I was afraid the traffic noise would bother me all night but the rain on the metal roof above me drowned it out. I was interrupted at 2am by a curious dog who barked at me for about 10 minutes. I finally just forcefully shouted GO AWAY, and oddly enough, he quit and didn't bother me again. Another dog about a half mile away kept on barking but he finally gave up after about 10 minutes. Just like yesterday morning, around 5am the bottom fell out of the sky and it rained hard for more than an hour. I slept through it soundly and it served to block the early morning car traffic. I finally got all my stuff packed and rolling about quarter to eight. I grabbed a couple things at the little grocery store in town and went on my way anxious about the road conditions as the pavement even had yet to dry. But the skies were clear and I was glad of that. Quickly the roads turned very rocky and challenging with all the standing water. I was very afraid of mud but everything had enough gravel that it was passable. Slow going though. I walked the bike through one ford that was a little high but that was it, no sketchy crossings. Route at the beginning of the day was fairly hilly but not excessive. I stopped at the DG in Adair and found a faucet kind of by mistake while taking a picture of the town mural. Nice bonus. Then began a 70 mile storeless section, which had a lot of fantastic gravel roads. By the middle of the day most of the roads firmed up and were almost dry. I encountered my first riding on open range with cattle but it didn't last long. I generally enjoy seeing cattle while riding. But they're always behind a fence. They seem so docile. But for some reason my brain remembered the fact that cows kill more people each year than sharks. Some close to the road ran away when I rolled up. But one stayed and stared at me. It didn't bother me that much but all the same I took care not to scare him. Only had a couple dogs chase me today. Only one I got off for and he gave up and I remounted right after. The vistas were huge on each hilltop and the sky had at least one thunderstorm in view all day. All of them far away. I met another couple of TAT riders, Chad and Carmac. They were super nice and we traded stories and they offered up anything I needed. And we swapped numbers in case I ran into trouble. Apparently on a ridiculously steep rocky "road" in Arkansas, an older lady in a 4 Runner doing the TAT as well actually flipped her vehicle. I remember walking that short section to save my brakes. Carmac apparently does car body work for a living and he thought it was funny he was having to work out on the trail, to pull out her door and get it to shut and get her window to roll back up. Gradually I worked my way northwest. Certainly the highlight of the day was a gravel road that cut through rolling tallgrass prairie, it reminded me a lot of the scenery around the Flint Hills in Kansas. The green hills just seemed to roll on forever. I felt like I was riding through a desktop wallpaper. It didn't look real. I took several pictures but it's hard to convey how amazing it was to be there. By this time some of the thunderstorms behind me were gathering strength and catching up with me. I tried to pick up my pace and when I arrived in Copan it began to drizzle and it looked ominously dark behind me. So I sadly had to bypass the DG and continue on to my campground on Copan lake which happened to be away from the storm thankfully. I was barely ahead of it when I pulled in. It's owned by the Feds but the attendant is only there on Thursday through Sun. So I went to look for the campground host. But it turned out he was gone. Quickly I ducked into the bathroom porch, the only shelter on the property, just as a loud crack of thunder struck and lightning lit up everything all at once. So I guess I'll wait it out to register and setup camp. This is becoming like groundhog day. For three days in a row I outrun a storm to camp and my Garmin informs me of a flash flood watch when I get to town.