Day 28 – Texarkana, TX to Magnolia, AR (59 miles)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

We passed in to yet another state today. Good-bye Texas, hello Arkansas!!

Today also marks the (approximate) half-way point of our trip. We have traveled over 1500 miles and have been on the road for 4 weeks. It doesn’t seem like it has been that long. Time flies when you are having fun. It’s been an amazing experience thus far.

Our entry into Arkansas was lackluster, to say the least. While all of us were incredibly excited about entering a new state, Texarkana, Texas is not a good place to be starting. Texarkana, Texas borders Texarkana, Arkansas, and it is very difficult to figure out where one state ends and another starts. Unfortunately, there was no sign to mark our entrance in to Arkansas. We were all quite disappointed, to say the least. We decided to create our own “Welcome to Arkansas” sign to commemorate this epic passage. We are determined to find the Arkansas state line when we pass in to Tennessee.

I rode the day with Jenn, Maggie, Pete, and Katie (intermittently). We lost Katie for a while at the beginning of the day. I thought she had just fallen back to take a picture, but when we arrived at the rest stop we were there for quite a while before she showed up. I called to see how she was doing, but she said she was just feeling “really weak” and her legs were “jello-y.” When she arrived at the rest stop, she was informed by Justin and Bryce that, not only had her brakes been rubbing on her back wheel (making it very difficult to move), but that her back wheel was also not secured in place. Awesome, Katie. Not sure how that happened. Needless to say, the rest of her ride was much easier…

We had great ride today. It was short and incredibly relaxing. And lots of fun. We were “pulled over” soon after our rest stop by one of the local Sherriff’s deputies (Sarah had gotten a flat tire and everyone had stopped to help her out). He proceeded to help us get hooked up with the local newspaper in Stamp, TX and Magnolia, TX, as well as a radio station in Magnolia, TX. Thanks Mr. Sherriff’s deputy. You have been very useful. Thanks for helping out your local citizens.
While getting “pulled over,” we also learned from our Sherriff’s deputy friend that there was a County Fair starting… when? Well, TODAY!! How exciting. We decided to check it out. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the fair, they were still setting up. Sad. And they weren’t opening until 5:00pm today. Even sadder. But we still had fun admiring the rides and drooling over the prospect of carnival food. Yum.

Further down the road, we passed a very interesting farm. From far away, we thought that maybe there were funny-looking cattle and funny-looking horses. However, upon a closer look, we found that the farm had bison and camels. Yes, camels. In the middle-of-nowhere Arkansas. They fit in really well. We are all quite used to seeing camels on the side of the road…

Maggie also found an Arkansas license plate on the side of the road. She was quite excited about it. She practically caused a bike crash trying to get off her bike and run back to retrieve it.

I got a package today from my parents - a late Easter basket. It was incredibly exciting. It was my first package to one of our mail drops. Big day for me!

End of the twenty-eight day. And it was random.