Day 02 - Tennessee to Arkansas

Day 2 of the trip was planned to be an easy day. We only had about 450 miles planned and expected to make it to the Little Rock by 4pm. The day stated off cool with temperatures in the low 60s. The humidity was quite high and we had quite a bit of ground level clouds.

Traffic was light and we made good progress in the morning. We went through Huntsville and the space center was easy to see from I-565.

While crossing through northern Alabama, we again ran across the devestration of a tornado.

By 10am, the temps had climbed to 80F. After our first stop (about 10:30am) at around 180 miles, Tom and I put on our neck cooling wraps....aaahhh that hit the spot!

We made it to Memphis by 12:45pm and crossed over the river with little issue. I-55 was well above the river but the flooding was significant. The river was expected to crest today. Some of the overpasses we crossed looked more like bridges since everything below (buildings, signs, etc) were completely submerged. The only evidence that it was an overpass as opposed to a river bridge were the off ramps that looked more like boat launches.

After crossing the Mississippi, we grabbed lunch in Arkansas. After lunch, I was about to make a left to turn onto the on-ramp for I40 west when Tom radios me and says "DON'T go down that road, it is marked one-way." I hesitated and didn't make the turn but realized as I went by that it was infact the on-ramp to I40 west. Well Tom realized his mistake and was able to make the turn onto the on-ramp. So there Tom was getting onto I40 west and I was going to parts unknown. Hmmm. Was Tom already tired of me? Was he trying to tell me something? Well there happened to be a US highway that ran parallel to I40 so I turned west onto that highway and told Tom I'd rejoin him on I40 in about 5 miles. So there we were, Tom on I40 west bound and Rob on US70 west bound. After about 5 miles, I was able to get to an on-ramp for I40 west and just as I was entering I40, Tom came rolling up. Perfect timing.

So today it wasn't the Mississippi that would cause us problems. It was instead the White River in eastern Arkansas. From the point of Memphis we had been seeing signs that I40 westbound was closed at mile marker 219 and a detour was required. Turns out that the White river had flooded it's banks and I40 west was still under a significant amount of water. This required us to take a 50 or so mile detour (as can be seen on the SPOT tracking map at the top of this blog).

The flooding was everywhere. The amount of rain that has fallen on eastern Arkansas has turned fields into lakes and creeks into rivers. Taking the I40 detour extended our ride today by about an hour. By the time we were approaching Little Rock, the temps had risen to 93F and the once cool neck wrap was no longer doing any cooling.

Pulling into the hotel, Tom peeled himself off his bike and said "my ears are sweating!" It was a warm day but one I'll never forget.

Tomorrow, we make our way to McAlester, OK. On our way we'll make a little detour and sample some of the roads and scenery in the Ozarks riding scenic Rt. 7 and 23. It should be another fun day!!