Day 16: Hindman Rest

We’d decided on a rest day — there was bike maintenance to catch up on, and Cooper hadn’t taken a single day off since he’d started. I made my way down to the patio to find Terry already deep into breakfast, and David appeared with tea, cereal, cake, strawberries and cream, apples, bananas, grapes, and more or less everything else the kitchen had to offer. Cooper joined us to the same treatment a little later, and the three of us sat there for hours simply eating. Choosing Hindman for a rest day was, without question, the right call.

We spent the day out in the heat working on our bikes. My tube from the day before gave me trouble — the puncture sat right on a seam ridge, impossible to patch cleanly — and then, to make things worse, the rear tyre on my own bike went flat while I wasn’t looking. That left me without a single working spare. I pulled it apart, checked the tyre again for anything sharp, and found nothing. A faulty valve, maybe. A problem for later.

After a slow walk around sleepy Hindman we drifted back to the house for a beer, where David produced a baked potato loaded with grated cheese, sour cream, and bacon bits, followed by a banana split the size of a small canoe. We sat sipping drinks into the evening until the phone rang — another cyclist was on his way in for the night. Joe turned up not long after, twenty-two, from Ohio, and looking thoroughly worked over by the day’s ride. I’d thought I was travelling light until I saw his kit, which amounted to almost nothing — he told us, matter-of-factly, that he hadn’t even started the trip with a sleeping bag. We were all bound for Booneville the next day, and just like that, the group had grown to four.

One of the many fine treats David set in front of us.