Arkansas!

We have entered Arkansas!

After 2 very rainy days in Mississippi, we have crossed the Mississippi River, and we have entered a state I have never been to: Arkansas! We are currently in Stuttgart, AR, which is a pretty small little town. Today we biked about 95 miles to get here. We actually had a police escort across a 3 mile bridge because it wasn't biker friendly. We were actually warned about it by all of the locals who stopped to talk to us. Thus, we found a cop for safety. It was fun to all bike together and get to take over the road for a few miles, though. We only held up about 20 tractor trailors...

The community here has been amazing. We are staying at yet another United Methodist Church (Methodist has hosted us 95 percent of the time). Their Youth Group actually made our visit into a project. They organized a Taco bar for us, made a pool party (WITH A WATER SLIDE!!!) for us, and they shuttled us back and forth! They even provided showers and internet. Very nice people!

Arkansas has nicer roads than Mississippi by a landslide so far. Mississippi had these not so amazing roads that provided a crack every 20 feet, which got old after about 20 miles.. and got painful after 50. The road kill is quite amusing, but it can be quite disgusting. I have seen more snakes and armadillos than anything else, which is very strange to me. The hills have dissappeared which is bitter sweet. It may cause us to be less tired, but it also causes some of us to think we may fall asleep at the pedal. It is deathly boring. Today, we played the alphabet game... except when you dont see a sign for 20 miles .. or a gas station.. it gets a little hard to play. We were in places that had town signs letting you know the population. One town had a population of 104 people. I wonder if that changes when a family moves out of town.. It might be even less these days! We have started to get very excited to see a turn in the near future. This is a highlight to our day.

Tomorrow we have about a 60 mile trek to Little Rock. AND WE HAVE A DAY OFF!!!!! VERY EXCITING! I forsee much sleep and reading in my forecast :-D.

To my Dad: Happy Early Fathers Day, in case I dont get a chance to write again! I love you very much, and have a great time in Italy.. Remember while you are lounging in my dream location that your daughter is sweating to death and as we say about Arkansas.. "Rubbing it raw in Arkansas" (we are starting state slogans to help us get through!)

I have uploaded more photos to the link I used in the last blog. Please look! They are good ones! link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2301374&id=11815505&l=f303f72cad