May 27 Day 3

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Day 3 of our trip was our opportunity to collect the state of Arkansas for our bike travels.  For those following our blog and keeping score, you already know that we have traveled through 44 of the lower 48 states.  This trip will knock off Arkansas and Florida.  

We got on the road earlier today, hoping to get a few hours of riding behind us before the temps climbed into the mid 90s again.  Unfortunately, by 8:15 in the morning, the temps were already in the 80s, and by 9:30 had crossed the 90 mark.  The worst heat was mid-day with 97 as the high.  With no cloud cover, the sun just seems to cook your arms on the bike.  The sun even scoffed at our SPF 50 lotion, burning my well lathered arms to a crispy red by later afternoon.

From Jackson TN, we headed toward and through Memphis TN.  A week or so prior to this trip, a couple of our neighbors pointed out some nice sights to see in Memphis.  Unfortunately, with nearly 500 miles to cover today, and the holiday weekend crowds in Memphis, we decided to just pass through.  I told Lennie that we should come back some time for a long weekend (perhaps in the car), as the thought of sightseeing, blues music, and BBQ sound pretty good!!!

With our desire to cross the Mississippi River into Arkansas, the only non-highway section of Memphis we traveled through was certainly NOT the nice tourist area... 

Finally on the bridge over the Mississippi River...

And we can now officially tick Arkansas off our list.  We spent very little time in Arkansas, but did get some gas and had a bite to eat.

I have read that there are great motorcycle roads in the Northwest corner of Arkansas.  If you look at a terrain map, you can see the Ozark mountains are in that corner of the state.  There is also the Pig Trail Scenic Byway which bikers really enjoy.  From the photo below, you can see that we were nowhere close to scenic areas of the Northwest corner, just FLAT expanses of dirt and trees here...  :)  Once we finish our 48 state effort, perhaps we will make our way over to the scenic corner of the Arkansas.

A little gas and food later, and we cross back into Tennessee then head south toward Mississippi.  We traveled through Mississippi on a previous trip, but Lennie still likes to get photos of the state signs. 

We traveled Route 55 South through the center of the state, and it was pretty nondescript.  By now, the sun had pretty much fried my arms, and was working steadily at burning my legs (the perils of riding in shorts in the summer).

While passing by Jackson MS, we noticed a huge plant just off the highway.  You know, one of those plants that are just SO big, it must be a car assembly plant.  It's hard to make out just how huge the plant is in the photo below. 

And seconds later, confirmation....

Turned out to be a Nissan plant.  A little online research once at the hotel, indicates that Nissan opened this plant in 2003.  They produce about 400,000 vehicles a year at this plant, including the Altima sedan, Titan and Frontier pickups, Quest minivan, Armada, Xterra, and Infiniti QX56 SUVs, and the NV Commercial van.

Once we passed Jackson MS, we turned toward the Southeast and headed for Lucedale MS, which is fairly close to Alabama border near Mobile.  

Until today, we had not seen many bikers out on the road.  These folks must be out for a long trip, as two of them are pulling trailers.

Seems to be a lot of car customizing in Mississippi, as we saw a lot of these types of vehicles on the roadway.  Notice the "Down South Candy Club" logo in the window?  This guy had a really nice candy apple red paint job that appeared to change colors depending on how the sun hit it.  You cannot see it in this photo, but the side of the car says Skittles :) 

A little online research, and I found this side shot of the same car.  Oh yeah, notice the huge chrome rims (at least "21 inchers")?  We saw these on everything you can imagine while cruising across Mississippi.  People were driving everything from little Dodge Neons, older Monte Carlos, to Cadillac Escalades and pickup trucks, with these massive chrome rims, raised suspensions, and tires that looked like little bitty rubber bands.  

Tomorrow we will drive through Mobile Alabama and on to Pensacola Florida.  Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler along the Gulf Coast.  We have a hotel right on the ocean and will hopefully find some time to relax.

As a wrap for today - we traveled 467 miles from Jackson TN, to Memphis TN, into Arkansas, then on to Lucedale MS.  This brings our trip total to 1174 miles.  Below is a map of today's route.