Morrilton, Arkansas

We woke up this morning to another flat tire. I duct-taped the inside of the casing of the front tire (formally the rear tire) but the tire still loses pressure slowly despite changing tubes. I repump it every time we stop for a break and it is working well enough. My last "new tube" was miss marked and when I opened the box to fix the tire I discovered it was a schrader valve and not a presta. It is now in the garbage can of the hotel. There was a stiff wind out of the south today that at times was a headwind, but we where thankful for it as it helped to keep us cooler. Where ever we stop people remind us to stay hydrated as " it is very hot out there". Many people are very interested in the tandem. We are not on an established bike route so people are not used to seeing bikers. Most smile and ask lots of questions and I suspect most of them think we are nuts. They are probably correct. Hooray!!! We arrived at Russellville at 1030 AM. There was not one but two bike shops in Russellville and Highlander Cycles not only had tires (Specalized Roubaix Kevlar) that fit our bike, but they also had a rear derailer (Durace of course) that works as well. The set up in the shop reminded me of our own Eastern Oregon Cycles. They had a surprising inventory of parts despite their size. The owner is a young women who does triathlons and she just hired a new mechanic this year "Josh". They worked on our bike over their lunch hour and had us on our way by 1PM. We rode over rollers much of the day and along a river that became a large lake as we enter Russellville. We rode across a mile long bridge across the lake. Betsy and I both commented how surprised we were at the beauty of this state. So far it is one of our favorites including the Rockies. Kansas - not so much.