Day 4 Texarkana

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...I've always wanted to start a story with that line.

We looked at a couple of different routes from Mt Pleasant to Texakana and decided to ride the shoulder of route 30 - a four lane highway.

From a storytelling perspective this started out being a bit of a problem. If you have driven almost any interstate in the US then you have a good idea of what we saw most of the day.

The difference of course is that most of us see the interstate at 70 MPH vs. 10-15 MPH. Surprisingly it looks much the same at both speeds. There are some differences however, for example off ramps can be very scary places when you are on a bike trying to get across one and there are really big trucks going fast trying to get off one.

Another interesting difference is how you tend to notice the remains of tires, bottles, and various other garbage that lines the shoulder of the the highway when you are dodging them while trying to stay as far away from traffic as possible.

On a more positive note many of the truckers clearly went out of their way to move to the far lane when passing us. A surprising number of them also honked and/or waved their support as they went by.

In general however the first 55 miles of today's trip was largely uneventful. The smooth shoulder and gentle hills allowed us to average over 14 MPH most of the day - fast for us ("the best of times").

The last 10 miles were a different story.

First dad's back tire started losing air. After dumping most of the items in our bike bags we found pliers to pull the wire out and a new inner tube and we once again on our way.

Then we reached the construction that had eliminated the highway shoulder. So we took the makeshift exit almost wide enough for a small car leading a growing parade of cars and trucks.

Fortunately a nearby lane had been blocked by construction cones that we quickly turned into a bike lane. That worked really well until we found the road we had exited on turning south in exactly the wrong direction.

By this time we had climbed enough of a hill to get a fairly good view of all the construction around us. Given this new information we proceeded to rappel down a construction hill to the closed road below us. From there we sprinted across a nearby highway to the small island of safety that was to be our launching point back onto I30.

This worked better for dad than it did for me as one of my back bike bags must have come loose coming down the hill as was now trying to pull spokes from my rear wheel as I dodged oncoming traffic.

About the time I managed to catch up with dad we discovered that the section of I30 we could see from our hill was the only section that still had a shoulder so it was time to get off again. By now rush hour had begun in Texarkana so we suddenly had lots of company trying to figure out how to navigate the construction.

Reaching an intersection now fully in gridlock, we opted to get off the road and wait out rush hour in a nearby Quiznos. In case I forgot to mention it, the heat index today was 110, so the idea of air conditioning and something cold to drink was not all that hard to sell to my dad.

Calling our wives, we reassured them we were close (about 4 miles) and would be home soon. That of course was before we left the restaurant to find dad's back tire once again flat.

Remember my comment about tire parts on the shoulder of the interstate? Turns out some of those tires also shed small wires as they break apart. Dad found two of those wires with his back tire today in case anyone is missing them.

About 30 minutes later we had found the new puncture, replaced the tire, replaced the tube, repacked everything, and armed with new directions around the construction we were on our way.

Touring the back streets of Texarkana trying to avoid road construction after riding 60+ miles in sweltering heat and fixing two flat tires would likely have been the highlight of our day had it not been for the storm.

Just when it looked like we might actually find our way to the RV park the sky darkend and the wind started blowing so hard that I was being attacked by balloons from a car dealership.

Finding a building to shield us from the weather I called Vicki to make sure the RV hadn't blown away. Once she confirmed they were safe and verified the directions I turned on the new flashing light my kids got me for the back of the bike and we set out to cover the last couple of miles to the RV.

Other than the looks of stangers passing in cars that confirming we were crazy to be out on bikes the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.

Given today's adventure we are rethinking tomorrow's ride...details may follow;)

Last but not least, Vicki and mom have been doing a great job of taking care of us during this adventure and without their support none of this would be possible.