The Last Loaded Day

First thing I did when I woke up this morning was look out the window. Yay! Not raining, but it was heavily overcast and it looked like it had just recently stopped raining. I got everything together, then used the microwave to fix my breakfast.

I was out the door at 7:55. I had put my raingear on, but almost promptly took it off (except the helmet cover). It wasn't really that cold. I was headed south on Hwy 367, even though none of my directions mentioned a Hwy 367. I turned my Garmin on. Then I stopped and pulled up the map on my phone. The directions had said to turn left, but it was to turn left onto Hwy 64, 167, and 67 (yes, this part of the highway went by three different names!). But that section of the highway was more like a freeway. I noticed, according to the Garmin, I was merely paralleling that Interstate. I figured it was fine, so I stayed on 367 until Searcy. Then, as I was going over the highway on the overpass, I looked down at the road and saw it wouldn't be too bad to ride on. There was a wide shoulder. So I got on the highway. According to the exit I would be taking, I had 13 miles on this highway. I turned on my Volcano music speaker, and listened to the music as the big trucks flew by.

When I exited, I had 31 miles to go to Conway. Along those 31 miles, I stopped for a mid-morning snack at the junction of Hwy 5 and 64 (now just 64). Back on Betsy, I noticed it was starting to misty rain. I didn't feel it was enough to bother with the raingear.

For a number of miles, I was riding on what appeared to be a pretty new road. Kim said it is a bypass. Alongside much of the road was that red blossom clover. I think it is very pretty when there are tons of the red blooms. In general, today I saw more dead armadillos than I've seen altogether. It was definitely "dead critter day". I even saw a deat rat!

I returned to the regular Hwy 64 and continued working my way toward Conway. Once in Conway, the traffic was very heavy until I passed under I-40. By this time, I was hungry and on the lookout for a Subway. In all this busy shopping area, I saw not one Subway! So, I kept going. As I was headed toward my next turn, I saw the Subway. It was a combo gas station/restaurant Subway.

After lunch I had only 8 miles to go. I found Kim and Gary's house with no problems. Kim and I had a nice long chat and I got to know the dogs. Sulu is a long-haired dapple dachshund, and Sadie is a pie-bald dachshund--both versions you don't see to often. They are very cute!

I rode 70 miles today with an all-time highest touring average of 13.6 (it was 13.9 prior to going through all the slow traffic coming into Conway)!

Below ia a photo of the new highway with red clover blooming on both sides.