Gray skies greeted me as I set off for Memphis, some three hundred miles away. I checked my luggage to make sure it was tight. I had already lost a bottle of oil somewhere in New Mexico along the interstate. Not able to afford to lose anything else, I made sure everything was secure and set off once again.

Short ways out of town I filled up with gas and grabbed my usual breakfast of peanut butter cliff bars and orange Gatorade. I had a laugh as I left the Kum & Go gas station and was finally headed the right direction. Gray clouds filled the sky. It wasn’t incredibly cold this morning as I motored down the highway. The road curved through forests and over hills. The sun started shining and I was cruising.

These were the back roads. No more highways for awhile. I loved it. Passing through small quaint towns. It was such an incredibly blissful time I barely remember what I passed, I just remembered the feeling. Riding down the road, the troubles of yesterday seemed long behind me. My bike was running fine today, no troubles plagued me like the day before. My tachometer still wasn’t working but I took this time to really be one with my bike. It sounds incredibly stupid. Having to shift by feel, knowing when the rpm’s are at the right point for that smooth and perfect gear change is a somewhat wonderful feeling. It touches that part of my soul where the gear head in me resides.

The road was flawless. My bike operated perfectly. The weather was gorgeous. I soon found my way out of the mountains and onto the flat farmland of eastern Arkansas. I had no idea what day it was. Was it Thursday or was it Sunday? I did not care one bit. Road started to straighten and the landscape was flat. I started passing by fields of unknown crops. Tractors were out and about and farmers plowed the ground after another long season of farming.

An old familiar foe showed his ugly head once more. The wind picked up. This time it was not blowing me around the road. It was, in fact blowing dirt from the fields across the road. I closed my clear visor down and kept going. Holding my breath whenever I would go through a dust cloud. Mile after mile I plowed through dust cloud after dust cloud. It seemed that today was the day for every farmer in Arkansas to plow their fields.

The familiar smell of smoke filled the air. Someone was burning a field and I could smell it. Now I love the smell of campfires and what not. This was pleasant. Until I saw the smoke cloud. It hovered over the road and I was quickly approaching it. It was thick and I could not see through it. I closed the vent holes in my helmet, pulled on the throttle, the engine roared and I Cole Trickle-ed my way through that smoke cloud to safety. I had a laugh as that familiar scene from Days of Thunder echoed in my mind. I kept on the power and soared down the road.

No more hills or winding roads. It was just straight and flat now. The sun was out and it was blisteringly hot now. The sun was setting and I was slowly gaining ground on my campground for the night. The wind had not died down but seemed to be getting worse. I was quickly directed down some rural farm roads and to my campsite just before the Arkansas-Tennesse border. The KOA office was decked with Elvis memorabilia and souvenirs. I checked in and found my campsite.

The wind swirled by as I set up my tent. It made it incredibly difficult to get the tent up but I finally did, securing it to nearby objects to stabilize it. I had made fantastic time today and still had a couple hours of sunlight left. I left my stuff and hopped on my bike for a little town across the interstate. Leaving my helmet behind for the short trip, I wanted to feel what it was like ride without it. Its not a feeling I like. I hastily grabbed Taco Bell for dinner and stopped by a liquor store grab a nice pint of beer for the night. I crossed back over the interstate to my campsite and settled in for the night.

Curiosity came over me and I dived into my bikes wiring to try and figure out the problems that plagued me the day before. I soon found that my main fuse holder had started to melt. In the process of inspecting it, it broke and I could not repair it to get the bike started at all. I was now stuck. Quickly thinking on my feet, I took the inline fuse holder I had installed on my charger and spliced it into the position of the now broken fuse holder. By the light of a flashlight, I was able to get installed and the bike running. I had not solved the problems that had caused so much trouble, but I was not stuck anymore.

Now without a charger, I saved every precious percentage point of my phones battery I could. Until I noticed my campsite had an electrical box for people who can’t camp without electronics. Right now, I was one of those people. I plugged it in and finally got to eat my dinner and enjoy my beer.

Winds howled around me and my tent billowed with it. A light from the campground shined right on my tent making it difficult to fall asleep. But I finally did. And I slept good knowing that tomorrow would start my favorite leg of the trip. Where I would get to see everything I actaully planned on this trip. Tomorrow, Tennessee awaited me.