September 28, 2012

Covington, TN to West Memphis, AR

Distance 57 miles all on my bike.  Yah!  11.8 mph average, 4:47 ride time, actual time on road 7 hours and 20 minutes, expenses today $25.76

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http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=1782261&pg=personal&fr_id=17893&s_tafId=230714
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Finally just when my morale was at a low point along comes a nice day of riding.  I awoke at 6:40 immediately stepped outside to check to see if it was going to rain on me as the weather forecast for today was 50% chance of rain.  The sky to the south where I would be heading was fairly clear but north rain clouds were looming.  Standing there deciding I’d suit up and ride I heard the door to my room close.  Ah!  Well at least I had my sleeping shorts on this time, most of time when I sleep at motels I sleep in my birthday suit.  I walked around to the motel to the front desk, woke up the owner and asked her for another key.

Instead of eating cold cereal and pastries decided I’d go for a real sit down breakfast but riding through most of Covington I didn’t spot any diners so settled for a Subway Sunrise Breakfast sandwich on flat bread.  While there visited with another patron who was eating the same sandwich as I ordered.  After hearing my short version of why I’m riding he asked if he could make a donation which I gladly accepted.  Donations so far are not doing nearly as well as I’ve hoped for this year.  Though I did hear from home there are a half dozen or more donation checks waiting to be sent to the NMSS but didn’t tell me how much in dollars were there.  I’ll just keep asking until the goal is achieved, some folks like Jerry B. in El Dorado Springs think I’m like a pit bull asking for donations.  Whatever works Jerry.

After leaving the Subway I came to a Wal-Mart and decided to stop and see if they had any American Flags to replace the one I’m currently flying on Spirit as the high winds have frayed it.  They did but my soap box complaint I have a difficult time accepting our USA Flags are “Made in China”.  I’d really like to have an American flag 12”x18” “Made in the USA” just in case any of you reading my journal know where I can obtain one I’d appreciate hearing from you.  I’ll save the frayed flag for the end of this journey to dispose of it properly or if I bump into a Boy Scout Master along the way I’ll ask him to have his Scouts do it as a Civic duty.

By the time I ate and bought the Flag it was near 9:00 AM.  Rush hour traffic, which was much heavier than I thought it would be lightened up substantially and felt fairly safe riding the rest of the way out of Covington.  Oh it felt sooooo gooood to not have a head wind today.  Four days of riding into headwinds of 10-30 mph was really taking a toll on my knees and mental state.  Even the hills were kind to me as they were gentle rollers.

The Great American Pyramid on the waterfront in Memphis, is a 200,000 sq ft building and hosts various events

To top off my elation with today’s ride I managed to average 12.8 mph all the way to Memphis.  For those who are paying attention I lost a mile per hour average over-all due to the slow going on the Memphis waterfront trying to locate the “Primitive Trail” leading under the railroad bridge and I-55 bridge to be able to ride the south bound pedestrian lane on I-55.  After about 40 minutes of searching, I gave up went up onto the streets, stopped at a trucking company and asked them how to get on the south side pedestrian lane.  I was shocked and a little peeved to learn there is a pedestrian lane for both directions.  The truck guys also said there was a nice wide shoulder on the ramp leading up to the bridge.  I thanked them for the advice and was quickly up and onto the bridge.  Now on the bridge the pedestrian walkway is pretty narrow, slightly wider than the width of my bike with panniers, there was also some navigating around tire shards and glass without bouncing off concrete sides of the walkway but I made it.  Even stopped and took a picture of the Welcome to Arkansas sign midway across the Mississippi River.

I-55 Bridge crossing from TN into Arkansas

Coming off the bridge is a little dicey in that it was over grown with weeds and a few chunks of concrete but lucked my way around and through it all.  My next task ride 3 miles on I-55 to the first exit.  It’s illegal to ride on Interstate highways here in the USA unless there are no other roads which I think is maybe in Arizona or New Mexico?  In addition I had to pass the Arkansas truck weigh station which had 4 or 5 highway patrol cars parked there.  I went stealth by slinking as far down as possible on Spirit and using my aero-bars to their fullest reach forward over my bike that put me about level with the concrete retaining wall between the weigh station pull-off and the interstate highway.  My guess all the State Troopers could see if they were looking my way was my bottom side in skin tight spandex sticking up over the height of the way.  Wonder what that looked like?

