Last day in Oz…..7,000 feet of up and down. Did i mention Arkansas dogs?

7,841 ft. 66+ miles. Wow, a LOT of climbing! Alarm of the neighboring tent woke us around 4 am. And the Cacophony of birds!!! Today was one of rolling hills and a couple of steep head, walls, water crossings, dogs, fast dogs, faster dogs, more rollers, cows, and a great cold water spring. We made a stop in Kingston for coffee and a great breakfast sandwich for me. It had a cute town gazebo, surrounded by vacant buildings and a library. We dodged the rain with heavy clouds most of the day. Cooler, in the 70’s but pleasant. We’ve seen quite a bit of wildlife: deer, turkeys, lots of red tail hawks, many Turkey vultures. Lots of roadkill too: sapping turtles, possums, armadillos (really smelly!), sunny mud turtles. Many beautiful birds, bluebirds, cardinals, swallows and beautiful wild flowers along the roads and meadows. Lots of spectacular farms and remote dirt roads. Did I mention dogs?We rode almost all dirt, and towards the end got quite wet and muddy. We had one stream crossing that Tara braved first, and got quite wet. We both ended up with wet feet for the last couple hours of the day. But we were warm because the last dog adventure was quite an adventure! Tara first commented that the owners were in the yard so we didn’t have to worry, but then she said here he comes, “go faster, faster” then there was a pause and I’m thinking “phew, made it”, then she yelled “faster, faster faster, faster!” We were faster but he was fast as a cheetah. That was a downhill. On the uphills and flats we stop for the dogs and keep our bikes between us and them. A few miles later, after walking the biggest head wall of the day, we road a few more miles until our savior picked us up! Susie picked us up in her big Dodge van with a bike rack. She drove over from Bentonville, having recently moved there. She also had two hot pizzas and a Stromboli and a cooler full of cold drinks. A godsend!!! Some People really are amazingly king and generous! She dropped us at the hotel with really muddy bikes . It took us a couple hours to dismantle them and pack them up. Dirty, dirty. The hotel room went from a disaster to just a muddy area. We estimate we missed about 40 miles of the overall route but rode more miles than anticipated. On the bikes 10-11 hours each day. Early flight tomorrow. Headed home for 2 days then to the Adirondacks.