I expected today to be quiet and uneventful. Thought I was being clever, and checked the weather in Tuscaloosa and Hot Springs before we left. Both had little or no rain in the forecast for today. So I went ahead and booked us into the Alpine Inn for 2 nights and set out what was expected to be a long but boring journey. What I forgot to check was the weather report for Mississippi BETWEEN Tuscaloosa and Hot Springs. Sure enough, just as we crossed into Mississippi, the sky opened up and it rained so hard, I could barely see. Of course, it had to be on AL-86/MS-388,a nice hilly, twisty road with no shoulder, and no civilization. So we just soldiered on until we came to what looked like an abandoned gas station right out of Deliverance, where we could pull over for a few minutes until the rain had slowed enough to be tolerable. It wasn't really abandoned, but no one was there, so we kept our ears open listening for banjo music.
     The rain drizzled on and off for the next couple of hours, and then cleared up for the rest of the day . The only interesting road in Mississippi is the Natchez Trace. Jody and I rode it over 10 years ago on my old Valkyrie, and it was a fun and beautiful ride. Unfortunately, the Natchez Trace runs South to North, and we are now traveling East to West. No beautiful West/East roads in Mississippi. US-82W was a nice road, just flat, straight, and boring. Nothing but poverty and cotton fields on both sides of the road as far as the eye could see. Only good thing we saw was gas for $2.19 per gallon just before we got to Arkansas. Even Arkansas was pretty flat and boring until we got about 80 miles outside of Hot Springs. The final run on AR-8W, AR-9W, and US-270W was hilly and twisty enough to make up for the rest of the day.
     Hot Springs, AR is an interesting town. Boyhood home of Bill Clinton aside, the downtown area is right in the middle of the National Park. We did some hiking on the trails behind Bathhouse Row, and the trails are REALLY steep. Maybe getting a little too old for this, but it was sure great fun! We also got a coupon for a buy one, get one half-off at the local Italian restaurant Bella Arti from our innkeeper. The food was excellent! Jody had eggplant Parmesan and I had shrimp fra diavolo. Both entrees were better than any we have had in Orlando, but I'm not sure that's saying much.
     The plan for tomorrow is to try out the bathhouse, Jody will get a massage also (not my thing). Then it's off to ride the motorcycle to the top of both mountains and do a little more hiking. Also, there is a 216 ft observation tower on 1 of the mountains that we can go up in, and see the view! Should be great fun!

446.2 miles today
1200.7 miles total

13,618 gallons today
31.021 gallons total