Slept in airport parking lot. Same 2 cars of guys who left late last night were back @ it early today, some kind of training center.

More driving, today’s goal is Huntsville. Called Grace @ 8:00 where she was still in bed recuperating from a hard mnt bike race the day before. Today is a recovery ride for her and we make plans to meet @ 5:00 up in Monte Santo SP.

My first stop is Trailhead bike shop run by Tommy, another character in a string of characters I have on my stringer. This is the home of the Runt Crit. Low & behold, the winner of last years crit and next day purchaser of the runt was @ the store. Wed night is shop ride and more jocularity and shenanigans are promised only Tommy will be @ the Ryman hearing Levon Helm. Tommy has a woman mannequin in his restroom that is nattily dressed in a girl scout uniform. Her name is Mandy. Tommy said Grace dropped her off. Occasionally she becomes the focus of  exhibitionism. I would like to have her as my seat mate. Could be too much fun.

Scored a vaporizer pipe which will spare my lungs of combustibles.

My SI joint has been acting up getting tight. I asked Tommy for a chiro recommendation and he gave me Mike who is a mtn biker. Scored an appointment b4 afternoon ride. Amazing the different chiro skills in the industry. He worked on my skull getting sutures to work. His put is the head makes the hips work. My SI still hurts.

Drove up to Monte Santo SP which is almost 1000′ above town. Can be ridden to from bike shop. At TH I was getting ready when a rider stopped by and called me by name. Who? It was Chad from last year fast ride. He reminded me that I watched him go down in a splatter from rolling his front tire off the rim on a landing off a drop.

Grace arrived as did 8 women mtn bikers, it was a chick ride but not for Grace & Craig. Grace has a new used van. Tsali, her standoffish dog was along. Last year she wouldn’t let me touch her until one day she got in my van where I petted her breaking the ice. Tonight it was I forgot I know you. Short easy ride on family trail for Grace’s recovery ride. Her season is all about Leadville training and she seems to be following her coach’s training plan.

Drove down from park to Grace’s which is near part. Met her son, Wills. Let Tsali in my van and we got back to where we were last year. Grace needed to pack for drive & overnight to Nashville, next day fly to New York for day for speaking engagement, night in Nashville then Fri drive to Tanasi trail @ Ocoee white water center for a race on Sat. She persuded me to spend the weekend @ Tanasi. She will have other friends in attendance and this has makings of party weekend. Forecast is for T-storms unfortunately.

Spent night parked @ curb @ her house.  She finished up her packing and left. I drove to Trailhead to socialize. My plan was to ride Monte sano. I parked in an apartment complex @ base of toll road climb. I parked in front of a unit that was being renovated so that no tenant would be parking there. Good plan. I pedaled off. Trail up had a lot of rocks w/ small tech moves that stymied me last year in the wet. This year in the dry I did a little bit better but still walked some. Upper section was like a long rock garden, something that I had to just keep grinding on. Goal was park office to obtain a trail map. Made the office and picked up the map. Trails here leave park and the map shows them leaving but never coming back in. I found Goat trail to Flat Rock connector which left the park while dropping 500 feet switchbacking. Challenging riding. Rode connector for almost 3 miles and it still hadn’t joined a return trail. decided that maybe it would connect but I wouldn’t ride it out so i rode back the way i came walking up steep switchbacks. Just poison ivy. Why I don’t have any is curious.

Found my way back down mtn to parking lot. A parking violation was on windshield. Just a foul, no harm but park elsewhere.

Back to Trailhead for a shower to wash off urishiol if any. Hung for a little while. Drove to Bandito Burrito for dinner. Back @ Trailhead side street parking for sleep spot. Main street of Andrew jackson Way is noisy but I am legal.

Stopped @ grocery store for beer. Selected a beer made w/ pecans. Picked p a small piece of german chocolate cake that was topped w/ pecans. Last  year Tim’s wife gave me about a gallon of pecans from her trees. Southern pecans. Will try the beer tomorrow as I am sipping a single malt from Scotland.

