Day 11: Mena to Fort Smith ** The circle is complete!!!!!!!**
THE CIRCLE AROUND THE STATE OF ARKANSAS
IS NOW COMPLETE!
KID'S WE DID IT!!!!!!
WE REALLY DID IT!!! Start : Mena 6:30a End: Fort Smith 1:00p 83.42 miles As I woke up this morning and looked out the window I could see that is was going to be a broken cloud morning. Much better than rain! I got ready, threw two cups of coffee and 2 honey buns and a banana down. Checked with Channel 7 traffic (Yep, Lisa and Chopper Scott) to be sure there were no pile ups in Mena (Don't laugh, you never know). Out on the road and remember what I was saying about the shoulder of the road being bad, well, what-da-ya-know, just past Mena it's great! Hey Michael and crew at Hampton Inn (Fort Smith), if you are reading this, once again you amaze me with the service and unselfish giving! This room is beautiful! True confessions section: When I got checked in and up to my room I starting laughing so loud. It was one of those laughs that no matter how you try you can't stop. Then I jumped on the bed! Only the full parking lot of Best Buy 4 floors below could see me and I really didn't care! I do feel sorry if there was some business exec next door cutting a million dollar deal because buddy I bet I screwed that one up for him! It's so fun being this excited. If I could have the bed in front of the hospital this afternoon, I would have invited the patients out and we could have all taken turns jumping on the bed and laughing! Laughing is great medicine! My ride was a slow one. Honest, I didn't want it to end. I took more photos today than any other day so far. I stopped half a dozen times to look at the mountains and to just enjoy the beauty. I only had 10 miles to go and I stopped at a c-store and hung with the local boys (ok, maybe not but I sat a few booths from them ... they were talking land movement). I would never stop 10 miles before the end of a ride just to cool off normally. As I was going through the forest area, I remembered what the waitress told me last night during dinner. "You need to be careful, they are having bear problems." Hear I am, solo riding down the highway and pass a couple of houses and they have these trash boxes out by the road. Now these aren't your basic trash bins! These are Binsford 2000 Bear Out trash bins! The things looked like they were made of old jail bars. I thought to myself, what would I do if I saw a bear? Probably laugh and tell him that I just saw some fresh road kill back there and it was already cut up for him. Go get it boy! I also saw where old motorcycles go to die. There was a field of old motorcycles. All sorts of shapes, sizes and brands. I really wanted to stop and take a photo but their puppy got all bent out of shape so I rode on. There was a guy in a white pickup that honked and gave me big thumbs up today! Thanks mister! There was this one home being built and it was one of those stop and gawk moments. Have you ever seen the perfect piece of land and thought about a dream house? Well, this was it for me. A huge log cabin was being built and there were mountains in the background and a good flowing creek running through the property! I envisioned Terri and I sitting on the front porch in the swing, drinking sweet tea and watching grandkids hunt crawdaddy's under the creek rocks. I called my mom and dad after I cut the foolishness in the room to let them know I made it safe. Mom said her and dad were coming up to the hospital on Friday for the arrival. That made my day! Dad doesn't get around so great so this is a big big deal to me. I told her that they would be in the VIP section and no way would they be blended in the background. She began to cry. As soon as they are done they have to go back to Benton and pack and head for Destin with my sister and her family. My family has some wild wild stories about trips to Destin but we'll keep those in the family. Ok, maybe just one story ... my sister Sherry loves to get up very early and she was out on the veranda (pronounced in my family as "VI-randa) and was telling my niece about this couple in the early morning hours making sandcastles out on the beach. Well, friends, they weren't making sandcastles! We'll stop right here! HA! When I got into Fort Smith the TV 5 station chased me through town. I took off through the traffic and haven't heard from them since. Do I get the yellow jersey for that one? HA! Speaking of TV, I guess I need to get on home pretty soon, Terri told me last night that the computer finally died. Guess what she told me today? The TV died too. I think it's a plot to have me knock out all the things I needed to be doing while I was training for the ride. You know, honey-do's. I told her I was excited that the TV died so we can get one of those cool wall mounted plasma jobs! She hung up! Tomorrow is a very short 36 miler to Booneville and my buddy Ron Rizzardi is coming up after work and maybe my niece Shannon. Ron will ride the final long day with me down Hwy 10. We'll be at the Countryside Inn in Booneville. My other niece, Melissa, is coming down from Rogers and we'll eat out tonight! I'm going to Panera Bread!!!!!
