Arkansas, part deux – May 2009

It was two years to the week since our last foray into the Ozarks.  Then there were four.  This time, only two – Andy still on his 2000 Harley Road Glide and me on my new-to-me 1987 BMW R80RT.  Others were invited, but jobs and broken bikes kept them home.  This trip was to be eight days, with nights spent in campgrounds, covering more of the north-central part of the state.

Planning for this trip began in November, as I scoured motorcycle forums for the best roads.  I bought a lightweight Wenzel brand tent and a compact sleeping bag to lighten the load.  As May arrived, Andy was called out of town on a job that was to keep him away from home for up to eight weeks.  But his vacation was locked in and he returned home two days before departure – this shortened prep time would have noticeable consequences.

Day 1 – 23 May 2009

Starting mileage on the boxer was 53,296.  I left the house at 0640 for Andy’s.  He was loaded and ready, with his lovely wife standing by to take pix.  We headed out at 0700, right on schedule!  Here’s the route we would take http://snipurl.com/9fia8-dawg, with a slight modification to end in Arkadelphia instead of Hot Springs, as Andy scored us a free motel room there.  

The intrepid duo leave the comforts of home.

We stopped for a late breakfast at 0900 at a Jack-in-the-Box; don’t remember the town.  The weather was nice, cool, and partly sunny.  Until we hit Louisiana and the first twisty roads – light showers and wet roads until 1500, when we stopped for pizza in Prescott, AR.  

We ran into a HUGE rainstorm when I had a brain cramp and took us east on I-20 instead of west.  Once we got turned around, we ran out of the deluge and had very little and light rain until about an hour from our destination.  We arrived at the Quality Inn in Caddo Valley, just east of Arkadelphia, at 1645, with boxer odometer at 53,741; 445 miles for the day.

Day 2 – 24 May 2009

After a free breakfast at the motel, we headed out into the light rain at 0815 on this route http://snipurl.com/gn71n-dawg.  My Tour Master Defender rain suit continuing to serve me well.  Andy couldn’t find his rain jacket and had to rely on the liner in his riding jacket.  It rained on us all the way to Jasper, with a break until we arrived at the Iron Horse Stables, between Berryville and Eureka Springs. 

AR-7 was fun, even in the rain.  I had recently bought Riding in the Zone, and practiced some of the upper body weight shifting covered – mainly putting my head out over the inside elbow during a turn.  I was impressed at how much more speed I could safely carry, as the bike was leaning over far less than without shifting the weight.  We stopped for lunch in Jasper – big burgers and pie at the Boardwalk Café – yum!  They did have new age religious stuff all over the place and sold books about alien gods and so forth; sad but laughable.  AR-123 and AR-74 would be most excellent roads when dry.

Andy suggested we get a cabin instead of campout at the Iron Horse, as more rain was expected during the night.  They had one with two beds (yeah!) available and we took it for both nights.  We had coffee (Andy) and a beer (me) at the bar & grill and decided to forego dinner.  The skies cleared up by 1830 and we had great hope for the morning.  Boxer odometer read 53,972 for 231 miles for the day.

Day 3 – 25 May 2009

We awoke to a heavy drizzle and wet roads.  sigh  Radar showed storms moving into Missouri; might we see a break in our area later in the day?  After breakfast at the Stable’s grill, we relaxed a bit – reading the Bible and listening to Voddie Baucham on MP3.

Some other riders at the Stables told us Eureka Springs was in a hole in the rain and at 0930, it began to clear up.  We rode to Berryville to see if we could pick up a rain jacket for Andy at Wal-Mart, but it was not to be – the tropical storm that had been drenching the area drove people to clean them out.  All he could buy was a cheapo Razorback poncho.

At 1000, we were en-route to Eureka Springs and beyond http://snipurl.com/ao501-dawg-dawg.  Heavy drizzle and lots of traffic on AR-62 all the way to Rogers.  On to Fayetteville on AR-265, things started looking up.  We stopped for lunch at Penguin Eds – monster good chow at very reasonable prices.  And the sun was shining as we left Ed’s.  Off we went on US-71, with mostly dry roads and a really fine ride.  We stopped for fuel at I-40 and had beautiful sunshine on our 20 mile ride on the interstate as we headed to the Pig Trail. 

