Today, we were supposed to head to the east of Fayetteville for our return to Bentonville on Saturday. As has been the theme so far, that is not exactly how it played out.
We did the usual route and road check this morning and talked to the owner of RiverDream Camp where we stayed last night. Yes, I forgot the damn campsite picture again! I still have one more chance tomorrow. After talking through the road conditions on the route planned, we found out there was a lot of gravel with steep climbs and descents. Additionally, one of the river croasings was washed out a couple months before and he wasn't sure it was fixed.
It was cool enough this morning to wear my bolero for a few hours to keep my arms and shoulders warm. I'm sure glad I used it at least once - I would hate to have carried it and never needed it!
That left us two options - hope the bridge was fixed and deal with the gravel, or reroute to Eureka Springs and figure out a new plan for the night since it would be another 49 miles to where we planned to be tonight. We had a leisurely lunch in Eureka Springs while we looked at other options. Eureka Springs was packed with bikers, but they are some of the most courteous to cyclists on the roads, since we both deal with issues of visibility in motorists' eyes.
We had beautiful scenic views over the valley today.
Dave found a dive shop/resort/campground on Beaver Lake outside of Eureka Springs, and called to see about availability. With thousands of bikers in the area for the weekend, most places are already full. The person he spoke to didn't know if they had sites available but we decided there were other campgrounds around the area and we would find something.
Before leaving Eureka Springs we stopped for groceries for dinner and also went across the street to the liquor store for evening provisions. The liquor store even had a bicycle rack out front - now that's not something you see everyday!
There were several resorts on the way to the campground. I saw this one with these "ladies" dressed for the weekend's Bikes, Blues, & BBQ festivities.
When we got to the dive shop/campground we were in luck - they had plenty of room for tents. In fact, we are the only ones here. The bonus was that we didn't have to eat a freeze-dried meal or something we cooked in camp. The dive shop sold pizza and wings. Dinner was set! Only Dave could go on a bike tour and bring home a souvenir t-shirt from a dive shop!
This was a semi-rest day for us. Our mileage was only 20 miles but there were three big climbs covered in only 20 miles. The worst was coming out of Eureka Springs. We had a very sweet 2.5 mile downhill, followed by an approximately 2.5 mile uphill. I say approximately, because when I stop riding my Garmin shuts off and doesn't record the mileage. Based on my steps for today, though, it was at least 2.0 miles of walking and I rode the first part of the hill.
For my mountain biking friends, there is a downhill course right out of Eureka Springs if you are in the area. We know this because their "Shuttle Bug" passed us several times as we made our way up the hill! Once we were over that hill, it was more of the up and down almost-rollers the rest of the way into camp.
Dave's quote of the day uttered as we were almost to the top of the big hill out of Eureka Springs - "The hills go on forever, and the sweating never ends."
It is supposed to dip into the mid-40's tonight, so we will have a good test of the new sleeping bags we bought. I sure hope they are as good as they claim! Tomorrow we return to Bentonville and the end of the trip. It has been a great week but neither one of us is ready for it to be over. We're ready for the hills to be done, though!
No comments:
Post a Comment