April 25: Noel, Missouri to Bentonville, Arkansas
Noel (according toe the locals, pronounced as in the name “Joel”), Missouri to Bentonville, Arkansas is only 32 miles. We’re only going to Bentonville today because I’m speaking to a group of Bentonville area middle school students tomorrow.
Noel is located in the southwest corner of Missouri along the Elk River. Highway 59 headed south out of Noel has the very interesting overhang of limestone. They’ve carved it out just enough so that the trucks and RVs can pass. Check out this HelmetCam video of me cycling through this section of highway:
The ride today was interesting in a couple of other ways.
First, it was the first day of riding in the rain. It was one of those very light, misty, all-day kind of rains; not a thunderstorm kind of downpour. And that was kind of nice, actually. It was cool and the winds were mild. I much prefer riding in that kind of rain even if it lasts all day than I would a short, 30-minute thunderstorm. Why? Well, let’s just say that no good ever came from sitting on top of a big piece of metal (like, for example, a bicycle) during a thunderstorm.
Today also saw us cross the border into Arkansas, the ninth state on our tour.
My parents met us in Bentonville when we arrived. They had drived down from St. Peter, Minnesota to visit with us for a couple days. We had lunch in downtown Rogers and then spent a nice afternoon visiting while Pat and I did laundry.