Poplar Bluff to Mammoth Spring, Arkansa (133 km)



Cindy an Dee with us



It was a rainy day and much colder than the days before. But driving in the rain is surprisingly comfortable, we have good weathergear and the only important thing is to dry everything in the evening. A long trip was ahead and with light tailwind we quickly reached our lunchstop town: Doriphan. In these small towns the best coffee is served at Mc Donalds, that made our choice. Usually the Mc Donalds have large windows fronts, so people see us coming and when we sat down yesterday, a lady came to our table to ask where we are from. We explained it to her, she wished us well and of she was. But an other lady had overheard our brief conversation, came also to our table and asked whether we are from Sweden. She just had heard the S..... She has Swedish ancestors so it made her curious. We started to chat, she Cindy, had lived close to Aspen, Colorado but moved here, retiring is cheaper in this area. But also a lot more boring she said, but she seemed fine and with a good sense of humour. Then her friend Dee joined us. Dee thought she should call the local newspaper to let them know, that two Swiss are cycling through the area. So she called and the journalist was eager to see us. A moment later a city counsil, who happened to sit in the place too, came to our table and welcomed us here, it was great. When the journalist came we were all photografed and asked some question. After almost two hours, we started to run late and had urgently to leave. We got many good wishes and off we were into the rain.

I often wrote how friendly Canadiens are, but here in the Middle of the US, people are also very nice, really friendly and often curious were we are from and too. And the landscape is breathtaking, rolling hills, covered with trees and meadows, cattle on it, old barns standing there. It almost the Countryside we know from movies or the Malboro commercials. 

The hills though were testing us, we moved slower that expected and the last hour we drove in the dark. Fortunately the road had only very little traffic. After checking into our hotel we needed to eat something and went to the Steakhouse over the road, nest to a gas station. It looked quite run down, not really inviting. But surprise, we got the best steak and baked potato ever on our trip, very friendly waitress and Frank got even a sample off their chilli, which tasted heavenly. Just like that, to let him know how good it is!