Day 15, Sunday, September 22

Mena, AR to Arkadelphia, AR -- 84 mi, 1,000' climbing

Tom from Minnesota mocks me in the morning for always hitting the road before breakfast is over while James "Fendre Boy" from England lends moral support.
Today was probably one of the most peaceful landscapes we've ridden through. It looked very rustic, with steam rising off of little ponds in the morning and calves running around on the tree-covered hills, playing with each other and nuzzling their moms. In the afternoon we spent several miles winding through a pine forest, whose trees sheltered us from the wind. We also rode over a dam. There was a lake on one side and on the other was a river with a water line significantly lower than that of the lake. The water looked very refreshing, with small boats puttering around.

Today was short. It's nice to have extra time in the evening to catch up on stuff but I don't feel particularly rested or recovered. I could really feel what little hills we had today. People seem to agree, however, that the route cards tend to underestimate the amount of climbing we do. At dinner Charles said that someone's altimeter registered 10,000' of climbing yesterday rather than the 7,300 on the route card. I believe it; it felt more like 10,000 to me. I think we should get a pool together and buy Lon a new altimeter.

I took advantage of the extra time at the hotel this afternoon by putting a new set of tires on my bike. The old ones were pretty cut up, and Lon agreed that it wouldn't be overly decadent to change them. Some people have had up to three different rear tires on their bikes by now. It feels good to have that done. I also washed a bunch of clothes in my room (it looked like there would be a wait for the washer and dryer downstairs). I've been washing out my cycling clothes in the sink every evening, but tonight I even washed my "evening wear" (shorts and tank top) because they were starting to smell less than fresh and my pajamas, since they were covered in ice cream drips and mustard stains from all of the Subway sandwiches I've been eating. I had to upgrade from the sink to the tub to handle the extra volume of clothes. Also, the vent from my air conditioner is working great as a dryer. I even stretched a little for the first time in days.

While I'm catching up, when I'm riding during the day I think of stuff that I forgot to put in previous reports, so I'll include them now:

  • In New Mexico and Texas, some sort of wild squash grew by the side of the road. It almost looked like it had fallen off of a produce truck and started to grow there, but Susan said it was just native to the area. That was kind of neat to see the vegetables just growing by the side of the road like that.

  • Yesterday we passed into a new state, Arkansas. I think it's our sixth state. I don't care enough to look back at our route sheets to verify that, though, so I'll just call it "new."


    John "Biker Legs" from Placerville
    This is the only photo of Peter that I have.
    Tom "Team Optimist" telling me yet again what a great day he's having.

  • Last night at Subway in Mena two very giggly teenage girls thought that us cyclists passing through was just about the most exciting thing that had happened in the town since Race Across America passed through earlier in the year and they almost got to be on television. One of them said to John from Placerville, "I could tell by just lookin' at your legs that you were a biker." John was very modest about the incident but I could barely get my bite of sandwich down I was trying so hard to keep from laughing.

  • Peter from Maryland insists that the proper pronunciation of "Chickashaw", where we stayed a few nights ago, is "Shickashit." I can hardly remember the place the days are starting to blend together so much, but I've adapted his technique and started calling my odometer, which keeps stopping working on me, an "Avoshit" instead of an "Avocet." It's not quite as funny sounding as "Shickashit" but it makes me feel a little better.

  • A couple of days ago people were talking about how inconsiderate drivers from the South can be. Tom from Minnesota, though, told a story about how once he was riding somewhere in the South and a redneck in a pickup truck passed him in the opposite direction, yelling out "Toikey!!" to Tom as he passed (that's "turkey", for the rest of us). Tom thought the insult was a little excessive since he hadn't been doing anything, but a few minutes later he came across a bunch of wild turkeys crossing the road. It turns out the redneck had been trying to warn him about the obstructions rather than harassing him.

  • One of the things I've learned doing back-to-back cycling like this is that there are always ways in which things could be worse. The second thing I've learned is that if things have ever been worse Lon was probably there to experience them. For example, on our 160-mile day into Socorro with a head wind I asked Lon if that was the hardest day the group has ever had there. He said that the colder it is the more of a head wind there usually is, and one year it rained for most of the day and the head winds were twenty- to thirty-miles-per-hour instead of ten- to twenty-miles-per-hour. He and Susan ordered take-out pizza for every one because by the time they got to the hotel, cyclists were too tired to get food for themselves. Lon and Susan also had to throw all the cyclists into their own shower because people's hands were too cold to open their hotel rooms for themselves. Another example is that a few days ago we rode over some of out worst pavement yet for about twelve miles. Everyone was shook up and talking about it for the rest of the day. Lon, however, said that he once did a stretch of road like that on Race Across America in the middle of the night with stuff falling off of his bike. I guess if you experience enough hard stuff it would be easy to have a sense of humor about just about anything.

  • My goals for the trip are to

    1. get home safely;

    2. ride every single mile of the trip;

    3. have fun; and

    4. figure out the meaning of life.

    I've started conducting research for Goal Four by polling other riders. One said, "Enjoy it while it's here." Another said, "Bring joy to other people." I also asked E, who is a Methodist minister. I figure that that's kind of what his job is, to figure out the meaning of meaning of life and help other people full fill it. At first he stalled, and then he said that he had several answers but that he was too tired to explain them to me at the time. I'll keep working on him and other riders. Once I collect a full set of data and analyze the results, I'll be sure to post an update with the answer.

I'm starting to feel a little bit road weary, so I'm hoping that means I just need a few more easy days on the bike. The days seem a little repetitive. Two toes on my right foot have been numb for the last couple of days, but it's not uncomfortable so no big deal I guess, it's just not the way my appendages normally work. Yesterday the skin on my right ear started to peel from sunburn. Also, I'm starting to lose track of things. I can't find a pair of long tights I'm sure I brought with me. I can't find the bags of powdered drink mix my brother and his girlfriend shipped to me last week -- I'm not sure if I left them behind in a hotel room or if I just used them up faster than I thought. I keep losing my comb then finding it again -- last time it showed up in the bag with my cycling shorts.

Before I left I was afraid that I would miss specific things, like seeing the Pacific Ocean or Monday night yoga class at the gym, but I'm finding more that I have a general feeling of missing things that are simply familiar. I mean, I'm in Arkansas, for crying out loud. How random is that? Especially since I have to make my way through Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina before I can find my way home again. That will be only ten days from now, though, and there's a lot more to see, many more miles to ride, and many more hills to climb, so I may as well keep an open mind to whatever happens and enjoy it while it's here.

Quote for the Day

Bryce: So, time to save the universe again then, is it?

Lara Croft: Absolutely.

-- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider