Another state down.

Arkansas was finished a few days ago, with our ride from Fayetteville to Grove, Oklahoma. We had a few build days in Little Rock, which was by all accounts an awesome city. I look forward to returning someday, if I have the chance. We stayed in downtown, which gave us time to explore the city. We even appeared on the news, and were given free tickets and recognized at a baseball game. The experience surpassed my expectations for the state of Arkansas.

Another mountain range.

Arkansas contained another surprise – the Ozarks. I had always pictured western Arkansas as more or less flat, with a few hills. The Ozarks, much to my surprise, were genuine mountains, complete with 1200-foot climbs and exhausting, slow bike riding. Also, there were motorcyclists – a lot of them. They are smaller than the Appalachians by a good deal; apparently, they are the oldest mountains in the northern hemisphere. However, we dealt with the entire mountain range in one 94-mile day, so that was exciting.

A double century.

After arriving in Fayetteville, exhausted and sick of climbing, a few intrepid early arrivals and myself biked six extra miles around town. Our goal was a capstone and unlikely-to-be-repeated achievement: Two 100-mile days, back-to-back. The day before had been my first century ever, and the whole experience was exciting.

Two riding days later, we find ourselves in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Some notable events along the way include a short visit to Missouri (and seeing the marker where Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri intersect). Also, there was an incident in which my newer tire simply destroyed itself on the road (a rip occured on the inner bead of my tire, and I had a huge bulge in my wheel). Needless to say, I had to do some on-the-road repairs, and buy a new tire (grudgingly). What with a broken pair of sunglasses (with new ones necessary), it was an expensive week.

Bartlesville itself was cool. We had a day off, which allowed us some rest and recuperation. It was either a large town or a small city (not sure which), and it basically exists because of the oil industry — it is the headquarters of the ConocoPhillips corporation. We saw their corporate museum (a bunch of propaganda). I was also pleased to find that Bartlesville is home to one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s larger creations, the Price Tower.

I spent the latter part of the day fixing my bike and taking care of randomness. Tomorrow is the start of an eight-day stretch of riding that includes two centuries and our longest day of the trip: 124 miles. It will be a trying period, but it will take us to Colorado Springs, which should be exciting.