Travels With Edwina

…as the wind did blow across my drain holes, I sang a pretty tune.  All day, I sang a pretty tune.  But did the human care?  Sigh…. it was a headwind day, like almost every other day we’ve had on this trip, but today was extra strong so the human was… uh….errr….preoccupied by other thoughts and just didn’t listen to my pretty tunes.  Even when we were joined by Mark’s pretty blue Waterford and sang a duet….. sigh…..

But, for a teeny part of the day we saw some tailwind, while most of the day saw crosswinds.  It was the final 20 miles that had stiff headwinds.  How stiff, you ask?  How about sustained 22 mph with gusts to 30mph, most of the time with nothing at all to block the wind.

You see, today we rode the Mississippi delta.  Flat in such a way a Wisconsinites cannot grasp.  A 20 mile ride from Milwaukee to Waukesha sees more change in elevation than we did in 110 miles from Monticello, Arkansas to Indianola, Mississippi.  Heck, the biggest “hill” of the day, was the bridge across the Mississippi River.  And with land that flat, the wind just blows strong.

And so we entered a new state.  Edwin rode with us for most of the morning, but stopped wisely before the winds started kicking up dirt from the harvested fields.  But, soon someone is going to need to have a talk with the gods of the prevailing winds… my tires are getting tired…

Or…”Where are y’all riding to?” Or, our favorite, because we’re always riding last, “What is this race?”

When we were in the west, we’d get a lot of encouraging comments, “Better hurry up”, “You’re looking good”.  And, we’d get horn toots of encouragement or the occasional motorcycle who would pass us and pretend to pedal.  But, it was rare that someone asked us where we were going.  Oh, there was the guy on the absolutely beautiful copper colored beach cruiser that wanted to know if we were going *all the way* to Prescott (nope… about 60 miles further that day and 2 mountain passes), but mostly just encouragement.

However, since eastern Oklahoma, the questions of who we are and what are we doing come at least once a day.  But, unlike many people we talked to before we left, the local questioner will nod, calculate the miles and reply with things like, “That’s a lot of miles you’ve already done.”, “Good job”, “Good luck”. “Glad you passed through here… we are the pretty part of the country”, etc.

And, well, we have to agree…. Arkansas is a very pretty part of the country.  We waxed poetic on it yesterday and today was almost as nice.  But, as the road worker mentioned, “It ain’t gonna be this nice if those <explicative/> loggers keep taking down the trees.”. We agree.  The loggers are clear cutting large swaths of land…. images of The Lorax flashed past several times today.  Sad, really.  But time will tell if they keep it under control.

But, today ends our last full day in Arkansas. Tomorrow we cross the Mississippi.

Gorgeous… simply gorgeous….. I really should stop there…. stereotypes aside, today we traveled some of the prettiest roads we ever did travel.  We’re in Arkansas..

We started out by finishing the Talimena Parkway.  One thing about traveling that parkway is that you can look into the distance and see the road before you…. it looks like a vertical slab of asphalt, a very, very long vertical slab of asphalt.  Yet, you arrive at the base of the climb, start working while taking in the scenery.  Pretty soon that scenery, gorgeous as it is,  just takes your mind off of the work that you’re doing.

We followed that with a rip roaring, white knuckle descent followed by 50 mile of gradual downhill.  Wheeeeeeeee….even my human can ride acceptably fast on a downhill stretch.

After lunch we had 20 miles on the most beautiful back roads just south of DeGray Lake — the lake is the result of a dam installed in the 1950s.  The road surface was smooth, the terrain just slightly rolling, and the road lightly shaded to keep us cool as we traveled through the pine and hardwood forests.  We took our time and savored the quiet traffic free slice.

Ahhhh….it doesn’t get much better than that…

…she will come?  Except she never did.  Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, that is.  Tonight we sit in her lodge… well… not her lodge, but another lodge built on the site of the original lodge that was built for her.  Originally a train stop for the railroad, the lodge was named after the soon-to-be-crowned Queen Wilhelmina in hopes that she might visit…. we’re talking 1898….and we are in western Arkansas….

While it is lovely here, I cannot imagine it was on the hip-and-trendy path in 1898.  Then, you came by train and took a mule cart from the base of the mountain.  Today, the Talamina Parkway lets you drive up to the top of the hill or in our case, ride a bicycle.

