Sunday 09/19/04
After much haggling last night, it was finally decided that our group would attempt to leave the hotel parking lot by 7:00am. Some wanted to leaver earlier to make better time, but I convinced them that in the long run they would lose time waiting in the emergency room for me after I go off some cliff because I am sound asleep on the bike
Well, we don't quite get away at 7:00, actually more like 7:30am, but it is not my fault! I have been ready to roll since bright and early, hehe. It is very cool and slightly damp. Already I can tell it is going to be another incredibly beautiful day. How did we get so lucky with the weather this weekend :scratch
Most but not all of the bikes in attendance this weekend
Snoopster and Mrr1150GS getting set to leave
When everyone is finally ready to roll, we head South on Hwy 23: Matt, John, Randy, Chris, Will, Debbie, Rebecca and myself. No sooner than we are doing about 40 mph I realize that it is COLD! I cannot even tell my heated grips are set on high! Occasionally, we crest a hill and break out of the trees into the faintly warm light of the slowly rising morning sun. Surely I can set my mind to ignore the cold long enough for the sun to heat things up a wee bit... a few more miles, dropping down into little valleys and feeling like I'm in a deep freeze... surely not!
I pull over to the side of the road at a Shell station where Hwy 127 peels off to the West. I wave everyone on by as I dig out my rainsuit jacket. It makes an excellent wind breaker which is really all I need. The bulk of the group goes by and then as I am about to finish suiting up, Rebecca comes buzzing by, patiently doing her thing at the back of the pack. I wonder if the main group will have the patience to wait for her all day? Hmm...? Well, I get back on the road and set off to catch up to everyone.
When I reach Huntsville a few miles down the road, I find just about everyone pulled over getting out warmer clothing
It seems I am not the only one cold, just the biggest wuss for not being able to make it this far before stopping
With the group reformed and everybody cozy, We set out again, continuing down Hwy 23. It's quiet except for the rumble of the bike, no traffic and very still. The road is hypnotic. None of the curves are real technical or challenging, but there are few if any straights which means I still have to pay attention, just not the razor sharp attention required for the fast tight stuff. It's very relaxing. Somehow I wind up at the back of the pack again, which is cool.
Looking South on Hwy 23 near Hwy 127
I love the long shadows and soft lighting, almost makes it worth getting up so freaking early
And the Panorama shot...
Here
I'm cruising along, lost in my thoughts and admiring the colors of the countryside in the morning glow when I come over a hill and see Debbie stopped in the road ahead?? This cannot be good. Her bike has been cause for concern all weekend and this may be the final straw. There is a short paved pull out on the far side of the road so I park the GS and go to help her get the bike out of the road. Will has turned around to find out what happened to her. Rebecca is here with us as well. No sign of the rest of the group.
Debbie starts telling us that she was just cruising along and the engine quit as if someone just hit the kill switch, no noises or clunks, no sputtering, nothing, just dead. She coasted to a stop and tried to restart the bike, no dice. When we thumb the starter, we can hear it spinning, but the motor is definitely not turning over. We decide to attempt a bump start. Will gets on the bike, pops into second gear, Deb and I start pushing. He dumps the clutch and nothing... not even a whimper. We back it up and this time I get on the bike and put it in third gear for another attempt. When I get up to a good 10mph or so, I dump the clutch and the rear wheel starts skidding...
It would seem that Debbie's bike has carved its' last corner for a while, the engine must be seized.
So we are sitting out in the middle of nowhere wondering what we are going to do. I can't recall who thought of it, but someone suggested we call the hotel and see if Stuart "Thermalser" Robles has left yet. He has a trailer than can hold two bikes and is only carrying his FZ1. A few calls and we strike gold! He's still there and agrees to come to our rescue. Now we sit and wait...
Deb is being a trooper considering her bike just self destructed
I wonder where this trail leads... *sigh* If only I had some knobbies on the GS
I entertain myself looking for things to take pictures of while waiting. Rebbeca entertains herself by taking a joy ride on the GS. Will heads off to see if he can find the front of the group waiting somewhere up ahead. Deb hangs out patiently, brooding because she had planned to sell this bike soon so she could get a new SV650S. Now those plans have been temporarily dashed, frustrating for sure!
Morning dew still glistens on the leaves
Before Rebecca left, I made sure to tell her to find a good flat spot to turn the bike around before coming back. If she were to drop it, she would be alone trying to get it back up again. Will returns after a while with drinks, very cool. Rebecca is no where to be found. I'm starting to think she has run off with the GS. She has been commenting abot how much she enjoys riding the bike lately... After about fortyfive minutes we hear a distant throbbing eachoing up the valley, slowly but surely getting louder. Then Rebecca pops over the hill, the GS revving like a top, and she pulls up with a big grin on her face, "You said don't stop until I could find a flat spot to turn around..." Ohh... making me eat my own words
It is not long after Rebecca's return that Stuart arrives. He finds a spot just up the road where he can get his jeep and trailer off the road and we'll still have room to load the bike. It's about 100 yards from where we are, so...
