We started out the day with a crappy breakfast at Super 8. We got up at 5:15 so we could hit the road early.

To cross into Arkansas, we had to cross the I55 bridge. It has a pedestrian walkway, but I cannot see that any pedestrians would ever use it. It is nearly impossible to find, impossible to travel to via walking, and it doesn't go anywhere.

The bridge had kudzu just starting to take over. The underside was a field of Kudzu, which is where rogers path went yesterday. The bridge was just wide enough for trikes, but not wide enough to dodge debris. It shook with every truck.

The pathway ends at a grassy field. Our fieldguide said to then go under I55 to the other side, climb up the embankment and ride I55 until the next exit.

At the bottom of the hill, we had to go under a wire cable. Luckily one of the posts was broke, so we could pick the wire up and go under. This is not a great start for what is supposed to be a 90 mile day.

Many areas on this MRT trail have needed more signs. Arkansas presents us with a new problem......too many signs. At a T-intersection, we see this....

Under the interstate there was an MRT sign telling us to take a gravel road/path. Also, the keep out signs were nice.

Finally in West Memphis, we stop at the first grocer we see to stock up on supplies. Our book suggests that we have a long day without services, so we stock up. We attracted a lot of attention. Chuck purchased a bag of ice for his bottles and camelback. He couldn't use it all, so the girls scavenged over what was left. Katie put some down Lauras and my back. Sweet girl.

Roger was still smiling, though he admitted that he did not enjoy the bridge earlier, or the adventure in Memphis trying to get past the interstate. He was quite relieved that we didn't end up carrying our bikes and gear up through the kudzu path.

I have no photos for a long stretch. We hit the road and were making decent time. A storm could be heard rumbling in the distance. Eventually we could see it to the west, but had blue skies in front of us to the South. We pushed hard, but eventually saw the storm clouds racing at us quicky. The first lightning strikes were seen in the distance so we removed our flags and started looking for shelter.

About 1/4 mile from a farm the storm hit. The wind blew hard. Chuck went ahead and rounded a 90 degree turn just before the wind and had a HUGE tailwind for a few hundred yards. The rest of us had a cross wind. I looked in my mirror and had to turn around to look; the girls bikes were leaned so far into the wind that it didn't look possible. We soon rounded the corner, and the tailwind pushed us to the farmhouse which had a small covered stoop. Nobody was home, but we sat for an hour anyway waiting for the storm to pass. The girls were froze. The driving rain soaked almost everything we had. Only the things packed in 3 layers of waterproofing stayed dry (and not entirely).

When we hit the road, we ran into an area with a small swamp on both sides of the road. In the road stood crayfish, guarding the road. One crayfish was slowly losing a battle with a pair of birds while others were standing at attention ready to feast on the next bicyclist. They were huge! We swerved round them as they stuck both claws into the air as if they wanted to battle us.

I have a new found respect for the crayfish....ready to battle any sized opponent. Sadly, many fallen comrades were all over the road.

We found hot food and a place to dry out near Horse Shoe Lake at a place called High Water Landing. High Water Landing is a great little place and it should be mentioned in the MRT book. If you are riding through this area, you will likely find food when you need it.

We all tried to dry out, using paper towels inside our shoes and rotating socks. The food was better than making our packed meals.

At a Gas station in Hughes we we picked up a few more supplies. We still had most of our day to go, and their just didn't seem to be enough time in the day. A headwind had been hitting us all day; I cannot remember the last tailwind.

When we hit the road, the traffic was very low, the shoulder was big enough to safely ride on, no road debris, no bugs, no sun, cool weather, and the roads were smooth. We held 12 MPH even against the wind.

It was becomming clear that daylight would run out before we made it as far as we wanted. We upped our speed to 14 MPH; as the headwind calmed down. We had a fast dinner at KFC/Taco Bell in Marianna and hit the road again. It wasn't pizza, but not what I wanted. I want to find a BBQ place!

We got to West Helena, not quite as far as we wanted to go, and we ran out of daylight. The first hotel was booked, but the local Best Western had rooms, (kinda pricey). The rooms were on the second floor, so we carried them up to our rooms. Someone warned us that bikes in this area will disappear in just a few minutes, so we did not let them out of our site.

At 11pm, we finally got to bed. Tomorrow is a 60 mile day for camping, 100+ for hotels. If there is a headwind, it isn't going to happen.

As I type this, I think about the day. Several people warned us that these towns were not great places to be. Many even questioned our safety. Maybe a bicycle gives you a different perspective because everyone was very friendly and we had nothing but friendly waves today. No horns, no angry people, just friendly people.

Arkansas has great roads for MRT, and the drivers were courteous.

High temp today was 86F, mostly in the low 80's. We won't be so lucky again.

Twice locals asked us about the weather........we commented that we thought it was a pretty nice day. They asked us how we handle the heat. This made us proud, since we were comfortable when the locals thought it was too hot to be outdoors.

This groups is in great shape. Other riders have scoffed at our mileage or how many days this trip is taking.....but every one of them seem to be sticking to the flat highways. This MRT route does not seem to have missed a hill or valley from Wisconsin to Memphis. It looks flat now though, we should do well!

89 miles (1147 miles total)

Google Earth File