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July 15, 2013
Nowhere Left To Run: Hotel Dena - Day 2
Update: I am alive and well and resting quietly in the Hotel Dena in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Monday July 15th
Clinton, Arkansas - Fayetteville, Arkansas
Odometer at the start of the day: 7,144 miles
Odometer at the end of the day: 7,303 miles
Miles driven today: 159 miles
In the morning, I wake up, but I keep drifting back to sleep until it's 12:30 p.m. and the phone is ringing. Check out time was 11:00 a.m. I throw all of my gear onto the bike and head out.
Presently, I'm driving through the Ozark Mountains, which aren't bad, really. I mean, I've seen the Andes and the Canadian Rockies, so they're not like that, but they're nice. Rolling hills, basically.
I almost run over some sort of animal...I'm not clear what it was...it looked like a beaver with a bushy tail? It ran across the road in front of me. I missed him somehow.
The road is finally a two-lane black-topped road through the Ozark Mountains. Eventually, I come to the Buffalo River. At some point, Michelle and I came up here and went canoeing on the Buffalo River.
Now, I find myself again at the Buffalo River. I'm not sure what to do, but I decide to go down and check it out. I decide to go for a swim, but when I go through my C.C. Filson bag, I realize that I don't have my swimsuit, for whatever reason. I guess I left it at Molly's? I dunno. So I head out.
And I roll north towards Harrison. Always planning on eating, but never really eating. In each little town I come to, I imagine that I'll find a little quaint local restaurant that specializes in catfish, bbq, or fried chicken. But instead, each little town has a Sonic, a Dollar General, and a gas station.
Eventually, I surrender to the fact that the gas stations are the only place I'll be able to eat. Finally, when I'm about to starve to death, I pull into a gas station to eat.
I choke down some catfish, coleslaw, and something pickled...green tomatoes? I'm not sure.
Head out and now I'm rolling west towards Fayetteville. Roll into town and text Dena to ask where she lives. Roll up to her trailer, and start to catch up. I haven't seen her in 20 years. We go to dinner and then for drinks afterwards. She's telling me stories about what happened 20 years ago. Most I don't remember. Some I do. She tells me that we came to Fayetteville and I banged one of her friends. I totally don't remember this story. Maybe it happened. Maybe it didn't.
She's telling me all the girls I slept with and I'm like...yeah...yeah...yeah...yeah....I do remember them. This other one, I don't remember though.
She's telling me that we came to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and I slept with her friend in her boyfriend's apartment. I dunno. It seems kinda far fetched. I think she's got me mixed up with someone else?
Posted by Rob Kiser on July 15, 2013 at 10:09 PM
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