If everyday was like today, everybody would be doing this!  It was a cool morning when we departed after breakfast at the motel and Cracker Barrel in Conway.  We loaded at 7:30 this morning and had plenty of daylight as we left on this relatively easy day.  We only had about 1900 feet of climbing today and there were many portions that were dead flat...a preview for tomorrow. 

I was riding all day today...a first for me this trip.  Now I'll be labeled a slacker for picking a nice condition day to finish the whole day, but that's ok.  I left the motel after everyone else had been long on the road and pushed the pace until the first SAG where I was pretty much back in the front of the pack.  I'd caught everyone but the lead pace line of Ed, Tom, Tom, David, and Scott.  I don't think anyone was going to catch them today...with the tailwinds and them all working together, they probably were close to 4 hours riding time today.  Anyway, I finally caught up with a big pack being led by Jeff who was taking it easy today with a tight quad and rode with them almost to the SAG...would like to have ridden with them all the way, but duty called as I had to stop and take some photos of the local landscape so all the riders that are riding in the large packs will be able to see what they missed. 

The farther we got out of town, the flatter the terrain became.  We are entering the Mississippi flood plain with fertile farm land and will be there for a couple of days until we get into Mississippi.  The last 60 miles of our route today consisted mainly of rice, soybean, and sorghum fields with several fish hatcheries thrown in for variety.  In the past, we've always come through here right in the midst of harvest as everywhere there's combines harvesting soybeans, trucks hauling cotton to the gin, and big semis carrying loads of beans to small coops to be shipped to ports.  But this year we are riding in the spring and the fields are mostly being prepped to sow.  We did see several rice fields (right) that were starting to sprout and a few corn fields that have already been planted.  The tallest corn we saw today was about 2 feet high but most of the fields were only a couple inches. We also saw our first cotton fields today, but the only way you could tell it was cotton was because there was some on the ground from last year's harvest.  I hate it we won't see any harvest of the cotton this trip.  It's always neat for folks that have never seen cotton in the fields to get a glimpse of T-shirts in their early stages.  Plus, I always encourage people to stop by a gin and see that process...interesting to say the least.

Our southern route is working out pretty well so far.  Our weather's been good and everyone seems to be having a good time.  If we were riding the usual Fast Ride up through the north country, we'd be getting hammered with cold, rainy weather and it looks like they will be having that for the rest of the time we would have been riding up there...but we are enjoying perfect riding weather and we like it that way. 

Yes, it was a great day today and we all got in early...several riders were sitting by the cement pond (empty this time of year so no diving) waiting for the luggage van to come in.  We have the whole afternoon to explore BRINKLEY!!  Yahoo!!  Exploring may be the term of the day as lightning struck our motel the other night and most of the rooms don't have cable...time for fellowship!

The group is definitely bonding well; it's a laugh a minute at the SAG stops.  We're beginning to see signs of the south as we get closer to the Mississippi River.  Life is a little slower down here and the people are really friendly.  It looks like we will have good weather for a couple more days so hopefully everyone will enjoy their trip through the deep south where cotton is king, Elvis is still living, and where Jeff Davis' birthday is a holiday.

Tomorrow we ride to Senatobia...it's a flat day and the riders are praying for the westerlys to keep blowing.  Tomorrow we see Kudzu!  I'll talk about that tomorrow.  See you then.