McBRAAM Stage 20: Brinkley, AR to Batesville, MS..."That went no where near to plan, but at least we're across the Miss River."

2,072.7 miles ridden.
75,208 feet climbed.

Wow, what a long day! We left out just after sunrise and rolled in after sunset. Today was a lesson in how to persevere when a simple plan goes horribly sideways.

The ride plan called for a 105 mile fairly flat ride, normally 6.5 hours of pedaling without pushing too hard. We got separated from SAGMan twice, had a conference call to divert to, ground through 2 miles of thick deep gravel, and had to reroute twice because of gravel roads that weren't marked as such on the map. So we pedaled for almost 8 hours with a total elapsed time of 10.5 hours and rode 117 miles.

But, we made it over 2,000 miles and are finally on the east side of the Mississippi River. I can almost smell the Atlantic from here.

More fun is ahead. Due to college football games on Saturday, economy hotel rooms on our route are going for $350. So, we're going to go further south and skirt around the madness.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1238317127
https://www.relive.cc/view/1238317127

Hotel: Quality Inn, 3 of 5 stars (nothing special)
Restaurant: Pizza Hut for me, Cracker barrel for Lance & SAGMan, 2 of 5 stars for Pizza Hut, but I still ate a whole medium deep dish supreme in one sitting).

They don't make cotton bales like they used to.

Did I mention we rode on this gravel road?

About to cross the Mississippi River.

1 gravel road ridden

2 gravel roads avoided.

7 pack of dogs outrun.

12 extra miles ridden.