State 17 of 50  

 

 

    Arkansas

 

Capital: Little Rock

Population: 2,673,000 (ranked 32nd of 50 states)

Area: 137,000 kmē (ranked 29th of 50 states)

 

 

 

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Ride Report

This state: 453 kms     Journey to date: 14,044 kms

Scroll down below the route map for this state's ride report and photos

 

 

Ride Report

I now know a fact about Arkansas. It is pronounced Arkansaw. I know that doesn't gel but that's what it is. Arkansaw to me was all about the Ozarks. I entered the Ozarks thinking the scenery in lower Missouri couldn't be bettered. The Ozarks bettered it. They're gentle rolling hills covered in woodland. It's like riding through Sherwood Forest. You half expect Robin Hood to come round the corner on his Harley.

Purely at random I picked a route which ambled through the Ozarks on back roads. It probably doubled the time getting through Arkansas but you wouldn't have done this justice sitting on a primary highway. Bizarrely after a day of twists, turns, up hill, down hill, lean left, lean right, I was knackered and was glad to get off. 

Fittingly I saw some Deliverance type villages and all but looked for the young boy strumming his banjo on a porch. In fact I think that movie was set in the Ozarks but I'm not sure on that one.

Then, 50 miles from the border with Missouri, it was as if someone flicked a light switch - one minute I was in the hills and foliage, the next back out on the plains with that damn soybean and corn.

Not too many scenery photos below - it was all sort of the same twisty roads and leafy lanes.