Day 1

Wow! Lots going on today. Very emotional start after several years of planning. After the mishaps of the last couple days, I thought it was destined for me not to get this actually done.

It was great to have Kelly and our dog keeping tabs on me and meeting me for lunch today. They’ll be around until lunch tomorrow and then we’re going out separate ways.

As for the riding, it was 84.7 miles with 44.7 in Louisiana, 24.1 in Arkansas and 15.9 in Texas. We’re staying in Texarkana, TX tonight. I’m done with Louisiana but I’ll be back in Arkansas briefly for my obligatory evening in a few days.

Not a lot of actual excitement in the ride until the last 10 miles when I believe every dog in SW Arkansas was unleashed and told to chase me. I had two separate packs of 6 dogs each and another 7-8 solo chasers over about a 5-mile stretch. They were generally undeterred by the free-flowing f-bombs hurled at them so I ended up needing to “sprint” several times to try and get away. Needless to say after 70+ miles the sprints were not impressive but they did the trick. I was even being chased by a 3-legged dog at one point that was actually gaining on me.