After exiting the interstate I was on US Hwy. 70/Broadway Avenue in West Memphis, Tennessee.  Get to add a new State to the list of States I’ve now ridden in.  Think this puts me close to 30 but I don’t have time to check it out, hard enough keeping up with this journal as it is.  When today started I was thinking I’d ride all the way to Hughes, AR but my guess estimate would be that I’d have to ride another 15-20 miles and I was already over 50 miles and it was getting close to 3:00 PM.  So I began checking out motels to stop, while looking for churches and fire departments, too.  West Memphis, at least along Broadway just doesn’t look like the area I would feel comfortable staying.  The first two motels I passed were in a shambles a third was closed and falling down with all the window broken down and the doors kicked in.  This isn’t looking good.  Suddenly on my right I spotted the West Memphis Police Department and immediately swung into the driveway, even though it said “Exit Only”.  Sure enough as my luck goes there sat a squad car with a patrolman inside it.  Rolling up next to him, he lowered the passenger window to speak with me and I immediately went into my quick introduction of myself.  Then asked if he knew how far it was too Hughes, AR and then followed that question up with if he might be able to obtain the police department number for me as I had been unsuccessful in contacting either of two churches in Hughes all day.  The officer Corporal Lynn Chamberlain was quite helpful.  He knew the distance to Hughes and had the dispatcher obtain the Hughes PD number for me.  Before I could call Hughes PD, Cpl. Chamberlain began asking questions and showed a sincere interest in my ride and helping me find a place to stay here in West Memphis tonight.  I told him I try to connect with a church and hopefully a Christian family to host me.  Corporal Chamberlain without hesitation phoned Chaplin David Pike of the “Centurions of Christ” which is the West Memphis Police departments own Christian group.  Cpl. Chamberlain was unable to connect with Chaplin Pike at that moment but said he’d keep trying.  I then said I’d go get something to eat and asked where the fast food places where in town and he not told but led me to the street they were on.  The final turn onto Missouri Street where the restaurants was a huge First Baptist Church, the Cpl. stopped his squad car got out and said he’d check to see if the Pastor was at the church for me and we agreed on a fast food restaurant to meet at with what he found out.  It’s just so unbelievably heart-warming to meet folks like Corporal Chamberlain who go far beyond the call of duty to help folks out.  I love it, this is what is most joyous about my journey’s.

I no more then arrived at “Dbo’s” when Corporal Chamberlain phoned me and said he had connected with Chaplin Pike and the “Centurions of Christ” were going to host me at the Day’s Inn.  He further advised me to enjoy my meal which by the way turned out to be a big meal and delicious, too.  The owner of the place had heard me talking with the Corporal and started up a conversation.  A really nice guy who has a quality independent fast food joint serving fresh home style vittles.  He even treated me to his “House Special” homemade strawberry shortcake.  Oh, what a meal!  What a nice place.  First looks are deceiving as the rundown and rough looking Broadway Avenue area in West Memphis many folks wouldn’t dare stop.  Let me tell you West Memphis has a least two caring, compassionate and wonderful folks and I bet there are many more.

After finishing my meal, Corporal Chamberlain had told me to call him and he’d come and get me and take me to the Days Inn.  Told him he’d have to roll me out of Dbo’s as I was so stuffed with great food.  A couple minutes later the Corporal arrived, opened up the trunk of the squad car and was ready to help me load Spirit and my gear.  We both quickly decided Spirit and all my gear were not going to fit even if we used the back seat of the squad car.  I said I’d ride Spirit to the motel, the Corporal said he’d lead the way.  Yet another first and awesome experience I had a police escort to the motel, I felt really really special and my heart full of gratitude and happiness for having amazingly met Corporal Chamberlain.  West Memphis you can be proud of this man he is a credit not only to the department but to humanity.

Cpl. Lynn Chamberlain with West Memphis PD a “Road Angel” extraordinaire

What a wonderful day this has been.  Thank you God for the many blessing you bestow upon me.  I do believe!

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