He's right where the road vanishes
I hang back to take pics and flag down traffic so they don't get run over
With Rebecca supervising, Stuart relocates the wheel chocks to accomodate two bikes
While I take care of getting more of the all important pictures
Yeah... more purple flowers...
And now for something totally different
Where's Waldo the Bug?
Hmm... we are probably going to be here a good 30-40 minutes... I could just run up a bit to see what's there...? I'll be right back, honest!
Here's proof that Rebecaa can be handy
While looking for a restroom, Will finds this dry creek bed a few yards off into the woods from the side of the road
No we did not go to the bathroom together
He told me about it after he came out of the woods.
Found these cool looking plants on the far side of the creek
Deep in the heart of chiggerland (which I found out later that evening
)
Not grapes but I wonder if they are edible? Anyone...? Anyone...?
While we are finishing up loading Deb's bike, Rebecca hears my cell phone ringing in my tankbag. That's odd because I seldom, if ever, leave my cell phone turned on. I miss the call but check for messages. It's Randy and the rest of the group. They are in Booneville, about an hour and a half from here, and they are wondering where we are!? I tell them what happened and suggest they just keep going. No point in them trying to wait for us now. Also, Matt has to be back before 4:00pm so he can ship off to Marine Boot Camp... I can't wait until the next time we hear from him, hehe.
Strapped down and ready to roll...
Rebbeca convinces Debbie that she is not feeling up to the long ride back home and would prefer to ride back with Stuart and his daughter if Debbie would not mind riding the SV650S back for her. It is a mighty struggle, but Debbie
finally caves in and agrees to ride back on a bike she loves... I wonder if Debbie realizes how lucky she is? Had her rear tire locked up when the engine gave out, it could have been really ugly!! After Stuart and Rebecca leave, we head down the road just a few miles and find this:
Not a good place to have an engine let go on you! But a great place to flog a borrowed Sv650S
We take off into the infamous Pig Trail Scenic Byway, the section of Hwy 23 North of Ozark. Think lots of tight 10-20 mph corners and switchbacks, up and down through dense woods, with zero run off if you blow a corner and you will have a good idea of this road. Deb's gone. I come through a steep 15mph and spot a black/grey bike with undertail exhaust sitting outside the apex of the corner on the shoulder and think to myself that Will must be off peeing in the woods... again... A few corners later I realize that I am at the perfect spot to stop a get a video of Will coming through this corner in "catch up mode".
Same pic, different exposure settings, can't help myself
So I get all setup to shoot some video and I wait... and I wait... and I wait... Could he possibly have packed toilet paper? What is taking him so long? After a bunch of traffic comes through heading the other way, I give up and decide to go find out why he has not come through yet. I zoom back through the corners and pull over next to the parked bike. Uh oh... It is a really nice new CBR1000!!
I wonder how far they have gone and if they are starting to wonder what has happened to me...
Let me just say that the run through the Pig Trail by myself was loads of fun. Near the end, I come around a corner on the gas and see a State Trooper coming at me with his lights ablaze
Waitaminnit!!?? Those lights were going before he even saw me and I'm not going fast enough to get in trouble... Sure enough, he zooms by me and around the corner out of sight. Hopefully, there isn't a wreck back up the road
As the road starts to straighten out as I near I-40, I see the SVS coming at me from the other direction. Will has come looking for me, hehe. I find Deb parked on the side of the road with his R1 waiting. I explain my confusion and they get a kick out of it, hehe.
We cruise through Ozark and head for Booneville where we plan to stop for gas. The ride is relatively flat and unremarkable. When we get to Booneville, we fill up and then start thinking about food. It is already 1:00pm and we're only about 90 miles into a 500+ mile day
It's gonna be late when we get home. I ask the cashier if there are any good local places to grab lunch and she points us down the road to a nearby cafe.
The cafe does not look like much, but from the number of vehicles in the parking lot, it is either really good or the locals have no sense of taste. After sitting down, we ask for a pitcher of water. When the waitress comes back a few minutes later, we ask for another, then another. Now she is starting to look at us kind of funny. What she missed was us topping off our Camel Baks, hehe. The place is crowded with the after church crowd hitting the big greasy buffet. It looks good but if I eat that stuff I will go comatose on the bike shortly after we pull out of the parking lot. So I go for my standby meal, a grilled cheese
Still high from the great weekend, I decide to live on the edge and get a Grilled Ham & Cheese
It is actually pretty good! The walls of the restaurant are covered iwth big framed pictures containing all the highschool senior pictures all the way back to sometime in the mid 30's! The most recent class is barely over 100 people though, hehe. Small town.
