Mississippi and Arkansas Part One

Well gosh, what to say about Mississippi? Lots of biking was involved! Rolling hills in the east and flat flat flat in the west, which somehow surprised me even though I had no idea exactly what to expect. As I mentioned before, I had some difficulty understanding people, especially in small towns. I have plenty of experience deciphering various accents from the British Isles but considerably less with some accents from my own country.

My favorite town by far was Oxford. Home of Ole Miss and nicknamed the "Little Easy" it has a distinctly New Orleansian feel (not that I've ever been to New Orleans). One thing I thought was interesting is that right in downtown there is a memorial for Confederate soldiers. It is a large statue that says something on it about people giving their lives for a "noble and holy cause." I'm not sure how I feel about the cause being holy, but I do think it's rather nice they have a monument. It's interesting how there are lots of monuments for the "winners" of wars, but not any that I know of for the "losers". But in the end, people on both sides of the war died, and that is never a good thing regardless of what side they are on.

As I said, getting into Arkansas was flat. Mind-numbingly flat. Actually, what was mind numbing wasn't the flatness, but the straightness. Basically we biked along a straight road stretching off into the horizon as far as we could see. Occasionally we'd turn only to be greeted by the same sight. We nearly went insane (Kristen especially) but it was nice to have a break from the hills.

Once Arkansas became more Arkansan, it was really beautiful. It is more of a mixture of rolling hills and flatter farmland, and the combination is really striking. Crossing the Mississippi was pretty great, since I'd never seen it before. Unfortunately though we were on a fairly busy highway and the bridge had no shoulder so we couldn't stop to take pictures or admire the view.

We did have a bit of an adventure later that day though when we crossed the White River. The bridge is 3 miles long (yes) and with literally no shoulder. The locals were all very freaked out about the idea of us crossing it, but we didn't really have a choice, so they convinced us to call a police escort! Normally we are pretty spread out throughout the day, but we all waited at second lunch until everyone had arrived and was ready to cross. The van lead the way and the police car followed behind us flashing lights. It was a blast being all together; we were singing songs at the top of our voices and remarking on our incredible badassitude. The reason the bridge was so long is that the land is very swampy, so there isn't a clear border between the river and the land. Rather, the river just kind of seeps around where it wants to go, and it leaves quite a large berth. The swampy land isn't solid enough to build a road on, so the bridge has to go not only over the river proper, but also all the marshy stuff. It was really beautiful though, and completely unlike any other environment I've been to on Earth.

Halfway through Arkansas we had a day off in Little Rock, which proved to be far and away the best day on the trip...