Another bought of light drizzle for the first 10 miles – then a monsoon for another 10 miles.  Rain suit made all the difference for me, as Andy was soaked – but still enjoying the ride.  The rain let up and it was hit-and-miss light rain for a while with some sun and dry roads as we went north. 

After a particularly good run, from the AR-412 intersection, Andy wanted to go back and get it on video.  As he went back to the starting point, it began to rain – hard.  Andy was trying to protect his camera from the rain, and nearly ran into a huge tree!  His hog was romping through grass and mud as he was trying to stop, cover the camera, and get moving out of the rain.  I thought the tree was a goner. 

We had a nice ride into Eureka Springs – sun and mostly dry roads.  Back to Iron Horse at 1600, with boxer odometer at 54,228 for 256 miles for the day.  Even with the intense rain, we both agreed the ride was excellent.  And the sun was brightly shining outside our cabin door.  Trip so far – 938 miles.

The TV weatherman gave us hope for Tuesday.

We rode into Eureka Springs for dinner – fancy food at a fancy restaurant that we didn’t make note of.  Clearing skies and dry roads on the way back to the Stables.  The place was empty, as the holiday weekend came to an end.  (Note – I would not stay at this place again.  Nice people, but shabby cabin conditions at prices that are too high.  I did not check the sanitary facilities for the campsites.)

Day 4 – 26 May 2009

By this evening, our trip would be half over.

We awoke to light ground fog and BRIGHT SUNSHINE!  No clouds in the east or north – important as we were heading north into Missouri and east to the Bull Shoals ferry and Buffalo River National Park - http://snipurl.com/b0cnp-dawg

Back on AR-62 for a bit – much less traffic and sunshine and dry roads; a terrific improvement over the day before.  As we arrived in Seligmon, MO, we stopped at a local café to ask for directions, as Google maps suggested taking a local road to connect us to MO-86.  This was a fortuitous stop, as a local expert strongly advised us to take a different route.  FYI – the preferred route is MO-12 to F, east to MO-86.  MO-12 and highway F are delightful.  MO-86 is a fine road as well, with lots of tall hills and twisties.  Lunch in Branson, having encountered more than a few bikers along the way.  Bright sunshine and warming temperatures.  East on MO-76 was surprisingly fun, once we cleared the city. 

Onto US-160, eastbound along big, swooping curves.  When the road turned south and we peeled off on MO-125, another monsoon hit.  Black skies, driving rain, high winds – all combined to make for a very stressful ride all the way to within 5 miles of the ferry.  We had to wait about 15 minutes to board and the rain returned – it seemed to be following us.  Andy’s GPS recorded the ferry’s top speed of 7.1 MPH.  As we left the ferry, clearing skies beckoned from the south – and we pushed through the rain for the promise of dry roads.

We found dry roads and very little traffic on AR-14 and had a great ride all the way to the park, arriving at 1500 with 54,447 on the odometer and 219 miles for the day.

Andy’s boots were soaked and, after trying to dry them out by putting them on the ends of his mufflers and running his engine, he borrowed a hair dryer from the camp hosts – really nice folk.  While his boots were on his mufflers, it looked like a man was being eaten by his bike. 

While on the BIG hills of MO-86, the boxer lost power.  Not a loss of fuel – felt like a fouled plug.  It slowly corrected itself under light throttle.  At camp, I found that the right plug, only, was badly fouled.  I cleaned it and re-set the gap and the boxer sounded fine again.  Hmmm.  What was the cause?

At 1615, we headed to Yellville, for dinner at the Front Porch – a diner that was highly recommended.  We were not disappointed, as the buffet was an excellent sweet spot of wonderful chow at a great price.  We took a roundabout route to get to Yellville – down AR-14 to Harriet, over to Marshall, then NE into Yellville on AR-235.  We got back to camp around 1945 with the boxer odometer at 54,528 and 280 miles for the day. 

