Day Fifty-Two: Little Rock (Rest Day)

It felt like Christmas morning: we were woken up by Tío’s irresistibly precious howl, his desperate attempt at convincing us to rise and shine—it’s time to play!!! Mac and Amelia convinced us to spend one more day in Little Rock, as their claim to fame was “No one has ever stayed for only one night. Except for that one guy… yeah, but he was weird…” and plus, they were expecting another visitor from WarmShowers that night anyways. We still had another day until our U-Haul rental expired, and we were sure the puppy could use a relaxing day at the house, so we gratefully accepted the offer. We joined the club of double-nighters and jumped headfirst into hours of leisure, starting first by making raspberry pancakes, fried eggs, and coffee for breakfast. Tío slept while we watched the Today Show, Netflix documentaries, and trash TV, indulging in the mindless entertainment and loving the fact that we were joined by a puppy.

The afternoon proceeded in a similar fashion: movies, food, puppy play dates with Mac and Amelia’s dachshunds, Ginny and Percy, coffee, more coffee, and more food. Mac came home from work in the late afternoon and he joined us in laziness, flopping on the beanbag, or “lovesack,” as they call it, and tuning in to a documentary about a famous Tour de France rider who died by an overdose (how cheerful). Amelia arrived not long after with an empty stomach from a long day at work, and she instantly suggested we hit the bars for beer and appetizers. We waited, however, about an hour for the other guest to show up—and he came in with a bang! “Hello!” he beamed, wiping the sweat from his brow, “My name’s Frieder. Frieder Sigloch. I just had the most amazing day!”

Frieder’s endearing German accent was the cherry on top of his vivacious attitude. He traveled thousands of miles from southern Germany to take on a 5-month cycling journey through the United States, and we were unbelievably fortunate to have crossed paths with him. He told Mac, Amelia, Slater and I (and Tío) about the southern hospitality he had encountered that day at the bike shop, where the owner paid for all of his repairs, invited him to dinner, and even offered to pay for a night’s stay at a fancy hotel downtown. Frieder declined the offer, however, in hopes of spending a night with the four of us, which he had promised our hosts—and like a true German, he stuck to his word. After a few minutes of conversation, we were all in good spirits, but hungry to say the least, so we washed up and got ready to head out to the breweries.

We hopped from place to place, enjoying local beers, cheese dip, nachos, and pizza, and laughing constantly at one another’s jokes. A couple more pitchers of beer had us fighting over who would pay the bill, but as per usual, the host won, and now we are forever indebted to the amazing couple who took care of us for two days and paid for thousands of consumed calories. But of course we decided we needed a few thousand more, and we all tipsily agreed on making chocolate chip cookie sundaes once we got home, which resulted in severe food comas and falling asleep on the basement couches. We gave Tío a bath before bed (and he loved it, which was adorable), then gave in to our heavy eyes and slept downstairs on the comfy leather couches, with the tiny pup’s soft little ears pressed against our faces. I could get used to that.