Whirlwind Finish--literally 15-20 May

Leaving LBL from the north brought us into the small town of Grand River, home of one of thee most talked about restaurants in the area.  From our southern arrival into the recreation area to our last eve in Hillman Ferry Campground, all we had heard about was Patti's Restaurant...so, since the road took us through the town of 350 AND since we had ridden our bikes for the past 3 days totaling ~100 miles, we felt not only that we had worked hard for a treat, but also inclined to taste what all the talk was about...

Patti's is known for its 2" pork chops, flowerpot breads and mile-high meringue on their homemade pies.  Buddy ordered the pork chop and said it was one of the best he'd ever had...it was so big, he ate it for 4 additional meals as well!  Aly ordered a salad so as to save room for pie.  We both ordered yummy homemade pies (no, not the meringue choices), eating one piece in the restaurant and taking the 2nd piece with us.  It was a fun stop with delicious food.  Make sure to put Patti's on your next stop to the area!

Our next destination was Paducah, Kentucky where we heard was home to thee one and only National Quilt Museum of the US.  Since Aly has been learning how to hand quilt (thanks to cousin Judy!!), we thought we'd better stop...what an amazing place.  They had some of the most beautiful quilts we have ever seen...some all hand made, some using sewing machines in different stages of the quilting process...they don't allow photos inside, but take our word, these were truly works of art.

National Quilt Museum

Paducah is a charming town, located 1/2 way between St Louis, MO and Nashville, TN, is the county seat of McCraken County with a population of ~25k, has much of its downtown area on the National Registry of Historic Places, and is at the confluence of many of the great rivers (the Cumberland flowed into the Ohio just upstream from Paducah and here in town the Tennessee joined the Ohio and not far downstream the Ohio flows into the Mississippi), so there is plenty of water around.  Not surprisingly, the city was flooded in 1937 and a flood wall was built by the Army Corps of Engineers.

one of historic downtown streets (see our van!)

high water mark from 2010 is above the words Paducah, KY

beautiful murals on the flood wall

confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers in Paducah

At this point on our trip, as we do on most days when squirly weather is forecasted, we checked our mobile phone app and saw that tornadoes, high winds, abundant rainfall and massive turbulence has been predicted in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas (the weather service actually said 'the most tornadic weekend of the season' is predicted).  Exactly in our path towards home; so instead of casually taking our time and moving westward, we decided to hightail it to central Arkansas and re-assess the situation.

On our way, we did cross, again, the Mighty Mississippi and wound our way down through the southern end of the Ozarks to central Arkansas, part of the drive in a heavy rain.

look at all this water

crossing the Mighty Mississippi

we drove through the south eastern corner of Missouri

country road in Missouri

an old roadside barn

We found our way to Little Rock, Arkansas as we know there is a wonderful bike path that follows the Arkansas River and crosses the river on the largest pedestrian bridge in the US, 'The Big Dam Bridge'!  Check out this link:  http://www.bigdambridge.com/.  We were able to cycle the path 2 days (27 miles each day) and rode into town the first day so Buddy could get his fix of fried catfish (Aly had a delicious fresh grilled shrimp salad!) at 'The Flying Fish' restaurant which we found a couple of years ago.  To our surprise it's a small chain, with restaurants in AR, TN and TX.  We love the food and thought we'd share this hidden secret with you.  http://www.flyingfishinthe.net/LittleRock.php

downtown Little Rock from the bike path along the Arkansas River

many bridges cross the river in town

The Flying Fish

a pedestrian bridge--equipped with elevators

USS Razorback (veteran of WWII, Vietnam, and the Cold War) is now a museum and has a very interesting tour which we took during our last visit to LR

Riverfront Park in downtown LR

river boats

Arkansas River Trail

the Big Dam Bridge (open to pedestrians and cyclists only)

The Big Dam Bridge--largest of its kind

Changing our plans to bypass Oklahoma, and after re-assessing (and getting in a couple more bike rides), we headed south out of LR, driving through the popular touristy town of Hot Springs--not only does Bill Clinton hail from here, but it is also home to the ever popular Hot Springs National Park, which surrounds the north end of the city.  Besides the park, one can enjoy a multitude of swanky restaurants, soak in any number of hot water baths on Bathhouse Row or shop in the many fashionable shops.  We chose to move right on through, getting as close to home as possible without getting caught in any of the midwest storms.

We camped at a small Army Corps Park in southwestern Arkansas for $6.50/night and woke up Sunday morning to news that Oklahoma had several devastating tornadoes the day before.  Luckily for us, we listened to the weather forecast and headed south instead of west.  We pushed onwards towards home, and just outside of Texarkana, we passed a small rail car apartments 'complex' (making us all the more homesick, since many of you know our 1st home was in our boxcar!!)...

reminds us of our 1st home!

all had different color doors, very cool

We drove to east Texas for one last night on the road and to visit old college pals of Buddy's, Judy and Mike.  Thanks for the visit!

Judy and Mike

After hearing of all the devastation in Oklahoma, and our thoughts and prayers go out to all of Oklahoma and to anyone reading this who may have friends or family affected by this weekends storms, we just wanted to get home.  A lunch stop was made in Dallas with friends Claudine, Tess and Tara (sorry we missed you Chris) and we were home by 6pm.

mama Claudine

Tara and Tess

We made this trip to see the south, visit with friends, bike as much as possible and enjoy spring.  We managed to do all of the above in 33 days.  We saw some fabulous countryside, enjoyed large cities, visited with good friends, put on 3,326 miles on our van, cycled 392 miles and had a great spring.

We are home now, just in time for summer to officially kick off!  If you get our way, karibu sana.  Glad to have you along and we hope you'll join us on our next adventure...we'll keep you posted...stay tuned...