Arkansas, trials & trails...

It's hot again... I now have 2 slow punctures, one in each wheel but that is nowt compared to Geoff's minor epic of the day...

His front brake disc fell off at a junction today!

Putting some replacement bolts into the disc that fell off!!

The guy who he bought the bike from has tinkered, but he's a crap kind of tinkerer at best to be polite... So he fitted lovely new discs to the shiny new front wheels but didn't put any threadlock on the bolts, so on the rough roads here they have vibrated out of the hub & under gentle braking the final bolt must have popped out & the disc dropped onto the spindle. It was a very lucky moment as you can guess!

Anyway back on the road after a swift repair & it was off to Sunrise, a big multi bike dealership in Searcy to get new tyres, chain lube & some threadlock.

They fitted a Michelin T63 to mine for $179 & a TKC80 to Geoff's for $210. They basically didn't have any other tyre to fit that size wheel, still shiny new rubber fitted now!

Sunrise - Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki dealership in Searcy

oooh nice new rubber to play with...

After this stop in Searcy we headed back down to Beebe, where we decided to stay over there to sort the other bits that needed sorting on the bikes. This mainly meant Geoff's at the moment as mine is basically ok now that the rear tyre puncture & rubber are sorted. I'll sort the front inner tube when we find a place that has a tree stump or something to sit it on.

Meanwhile Geoff had lights, disc bolts & a truly bent side stand to sort out... as always I'm sure my turn will come though!!

So for the rest of the day, we batted on across Arkansas, we saw tortoises, snakes, squirrels & loads of birds. The lanes here have lots of straight lengths & then a 90' turn, almost like a grid pattern.

It would have been interesting to see this landscape before man got his hands on it, apart from the Mosquitos it must have been a beautiful bit harsh environment, now it's known as Prairie Country on the signs but really it's just big fields surrounded by huge water dykes with big water pumps to drain the water into the dykes. Arkansas seems to be boggier & wetter than Mississippi, which is not what I understood from what I've seen or read before about this area, but it is definitely  more humid, hotter & wetter than it's next door neighbour. We have a long way to go in this state yet & we have the beautiful Ozark range to pass through too, looking forward to that bit, great roads as well as some great trails by the sound of things...

Dead snake on the road...

We also saw a crop dusting plane, boy it was a big plane for such a little thing, it turns out it has a large storage tank in its body which the chemicals are poured into...

Crop duster planes, very cool!!

Us sat on the bikes didn't come to its wing tips in height, must have sat 10ft high off the ground. When it took off it flew alongside us briefly too, ace... I love the smaller workhorse type planes. This looked like either a Thrush or an Air Tractor, not sure what the difference is as it's the first time I've seen one for real!!

So an eventful day with not much distance covered but plenty of things experienced, some near misses & a good chat with some nice folk...

Oh, we also found out why there aren't very many campsites in both Mississippi & Arkansas, it's because the mosquitos are savage down here, there is a time to camp apparently & never near water, so it looks like motels until we hit Oklahoma.

Have fun all...