Weather:
What else but rain in the am and about
70 degrees. Light winds.
Continued heavy rain through the afternoon,
subsiding near the end of the ride.
5 days of rain has taken its toll and
Brian's bike is chirping and squeaking like a bird searching
for a mate.
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Points of Interest:
Lots of cotton fields, cotton mills and
bails of cotton along the route.
Very flat roads.
Lots of dogs, but they seem friendlier
in Arkansas.
Crossed the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers
and crossed the Mississippi State line.
The Lady Luck Rhythm and Blue Hotel is
a self-contained gambling casino, about 5 miles from the nearest
town.
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Highlights:
"Top ten reasons why today was a
great day":
10. Rain kept things cool.
9. A slow, quiet dog followed us for 2
miles to the lunch stop and then played with Bisti.
8. Bruce only had 2 flats and one of them
wasn't until we got back to the hotel and Brian got 1 flat but
it happened while at lunch and we could fix it there.
7. Twix candy bars at the second stop.
6. The dogs were so slow that it didn't
matter that they could hear Brian's bike from 8 miles away.
5. Catalog order arrived safely with more
inner tubes, some hats and new tires.
4. The bridge across the Mississippi was
wide enough to allow us to stop and take pictures.
3. We saw our first Levee!
2. The buffet dinner was free and all-you-can
eat.
1. We won $8 on the slot machines.
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People We Rode With:
Bruce and Brian rode together all day,
Werner joined our paceline for about 10 miles after a competitive
entanglement with the Swiss team. He was able to hang on despite
a 26 - 28 mph pace.
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Comments/Quotes:
The smoke was so thick in the casino,
you could feel the polyps forming on your lungs before you made
it across the length of the room.
There was a fierce battle of racing to
the city signs and Bruce is finally catching on to the strategy.
At the end of the day the score was deadlocked at 2 to 2. Brian
was denied two additional victories due to lack of signs at the
city limit.
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