Bicycling Florida to Texas
Through
Alabama, Mississippi,
Arkansas & Oklahoma
2008 - May - June
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Greenville MS to Dermott AR
Distance: 48.5 Miles
Entered Arkansas 43rd State to Cycle
We awoke to another day of clear skies. We did the usual, ate breakfast, and packed the bicycle and starting riding for another day. Today we had to ride on US Highway 82. It is a main east west non interstate route across the US. The good news was we were on the highway early in the morning and it was not super busy. However we were headed southeast, again going directly into a headwind. Yesterday the bicycle shop informed us that the bridge over the Mississippi River was long, high and did not have any shoulders. We came to the bridge and it was long, high and it was narrow without any shoulders. We got on the bridge and the first mile was flat. A semi truck slowed to our speed and kept the other cars and trucks from running over us. When he saw that we would be very slow up the steep climb to the top of the bridge he finally speeded up and passed us. If he had not passed us I am not sure that he would have been able to get to the top of the bridge. Then a pickup truck came up behind us and put on his hazard lights and stayed behind us all the rest of the way across the bridge. When we got to the other side of the bridge, he finally passed us and went on his way. While we were climbing to the top of the bridge we were only doing 5 miles per hour.
For the next 7 miles we continued to ride on Highway 82 which had really great shoulders. On the left were fields of corn or soy beans and on the right were very nice houses built on the banks of a lake that at one time was a bend in the Mississippi River. We stopped at an Arkansas Welcome Center and Mary Kay obtained information for the revised portion of our journey. I sat by the bicycle and rested.
We were now going north so that earlier headwind was now a tailwind. The bad news was that we had to turn left and suddenly we were going directly west partially into a wind that had gotten stronger as the day went on. Our planned route was to keep us off of Highway 65. But when we came to the highway, it had great shoulders and we would have a tailwind all the time we were on highway 65….So we continued on Highway 65 until we reached a gas station near our motel. Tried to find something for lunch, but the prospects were not good. So after answering the usual questions about our trip we headed over to the motel (only motel in the area). Bad news no restaurant so we dropped our luggage, and rode another 4 miles to a grocery store where we picked up food for supper, then back to the motel for showers, etc.
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