Day 15: East Memphis, TN to Forest City, AR

Wed 9/12/07
49.46 mi,
603.93 total
590 ft cum.
4:06 hrs
12 mph avg
80/96/86 F

I continued on Hwy 70 for this entire ride. The temperature started of in the low 80's, peaked at 96 and settled into the mid 80's for the latter half of the ride. The humidity was low and the sun was shining. A very enjoyable day for riding. The kind of riding I have been looking forward to.

Stay tuned for info about my next leg of this trip.

Today I woke up to the first full day of sunshine since I started this trip. A nice crisp day with high visibility.

First stop of the day

The first thing I did was ride over to the Bass Pro Shop, since it was so close to the hotel and picked up some more supplies. One of the things I picked up was pepper spray for added insurance against dogs that won't back off. So far, I've done well without it. Most will stop pursuing me if I stop the bike and yell firmly for them to stay. I then start moving on, either walking the bike or riding slowly, while watching to make sure they don't approach me again. If they follow, they usually don't pursue much further than their yard.

I was about 10 miles or so from the Memphis bridge when I started this morning. About 4 miles into my ride I stopped at Captain D's for lunch where I met Ross who took the time out of his work day to give me a ride to the other side of the bridge in West Memphis. This saved me the trouble of riding thru the roughest parts of town and having to cross the bridge. Thanks Ross, you may have saved my life. We crossed the north of the two bridges. Note: If you ride a bike, do not attempt to cross this bridge. About halfway across, the very narrow shoulder completely goes away leaving two lanes of very heavy traffic with lots of trucks.

Thanks to Ross, I was able to avoid riding across town and over the bridge.

From where I was dropped off till I reached Forest City, the ride was very flat without many services. I should have stocked up on more water, but I had just enough. That's something I need to keep in mind from here on out. Services started thinning out after I left Jackson a couple of days ago.

After checking into the hotel, I called my friend in Little Rock who said he wanted to pick me up in the morning. On one hand, I was glad to know I'd be bringing my trip to Little Rock to an end. On the other, I was sad to see my newly experienced easy cruising on long flat stretches come to an end. I'm thinking of riding on to Tucson, AZ from here. Hopefully, I'll see many more days like today along the way.

My arms were very red, even with sunscreen. I rode without sunscreen on my face the last two days and today it showed. I suppose I'll have to switch to my long sleeve shirt and go back to sunscreen on the face for days like this. Their isn't much around to get out of the sun around here.

Hwy 70 on the left, I-40 on the rightA closer look at Hwy 70 a little further down the road. Lots of cracks that go bump, bump. They will wear on you after a while.