Day 15 & 16, May 4 & 5, 2014

I'm writing this entry the morning of May 6th, our rest day.  May 4th I had no internet access and last night, I enjoyed the opportunity to indulge in adult beverages knowing there would be no riding today; hence no blogging.
  The projected 143 mile today was unexpectedly shortened by about 20 miles.  When we arrived at the first rest stop, bikes were being loaded on the van.  Just outside of town, the bridge we needed to cross was under repair and there was no ability to cross.  So the vans transported us around the detour and deposited us about 20 miles further down the road.  The day was still a long, hot day; we logged about 120 miles.  (Ignore most of the states on the GPS download for the day, because the GPS was still running and logged the mileage and speed of the van too.)
  Due to Jere getting sick in Albuquerque, his immune system was down and his allergies have been causing him some severe problems.   Jere was afraid he was developing bronchitis or walking pneumonia, in which case he might have to abandon the ride.  As soon as we arrived in Ft. Smith yesterday, Jere took a shower and walked to a medical clinic right across the street from the hotel.  Fortunately, his lungs were clear.  They gave him a shot of something in the ass, prescribed him some codeine and nasal steroids and sent him on his way.  Hopefully, he can hold out another 10 days.
  Yesterday's ride was probably one of the flattest rides, but one of the most beautiful.  Eastern Oklahoma is beautiful!  Ft. Smith, Arkansas sits right on the boarder, so we arrived in another state at about the 100 mile point and rode another 5 miles through town to the hotel.  Today will be spent cleaning up the bikes, doing maintenance, rotating our tires, and generally relaxing.  I will upload some pictures today, so check out the photo section of the blog tomorrow.
  Wed. we start the final 10 day push, with no more rest days, to the coast.  We'll ride about 122 miles to Conway, Arkansas (northwest of Little Rock).  So, far we've been rain free.  Forecast for later in the week is isolated thunderstorms, but no threat of major systems.