Arkansas---"You can tell him to his face, you can spit in his eye, you can make him eat sand out of the road, you can shoot him in the foot and I'll hold him for you - but first we gotta catch him."

I slept really well last night. Liz asked me if I heard the train. "Nope." Did I hear the rain? "Nope." Fact is, even with the thunderstorm the other night, I have had three really good nights of sleep and I'm feeling rested and raring to go.
Karen Tucker and her family were great hosts for us and I know she'll have her own adventures...I can see that adventurous twinkle in her eye. I will also be watching the major league baseball rosters to see if there is a Will Tucker in the lineup...her son is an avid player and I wish him every success.
Liz and I headed east on Highway 412 which had a lot of traffic on it, but also had wide shoulders. The route I mapped today is pretty hilly...MapMyRide has the elevation gain at 2992'. We turned north at the west end of Springdale, using Highway 112 through Elm Springs and Cave Springs. We saw what we thought was the reservoir of the springs, but it looked pretty polluted. Karen said there is a spring in Siloam Springs too, but it has been polluted by the chicken factories.














Arkansas gets my vote so far for the safest, most courteous drivers. Everybody gave us wide berth and waited until it was safe to pass. When we got to Rogers, we had some trouble going east on Highway 12. I didn't think the signage was particularly good. Liz and Karen traded places in Electric Springs and the urban riding was replaced by rural climbing. We rode through Hobbs State Park Conservation Area, which was beautiful. The butterflies were enjoying the Asclepias.








An aside about Asclepias...when I homeschooled my children, I ordered some Asclepias from White Flower Farms in New Hampshire. The plant came, I planted it, and it thrived. One day I was mowing and noticed large yellow, black, and white larvae crawling all over it. They were Monarch butterfly larvae. We let them spin their cocoons and brought one inside the house. When it morphed into a butterfly, and had unfolded its wings sufficiently, we took it outside and sent it fluttering to the south. Very cool.
Northwestern Arkansas is a lovely area in which to cycle. I hope to come back. At the end of the day I had 100.2 miles, an average of 13.51, and a whopping 4479' of elevation gain. MapMyRide has been off 20-25 per cent, but this was more than 30 per cent...makes me nervous about West Virginia. :)








We drove to Mammoth Springs because my friends in West Plains, Missouri had taken me there on my cross country ride in 2005. I was so impressed, I wanted Karen and Liz to see it. It's the 10th largest fresh water spring in the world...a consistent 56 degrees, putting out over 9 million gallons per hour. And my friends in West Plains? We are staying with them tonight and I can hardly wait to see them.








maybe you can't...because you won't...