Gassed and full, we mentally make the switch to get home mode. Forget fun, forget pleasure, forget pain. We have some major miles to crank out and despite our best efforts, it just doesn't seem like we have been making much progress. Back on to Hwy 23 we go until we reach US 71 where we head South for Mena. Traffic sucks. We're not making good time. It is nearly 4:00pm by the time we get to Mena and stop for gas.
We are stopped right were Hwy 88 and 71 cross. While we are taking a break, a couple pulls in on their vintage bikes. His is some kind of mid eighties turbo Kawasaki and hers is come kind of mid eighties Honda CB something. We chat with them and find out they are locals. I ask if they are headed to the Talimena Scenic byway and they say no. While we are hanging out, for some crazy reason I convince Deb and Will that we are already so far behind schedule, we might as well go all the way and ride the byway. We're here after all and who know's when we'll be back and get a chance to ride it again
Oddly enough, they agree!
We head out of town to the start of the byway. There is quite a bit of loose gravel in the corners. It looks like they have recently done their version of the tar/gravel chipseal treatment and neglected to give the road a good sweeping afterwards. Annoying but no biggie. Outside the edge of town we reach the start of the byway.
Deb enjoying Rebecca's SV650S
Click back and forth through those three shots and she looks like she is really moving out!
I ride behind Deb for a while and notice that she looks very relaxed and comfortable on the SV. This is the bike she lusted after for her first bike before I convinced her to buy the GS instead. Hmm... Hopefully she does not regret that now
I'd like to think she is doing so well on the SV now because she spent so much time getting things right on the smaller bike first. All weekend people have been commenting about how smoothly she rides, not how fast, just smooth. Riding behind her now, I can see it. Cool.
We stop at the Queen Wilhimena Lodge and check out the old steam engine. I've no idea what the story on this thing is, but who cares?! It's a big huge ground pounding monster machine! What else do I need to know??
Birds of a feather... hehe
He kind of looks like an astronaut, no?
After our quick stop, we get moving again. No time to waste and all that jazz. We pass a Ranger on the side of the road. He has a little truck pulled over and there are little platic baggies full of stuff piled up on the side of the road. Doesn't look like illicit stuff but who knows? We cruise on by and keep moving. I get a good ways ahead of Deb and Will and decide to pull over for another photo op.
Typical view from any of the numerous pull outs
[I have some good videos of Deb and Will but have not uploaded them yet, will soon though.]
A van I had passed earlier pulls into the same lookout as me. Right behind her is the guy we saw earlier at the gas station with his wife. I guess they changed their minds about riding the byway today. He zooms on by and she goes to pull back out. When she sees me about to pull out as well, she waits so I can get ahead of her. Very nice and I give her a friendly wave. As I leave, the road starts a long winding descent, then back up and then back down. On the second down, I get a surprise at the bottom.
At the end of a long series of slow sweepers that wind their way down the mountain is a fairly fast left hander. So I'm just crusing along, not hotdogging or anything, just taking in the scenery and pretty weather. When I round the corner, I see the Ranger with someone pulled over up ahead. Fixated on the ranger, I fail to notice the local Sheriff hiding to the inside of the corner back up in the woods until the lights on the grill start flashing. DOH!! I look down and realize that I am speeding. It's all 55 through here and I wasn't paying attention as I picked up speed comind down the hillside. As I get closer to the Ranger I realize it is Will that has been busted so I pull up next to him. The Ranger kind of looks at me funny for a few seconds until he notices the Sheriff pulling up behind me.
The Ranger is a nice fellow, gives us the friendly lecture, "Just doing my job, gotta keep you guys safe, just want you to slow down a little, etc,..."
They have a good thing going with this little location and even brag about it, telling us they busted a group of riders earlier today. Hmm... Randy, Chris and John were going to be coming this way... that would be to funny, hehe. The nice lady in the van goes cruising by and we give her another friendly wave. She just smiles and waves back. While we are standing around, the wife of the couple we saw earlier comes riding up. The Sheriff steps right into the road in front of her and holds his hands up for her to stop! She does and gets a lecture for no reason other than she is on a bike even though she clearly was not speeding and is not with us. Oh well. Off she goes and we get back to business:
I wonder if Randy, Chris and John recognize this guy?
While we are standing around, I ask the Ranger about the fellow in the truck he had pulled over a while back. Aparently all of those little baggies were full of Ginseng that the guy had dug up along the road. It seems it grows all over the place around here and people harvest it illegally to sell on the black market. Since the whole area is a protected nature reserve, this is a big no-no. But I guess it is not to big of a no-no because they guy was not arrested, just got a fine, smaller than ours, and was let go. Presumably he didn't get to take the goods with him...?
