:15 a.m. ozarks, arkansas
Slept well, but it looks like there will be some Spring rain to deal with from here on out. I was planning on heading south to Ouachita to do some overnight bikepacking. Looks like tuesday and wednesday will be heavy rain, so maybe after then. I will definitely stay at my current site through Monday night. Maybe the thing to do to pass the rainy weather is to go down to Hot Springs, get some laundry done, eat at a restaurant, and find a place to overnight. per the ioverlander app, the Walmart SuperCenter doesn’t allow overnighting, so I may have to go find a camp. Although, I did see there's a Cracker Barrel in Russellville Arkansas, so maybe that's the better place to go. I'll keep looking on the maps.
Anyway, it just started drizzling here, so I quickly added my rain awning for the driver side GFC tent door. I have the tent door attached to the awning right now, so it doesn’t feel so claustrophobic inside the tent. It's a common complaint of GFC owners, you have to zip closed all the windows and doors of the tent when it rains to keep the water out. It doesn't come with a vestibule. My little homemade awning keeps the rain out but still lets you have a breeze, and you can even see outside still. I also sloped the rear Thule awning before going back up into the tent. You don’t want water to accumulate into a small pond until it gets so heavy that the awning rips.
Anyway like I said the forecast isn’t great for this week, but I do have rain gear. maybe I’ll just have to tweak plans or suck it up and deal with the rain. it’s warm down here at least. And the clouds overnight are like a blanket keeping things warmer overnight. In fact last night was the first night I slept with just the quilt. Didn’t need a hat, gloves, booties, nothing
and while I don’t go to church anymore, the pine trees surrounding my campsite are very awe inspiring. it’s like sitting in an outdoor cathedral. It’s been nice to just relax and listen to the wind and watch them sway.
