Day 5: 6/23/23: Jonesboro to Hardy, AR

Another early start this morning.  Packed all my gear bags inside the tent and then stepped out to start removing the bags and then break down the tent.  Then came the mosquito calvary.  They were all over me.  Couldn't keep them off.  After everything was packed up and strapped to the bike, I couldn't find my glasses.  I realized that in my haste to get everything put away while battling the mosquitos, I rolled my glasses up in my tent.  So I pushed the bike to the nice, air conditioned, enclosed bathhouse to unroll my tent, get my glasses, and then roll the tent back up.  I had several blood splotches on my legs from where I took out a few of those blood suckers.

I made it to Walnut Ridge for my second breakfast, 2 egg biscuits from McDonald's.  My first breakfast was 5 peanut butter & crackers and a banana (eaten inside the bathhouse of course).

Walnut Ridge seems like a well kept town ( pic of main street below).  

Right after I made it to McDonald's, a quick rain shower came through.  It was finished by the time I left the restaurant.  A man at the "Liar's Table" at McDonald's said that if a street or road in Arkansas has Rd in its name, it's most likely gravel :) They told me my bicycle route had some bad gravel roads on it, and that I would be better off just taking Hwy 412 to Hardy.  

I took their advice and was on Hwy 412 for about 41 miles.  It had a fairly nice shoulder on most of it, but there were some areas with no shoulder and only 2 lanes.  The traffic was steady the entire 41 miles, and included numerous 18-wheelers and big RVs.  It wasn't a very pleasant ride on that road.  I'm sure there was some nice scenery, but I didn't see any of it because all I could do was watch traffic.  I was very appreciative of the times I had at least a little bit of shoulder to hug.

After today's experience on Hwy 412, I was determined to stay off it as much as I can tomorrow by taking the roads on my planned route, paved or not paved.  I was talking to an employee at the local grocery store and told him I was going to take 9 Mile Ridge Road tomorrow.  His response was: "That's crack alley.  I wouldn't go there without a gun.  Everyone up there has guns.  The road is also in bad shape with deep ruts." Well, then I talked to a police officer who was patrolling the park and I asked him about that road.  He said he was very familiar with that road and that I might not want to ride there if there's another option.  So, I guess it's back to Hwy 412 :(

Another town I went through was Black Oak, AR, which is a lot different from Walnut Ridge.  The main street buildings are abandoned.  Below are some pics around Black Oak.

I think someone may be living in the building with no roof because the window AC unit was running.

Below is a pic of downtown Hardy.  It seems to be a town supported by tourism. It has several different novelty shops in its downtown.

I'm camping at the Hardy Park Campground.  It's going to be an interesting night because there are train tracks right beside the park.  Also, there's an intersection with a road and the tracks right beside the park, so the train engineer has to blow his horn right at the park.  At least it's an intersection with warning lights.  I clearly hear the "ding, ding, ding, ding" at the crossing before the train arrives and blows his horn.  Hopefully the ding ding warning will keep me from being scared to death by the blaring train horn in the middle of the night.  We'll see how it goes tonight.  Pic of train from my tent.

Total miles today: 72.2