Over time the human and I have done the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Natchez Trace.  The Trace is flat…. really flat and goes from Tennessee to the Mississippi.  The Blue Ridge going north from Cherokee, North Carolina has grades of 5-8%.  Steep for a highway, but, then, it isn’t meant to be a highway.

On the other hand, the Talamina Parkway makes the Blue Ridge look flat, really flat.  Whew.  7-13% grades were common.  My wheels were complaining louder than the human was breathing.  Oh, but the road itself was quiet without many cars and the views!  Egads, the views!

Is it possible to both dread and look forward to continuing the Parkway tomorrow?

Who are we?  Well, there are several beautiful steel bikes on the trip (none, quite as pretty as I, of course), some lovely titanium, a handful of aluminum and then some plastic (they call it “carbon fiber”).  The plastic bikes have been hurt really bad on the rough pavement with parts failing, but us metal steeds take it all in stride.  Truly, we are a better breed of bicycle… but wait, that isn’t the answer you were looking for?  You want to know about the *humans*?!?!?!?  Really?!?!?!

OK, if you insist.  The humans that power our engines come from all walks of life.  Of course you have your stereotypical doctors and lawyers, but you’d be surprised at some of their backstories.  But, we have seen engineers (software, mechanical, civil, and even railroad), cops, bankers, judges, auto mechanics, bike mechanics, plumbers, teachers (kids to college). . . like life, the list goes on.

But in the end, they’re all just cyclists.  Some fast; some (like us) slow and the backstory is secondary.  Yet, fascinating as some of their backstories are, the humans really all just think of themselves as a single archetype — a cyclist.  As such, they support one another, offering words of encouragement, whether fast or slow, and regardless of who or what they are when they aren’t riding across the country.

But, I digress.  To catch you up.  Today we left Purcell, OK and road into McAlester, OK.  The day started out oh, so very pretty as we road with Edwin along back country roads.  After dropping Edwin off at the first sag, we continued on for another 30 miles of gorgeous scenery (who knew that Oklahoma was so pretty?).  The afternoon was spent on Route 1, a highway.  Oh, well…. can’t always have quiet roads.  But, I must rest, dear reader, tomorrow is a *big* day…. time cutoffs…. and steep hills……I need my rest.

So finally, dear reader, we find ourselves out of the desert, out of the flat, flat prairie and to an elevation where one can breathe, but…. it looks at times a lot like home, but not.

From my viewpoint as a bike, the geographical terrain is very similar.  Short rolling hills are reminiscent of the Kettle Moraine.  It is also green again with trees and grass.   But, really, it is quite different.

The cows in the field, are cattle, not dairy cows and we definitely don’t have long-horn dairy cows back home, not to mention, no cattle egrets sharing the pasture.   And if that doesn’t have you double-taking, the dirt is red clay and there are occasionally oil wells in the fields.

But, really, from the view point of the bike, the roads are a lot like home….really….it is just the scenery that is different and then…. its just a variation on a theme.

…where the wind comes sweeping o’er the plain and smack into your face.  Someone needs to explain to the prevailing winds what it means to be prevailing.  We’re now 1/2-way into this trip and we’ve seen tailwind twice.   Just twice. Grrrr.

And today it rained.  The human thought it was a pleasant rain — not hard and warm enough to ride without a jacket most of the time.  But, for this bike?  Yuck… mud…. splash… dirt….<shudder />.

So people ask when we tell them that we’re riding across the country, “Where do you ride?  Do you use bike trails?”.  Inwardly we simultaneously  groan and chuckle.  While there are politicians on both sides of the spectrum that understand that building bicycling infrastructure is the best return on investment for transportation money, most, alas, do not.  I doubt that we will see good, connected infrastructure in our metropolitan areas in my life time (and, please recall, I am a steel bicycle and we live a very long time).  Out here in the middle of nowhere, yeah… no, bicycle trails.

So we ride on whatever roads will take us where we’re going.  In some areas there are good farm roads (here in Oklahoma and back home in Wisconsin), but in many areas the only route is the same route the cars have — the interstate.  Then, we ride on the shoulder whether the shoulder is clean or not.

But, today we got off I-40 and spent most of the time on old Route 66.  In many places it parallels I-40, but some of the time we get away from the noise and sameness of the interstate and get to pass through small towns.  Some of the towns are still bustling, some have museums devoted to things Route 66 (or, in the case of one, baling wire), and others found themselves too far off the “new” interstate and have become ghost towns.

