Day 9 - October 10 - Savannah, TN to Searcy, AR - 240 miles

     To help you understand my daily process, I try to look online at the weather (usually using Accuweather.com) for my planned daily route. This morning, I learned that it was likely to be a very warm day along my route.

     I don't know if on the Continent, the offerings of a "Continental Breakfast" include donuts, weak coffee, and some version of bagel which never saw water, but this is what "Comfort Inns" provide universally. However, there's always instant oatmeal, and that's my mainstay.

    I loaded the bike, and chatted with one of my fellow guests (a retired physician from Crestview, FL) about what turned out to be our common destination: The Shiloh National Military Park which was located about ten miles from Savannah. He said he had two ancestors who had "fallen" at Shiloh, and felt badly that he'd never been there.

    I motored down to the Park, watched a 1956 movie about the battle there (commissioned by the National Park Service), then wandered around the huge area of the battlefield. I made a few photos, which I'll integrate later into today's post. Like Chickamauga, this seems to have been a battle to attempt to control transportation resources, that is, in this case, the Tennessee River and the rail lines going through Corinth, MS. My impression was that the Tennessee River played a very large part in this battle, and I was pleased to see that the US Navy had a hand in it too (with a couple of warships plying the river, shooting into the woods). I got the impression that the Navy's main effect was keeping the Confederates from sleeping.

     For those interested in such things, I learned that large numbers the dead (maybe about 2,000 on each side) from this 2-day battle were buried in common graves. Later the Union dead were disinterred, and a National Cemetery was created for them. The Confederate dead were buried in five sites, where they still lie.

    I left the Park, and headed west toward Memphis. After a bit, this was pretty much slab riding. The temperature rose steadily, and was about 90F as I and about 30 semi-trailers crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas. At this point, I commenced what was the most difficult day so far (including the cold in NC). It was mile after mile of long, straight road. If you have a chance take a look at Route 64 across eastern Arkansas sometime. I stopped a few times to drink water (plenty in - nothing out), talk with humans, and hide in some patch of shade. Turns out this part of Arkansas has had substantially less rain than in the past, and it certainly looked like that to me. There was sun, but I later learned, there was a large brush fire south and west of my route sending smoke, etc. into my path.

    As some know, I ride my motorcycle with full armored clothing...jacket, pants, boots, gloves (and helmet, of course). I have found that up to about 84F, this is tolerable. Today, I was seeing 94F on the ambient temp gauge on the RT. Whenever I had to slow down (below 55mph) for a town's 35-mph speed limit, I would stand on the pegs for as long as I could to get the air flowing over me, and under my armored clothes. Must have been a sight for some...

    Eventually, I arrived in Searcy, AR. Turns out Searcy is in a dry county...as are about 75% of the counties in AR. Result of this: No Cold Beer at the end of the day: "You want some ice tea with that, Hon?"

    I stayed in a MicroTel Hotel in Searcy. It was unremarkable except for the fact that my room was about the size of our dining room table at home in Brookline (including the bathroom), and that most of the residents were: 1) employed by Halliburton, 2) drove large white pickup trucks, and 3) were gone from the hotel long before 7AM. Another interesting bit: biscuits and gravy was the main dish for the "Continental Breakfast."

    I'll get some photos into this piece in the next day or two.