I drove down to Harrison Arkansas yesterday, to do the Crawdad Kermesse. I got down here with just enough light to ride one lap of the course. It is hard. Really hard. There is a 20% pitch at the top of one of the climbs. Other than not being pretty flat, it is nearly a true Belgium Kermesse in the sense that it is being run in conjunction with a carnival and that the course goes out into the country and comes back through town each lap.

This town of Harrison is pretty neat. I’ve never been here before. It has around 15,000 residents and seems progressive and backwards simultaneously, if that can be. A lot of Arkansas is like that. It is a beautiful state. The Ozarks are wonderful. The whole state is nearly hills and mountains, with a lot of natural water too.

Jasper Arkansas is just a stone’s throw down the road South from here and it is said that some of the best rock climbing in the country can be had here.

We’re staying in a historic Hotel, the Seville. It is awesome. They put 3.5 million dollars into a renovation a few years ago. The town seems to be trying to do things right. With a bike race associated with the Crawdad Festival along with a goat show, this weekend is pretty full around here. It should be interesting at least.

I’m pretty bad. In a lot of ways. My shoulder isn’t even the worst part right now. I guess I’ll see how bad today. I’m thinking about racing the Master’s race first at 9 am. It is only 26 miles. That really shouldn’t be an only on a course like this, but it has been taking me the better part of an hour to get going recently, so I’m thinking that it should help for the Pro 1-2 race at 1. Okay. This is going to be a long day for me I think.

It starts getting pretty hilly south of Springfield Missouri, toward Branson.

This is a photo of the top of the course close to sunset.

This is looking the other way. Pretty nice country.