Despite the rain, it was an interesting day.  We saw several fully-loaded touring bicycles along the way and a lot of motorcycles following Route 66.  But, the best part?  We got passed by an Edwina-colored motorcycle….. now *that* motorcycle had style!

Seriously…why would a tarantula set off and walk across the hot pavement?  Not just step out and warm up on the edge of the pavement — no, walk across the roads.  Is dining better on the other side?  Is this the spider equivalent of Frogger?  What would possess a slow moving tarantula to cross pavement?  Can it smell something tasty on the other side?  Hmmmmm??!?!?!?!

As we toodle down the road, we’ve seen plenty of critters….coyote, elk (yep, elk in New Mexico), birds of all shapes, sizes, and eating preferences (seed eaters to meat eaters), frogs (usually dead), lizards (almost always alive and moving very fast), and an unknown number of leaf hopping insects from tiny little crickets to 2.5″ long yellow and orange beasts that are the stuff grade B horror flicks are made from.

I don’t mind the wildlife, but the leaf hoppers are out of control here…. and it is my feet that crunch over the critters… my tires that feel the squish and the crunch… and me that has to put up with the bad karma from killing the critters…. all while the human says, “I can’t navigate around them and the shredded truck tires, Edwina.  You’ll just have to accept it.”. Accept it…. yeah… remember that tomorrow when one of those truck tire wires flats out my tires.  Harrumph….

But, a really nice day.  Tailwind and downhill.  Barely felt the miles even when we finally made it out of the flat, flat, flat part of Texas and into a little bit of rolling hills.  Spent most of the day on Route 66, ending by pulling into a renovated 1930’s gas station/diner in Shamrock, Tx.  The humans purred over their old-fashioned cream soda while us bikes sat outside and watched the world go by.   A very nice day.  Tomorrow we’ll be working again.

Today we crossed into Texas.  Big place, I hear, although, quite frankly, when your tires are rolling down the road it is a little hard to have significant perspective.

The day started out great as Edwin and I, powered by our humans, road together from Clovis into Texas.  Then we dropped off Edwin at the first sag, found ourselves in a Haldeman-Noterangelo powered peleton for 20 miles and then toodled the rest of the way in with Pat and her trusty Moots.

Texas is odd.  Everything about it is a study in contrast.  Take its politics.  Of course, everyone knows the Bush legacy, but  you also have Ann Richards and Wendy Davis, not to mention Lyndon Johnson.  So was it a surprise that today we’d see contrast towards us riding down the road?  There were the cars and trucks that just wanted us to go away, yet we heard more happy toots, waves and train greetings than the rest of the trip combined.

Unfortunately, not surprising was the number of CAFOs.  The last few days have been in lovely grass lands, but very few cattle.  Today, we found the cattle.  Stuck in CAFOs.  With last night’s rain, the mud and muck and blowing, by the time we got into Amarillo we were all filthy — covered in a brown haze.  But, the human washed me off and I’m looking a little better.  Ready for another day…

Today was a rare day, indeed, dear readers, for the crossing.  Today we almost had a tailwind.  Mostly crosswind, but it gave us just a little push forward for a change.  Good thing, too, as the debris on the road brought us down twice with flats.

Today’s ride took us from Roswell, NM to Clovis, NM.  From the supposed sighting of aliens to the site of what was once thought to be the location of the earliest inhabitation of the Americas.  Clovis became the prototypical site for all analysis of archaeological investigation.  Because of the radiocarbon dating of the site, it also became the basis for the theory that all occupation of the Americas came from crossing the Bering Strait land bridge.

Since then, however, both of those theories have fallen.  Within the last 25-30 years a significant number of sites, some pre-dating Clovis by more than 10,000 years, have been found and verified.  One of these is just down the street from us in Kenosha, WI.  Clovis is old (12,000 BP), but not uniquely old.  The Bering Straight land bridge was probably used, but so were other routes.

Never the less, riding from aliens to paleo-hunter/gatherer society in a single day added some fun to the route.  Today more cattle lots and less high prairie grazing.

Tomorrow…. Edwin will join us on the road for the first 35 miles!  Woohoo!  Hope he and his human do well.