Our First At-Home Haircut

In our whirlwind trip through Arkansas, we had one more stop planned. We hooked up the car behind the motor home as we left North Little Rock's city park campground. Denisa couldn't help but take a picture, as we were obviously parked to do this chore in an area that was clearly posted as "no parking any time." We are experienced at this chore, so it takes just a few minutes to attach the car to the motor home for the next trip. We're glad that we didn't get ticketed for breaking the parking laws!

We were back on I-40 to make another two-hour drive across the state of Arkansas. Several miles off the interstate we stopped in at Dan's Riverview Campground near the town of Ozark. We had to cross the Arkansas River to get to this new Passport America campground, that offers one night of half-price camping.

Even though the name implies we would have a view of the river, we could only see trees at Dan's Riverview Campground. But we really like this quiet little campground with less than a dozen sites.

We are enjoying nice weather, and this seems like a good place to play barbershop. For the last five years we have dreaded trying to find places to get our hair cut as we travel across the United States. With the pandemic closing down all hair-cutting options, both of us are getting mighty shaggy.  In the "before" picture below, you can see that Mark's hair is longer than it has been in those five years.

Even though it looks much better when combed into place,  the above pictures helped Mark convince Denisa that it was time to try her first at-home hair cut. We set up the barber shop on our picnic table in the woods, and watched a couple you-tube videos. Alrighty, let's try this.

Mark was taking selfies and giving words of encouragement as Denisa started cutting. He kept saying things like, "Don't worry, it will grow back" and "No matter what, it'll look better than when you started."

This haircut wasn't without injury. Denisa was using her very sharp sewing scissors. She managed to snip a chunk out of the finger that was holding up a lock of Mark's hair. We can say now that this hair cut caused blood, sweat, and tears to flow. An hour and 20 minutes later, Denisa finally set down the scissors. Mark commented that she would need to pick up speed if she ever wanted to make a living at this. A shave and shower later, we took the "after" pictures.

That's one amazing hair cut when that bald spot magically disappears!

After that haircut, we still had a little time to do some exploring. We stayed in this area four years ago, when we were at the Corp of Engineers Aux Arc campground that is just a few miles down the road. All of the Corp of Engineers parks are closed because of the pandemic, but we were surprised to see that the gates were open to drive inside. We walked the mile-long road that lines the delightful camping spots among these tall trees. But the campground is eerily silent today.

Half of these great camp sites line the river. We walked along the Arkansas River inside the corp campground and had the place to ourselves.

The Canadian Geese were enjoying the space and the quiet of this environment. In our wildlife picture of the day, we watched the flirtings of spring time. This gander kept chasing away the other guys getting too close to his goose.

We re-read our blog posts from four years ago to see what we did when we stayed at the Aux Arc campground. After five and a half years of travel, we're glad for the blog to remind us of things we had forgotten. It looks like we stayed here for four days, and enjoyed some fine hikes in this area around Mount Magazine. But this time we are traveling more quickly, so we are heading on down the road--with less hair than when we arrived. Denisa agreed to giving Mark a haircut, in exchange for him cutting her hair. She's not quite desperate enough for that to happen yet . . . but if this pandemic lasts much longer you'll be seeing a blog about our second at-home haircut.