65 in a 55 for me and a $80 fine. 70 in a 55 for Will and a $100 fine. Whaddaya gonna do?
As we are finishing up, Deb comes rolling back up the road and pulls over with us
I guess we forgot to tell her to always wait somewhere down the road. She had seen Will get busted but not me. LEO seldom like to have other people start joining the party on the side of the road unannounced and I don't like to stress them any more than is necessary. They are stressed enough as it is. As we pull out to leave, the Sheriff hurry's to get in front of us so he can go a mind numbing 40mph in a 55
We follow him for a few miles, absorbing the belching fumes from his dilapidated old cruiser, until he finds another little spot on the left side of the road just behind some trees at the bottom of another long hill... Good to see the tax dollars working so hard.
Spanked for the day, we run a nice docile pace all the way to the end of the road where it drops out onto US 271 a few miles North of the sprawling metropolis of Talihina, Oklahoma. It has been getting hot and we are starting to get tired. It is almost 6:00pm and we are still a LONG way from being home. We spend a short while at the local grocery store stocking up on cold water and using the restroom. The local gas station had everything but water for sale. Go figure. Will calls his wife, Lauren, to find out that she has passed her MSF course this weekend. Cool
Also, he wants to let her know our status, "YOU ARE WHERE!? WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE!?" Well, wer're on our way home, hehe. She'll understand after she has some more experience riding
Looking at the sun getting low in the sky, I realize as we pull back onto the road that the next few hundred miles are going to be an exercise in mind over discomfort. Most of the remaining route is just flat, straight, boring highways and we have to really make up for al our goofing off all day. We pass through Noel, cross the Red River, go through Paris and keep heading South on Hwy 19 to Sulphur Springs. Somewhere along there we pass a gas station with a few other bikes: an ST 1300, some kind of new Guzzi and an old airhead Beemer. We wave and keep going. Just North of Sulphur Springs, I pull over so we can get our last sunset picture of the trip. Moments later those same bikes pull over to join us and we spend a while chatting on the side of the road. They've been in Arkansas all weekend as well and are headed home. Lucky for them, they live in Sulphur Springs... We still have 3-4 hours left even at a break neck pace.
Got so busy visiting, this was all I managed
And this of course
We decide to stop for dinner in Sulphur Springs. It is around 8:00pm and dark. Now that the sun is fading, it is starting to cool off again. The place our new friends recommended is obviously a local favorite. It's packed, seriously packed. So we head back up the road a block or two following the incredible smell of BBQ being smoked to find a nice little mom & pop place. They have only been open about a month or so according to the nice waitress. The food and service is great and the prices are exceptionally reasonable! 9:00pm and we are done with dinner and heading back out into the night. I call Beth and let her know where we are and what's going on. I give her Rebecca's phone number because her and Stuart are likely to reach the house long before we get there. Then off we go...
With no moon, there is nothing to see. Actually, along Hwy 19 through this area, even with a noonday sun there is nothing to see. Curves are a figment of our memories of this weekend. Now the road just runs straight across the countryside. At one point, I spot a DPS cruiser sitting off in the high weeds on the shoulder, all lights off. He watches us ride by and stays put. We're not speeding. It's too dark, we're getting fatigued, and the risk of deer strike is pretty high. A glance at the GPS, still over 180 miles to go as the crow flies... It's cold enough now that we stop to layer up to stay warm. I guess Will is enjoying the heat off his underseat exhausts pipes now, hehe. 150 miles to go...
We stop in Palestine. The look on Deb's face says it all. We are still about 120 miles out and have already done close to 500 miles. We started this morning, nearly 15 hours ago. All of us are getting stiff. Walking around we look like little old people, hunched over and moving slowly. I grab a Fudge Bomb to rejuvenate myself, oh yeah! After a little pow wow, we opt for a change in route. We're going to just head down US 79 and pick up I-45 in Buffalo. It is a tad longer mileage wise, but it is straight and we can make better time. Also, once on the freeway, the chances of a deer strike drop off tremendously. So we go back into the zone, make the run to I45 and head South. The traffic is surprisingly heavy at this time of night on a Sunday.
90 miles... 60 miles... We pass Leona... 45 miles... Madisonville... 20, 10, and we finally see the exit for Hwy 30 in Huntsville. It is shortly after midnight. We roll into the open garage doors. Home has never looked so good. Out the door pops Rebecca, camera in hand flashing away. There sits Deb's poor worn out little GS. I can hardly get off the bike. 606 miles and 17 hours. When's the next trip?
Adios,