Climbing The Tailwind

Ft Smith to Conway AR. Temp at the start 59. Climbing 3100' plus some extra. Mileage 125. We are now in our last ten days of riding. No more rest days just pushing to Savannah. Breakfast is at the motel at 6. Load at 7. We already know that at load we will be getting a revised route sheet. We have to compensate for being at a different motel. Mike doesn't want us to ride on Rt 22 until we get out of town. That road is very busy with no shoulder, high curbs and no sidewalk. We are leaving just about last except the couple on the tandem. Their tandem is at a bike shop in Ft Smith awaiting a part. They don't appear all that stressed about it. They are taking this better than I would. We have some very hard short climbs right out of the start. We get to a really steep one at about 5 miles. Mike has spray painted something in the road that is supposed to be encouragement. I just may have to call one of those numbers to report graffiti violators. It is the smilely face that gets me ;-). At the top Mike is taking photos and Kirsten is walking back to the van. I ask her if she is OK. She replys she doesn't feel well. Her dad is riding away. James, Pat and I go into motor mode. It seems that every time we see a rider or a group of them our pace goes up a notch. There are two new riders on tour, they are friends of Tom. All of them are from Indiana. One of them is riding a recumbent with a plexiglass wind screen and lycra cowling. A third friend is riding only to the first SAG and then returning Ft Smith and then to home. This is one hard core rider for he has done Pac Tour's elite ride crossing the country in 17 days. Wow. One of the highlights today is going to Paris. I looked all over for the Eiffel Tower but I couldn't see it anywhere. Immediatly after the lunch SAG we cross the Arkansas River. The photo op of the day is a painting of a razorback "Hog on a Hill". It is so far away that the picture would look like a white rectangle with a brown dot on it. So we keep on rolling gentle up and downs. It's green everywhere. A rat terrier checks us out and looks like he is about take off after us in full pursuit. He who hesitates is lost and we are gone. About 15 miles from the end we stop at a light. It turns green and pulling away I go over a rough bump in the road and catch the rear derailluer cable with the cleat of my shoe and the cable housing at the back is destroyed. Now I have only two gears high and higher. Luckily my legs do not feel like they did going into Ft Smith. Luckily there are no hard climbs either. Into Conway and chocolate milk and snickers. The desk clerk directs me to a bike shop a 1/2 mile away. The employees there are quite impressed with the tour we are doing. The one who worked on my bike liked the way mine was set up although there were plenty of high end bikes there. A little pasta for dinner. A little time getting ready for tomorrow. Only a hundred miles, seems like an easy day.