Robert J. Faulkner

Sadly, I did not ride my bicycle 4,000 miles. I know, it breaks my heart too. But I did accomplish a heck of a lot and I’m proud to have made it to Little Rock, Arkansas.

I have been home for a few days now and last night I finally got around to downloading the data from my Garmin cycling computer. After the online software ingested all the data, it generated a little report with some interesting statistics. Here they are.

I was actually on the road for 16 days in July. This number surprised me a little bit. I didn’t realize I’d taken THAT many days off. But, I took a day off when I decided my body needed it or when some other factors meant taking the day of was the smart thing to do.

During those 16 days of riding, I rode 555.21 miles. That’s quite a distance. To ride that distance, my butt was in the saddle for 48 hours, 6 minutes, 13 seconds. Believe it or not, after day 10 or so, I didn’t even feel it.

My longest day on the road was 64.29 miles and my shortest day on the road was 8.57 miles.

For the entire trip, my total elevation gain was more than 2 miles! 10,694 feet to be exact. Don’t worry, there were some downhills too.

My average speed over the course of the trip was 11.5 miles per hour. Not too bad considering my bike weighed nearly 100 pounds. To put that in perspective, on a regular ride, when I’m not carrying bags, I usually average between 15 and 16 miles per hour.

My average cadence, that’s how fast my feet are spinning around the pedals, was 92 rotations per minute. That means I moved my feet around those pedals more than 265,000 times!

I’m sure I could squeeze some more statistics out of this little thing, but I think that’s good for now. I want to thank everyone again for following along and reading about my trip. Your words of encouragement kept me on the road longer than I would have otherwise made it. Please feel free to drop me an email or give me a call. I’ll get some more photos up soon and you can expect to start seeing some posts about new topics like photography, home improvements, travel and more.

As always, thanks for reading.

Rob

So I took some time today to relax and catch up on email and personal stuff. I didn’t really need to, but I kind of wanted a day to be lazy. This is my vacation after all. You are probably wondering about the title of my post, so allow me to explain.

Like all vacations, I established a budget for this trip. The original plan was to spend most of my nights camping and very few nights in hotels. I quickly learned that at the end of a day of riding, being sweaty and tired, sitting at a camp site fighting off mosquitoes and continuing to sweat in the heat of the day is neither ideal nor comfortable. A few nights in even shoddy motels made me decide that being able to get a shower and sleep in a real bed is well worth the cost. As a result, I have spent almost every night of this trip in a hotel or motel and I have burned through my budgeted allotment of money more quickly than I had planned and desired. Now, I could continue to spend the money and extend this vacation by another few weeks, but I think there are more responsible things I can be doing with that money and I’ve decided to cut my trip short.

There’s another important factor in this decision. In late August, I will be going to a military training school in Maryland to finish up my Basic Noncommissioned Officer Course. As I discovered in an email I received this week, I have a lot of work to do to prepare for this course, and it’s nothing I can accomplish while on the road. This is an important course for me and showing up unprepared is not an option.

So, I will spend the next two days completing my ride to Little Rock, AR and then I will return home to prepare for my military training and spend some time getting my house and property back into tip-top shape. I still plan to do quite a bit of riding while I’m home. Peoria has a wonderful multi-use path I can ride on and return home to that nice shower and bed I’ve grown accustomed to, and I’ll be able to spend the necessary time preparing for my training course.

That’s the new plan. I have to admit that I’m disappointed I can’t continue my vacation on the road, but I’m not the least bit dissatisfied with what I’ve accomplished. I certainly didn’t ride 4,000 miles and it was apparent early on that wasn’t going to happen. I wish I could make it to Fort Hood to visit my friends there, but I will have to do that another time. I have lots of long weekends and some vacation days available and I will be sure that’s one of my first trips.

I’ve been blessed with many things in my life and my friends and family who have supported me on this trip are at the top of the list. Thank you all for your well wishes and your comments here. At the end of a long day of riding, it’s nice to be able to log on here and read some words of encouragement. To those of you who said I’d never make Los Angeles, you were right. C’est la vie. To those of you who said I’d never make it past St. Louis, HA! It’s been a wonderful experience and I hope I have the time to do it again someday.

I will continue to update my cycling blog until I return home at the end of the weekend, and, with any luck, I’ll find new things to write about when I get home. (Although history dictates that my updates will be significantly less frequent. A trend I hope to break.) So as always, thank you for reading.

Rob

Well, 40 miles into the wind today has me pooped! I feel like I rode much further. My legs got no rest on the ride because I couldn’t coast at all. I was hoping to make it all the way to Searcy today, but after 40 miles I was finished.

