Syllamo day 1

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.