Ride Day 4.
Saturday October 20th, 2012.
So I was up early again this morning. I’ve always an early morning person. I love and cherish the start of each new day and today was no exception.
The sun was out, the skies were clear with a beautiful hue of blue and some white clouds.
Looked like we had some gorgeous weather ahead of us.
My anxiety heightened. I anticipated another lovely and exciting day of riding.
Breakfast was the same routine again and not long afterward Henry arrived. On this day, without JP. Unfortunately JP had some “honey-do’s” to attend to.
As we began to prepare for the days’ ride, cleaning the windshields on our bikes, and wiping the dew off our seats, William glanced over and just happened to notice a gouge in my front wheel rim
about half the size of my thumbnail. It was right on the outer edge. Upon closer inspection it became apparent that it was the result of contact with the rock from yesterday!
That meant that I came very close to missing the rock and just barely made contact with it right at the outer edge of my rim. Wow how lucky I had been!
That explained the “plunk” I heard and barely felt.
"Dang"! My brand new bike and I had sustained damage to it already!
Shucks!
Well, considering the alternative, It was an okay-tradeoff.
A tire pressure check assured me that I had not lost any air. It was still holding and based on yesterday’s miles we laid down, I was confident that all else being equal, it would continue to hold pressure without a problem.
So as with the previous day and after a prayer, we rolled out of the parking lot and over the highway to begin heading into the Ozarks again.
We impressed upon Henry that today we needed to experience some twisties.
Good road surface and twisties were the stuff of our dreams and Henry did not disappoint.
A couple of hours later, further from urban congestion we came to a quiet opening in the forest through which the road opened up in width and presented a couple of beautiful sweepers over about a quarter of a mile distance. We chose this spot to indulge ourselves to repeated passes through the pair of sweepers in both directions.
It was at this point we realized that we had lost Ed Johnson and his buddy.
After a quick phone call from Tony to him, we found out that he had summarily decided to cut the trip short and head for home. He was not too interested at this time for a spirited ride in the countryside. Hey, to each his own right?
I took the opportunity as well to break out my big camera gear and set up for some action shots of us all “flying” by at a pretty good pace.
After the thrill was over we pushed on and cruised the forest and countryside for the best part of and rest of the day.
Late afternoon had us turning around to begin heading back to base in Benton.
To make good time, we “jumped” on the highway and began the eastward journey.
A few miles out of Benton, we got snarled in traffic, caused by on-going road construction and could do nothing but sit and wait to be controlled through the zone.
finally arriving Back in Benton just after dark, we opted for dinner at Colton’s again.
We chatted again till they closed for the night and all sauntered our way back to our hotel rooms.
Henry and I viewed a few of the days’ video footage and photos, re-living the days’ excitement and thrills and not long after I bade him farewell.
Tomorrow we would begin our journey back to Corpus Christi, TX. It promised to be a long day’s ride. All 1128km (705 miles) of it.
I was elected by the group to determine our timing for the day.
And of course, being the early morning person I am, I set a 4:00 a.m. departure time. All things being equal, we ought to be arriving in Corpus Christi before dark.
In preparedness for the next day’s trip, the others I’m sure, and I, packed and prepared all our luggage to facilitate the early and on-time morning departure.
And as I laid me down to sleep, after I called my wife so she would not weep, I prayed the Lord my soul to keep, should I not wake out of my sleep.