4 days in Arkansas

A good friend of mine lives in San Antonio and has been out of the saddle for almost a decade. I put him on my Strom a couple weeks ago and don't think the smile ever left his face.

My work schedule is about to get crazy, so we decided to make a last minute trip to Arkansas.

Trailered the Strom and GS to Mena and rode Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. we logged over 1200 miles of trails, county roads and scenic hiways.

Met some great folks, a few characters and some real heroes. The "Wall that heals" was stopped in Mena for a couple days. It's a 1/2 scale replica of the Vietnam war memorial and traveling museum. Very inspirational and a great tribute to a forgotten soldier.

Decided I could ride the GS up an ATV trail and ran out of skill very quickly. Basically realized I was on the wrong bike for the trail. while turning around, lost balance and over it went. The guards all did their job. The gear all did its job. Got it up-righted with some help and off we went.

Thursday we did the Talimena scenic road and then looped south and came back on 144 (Thanks Mike). What a great set of roads. Had lunch at the Hateful Hussie.

Rained Friday afternoon, so we stayed close to Mena. Saw the memorial, road hiway 375 south of Mena, then turned around when it played out. Began randomly riding county roads and found a nifty wooden/metal bridge.

Saturday and Sunday we rode Mt. Magazine, Pig trail and many of the roads labeled "steep and crooked".

Mena is only 5 hours from my door. So a return trip is inevitable.

A couple pics ...

Nice trip Mitch. You can wipe that grin off your face now.

I'm back at work ... the grin has vanished.

Good report. I've been wanting to do Arkansas again for a while now. Just figured it was too wet. Maybe not!

How come it took us 9 hours last year?

Nice! Love me some Arkansas!

one Wolf said:

How come it took us 9 hours last year?

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'Cause we spent 4 hours melting my RT at 35 and 820

Any pics of the bike down?

Nice, I am looking forward to heading up to Ark. any suggestions or routes?

The motel where we stayed had a complimentary booklet on the popular motorcycle routes. It was very helpful.

Mt. Magazine was spectacular ...

Just my $0.02, but the Butler map of the Ozarks is well worth the money.

We tried to get to Northeast Arkansas on March 10-12, the weather was not our friend. Glad yall had a great time.

The maps are fine, but it's really kind of hard to find a bad road in NW Arkansas... What I find hard is deciding which ones to leave out so I am not trying to ride 500 miles a day!

mitchntx said:

The motel where we stayed had a complimentary booklet on the popular motorcycle routes. It was very helpful.

Mt. Magazine was spectacular ...

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Which motel? Did you like it?

Sun Country Inn.

It was clean and quiet.

Thanks, know it well

Miss me some Arkansas. But WOW the memories of my 1st bike trip there in '82 and continuing up to sometimes 4 trips a year till 4 yrs ago when Had to put a hold on my longer travels. Love the fact that you were doing the county gravel ( rocky at times ) roads. That state never gets very boring on the right paved roads and so much more so on the gravel. Hope you don't make this your last trip.