The trip was half over, and the weather forecast for the rest of the week looked much better.

A sunset shot of Buffalo River

As we settled into the tent, we both realized that the advertised size of the tent (7ft by 7ft) were the distance between the tent pegs, not the size of the space inside.  Both of us are over 6 ft tall and we both were rubbing against the tent with our feet and heads.  sigh 

Day 5 – 27 May 2009

0700 brought ground fog and thunder nearby, moving our way.  Andy had packed a tarp and we strung it up between the bikes, put our coffee pot and stools under and sat there – protected from the rain, enjoying our coffee.  People looked at us as they drove by in the cages.  By 1000, the storm had passed and skies looked great south and east. 

Off we went, to Push Mountain Road!  Cool, partly sunny, and dry roads on this route http://snipurl.com/b0cxh-dawg .  AR-341, Push Mountain Road, is Arkansas’ answer to The Tail of the Dragon – but it’s more fun for most of us because it doesn’t have any first gear hairpins.  There’s a fella taking pix on this road – same as on the Dragon - www.pushmountainpics.com.  (The day after I returned home, I found the web site and ordered prints.  Then I found the link to order digital prints and have them emailed.  The hard prints were shipped the same day and I received the digital prints within 12 hours of payment – less than 24 hours after ordering.  Service that’s too quick?  How rare is that?)  

From there, we headed south on AR-5, another fine road.  We both noted that traffic had been light in our direction on most of the roads we traveled, but still giving us plenty of opportunities to pass a few cars. 

We turned east on AR-9 and quickly found it to be the most demanding road yet.  Aggressive grades leading to drop-offs of more than 300 ft on the right and large rocks on the left.  About half way through the 20 miles, I pulled in at a scenic overlook.  And there was no Andy.  I waited about 5 minutes – still no Andy.  Not good.   I began praying for the Lord to preserve his life and headed down the way we came, looking.  About 5 miles down and then slowly back up.  No sign of an off-road exit or of Andy.  I decided to hoof it on into Melborne and seek help.  I arrived at the Izard County sheriff’s office a little before 1300 and the call for help went out.  Shortly after the deputy and I started out to look for him, we got a report that Andy was found and OK, but shook up a bit. 

When we got to Andy, he was being tended to by a few folk, having bandaged his own knee before he crawled up out of the ditch.  Turns out Andy was paying attention to his GPS, to get a peek at the road ahead and lost track of his speed as he descended through a series of turns – which terminated with a right hand hairpin, leading up to the scenic overlook I had stopped at.  He locked up his rear brake and slid sidewise into the turn, hit gravel on the outside (uphill side) of the hairpin, catapulting him into a ditch.  The ditch had a 3 ft fall then a 5 ft fall.  

It appears Andy flew off his bike when it fell that last 5 feet, putting his head to tree and knocking him out for a few minutes.  When he woke up, his head was wedged between tree branches.  After he checked out his extremities, he wiggled his head loose and started crawling up out of the ditch.

He heard me riding by but was still in the ditch and unable to attract my attention.

His right wrist and left knee were banged up.  An ambulance showed up to haul him off to Stone County Hospital and a wrecker showed up to extract his bike.  

Then the rain came – and hail.  It was miserable.  But these wrecker guys (Skeeter’s) knew their business and lifted Andy’s bike out of the ditch and set it down on the road without causing any more damage to it.  I started the bike and checked it out, then the tow truck took it to the hospital. 

Deputy Eddie took me back to Melborne, gave me coffee and another fella gave me a dry T-shirt.  We packed Andy’s stuff – that exploded out his saddlebags and trunk – into a double trash bag.  The sun cam came, rain stopped, and I strapped Andy’s stuff on my rear seat and headed to the hospital – on the route we originally planned – arriving at 1600.