Maybe I’ll actually be able to get to sleep tonight since I’m so tired. I don’t know if my difficulty sleeping is a product of the cycling or of staying in random hotels, but it needs to stop. I’ve had problems getting on the road early because I don’t sleep well. Starting my ride at 10 a.m. means I’m riding onto the hottest part of the day. If I get on the road early, I can be off the road by noon or one o’clock. I definitely prefer that.

The bike is holding up well. I had to change a tube this morning, but that was completely my fault.  I underinflated the tire the day I had those flats. So this morning, I remembered to inflate it to the proper pressure. Well, I pulled too hard on the stem and caused a leak at the base of the valve stem. Like I said, totally my fault. Other than that, she rides well and everything is working just like it’s supposed to.

OK, that’s all for tonight. Thank you to everyone who has commented. I enjoy reading them. I promise I’ll get around to replying to them too. As always thanks for reading.

Rob

I know I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I hate riding into a headwind. The wind is particularly strong and steady today. It sucks. It’s like riding uphill all day long.

I have about an hour left to ride today and after a little more break time, I’ll get to it!

More tonight.

Rob

I found another really classy place to stay tonight. It’s better than the motel I stayed in last night but not by much. I suppose you get what you pay for and at $30 a night, I definitely got it.

I think I’ll be in Little Rock by either Tuesday or Wednesday. Once I’m there, I’ll stay for a day or two and enjoy the city a little bit. There are a few things is like to go see and take photos of while I’m there. One of the.high schools there is a pretty significant place from the civil rights movement. It’s where the Arkansas National Guard had a standoff with the 101st Airborne when the federal government was forcing integration on the schools. The governor of Arkansas called up the National Guard to prevent black students from entering the school and so the 101st was called up to escort the students into the building. Very interesting. If you’re not familiar with the situation, look it up.

I’m also going to try to visit the U.S.S. Razorback. It’s a WW II sub that’s being restored in Little Rock. I’ve taken the tour once, but I want to take the camera in there and see what I can get.

Well, its late and I need to sleep. As always, thanks for reading. More tomorrow.

Rob

It is my sincere hope that this is the biggest dump I stay in for the duration of my trip. I mean wow. First, I think someone should propose legislation that requires hotels to advertise the date of their last renovation. Seriously, Elvis could have slept on these sheets. I’d bet serious money that this room looked exactly like this in 1973.

But enough of of that. I rode more than it looks like today. Even though I didn’t get very far down the road, I still rode nearly 30 miles today. I did not ride very far because I found a military museum to visit and I spent a few hours there looking around and talking to the volunteers.

Apparently one of the Army’s flight schools was here during World War II. They have some amazing equipment from that era on display as well as some truly magnificent stories about the Soldiers who trained here and about the base itself. I’m glad I saw the news report on the museum and I’m really glad I went. I’ll put some photos up tomorrow.

Well, I’m going to sleep so I’m going to wrap this up. As always, thanks for reading and I’ll put those photos up tomorrow.

Rob

PS: Two days worth of maps below.

And now I’ve found another one in the front tire. Tomorrow should be free of flat tires.

I found the culprit of one of my flat tires! A tiny piece of…something…protruding from the inside of my rear tire and puncturing my rear tube. I feel much more confident getting back on the road tomorrow.

So, my day started out with a flat tire. Sucks. Then, an hour and 20 minutes down the road, another flat tire. Really sucks. But the icing on the cake was my 3rd flat of the day. That’s right. Not one, not two, but THREE flat tires in one day. I mean really, can my luck possibly be this bad?

You may have also noticed that I took a BIG break in the middle of the day. I decided it was just not smart to keep riding in the heat and humidity, so I took a long break at a gas station.

Joe and Sandy from the station were so nice to me. When I got there, they literally got the hose out and sprayed me to help me cool down. They let me hang out for a few hours in the afternoon and when I got ready to go and I discovered my third flat, Joe drove me the last 12 miles. Such great people. So thank you Joe and Sandy. If anyone is ever passing through Neville, MO on US 67, stop at the Sinclair gas station and see them. They’re good people.

Aside from that, I’m out of Missouri and into Arkansas. I’ll be staying here for two nights since I was completely unable to meet my nutritional needs today. I don’t want to get on the road and bonk out because I was too macho to take the day off.

I do have to say that I’m getting a little aggravated by all the days off. I think its the smart thing to do in each of the situations, but I also want to get down the road. I’m going to keep playing it smart, I just have to focus on making sure I’m preparing myself for the next day’s ride each night.

So, here I am at the Relax Inn in Corning,AR. Tomorrow is going to be a day of bike maintenance and fueling, then I’m back on the road Friday. Right? Friday? Today’s Wednesday right? Well, the day after tomorrow in any case.

As always, thanks for reading.

Rob.

I’m already behind schedule today because I discovered my bike has a flat tire! Oh well, a quick change in the hotel room and away I go.