TLWH - Day 19 - Different Formula

Sunday, July 12

Today we used our new track to get us from Searcy back onto our planned track.  Arkansas is beautiful and doing much better economically than Mississippi - at least in the areas we travelled.  

The farms were large and well maintained.  Clearly, not all farmers are poor.

We met another TAT rider today.  Doug has been riding from his home state of Kentucky and will likely end up in Utah.  He's riding a 1999 Honda 230 that he has basically built himself.  It's refreshing to see a capable mechanic/jury rigger riding a fairly worn out bike and keeping it going on the trail.  We got a chance to ride with him occasionally today.  

We lost track of him during the day so we were surprised to see him check into our hotel tonight (he has been camping up to this point). He told us that he was following us down one of the gravel roads, as he took a turn too fast and went wide.  As he was trying to correct and get back on the road, there was a washed out area.  He went over the bars and his bike went over the side.  A passing truck and a rope, helped him get his bike back up the hill.  He was mostly OK and his bike survived with a broken headlight and bent bars.  He's committed to getting back on the trail tomorrow.  Great job Doug! 

Turtle crossing!

Hank taking his daily shower

We stopped and talked to this couple for a few minutes.  They moved from San Diego 25 years ago!  

As we have been traveling across the last three states; Tennessee, Mississippi, and now Arkansas, I have been noticing that they have a different formula for life:

More swimmin' holes.  Fewer swimming pools

More Churches. Fewer gas stations

More gardens. Fewer grocery stores

More front porches.  Fewer back porches.

More fishing. Less work!

I'm not ready to trade places yet but it does get you thinking about balance.

Tomorrow we continue through Arkansas and into Oklahoma.  We will be traveling directly down the pan-handle of Oklahoma so it will take us over three days to get across but that will drop us off at the foot of the Rockies!

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TLWY - Day 18 - Crossing the Mississippi River

Saturday, July 11th

We left Water Valley and briefly headed south to pass our furthest point south we would reach in the mid-west.  Then we headed northwest across the Mississippi and on to Searcy.  We changed our destination from Hazen to Searcy because we were in desperate need of tires.  Our bald tires made the gravel roads very challenging but we both got into the fun of sliding through the turns!

Shortly after leaving Water Valley, we ran into these two men fishing.  We stopped to see what they were catching.  I really couldn't understand what kind of fish they were, but we talked for a bit. Truthfully, I could only understand about 10% of what they were saying.  At one point, I mentioned. that they need a boat to get out to where the fish were and one of the guys said "that's what I've been telling you!".  That made me laugh but only in my head.  

All the fish in their cooler were these little bite size fish but they had a lot of them.

Nearest I can tell, this little guy welcomed us to the furthest point south that we would pass in the mid-west.  We helped him accross the road and started towards the Mississippi River

Our gas stop was in Crenshaw, Mississippi.  These people have it rough.  90% of the town is shut down and in disrepair.  It appears that there is still a fairly large population based on the number of cars stopping in the gas station so they must go somewhere else to get the things they need.

One of the industries around this area is logging.  It seems to be on a fairly small scale but one of the things we noticed that once an area was cut, these vines could move in and cover everything like a huge blanket.  I can't imagine that's good but it was kind of beautiful.

We finally came to the Mississippi River.  We were feeling pretty good about this accomplishment: We made it half way across the country!  "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers was the soundtrack for the bridge crossing!

Riding through the farmlands of Arkansas we came across something we had never seen before: A TAT (Trans America Trail) rest stop.  It came at a good time when Hank and I had been riding for almost an hour so we pulled in for a stop.  What a great couple of guys.  They discovered that their place was on the TAT a few years back and decided to cater to it.  I'm not sure what else they do there but basically, they hang out and meet riders on the TAT.  One to several groups a week.  It was neat looking through their sign-in book.

The car of the day is a '69 Dodge Charger!  I'm pretty sure it's a '69 which some of you may recognize as the General Lee.  Seemed kind of fitting because I would not have been surprised if the Dukes of Hazard came rolling through some of these back roads of Mississippi 

Looks like a match down to the custom wheels!

We were on the gas today trying to make it to Searcy, Arkansas in time to buy some tires.  We were getting close and it looked like we were going to make it but we had skipped lunch so this "Fried Pies" stand was a welcome site.  This lady was so friendly and her pies were amazing.  She didn't want her picture taken, so don't notice her.  Fried pies are folded over pie crust with apple or peach filling - so good.  We also bought a banana bread for later that never made it out of the parking lot.

We made it to Searcy and Sunrise Honda in time to get our tires.  I've never had my bikes serviced at a shop, but it was 100 degrees in the parking lot so it seemed like a great idea to have them do it for us!  They were really good to us and cut us a great deal for changing four tires and two oil changes.  It's so nice having new tires!

This is Timmy Holland.  He was so helpful and so were the techs who did the service... oh and so was the service manager.  We highly recommend this shop.

Tomorrow we have designed a custom back roads track to get us from Searcy back onto our planned track.  Then we continue our trek west in Arkansas, to Clarksville.

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