Andy was finished with x-rays and fixin’ to be released from the hospital and ferried over to a local motel.  Andy’s wife was making plans to head up in their SUV to carry Andy and tow his bike back to Houston.  I ran back to camp – about 45 miles up AR-14 – to gather Andy’s stuff as I couldn’t pack it on my bike along with my own stuff.  I grabbed Sonic for us for dinner – neither of us had eaten since a very light breakfast at camp.  We discussed plans for tomorrow and I returned to camp – making the last of three quick trips between Mountain View and Buffalo River National Park – arriving at 2040; tired but thankful that Andy was alive and we were both safe.  Boxer odometer read 54,808 with 280 miles for the day, compared to a plan of 175 miles.  This day’s route was the best roads yet – too bad Andy failed to complete the run.

Day 6 – 28 May 2009

Up at 0645.  Coffee with the camp host, as our coffee pot was in Andy’s pack.  No ground fog, no dew on the ground; cool temperatures.  I broke camp and was on the road back to Mountain View by 0810 and arrived at Andy’s motel at 0900.

There were other motorcycle riders at the Pinewood Cabin and I had asked his neighbors to keep an eye on him.  As I rode up, these kind folks were delivering a bag of ice for Andy’s knee and gave us some German bologna, bread, and chips.  I was very thankful for these folk and we enjoyed a simple lunch, while waiting for Andy’s wife.  She and their daughter and a grandson arrived at 1330 and we rolled over to the hospital to see about towing the Harley.  Andy had made a tow-bar for such occasions, but the fairing on his Harley kept us from getting it tied down adequately.  He went and rented an enclosed U-Haul trailer – with no ramp.  Fortunately, there was a shop across the highway from the hospital, and the owner helped us find a piece of scrap metal to use.  Andy drove the car & trailer over and I rode the Harley over and into the trailer.  As the owner of the place and his brother helped tie down the bike, I headed back to my bike – and the road to Petit Jean State Park, alone.  As I went inside the hospital for a quick pit stop, I saw Andy and family rolling on out – southeast on AR-9.

At 1545, I hit the road – traveling AR-9 to AR-16, west to AR-27 south to Russellville.  I passed Andy on AR-9 and called them while I grabbed some dinner (thin crust pepperoni pizza at Pizza Hut – yum!) in Russellville.  

These three roads had lots of tight turns and hills – mucho fun!  As I came down a mountain toward Russellville, the temperature warmed up from ~68 to the mid 70s – a very welcome change.  I arrived at the park at 1915, camp was set up by 1945.  Boxer odometer read 54,996 for 184 miles on the day.  Lots of gnats at Petit Jean State Park.

Day 7 – 29 May 2009

I intended to take a shorter route away from the park, to lessen the ride on day 8.  I woke up at 0645 and pulled away into a bright day at 0815, west on AR-154 to AR-27 for many miles east and south, almost to I-30.  I then picked up the planned route for Day 8 - http://snipurl.com/8ugaq-dawg-dawg and planned to stop about 250 miles short of Houston.  I stopped for lunch in Shreveport and cleaned my right spark plug again.  Coming down the mountains on AR-27 must have sucked more oil into the head.  Will see about this when I get home.  As time went by, I decided to push on as far as I could go and I ended up in Livingston for dinner (at Subway) and pulled into my garage at 1915.  Boxer odometer read 55,543 for a 547 mile day – and a tired butt.  My otherwise excellent Corbin seat has a seam running across it that made my buttocks very tender, even having ridden on a sheepskin for most of the trip.

Andy allowed as how his trip home wasn’t as fun as mine – he was trying to sleep in the back seat of his SUV, keeping ice on his knee while being bumped and bounced around the twisty roads of Arkansas.  Late update is his ACL and a few other things are busted, requiring surgery.  I would rather have my Corbin seam problem any day J

The whole trip was 2,247 miles, for an average day of 352 miles.  This bunch of roads was fabulous.  The beemer handled better than any other bike I’ve owned and, aside from the plug fouling, was trouble free.  Practicing advanced riding skills builds confidence and makes riding more enjoyable.  Certainly, it would have been better if Andy had stayed on the road the whole time, but we both enjoyed this trip very much and will return to Arkansas again, Lord willing.