Our summer dance card was filled with plans for an epic three week journey. Road trip – Yes! New car – Yes! True, it’s got zero stickers right now…but we’ll work on that.

Why are we embarking on this trip through the heartland? Loyal readers may recall that we recently shared that we were ten states away from riding our tandem in every state in the lower 48. This trip was conceived to check off five states right in the center of our nation. We loaded up the new car and hit the road. In just under a week we visited seven states (Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas) went riding in four of them, checking off Oklahoma and Kansas.

Our first overnight was in Memphis and we did a little sightseeing and paid our respects at the Lorraine Motel – the site of the tragic assassination of MLK (now part of the National Civil Rights Museum).

Our next stop: Fayetteville, AR – where the “pigs” are top dog (Oy Vey, talk about my mixed metaphors).

A stop in Little Rock gave us the opportunity to visit the Clinton Presidential Library.

The Chihuly glass Christmas Tree is stunning, I wish we could have seen it all lit up.

Our first two rides were hilly and hot and entirely in the state of Arkansas (a state we had visited and ridden in before).

The last ten miles were ridden under threat of rain, but happily we made it in before the skies opened up.

Our third ride checked a bunch of boxes for us – including some we didn’t even know we “needed”! The ride started in Kansas, continuing into Missouri and then Oklahoma.

We planned to start this ride from the Downstream Casino resort (border of Kansas and Oklahoma) and ride south into Oklahoma before coming back north to ride on the world famous Route 66 in Kansas. We did do all of it, but we had a two hour start time delay (in the casino) while we waited out a torrential downpour. It was a terrific ride, but we finished up (just barely) at 2pm when the temperature had climbed to 94 degrees.

Southeastern Kansas was much more scenic and filled with many photo ops on Route 66.

We moved on up the road to spend some time in Shawnee, KS Just outside of Kansas City, home of the Chiefs, where everyone wears red and yellow and proudly roots for the champs.

We followed our near heat stroke ride with a trail ride in KC which was ridden under a strict time limit (not mileage) to make sure we were safely out of the heat BEFORE noon! It was a short 21-miler and more like a much needed rest day on the bike. We spent a good amount of time at the start getting off and on the bike because we could not safely ride through the mud patches.

The best part of this ride was the post-lunch stop at Freddy’s for a concrete (which I really wanted the previous day). Yummy things come to those who wait!

We had one more ride from our Shawnee location and it was a doozy! It was on a bike trail but it was curvy and narrow and had very steep climbs at times. Parts were along the Arkansas River and there were very active rail lines nearby – none crossed our path, but we heard them nearby and could occasionally see them.

We are now up to date before we start the second week of our tour. To review, we’ve added two new states (Oklahoma and Kansas) and our new total is now 40. 🥳🎉

Before we go, a new feature for this trip: Best meals of the week – RIBS!

Memphis Style (half rack)

Up next, we continue our trek North – riding and eating our way through the heartland and upper Midwest.

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