Like Louisiana I find myself in the newly, and first time for me, visited state of Arkansas for less than 48 hours. It's Tuesday morning (had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't Thursday or even Saturday - did I mention I love traveling?) and I'm back on the bike within the hour. Today I head for Memphis, home of the big man they refer to simply as The King. All I can think about is getting my couch picture in front of Graceland. Too bad Elvis can't be in the picture with me...

My plan was to ride northeast from Conway and barely into the boot of Missouri on my way down to Memphis. At least then I'd be able to hit another state on my way to visiting all 48, just in case I don't get a chance later to visit it properly. But now the voice of procrastination starts speaking up and I start to hear too many excuses not to add 100 miles to my trip today. First off, Kellen, my host, is free from work only for today. I'm already going to miss half the day by being on the road so it'll help to get there while there still some daylight to be burned. Second, I'm roughly 10% into my adventure on the road. I have another 13,000 miles or so to go so and while adding another 100 to that total seems almost insignificant in the big picture it doesn't feel so small this morning.

So I'm off. I'm glad to make it to Conway to meet up with Daniel and his family on father's day. Thanks to his family for making me feel so welcome. And I'm thrilled to meet up with another Jim Stone and get our picture in front of our, er, his school. May the next stops down the road be nearly as gratifying.

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Posted June 21, 2005 08:40 AM @ (GMT - 6)