Southward bound

Day 32 again

~10 miles

So, I know I mentioned this day in my previous post, but, as you might expect, some stuff happened after I finished posting. After I left the McDonalds where I had been using the Internet, I went looking at the Mammoth Springs state park, where Google said there would be camping. There wasn't. In fact, the entire park was mostly just picnic tables and an "interpretive walk" which described the springs and was about 400 yards long. I did learn some cool stuff about the springs including the fact that they're about 58 degrees Fahrenheit year round and pump out millions of gallons of water an hour, making them the 10th largest springs in the world. Fascinating. But not worth hanging around for too long. So I set off in search of a campsite nearby and found a privately owned one a few hundred yards up the road. It was small and privately owned, which meant I definitely had to pay to stay, which was unfortunate as it was situated right next to the train tracks. Trains ended up coming by every half-hour to hour, and I'm pretty sure I found out where the sound designers found the scream for the Black Riders in the LotR movies.

When I first got there, I found out that I was two dollars short on the money I would need to pay for the site, and ran around town looking for a place to get cash back, and was unable to find anywhere. I did find a bank where I used the ATM and was able to withdraw some cash, but then I had to find a place to make change. After running around for a while, I finally had money to pay the fee for the site, and returned to set up camp. Unfortunately, I found that the place I had wanted to claim for the night had already been claimed by a couple who were halfway through setting up their own site. I settled down a few sites down and began gathering wood for a fire. As we were both gathering wood, the guy chatted with me a bit, and when I was about to start building up my fire he came over and handed me a few sheets of newspaper to get the fire going. I thanked him and set to building, but a few minutes later he came over and offered me a beer! I thanked him again and offered him some whiskey, which he readily accepted. He and his wife came over and chatted with me, and it turns out they had been traveling and camping about as long as I had, though they had been doing so in a car. They were both a bit rough-looking, with dirty blonde hair, and leathery skin. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought they were related, but it turns out they had been married only a few months before. They were nice, but soon broke off the conversation, and went back to their site to cook dinner. After a little while longer though, the guy came back and offered me a turkey burger, which I politely declined, explaining that I am a vegetarian. He shrugged and started eating the burger himself. Over the next few hours we ended up roasting marshmallows together (they had the largest marshmallows I have ever seen, each one was as big as my fist) and I gave them some hot cocoa, and eventually they went to bed, saying they would see me in the morning. Unfortunately, I stayed up late, reading as usual, and when I woke up they had left. I wish them well.

Day 33

51.73 miles @ an average of 12.2mph, 39.9 max

Total ride time of 4:13'53

Woke up just before noon, and scrambled to get going since I wanted to cover the 50 miles to flat land before the sun went down. As I was scarfing down my breakfast, an old, beat-up, red Ford pickup rolled into the site and stopped where my neighbors had been the night before. The beefy owner stepped out and let his tiny dog run around. As I was finishing up, he got back in his truck and pulled around, making to leave, but stopped as he pulled even with me. "Where you comin' from on that bike? Dallas? That's quite a ride..." etc. He spoke in a slow drawl, which matched his movements, and before he even spoke for a couple of minutes I was tiring of the conversation. I just wanted to get going, but he rambled on, asking questions and stating that he could not go on a journey like the one I was on. Looking at his bulk, I thought to myself, "well, probably not," but said "You get stronger as you go." Soon enough he was complaining about Obama, and I was really ready to leave the conversation. I don't know what it is about this part of the country, but everyone seems really ready to talk about politics whether you brought it up or not. This strikes me as funny, as I was brought up being told that the three things you never discuss with strangers, or around the dinner table, are money, politics, or religion. This man managed to roll all three into a discussion about our current president. I groaned and tried to extricate myself from the conversation as quickly as possible. When I finally had, I rolled onto the road, and headed south.

After about 18 miles I stopped for a breather, and as I was standing outside the gas station I was approached by a younger couple who were interested in my trip. The normal conversation ensued, but these two seemed enthusiastic about helping me, and told me exactly how many large hills I had to expect on my way toward the flat land. They told me about the largest hill, which was "just around the next curve." The woman expressed that she would never want to climb it on a bicycle, "It's hard enough with this 4-cylinder," she said, banging the hood of their small truck. It wasn't "just around it curve," it was about two miles away, but I still appreciated the warning, as I was ready for it. Honestly, I've hit worse hills. This one was only about a mile or so long, and relatively smooth, without too much variation in the slope, so I took it relatively easily. On the way up, though, a question was raised. Why is it that young women always yell at me and cheer when I'm pumping up a large hill? On this one, a Mini Cooper convertible filled with young women blew past, yelling at me, while their arms waved out the open roof. Why do I never run into these women at my stops? It's always old men and married couples. I swear young women don't stop along the road, they just drive without ever running out of gas...

Anyway, I found a machete along the side of the road! As I passed it I decided to keep it, slowed to a stop, and ran back to pick it up. It isn't the best machete ever, I have a better one at home, but it will still work as a fire poker and wild animal/zombie protection (you never know when the zompocalypse will happen).

