tomballay

We rode 107 miles today. Our route took us across the Mississippi River on The Martin Luther King bridge along Route 49 near West Helena.

The area we rode through was inundated with rain water and the fields are saturated. I am assuming they are cotton fields, but they are mostly unplanted as of today. This is a rural area and the few homes that we do see are either farm houses or small wood frame structures.

We are staying in Senatobia tonight. It is a dry county, so we couldn’t have a beer with our pizza. But I did drink 5 large glasses of ice tea, testimony to the fluids I burned on our ride today. I was really excited to enter Mississippi today, but I was reminded by the hills we encountered while approaching Senatobia that this ride isn’t over yet.

Tomorrow we head to Tupelo. It should be about an 90 mile ride. I don’t think Tupelo is in a dry county. Tomorrow will be a good day!

We rode 88 miles today in tough weather conditions. We started the day sitting in our hotel in Conway watching a downpour. The rain stopped and the storms appeared by radar to move by us, so we departed, not knowing just how far we would be able to travel.

We were again fortunate to make a full ride as the weather was overcast, 50 degrees, and windy all day. It didn’t rain again until we checked into our room here in Brinkley tonight.

The ride was a grind. We have ridden in windy conditions seemingy the entire trip from California, but this was our first day to ride into a steady head wind for 7 hours. This won’t last – eventually the weather is bound to start favoring us.

We again spent most of the day dodging dogs. I believe it is the nature of the roads we are riding – more local and less highway – the dogs are lurking about. It actually has started to be fun; it keeps us on our toes.

Our hotel, The Econolodge, does not have a lobby computer. This update was prepared on my Blackberry. Hence, my comments are brief.

Tomorrow we should enter Mississippi. We don’t know how many miles we will ride, it depends on weather and road conditions. We will just keep moving East.

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.

We rode about 63 miles today to Clarksville. We deviated from our planned route, which had us heading through Paris, Arkansas in order to find suitable accommodations for the evening.  This deviation put us onto some less traveled roads and allowed us to see a bit more of the local culture. But it also gave every dog along our path an opportunity to show us what defending their turf was all about.  We were chased by dogs all day, which is unusual for us.  Normally, we are riding along major highways and away from homes. 

Our dog strategy is as follows:

1. Ignore the little guys.  They likely can’t reach up to grab your leg even if that was their intent.  They have short legs and usually can’t run very far. Just keep riding and they will disappear.
2. The barkers usually are just that – all bark.  They come screaming out of the yard but their objective is to let everyone know just how loud they can bark.  The may run with you for a few yards, but they are generally harmless. If you talk to them, sometimes they will even stop barking.
3. Beware of big dogs that don’t bark and run right at you.  These boys mean business and you must be prepared for evasive or defensive actions.  Trying to outrun them is always an option, but it takes energy and you feel somewhat demeaned when it is all said and done (I just let a dog force me to use energy).  The best method here is to pull the water bottle and wait til they get right on you. There is nothing that stops a dog faster than a shot of water in the face.  Dan nailed a big pit bull looking creature yesterday and he retreated.  He then saw me coming and thought I might be fair game until I simply showed him my water bottle.  The big guy politely retreated and decided that I wasn’t a terrorists after all.  I stood victorious.

Our wives arrived for a two-day visit. We are going to relax for a day and then get back on track on Wednesday.  We have about 1000-1100 miles until we reach Savannah and we feel that if we ride hard we may be able to finish sometime between May 1 and May 3. 

We are looking forward to our last leg of the journey.

We rode 81 miles today along Highway 9 into the Southeastern Conference.  I have been carrying my LSU hat for 1760 mile in anticipation of wearing it and giving the locals something to moan about as I pass through Arkansas, Mississippi, Bamalamadingdong and into Georgia (home of the perennial “wait until next year” champions). 

The biggest difference that we have noticed since entering into Eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas is wildlife – particularly on the side of the road.  That’s right, we are talking about Road Kill.  We may have seen 20 dead animals through four states. Now we see a dead varmint of some type or another (possums, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, armadillos ect) just about every mile.  It is a full-time job just avoiding these unfortunate creatures as we work our way east.  (see photo)

Armadillo on the Half-Shell!

Finally, I have attached limited proof that we have indeed entered into Arkansas.  There was no sign on the road, so we had to improvise.

Tomorrow we meet our wives, Beth and Carol.  They are having a hard time living without us and are coming for two day visit.  Tomorrow will be a great day!

We rode 118 miles today along Highway 9.  This was our longest ride of the trip, but the weather conditions were good and the road was okay, making this more of an endurance ride than a physical challenge.  We are now only about 80 miles from Fort Smith Arkansas, which we intend to enter tomorrow afternoon.

It was interesting to see the scenery change in the last four or five days.  Last week, we were in New Mexico, riding through mountains. Crossing the Texas Panhandle, we went through treeless rolling plans. Western Oklahoma looked like an extension of Texas.  Eastern Oklahoma is still rolling, but there are trees and pastures. We have slowly worked our way out of the west. With that transition, our weather patterns are changing and our biggest challenge may soon be dodging rain and storms.

With today’s 118 miles, we have now ridden over 100 miles on 4 of our last 7 rides.  Our pace is quickening.

Quick note – many thanks to Cindy Wesphal and Debbie Packo at Wildwood for helping me train for this trip during the long Toledo winter. 

We had a relaxing day in Norman, OK today.  The highlight of the day was a visit and dinner with Dan’s folks, Mary Beth and Fred Peirce.  The Peirces drove 8 hours from Houston today and will return home tomorrow. They had words of encouragement for us and shared some of their life experiences over dinner.  Mostly, I think they just listened to Dan and my stories.  I haven’t seen Fred and Mary Beth in about 20 years, so today was a real treat.

Tomorrow, we will be heading toward Eufaula, OK.  We have our route plotted, with contingency plans.  We are both ready to get the second half of our trip started.

Our objective is to reach Fort Smith Ark by Monday afternoon.  This appears very doable.