IS NOW COMPLETE!
KID'S WE DID IT!!!!!!
WE REALLY DID IT!!! Start : Mena 6:30a End: Fort Smith 1:00p 83.42 miles As I woke up this morning and looked out the window I could see that is was going to be a broken cloud morning. Much better than rain! I got ready, threw two cups of coffee and 2 honey buns and a banana down. Checked with Channel 7 traffic (Yep, Lisa and Chopper Scott) to be sure there were no pile ups in Mena (Don't laugh, you never know). Out on the road and remember what I was saying about the shoulder of the road being bad, well, what-da-ya-know, just past Mena it's great! Hey Michael and crew at Hampton Inn (Fort Smith), if you are reading this, once again you amaze me with the service and unselfish giving! This room is beautiful! True confessions section: When I got checked in and up to my room I starting laughing so loud. It was one of those laughs that no matter how you try you can't stop. Then I jumped on the bed! Only the full parking lot of Best Buy 4 floors below could see me and I really didn't care! I do feel sorry if there was some business exec next door cutting a million dollar deal because buddy I bet I screwed that one up for him! It's so fun being this excited. If I could have the bed in front of the hospital this afternoon, I would have invited the patients out and we could have all taken turns jumping on the bed and laughing! Laughing is great medicine! My ride was a slow one. Honest, I didn't want it to end. I took more photos today than any other day so far. I stopped half a dozen times to look at the mountains and to just enjoy the beauty. I only had 10 miles to go and I stopped at a c-store and hung with the local boys (ok, maybe not but I sat a few booths from them ... they were talking land movement). I would never stop 10 miles before the end of a ride just to cool off normally. As I was going through the forest area, I remembered what the waitress told me last night during dinner. "You need to be careful, they are having bear problems." Hear I am, solo riding down the highway and pass a couple of houses and they have these trash boxes out by the road. Now these aren't your basic trash bins! These are Binsford 2000 Bear Out trash bins! The things looked like they were made of old jail bars. I thought to myself, what would I do if I saw a bear? Probably laugh and tell him that I just saw some fresh road kill back there and it was already cut up for him. Go get it boy! I also saw where old motorcycles go to die. There was a field of old motorcycles. All sorts of shapes, sizes and brands. I really wanted to stop and take a photo but their puppy got all bent out of shape so I rode on. There was a guy in a white pickup that honked and gave me big thumbs up today! Thanks mister! There was this one home being built and it was one of those stop and gawk moments. Have you ever seen the perfect piece of land and thought about a dream house? Well, this was it for me. A huge log cabin was being built and there were mountains in the background and a good flowing creek running through the property! I envisioned Terri and I sitting on the front porch in the swing, drinking sweet tea and watching grandkids hunt crawdaddy's under the creek rocks. I called my mom and dad after I cut the foolishness in the room to let them know I made it safe. Mom said her and dad were coming up to the hospital on Friday for the arrival. That made my day! Dad doesn't get around so great so this is a big big deal to me. I told her that they would be in the VIP section and no way would they be blended in the background. She began to cry. As soon as they are done they have to go back to Benton and pack and head for Destin with my sister and her family. My family has some wild wild stories about trips to Destin but we'll keep those in the family. Ok, maybe just one story ... my sister Sherry loves to get up very early and she was out on the veranda (pronounced in my family as "VI-randa) and was telling my niece about this couple in the early morning hours making sandcastles out on the beach. Well, friends, they weren't making sandcastles! We'll stop right here! HA! When I got into Fort Smith the TV 5 station chased me through town. I took off through the traffic and haven't heard from them since. Do I get the yellow jersey for that one? HA! Speaking of TV, I guess I need to get on home pretty soon, Terri told me last night that the computer finally died. Guess what she told me today? The TV died too. I think it's a plot to have me knock out all the things I needed to be doing while I was training for the ride. You know, honey-do's. I told her I was excited that the TV died so we can get one of those cool wall mounted plasma jobs! She hung up! Tomorrow is a very short 36 miler to Booneville and my buddy Ron Rizzardi is coming up after work and maybe my niece Shannon. Ron will ride the final long day with me down Hwy 10. We'll be at the Countryside Inn in Booneville. My other niece, Melissa, is coming down from Rogers and we'll eat out tonight! I'm going to Panera Bread!!!!!
posted by Geo at 4:15 PM
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