By the end of my journey, I was absolutely wasted. My legs were so tired that the last five miles to the campsite felt like agony. As I rounded one corner, however, I spied the lake through a group of trees. Seeing the burst of color from the sunset reflecting off the glassy surface gave me a burst of energy and I plowed through the last two miles, getting to camp just as the last of the light left the sky. My arrival reminded me that it was the weekend. The camp was already full of RVs, crying children, and yapping dogs. Just what I needed when I got to camp, annoyance. Anyway, I spent some time gathering firewood, getting my fire going, and cooking dinner, and before long, all the noise had faded away. Had I not looked up from my writing, I would have sworn I was alone. No such luck, but it was a nice thought.

As I went to sleep I made a plan for the next day. I only had to ride about 40 miles to the next camp site, but I needed to stop at Wally World for some more camp fuel. I keep using too much heating water for hot cocoa. Once I got to the site, I would call my friend TJ who lives in Memphis and ask him if he was going to be in town when I got there.

Day 34

~44 miles @ ~13.7mph

Unknown ride time

(Accidentally reset my odometer before I had everything written down.)

The first six miles out of camp were hilly, but not bad, but once I reached the highway to head southeast the land flattened out. Finally. Flat land! After leaving the hills my average was around 11.5mph, but by the time I reached Jonesboro, I had raised it to 14.8mph! To put it succinctly, I was hauling ass. Unfortunately, Jonesboro is surrounded by hills, and the shoulders are pretty much gravel, both of which slowed me down. By the time I reached my campsite just outside town I was down to around 13.7 average, but it's still my highest average so far on this trip, and I'm incredibly proud of that.

So, I got to the campsite, the signage at which was terrible, and so I was not able to find the primitive sites on my own. I settled down at an RV site and had already gathered wood and started setting up my kindling when the camp attendant came by and told me the price for the site I was at was $20. I told her that was absurd, and that I could find hotels for around that price. She replied that it was because it was an electric site. She then showed me where the primitive sites were, and promised to bring me some wood. Apparently, wood is part of paying for a site. With this in mind, I decided it wasn't so bad to pay $10 for a primitive site so long as I got free wood with it. I had the attendant bring me a massive amount of wood, and had burned it all by morning, enjoying warmth all night long. The nice thing was that the fire was incredibly easy to start because a few logs were still smoldering in a nearby site's fire ring, so I grabbed one of those logs and used it to quickly start my own fire. Once again, I stayed up too late reading.

Day 35

39.28 miles @ an average of 11.9mph, max of 33.9

Total ride time of 3:17'31

So I woke up early enough, but having stayed up late the previous night, I was tired as heck. The wind was also howling at 25-30mph. The lack of sleep in addition to the wind, which was either in my face, or straight across the road, pushing me into the lane of traffic, made me angry. I was not a happy camper. I had intended to reach Memphis by the end of the day, but the wind was keeping me going painfully slow. The wind only assisted me for about 6 miles. Six wonderful miles, I might add. Still, by the time I had gone about 30 miles into the wind, I was fed up and started looking for a motel of any kind. I found one for $25 a night, and it was possibly the worst hotel I have ever seen. Okay, maybe it was tied with the first one I stayed at in Broken Bow, but it was the kind of hotel that would feature prominently in a film like Spun. I wouldn't have been surprised if one of my neighbors was cooking meth. The paint was peeling off the walls, there were scratches in the door, the bathtub was covered in cigarette burns, there were no shades on any of the lamps, there were water stains all over the place. Still, I was happy to be out of the wind, and I settled down to enjoy the night, looking forward to the ride to Memphis the next day. I also got to watch the season premier of The Walking Dead, which I have been looking forward to since the end of the first half-season. Still, having read the comics, there are things I want to happen, which haven't, and that upsets me. Some characters are still present, who I want gone, and others haven't appeared yet, and I hope like hell that they do at some point...

Day 36

39.89 miles @ an average of 14.0mph, 24 max

Total ride time of 2:50'49

Not much to say on this day except that I rode my ass off to get to Memphis, crossed the Mississippi, and once I crossed the bridge, I stopped at a park where my good friend, TJ, picked me up and brought me to his house. That night I met a few of his friends here in town, including one who works at a bike shop, and is active in the bike community here in town. Even better, he's a professional photographer who is working on something he's calling "Project Bike Love" and, after hearing about my adventures, he decided that he had to take my picture, which he did in TJ's back yard. The pictures came out AWESOME. He's going to send me proofs soon, and I want to order a few copies, and one or two of them will be on my facebook for sure, if not here on my blog. Seriously, I love these photos. Check out this guy's site at http://nathanwberryphotography.zenfolio.com/p590739699

I promise, you will not be disappointed, and sooner or later my picture will be up there too! I'm so excited! Oh yeah, staying here in Memphis for an extra day since rain is for sure, and the temperature is dropping dramatically. I only hope that I have enough warm clothing for riding after I leave. It's gonna be a cold ride, and I'm really glad that I'm headed south where it should be getting warmer as I go along!