Day 3 & 4

The last half of the ride was hot and gritty. I rolled out of Dickson Tennessee at around check out time and pointed the bike south.

Day 3 was a big mile day to buy back the miles lost playing around the back roads of Kentucky the day before. The heat and sun was relentless! I had all I could stand by the time I was passing Benton Arkansas. I decided to take an hour break in an air conditioned establishment over an ice cold drink and some dinner.

I pulled off and ran along the freeway on the commercial strip looking for any sign of an ice cold Margarita. After a few miles of no signs of a bar/restaurant I stopped and fired up the smart phone and found the BBQ joint next door was listed as a bar. Smokey Joe's Bar-B-Que

Even if it wasn't a margarita anything cold on tap sounded really good. I popped my head in the front door to verify they had beer and once I saw the tappers and smelled the smoke and sauce I knew I found my hiding place.

The 1/2 slab was great and the spicy BBQ sauce was awesome. It was served in the southern tradition of being dry rubbed with a dish of sauce on the side for dipping.

In order to get anything stronger than beer requires that you join their private club. This gets around the blue laws of the county put in place to keep Jesus from getting upset.

After laying around the place catching up on the emails and FB and anything else to waste time before tackling the heat I rolled off for Hope Arkansas. That's where my ass gave up after a long day on the big road. About 450 miles behind me for the day with around 400 left to go.

I rolled out of the Super 8 motel at check out time. The place was clean and cheap. I will stay there again. The heat was crazy all over again. A smart man would get a few hours in on the road before the sun gets high in the sky but I'm not an early riser.

The black do-rag was baking me in the sun and no hat was asking for trouble. I then had a brain fart and decided to stop at the next Home Depot I pass and buy a couple of painters hats. They are thin, white and cheap, the same qualities as I like in my women... on the way out of the store lot I saw a Wendy's with the sprinklers running. I parked the bike under the cold water and soaked up the spray. I felt great.

I hit Texas running and found another good BBQ joint for breakfast in Henderson. Bodacious BBQ was nice and cool inside. I drank a gallon of lemon aid I think and the pork sandwich was great. It was named the mailman or postal something and it filled me up.

With a full belly I continued on through the 110 dgr heat for Houston. After a few hours the sweat started pulling my 100 SPF sun block into my eyes forcing me to stop. I was over heated and blind.

I found a parking lot with a sliver of shade in the midday sun. I Shut her down and flushed out my eyes with drops before having a seat on the sidewalk. Soon I was laying on the hot cement looking up at the church spire providing the shade.

A little over an hour later a lady that drove by came back to see if I was alive and woke me up. I dusted off the sand and mounted up for the last 45 minutes of hell into Houston. Even with the heat the bike ride was more fun than driving my van down.