Day 19
I got to play today!

If everyday was like today, everybody would be doing this!  It was a muggy, warm morning when we departed after breakfast at the motel 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 first day to ride, but that's ok.  Tom, Conrad, and Frank patiently waited for me to finish my chores so I could ride with them.  I knew it was going to be a rather "brisk" day...they were salivating to hurt the boss I think.  But whatever, we had a good day of pushing the pace down the highway.  I was really impressed with these guys...and everyone on this trip at how they've gotten so much stronger than when they started.  It's amazing how much easier it is for them to ride these distances.  As I said, this was the first day for me to get triple digits on my computer (maybe I should have borrowed Scott's light to have it pad my mileage), so I was surprised that I was able to finish the day with the pace we set early.  Guess I'm not over the hill entirely yet.

The farther we got out of town, the flatter the terrain became.  We are entering the Mississippi River flood plain with fertile farm land and will be there for a couple of days until we get well 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 that were starting to sprout and a few corn fields that have already been planted.  The tallest corn we saw today was about 6 inches high. 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 relatively 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. 

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.