3 hour ride almost 2000′ climb. Tired.

Tomorrow is space museum day then shop ride in afternoon, they leave early.

Yesterday I awoke early @ Clinton airport. Saw a sign that dealt w/ salvage of airplanes to explain the carcasses on the non flying side of the road. Peaceful night.

Drove back to Mountain View, AR to ride more of Syllamo trail. I sent myself up for Blanchard Springs XG were I could access Jack’s Branch trail and onto to Bad Branch Loop, rejoin Jack’s & down to XG for shower in enclosed building. Temp is in 60s making that $3.00 shower @ outside temp. Chilly. Plus, the road to Blanchard is paved saving the gravel road up & back to TH where I stayed before. But then i drove up there for Sat night as it is free; XG cost $.

Parked in day use area, paid $3.00 parking fee although TH fees for the trail are waived. Overpaid? Paid for shower later.

Headed up shared biking hiking trail to full on Jack’s. Some technical stuff, broken sandstone & limestone. Trail made an overlook over Sylamore creek and valley. Pretty much @ high spot. Trees are almost all completely leafed out. There several tree species that are later leafers anyway. The oak etc is big leafed. Area is 2nd or 3rd regrowth. W/ these broad leafed trees their trunks are not very tall, they just get bigger around and maybe a fuller canopy.  Can still see in forest even w/ the overcast day I had.

At TH w/ red & yellow trails 2 riders were engaged in a navigation discussion. I carried the day w/ my official map. An outhouse sits @ the TH. I say to the riders that anytime you see one of these outhouses they are made in Spokane. The more serious rider spoke up and said that that was in his neighborhood. I asked where, and he said Missoula. I asked what he is up to and he said that he is on a 6 month road trip mtn biking and taking pictures. Cool. Kindred spirit. We chatted briefly me voluntering ride info and him seeking it. We set out on Bad Branch which is the easiest of the trails. I lead for short while and then pulled ove. i was holding him up. We introduced ourselves, his is Garret, and agreed to meet upon ride completion. And I watched his legs churning him away. I rode Jack’s (yellow blazed) and Bad Branch (red) for 27 miles I saw only Garret and an attractive athletic young woman trail running up towards me. And she is Garret’s GF. They met in Missoula but she is from Mountain Home.

Red trail was too much Pablum. Recently a wheeled trail vehicle went down the trail some places repairing the ST creating unconsolidated surface that moved unpredictably. And then the trail was made machine width of vegetation leaving a wheel track on either side. No bar checkers here. On the yellow and Blue I stopped to carefully snake my bar ends between trees.

Back @ XG I find Garret @ his camp site. I ride to van where I find a note from Santacruzer inviting me to his campsite and that he has been reading my blog. I don’t know him. At Garret’s I pump him full of rides ideas for east US. Both of us were short of time making for me just sharing ride info and not learning about him & his GF who was by now @ camp. Boy shorts. Nice.

I got a shower and then walked to Santacruzer’s camp site. Everybody was gone. Chris, I wanted to talk w/ you and learn your story.

I wanted to get to sleep spot and chill. I drove back to Green mtn road to where I stayed previously. Just after arriving 2 riders few into parking lot. Both were wearing Competitive Cyclist jerseys. I recognize one (blanked on his name) and he is riding a Turner Flux raw color which is most popular this year which I think speaks to lead time of getting a painted bike. He is hot on it and also w/ Turner customer service. He said if all retailers were like Turner his life would be so much better. Another testimonial.

Brief sprinkle last night brought out rain cover. Short lived. Didn’t turn off music or go outside to listen for Whippoorwills.

Today got up and made french toast w/ whipping cream. Plan is to drive back to Mtn home & do wash as 5 days of riding gear is dirty. 5 out of 7 days riding is OK. I spent my REI dividend & member 20% discount on a bike jersey so I can ride 6 days between washes.

