WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - Day 6 - Treacherous Bike Ride Into Jonesboro

Oh my, it's another one of those most wonderful weather days! We are very appreciative of each and every day that includes sunshine and warm temperatures. When you come from the North, this is so strange to have this type of weather in February. We are very much enjoying it.

It was still a little crisp and cool in the morning, but we sat inside and sipped our coffee and looked out the windows.  

We do have some moisture this morning, so we are going to get out the dehumidifier and plug it in to take care of any dampness. What is funny is that we bought this dehumidifier 2 years ago, while we were camped right here at Craighead Forest. We picked it up at the Ace Hardware store in town. It's a small perfectly sized one to take with us as we travel. Steve dug it out of the storage compartment and we plugged it in to take care of the humidity.
   

Little Nick woke up and decided that today should be a good day to play with toys. He holds this silly little reindeer in his mouth. He hauls it around like a baby. He has chewed off the tips of its antlers and it's paws. But it's one of his most favorite toys.

We told him that today was not going to be a playtime day. Today instead, he was going to stay in the camper all by himself. We were going to be leaving to go on a special errand on our bicycles and he could not go along. 

He told us exactly what he thinks of that!

Steve took out both of our e-bikes and we got ready for a journey. 

We are definitely not Urban Bike Riders. We are uncomfortable moving amongst the traffic, or even pedaling alongside on the shoulder. We much prefer riding out on bike trails or on quiet rural roads. 

So today was going to be a challenge to our skills...

Steve mounted my pannier bags on my bike. I really like these bags. They are heavy rubbery plastic coated fabric and attach on the frames of the bike on each side. They are from the Lectric company and are made for my exact bike frame.  I also have a couple bungee straps in case I need to strap something to the top of the back rack with my gloves.

Now, I didn't film anything of our journey, nor did I take any pictures. I was way too busy concentrating on the safety of our bike trip into town. It may not look like much on this little map below but it was over 3 miles one way of driving along the very edge of traffic. There was not even really a shoulder. Most of it was driving with cars at 30 to 40 mph whizzing past us as we pedaled our bikes. 

We tried to keep our tires on the edge of the pavement as close as we could. Constantly watching in our mirrors for cars coming up behind us. Every now and then one would swing wider around us if they could. Most of the traffic was four lanes, two in each direction. 

At one point we even had to cross up and over the interstate on an overpass. That was nice, because the overpass had a wide shoulder. It kind of gave us a little break before the last half mile down to the phone store. 

We were able to weave in and out of a couple parking lots to alleviate our need to be alongside of the road itself. 

We made it to Triple S Phone store, where we retrieved our Amazon package from the gal at the counter. We carefully put it in one of my pannier bags and then headed across the street to the Aldi store.  Steve waited outside with the bikes while I ran in and picked up some fresh veggies, half gallon of milk, and another dozen of eggs. We were set now for another week.

I know other people ride their bikes in the city like this all of the time. We just aren't used to it. Here are a couple Google Earth photos that I took of the street view to show that there were no sidewalks nor any shoulder to ride on...

I was pretty proud of both of us, to say the least! We made it there and back without any mishaps. We had our stash of groceries as well as the little lever to replace on our screen door.

The whole round trip took about 8 miles total. When we got back, Steve plugged in our bikes so they will be fully charged for another ride that evening around the campground.  I guess we are supposed to get between 20 and 30 miles per battery charge. But we've never pushed them that far so we don't know for sure.

Steve said he doesn't know if our butts could handle 20 to 30 miles. LOL

Now Steve opened up the package and he has another project to work on. He has to reconfigure this door latch to fit, because it's not an exact replacement for what we had. But nicely enough, it is made of metal!

It kept him busy for a while, and he got it mounted on and it works beautifully. He still has to attach the other part to the door to make them work in unison when you open the outside door. Then the screen door opens with it. He has to adjust the old latch a little bit to make it work with the new lever.

But for now, at least it's working and we don't have the screen door popping open. Thank you Steve!

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Nick was quite indignant that we left him home and rode away on the bikes without him. So before dinner, Steve took out his little cart and put it together. Now that is one happy little dog...

He hops right in and says let's go go go! 

We did a sweet gentle relaxed tour of three and a half miles around Craighead Forest park. Beautiful paved paths and gorgeous scenery as we pedaled along at our leisure. What a contrast to the morning's treacherous bike ride in all of that traffic.

This day had sure been adventurous for us old folks. Being in our late 60s and traveling around town on bikes is entirely new to us. We've only had them 2 years, and we really hadn't ridden many bicycles in any of our adult years previously. As kids, both of us had been glued to our bikes and took them everywhere. But now that we are grown up, this is quite a change for us. A change for the better because it gets us out and about. They may be electric bikes, but we pedal, and we only use the pedal assist at the low numbers, increasing on hills when we really need it. It's worth all the extra effort to haul them along in this little cargo trailer behind the motorhome...

Time to get dinner going...

0 miles traveled today 

764 miles total so far