Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Day 9 - Marshall to Houston, Arkansas

I was in my tent packing about 5:45 this morning when a cat fight broke out near it. I'm glad that didn't happen in the middle of the night, it would have scared me to death.

I had breakfast at McDonalds in Marshall this morning.  As I was sitting there, I noticed at the table next to me an elderly man who kept looking at me. You know the look.  It's the same one you get when you visit a church and notice a family continuing to look at you, and you later learn you were sitting in "their" seat. A little later, 2 other elderly men and a man that was probably in his mid-40s joined the elderly man who was already there. We got to talking, and it turns out I was sitting at "their" table. I now understand why he was giving me the "look".  They met there every morning and just talk. I mentioned that almost every restaurant has such a table in the morning. I told them it is called the "liars table" in Stevenson, Alabama. The younger guy laughed and told me that he has learned not to start a story around those guys.  By the time the last person adds his experience to the story, your original story is insignificant because the story has grown with each man.  

I got the impression that the younger guy was trying to get the elderly men to use their brains. He got the crossword puzzle out of the newspaper, read the clues to the others, and filled in the puzzles. He sometimes provided clues to help the others come up with the answer. I think he knew the others would never do the crossword puzzle on their own, but would participate if he read the clues. 

When I was asking around about the restaurants in Marshall, everyone kept naming one called Daisy Queen. I kept thinking to myself, "Do they not know that it is Dairy Queen and not Daisy Queen?"  Well, glad I didn't say anything because it really is.


A few views as I'm leaving the Ozarks. 


Look at this little jewel I found (pic below).  Can never have enough of these. I found this as I was climbing going about 4 mph so it was easy to stop and pick it up. It is a much harder decision when I am cruising downhill and see a little treasure on the road. 


I'm out of the Ozarks now, and headed to Natchez, Mississippi. I'm no longer on the route I had planned to take when I left home. I am using the map on my cell phone to develop a new route to Natchez. 

About 35 miles today were ridden in a very stiff headwind and crosswind. This slowed me down quite a bit, and gave me an excellent workout. 

I'm camping tonight at Cypress Creek Park, which is a Corps of Engineers campground.  It is near the Arkansas River. It is listed on the freecampsites.net website.  I have been pleased with the campsites I have found using this website. The campground I am currently at is no longer maintained, and is grown up with weeds and has trash around it, but it serves my purpose (a night's sleep).


Totals for today - 83.7 miles; 7 hours 30 minutes saddle time

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