Did wash. The wet bike clothes are pinned to the clothes line @ the back of van line drying. Traveled back roads to Bald Knob and got on US 64 that runs thru Brevard, NC. A GPS route dealt w/ Memphis, TN and I rejoined US 64 which is mostly 4 lane controlled access, a step below an interstate. Drove east. Plan was to make Huntsville tonight but fell short hence the airport parking lot. Developed airport w/ a small terminal with a parking lot out front. I might be under the watchful eye of a security camera. Plan is to sleep here then be gone b4 they open @ 8.

Tomorrow is Muscle Shoals then Huntsville. Call Grace from her same area code.

Once I reached rt 64 the land was just flat that showed signs of past flooding. Must raise rice

Slept thru serenade of whipperwills and scattered light show of lightning bugs.

Up early w/ plan of riding @ 9:00 to keep ahead of the heat. And I let the morning slide on. A guy in a stationwagon w/ a mtn bike on roof rack pulled in. I asked what he was up to. he said that he and several buddies were planning on riding all 56 miles of trails and he was caching h2o. He invited me along when they rode thru. I said thanks after admiring his muscled shaved legs. Almost ready when a white sprinter pulled in. I recognized the small slider windows in the aft most window panel of Dave & his wife from Twisp, WA that I met back in Sedona. Cool. They made their visit to DC and are working their way back home down south where the weather is more pleasant.

Previously my non drive crank arm loosened from axle. I tightened it down. Rode off on orange trail w/ long ride of my own planned. Trail is well defined and occasionally color coded marked. Heavy leaf cover. Some patches of sand stone for slick rock. I left untested several Sedona moves. All by myself pedaling along. Noticed play in crank arm. Made a trail intersection and there was the guy and 3 of his buds. One broke the chain stay on his full suspension. I gave him the 3 longest zip ties and he splinted a piece of green sapling for road ride back. I retraced my ride back to van and toolbox. I retightened the compression nut holding the crank arm onto axle. Found that threads were stripped and the crank would always be too loose. I googled bike shops near by. Found a part @ Competitive Cyclist back in North Little Rock 2 hours back down the pike.  Best decision was to drive to Competitive, score the part and some other store goodies and drive back to Syllamo for another day of riding tomorrow. Competitive has a bike shop for building up bikes. Zak got me in the shop and another wrench figured out that 3 small spacers were missing between the bottom bracket cup and crank arm. He had a replacement part with the spacers and the crank is tight again. He said that my bottom bracket is up for new grease. Need to find a shop that has the Chris King bottom bracket grease tool. A piece of past tornado activity landed next to trail in the form of aluminum faced siding. Poison ivy is norm. Saw a small shrub that bore 3 leaves in clusters that looked close enough to be poison but it was mimicry. I rode thru several small stinky puddles leaving reminders on m y legs. I needed a shower.

Hustled drive to NLR. Started to drive 6 miles each way for free FS shower. At the side road intersection was a camp ground. I figured that a $5. shower while saving the time of 12 miles of driving was a wise investment. And the shower was only $3.00. This one took the cake. It was like an old style boy scout camp shower: rough sawn wood boards unsealed, gaps above ground & below roof. No way to heat it. Old mud wasp nests high up. H2o was hot, plenty, & forcefull.

Pushed my speed on the twisty 2 lane hwy to Clinton. several times I stopped to reclose an opened drawer. I slowed down. Made Competitive about 45 mins before closing. Turned around & fought early evening traffic exciting Little Rock. Some aggressive drivers.

Tonight I am sleeping outside the Clinton airport. There is a huge fenced in bone yard of small planes behind me, Fuselages and separately wings.  Wonder what his business model is. Airstrip is unlit.

Tomorrow is back to finish Syllamo, maybe stay up there and leave Sunday for Huntsville.

Have a small spot of poison ivy on my right thigh.

Dr Holloway, the chiro in Sedona, worked over my legs to fix the cause of my leg swelling. Regular mds wanted me to wear compression socks. Done w/ that. Called her office on Thurs w/ praise. She liked that. They asked me to submit a testimonial. Loose stool appears to be firmed up. I drank more h20, ate vit C which is shrinking my lymphomas. Needed her treatments years ago.