Stage Forward and Then Two More Steps to the South - Harrison to St. Joe.

Today’s ride was about staging for the next few days.  Short mileage again, landing us at the Buffalo River Motel, just south of St. Joe.  We had no sooner arrived than the power went out.  That was ok because we had enough hot water for showers, and we were told immediately the maximum time of the outage (about 1.5 hours).  It was a bonus when the power came back sooner.  We moseyed on down to the Big Springs Trading Company for smoked pork medallions topped with barbeque sauce, steamed vegetables, baked beans,  corn on the cob, cole slaw,  potato salad and sarsaparilla.  All gluten free and yummy!

Before we left Harrison, though, we stopped at the local bike store, run by a married couple of our approximate vintage.  The husband is a master bike mechanic and he assured Rob that the irritating clicking noise in his bottom bracket (part of the bike which holds the crank – not part of his body) is not indicative of imminent or even eventual component failure (something that is probably not the case for his body).

Tomorrow we will bike to Clinton, and the following day, Conway.  Which will take us out of Ozarks and we will try to jet toward the Mississippi border.  But from what we’ve seen so far, Arkansas is a gem.   Diane and Rob (Happily full of BBQ)

The Arkansas Ozarks colored as a 40s postcard.

The bikes take a breather after climbing a steep Ozark hill. Now to scream down to the bottom at 37+ mph (forget the stats, Diane was braking).

The AGO Team had BBQ too!