Arkansas

Well we made it to good old Arkansas. After crossing the mighty Mississippi river we hit some crazy flat lands. The head winds were rough and I was told got up to about 15 mph or so but I am not really sure. The roads were also brutal as there were many cracks and pot holes to be found. One very instant change that was notice is the people in AK were very cycling friendly and seemed to welcome us quite a bit. This first day in AK was really rough for me and had some frustrations given the conditions.

The next day we road into Littlerock AK and while most of the ride was the same as yesterday the ending was quite spectacular. We came through a nice park and then over the largest pedestrian bridge to cross over the AK river. It was very beautiful and a nice change of pace from the AK flat lands. The Littlerock cycling club invited us to their annual picnic and it was nice to talk to a bunch of other cyclists. Overall I was very impressed with Littlerock and would like to come back to see more of it.

Today we had our first scheduled Century (100 miles). I had to run sweep today which means you and another rider stay at the back of the back to make sure no one gets lost or left behind. It was a hard, long day but by the last 20 miles I felt the strongest on a bike that I have all trip. It was great to come in strong and get lots of praise from the whole group for doing sweep on such a long day. I feel good now but we have about 1100 more miles to do over the next 2 weeks so we shall see what tomorrow will hold.