Day Seven: Paragould, Arkansas to Melbourne, Arkansas

June 19, 2023

I woke at 3:30, and quickly got up and started getting things together. I was nervous about today because it had been a while since I'd done a 100 mile ride - that was back in January, on an unloaded ride bike, before I got COVID. It had been an even longer time since I'd done a century ride on a fully loaded touring bike. I wasn't sure I still had the stamina to do it.

I was ready in the lobby of the hotel at 5:00, anxious to leave, at least a half hour before it would be light enough to ride. As soon as I judged that it was light enough, I turned on my bright rear blinker and rode on the wide shoulder of the busy highway for less than a mile, then turned onto a quiet country road. In a couple of minutes I couldn't even hear the traffic noise from the highway.

It was another great early morning ride. This is the time to ride a bike in the summer.

It was cool this early in the morning, but so very humid. This might be the most humid place I could remember. Even inside the Holiday Inn Express, everything was damp all the time.

It got hotter as the sun came up. I stopped briefly in Sedgwick, population 152, and ate some salted peanuts as I stood over the bike. I was steeling my self for what I suspected would be ten miles of sodden gravel that I had chosen yesterday as an alternative to the shoulder of an extremely busy highway. Those were my only two routing options, and as a confirmed traffic-hater, my choice of the gravel was not difficult.

It wasn't too bad - a few mud puddles and washboard sections, but nothing terrible.

The gravel ended and I turned onto a paved country road for a few miles.

I soon arrived in Walnut Ridge, population 5,098. I intended to spend very little time looking around town, because I wanted to get as many miles done as possible before it became hot. I was playing the little mental game that I sometimes do on long days on bike tours: I'd say to myself "10 [miles] by 6:30, 20 by 7:30, 30 by 8:30, 40 by 9:30", etc.

I was getting ready to ride out of town on a country road when I spotted a Casey's convenience store, the first one of the trip. I was surprised by this, since Arkansas was not, as far as I knew, Casey's country. Obviously I had to go in and purchase cheesy potatoes, an apple fritter, and a Diet Coke.

The only thing I don't like about Casey's is the lack of indoor seating. I've eaten many slices of their delicious pizza sitting outside Casey's over the years.

I walked to the shady side of the building to sit and eat. As is often the case, there was already a Casey's employee there, a young woman taking her "vape" break. Normally, I would find sharing a space with someone smoking or vaping intensely annoying, but as I've often said: The rules are different on bike tours. I talked with her for a while, learning that she'd recently moved here from Missouri, and had been surprised at how much more expensive everything was in Arkansas.

I finished my potatoes and fritter and took a country road out of town.

The pavement turned to gravel, and then to muddy gravel, which I abandoned after a few hundred feet to backtrack and figure out a different route to the big highway that I was going to have to use to cross the Black River.

I reached super-busy US Highway 412 quickly on good gravel, and rode several miles on the wide shoulder. It was slightly hectic riding through Portia, population 419, where the shoulder disappeared for a while, and I resorted to riding on the sidewalk.

I crossed the Black River easily on the now-wide-again shoulder of the highway and immediately stopped at a Kum & Go convenience store to buy snacks, charge my phone, clean off some of the gravel road grit from my legs, and answer the Usual Questions of the friendly woman working there.

I rode on a briefly busy state highway to the little community of Powhatan, population 72. There was a very impressive court house for some reason. I assume it's now an historical site, and not a working government building, since it really is in the middle of nowhere.

Back on the road, the scenery had changed to rolling hay fields. Very attractive. And, as I'd anticipated when I'd looked at my route's elevation profile last night, it was the start of the hills.

Smithville, population 78, was a near ghost town. I stopped and took a few photos, then got back on the bike. There was occasional traffic, but in general this was a very enjoyable stretch of road.

I stopped at the Foothills General Store. As I walked up to the door, a beaten up old car pulled into the parking lot. An old man got out and asked me how I could stand the heat while riding the bike in the sun, and then proceeded to describe in detail how he'd spent the morning shoveling chicken shit in one of the many gigantic chicken houses in the area. I laughed and told him that sounded a lot harder than what I was doing.

I went into the store, bought a Diet Coke, and stood inside and talked to the woman working there for a while. She confirmed that it would be very hilly all the way to Melbourne.

I was 30-something miles from Melbourne. I got back on the road. I remembered to check Strava at exactly Noon, and found that I'd made it 65.34 miles today so far. Not my all-time fully loaded touring record (I think that was 70-something miles by Noon), but still pretty good, considering how out of shape I am.

It was hilly now. Scenery continued to be nice though. There were no plowed fields of corn or beans here - it was all grassy fields.

These people completely lack self awareness.

I arrived at an intersection at the outskirts of Cave City and went into a Subway sandwich shop, where I spent an extended period of time enjoying the air conditioning, eating a pizza, and drinking many refills of lemonade and water from the soda fountain. It was about 25 miles to my destination.

It was hilly all the way to Melbourne. The scenery continued to be pleasant, and traffic was light up until the last couple of miles into town.

For readers (if there are any) of this journal years from now, this is what this was about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Anheuser-Busch_boycott

After a few navigational difficulties I located the reasonably-priced Ashley House B&B. No one was there, but my room was unlocked, so I went in. The shower and air conditioner were good, and while the WiFi was very weak, it was just adequate enough for me to check my email and determine that I had enough work-related issues to address that it was probably time to come home.

I called my understanding wife, who had previously agreed to come pick me up wherever I was when I was ready to end the tour, and arranged for her to meet me tomorrow.

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Today's ride: 101 miles (163 km)
Total: 457 miles (735 km)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	6

Mark BinghamI enjoyed it while it lasted! Congrats on the 100+ mile day!

I do think you should change the title to "Seven Days, Seven Weeks, or Seven Months," because you didn't ride any of the three distances mentioned in your title. :-)
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10 months ago

Harry HellermanI really enjoy your journals... Joy's too.
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10 months ago

Jeff LeeTo Harry HellermanThanks for reading!
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10 months ago

Jeff LeeTo Mark BinghamThanks, Mark. I just had too much going on to get fully into the zone this time. And if I kept going west I'd be in an area with even less cell reception than I had in Melbourne (which was minimal.)

I still thought it was worth doing. Although I think I'd prefer extremely hot-and-humid Arkansas in the Fall the next time.
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10 months ago

George HallEnjoyed following along. I grew up in Little Rock and in my early 20's I used to leave there by bicycle headed west and northwest into the mountains. You were just getting into the area where I began my career as a young geologist on a drill rig, so I was sad to see you stop. But I empathize with anyone trying to tour in the pressure-cooker heat and humidity of Arkansas in the summer! The fall is nice for bike touring, especially in the western half of the state.
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10 months ago

Jeff LeeTo George HallThanks. I felt pretty good physically after my last, long day on this tour, but I was just too anxious about work-related stuff to continue, especially since I was heading into an area with unreliable cell and internet connectivity.

I'm going to have to find a way to resolve that in the future in order to enjoy touring.
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10 months ago