Day 25 was a rest day in Clarksville. Today, Day 26, we rode 74 miles along Highway 64 from Clarksville to Conway.  Conway is just 30 miles north of Little Rock, which is essentially in the middle of Arkansas.

Both Dan and I sent some of our belonging home with our wives in an effort to reduce weight on our bikes. I managed to eliminate both of my rear panniers (saddle bags) and have consolidated all of my stuff into one bag.  My bike is much lighter. With that, I sent my computer home, so it will take me a couple of days to figure out how to download pictures onto the Hotel Business Center Computer, which is what I will be using from here on.

We rode through a number of towns today. It is very interesting to ride into new towns, not knowing exactly what to expect. On many occasions, we ride into towns that appear economically depressed.  Many of the buildings are run-down looking and/or vacant and there simply is no prosperity evident.  Others, like Russellville Arkansas, are thriving.  It makes me wonder what decisions were made and by whom to create thriving towns like Russellville.  We saw a Con-Agra Plant, a Firestone Plant, a Tyson Foods Plant and Distribution Center, banks, steakhouses, investments houses, and general evidence of “Old Money” in some of the homes along main street. Conversely, some of the other towns are simply dead or dying with the only viable businesses being liquor stores and saloons. Somewhere in the history of towns like Russellville, city planners or leaders made good decisions and the results are plain to see.

Overall, today was a great day with very good weather in the morning but deteriorating weather in the afternoon. We managed to ride for over 5 hours and avoided rain.  Tomorrow, we are traveling to Brinkley, Arkansas.  The weather is suspect as rain will be around us. We hope to scoot around the thunderstorms and showers for the day.