Gary's Journal - Day
15
Hello Everyone,
Greetings from Fort Smith Arkansas. we have reached a milestone.
We are officially halfway. We began with almost a perfect day. Even
though it got to 90 degrees, it was still one of our better days.
The scenery all looks the same. It could be anywhere east of the
Mississippi. What is new, we see water. For almost two weeks
we did not see any standing water. Nothing!! We now see retention
ponds and running water. We saw our first longhorn steers.
Not in Texas but Oklahoma. We also see more road kill. We
were coming down a big hill, doing about 30mph, when joe suddenly stopped.
I thought he had another flat (ha ha ) but he got off the bike and went
back and picked up a little turtle that was headed onto the highway and
carried it back into the grass. How touching!! It happened so fast
that I didn't get a picture. It shows the soft side of joe.
Well, it had to happen. I finally had my first flat. Joe
has
had seven or eight and it took me a thousand miles to have my first.
Not to be left out, joe had another one. To make the day complete,
I had another and so did joe. Go figure. We now count our days,
not by miles or the weather, but by the number of flats we have.
We (joe) have had more in two weeks than we have had in a year... As I said, arriving in Arkansas was a big deal. Even if
things go sour, we at least made it halfway. Over a thousand
miles so far. Not bad for two old farts. We had another first.
We lost dion. We sent dion ahead to find a motel. He called
and told us where he was, or were he thought he was. He said it was
just a couple of miles through town (Fort Smith). We rode two miles
and no dion. We rode another two miles, and another two, and
another two (you get the picture) and still no dion. When we
finally reached him by phone, he was on the other side of town. Oh
well, if that is the worst thing that happens on this trip, we will be
doing well. After setting up the office, we went for our halfway
dinner celebration. Boy did joe and dion eat!! They almost
made me move to another table. People were staring. Seriously,
we ate our share. We are back in the room trying to decide if we
rest tomorrow or ride. We are finally expecting rain for several
days. Maybe if we ride, we can miss a day of it but that probably is all.
We will finally ride in the rain. I know it sounds like a broken record
but we hope to finally catch up with the emails (don't hold your breath)..
gary, joe, and dion |
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