Day 1.
Arkansas ride around. I had planned for a 4 day trip that was going to span Beaver, AR Mt. View, AR Hot springs, AR and end back up in Tulsa. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, which in fact is the reason why I try to never really plan anything. The only thing I had really planned on this trip were the routes, which you’ll see, change of course. In part due to getting lost, and in part just because I felt like it.
Friday was hosed as I had to work. Sat, left about 10AM and set out altering the route to skip Beaver and head straight to Mt. View. Well, I didn’t make it to Mt. View. Sat route…
I got through Fayetteville about 12:00PM and decided to eat lunch. Want to know how to sell your bbq restaurant? Make sure that people can smell the bbq roughly a quarter of a mile away, I literally smelled this place before I even saw where it was at. Penguin Ed’s.
The way you have to order is to pick up the red phone and press a button. Then you sit there looking like an ******* for roughly 2 minutes waiting on them to pick up while thinking about how many germs was on this particular hand piece and if your ear is going to get all funked about or something.
End all be all the food was as good as it smelled ¼ mile away, I will go back to Penguin Ed’s for sure.
On the route, I changed it up a bit as technology failed me, all I had was my paper map and some pictures of google maps loaded up in my phone, well somehow my phone decided that those pictures didn’t need to be there and deleted the map pix. Ah well, reroute time and on the Rand McNally map, 74 rolls all the way to Mt. View, ok well then I’ll just stay on that. Way way out in the middle of no where, I saw a sign it was something about 11 miles steep and twisty trucks plz only go 10mph or something. Decided I definitely needed a picture of it and pulled off into a brake check point and turned around, after passing the sign I was going for another turn around and while going up hill a little to much clutch and not enough gas led to me killing it, then as I was going to put my foot down it gets stuck on the peg, by the time I got it off the peg I was at the point of no return and for the first time(probably not the last) I set my CBR down on it’s side. The following was damaged.
Well crap. Ok time for a break. Oh and I got the picture of the sign, but if you look in the first picture you’ll see a handy setup of a disposable camera on my tankbag held ever so securely, or not, the picture of the sign that made me drop my bike is on that camera, which is no longer, more about that later. Also when I say way way out in the middle of no where, I meant it, there was NO sound other then wind and birds. It was actually pretty amazing, just hanging out, taking a break and cussing about dropping the bike then realizing “Hey, what is that I’m hearing?” nothing, nothing is exactly what you’re hearing. No cars, no sirens, no people, nothing.
Onward and upward to Jasper, AR. En route was some excellent riding on 74 some long sweepers and my favorites some 20mph switchbacks. Arrived in Jasper and had some cruiser guys come up and tell me that if I was going down 7 there were cops everywhere and one showed me his ticket that he just got. 90 in a 65, got popped right after passing someone. Definite bummer, but thanks for the heads up, I’ll be heading out 74. We sit around and talk for awhile about different roads and whatnot, I maintain that it’s a beautiful thing that motorcyclists can pretty much come up to another motorcyclist that they don’t know and within minutes become buddies, discussing different routes, which roads are cool, which ones suck, it’s just natural, and it’s awesome.
Saying later to my cruiser buddies I head out 74 which has mellowed out a bit, I pass through Mt. Judea and see 123, I’ll catch you later Mr. 123 I’m going to Mt. View!!! 15 miles later, 74 turns into a dirt road. I check the map, wtf Mr. McNally??? Map didn’t show that crap. This is where things go a bit wonked, as I cruise back and hit up 123. The only thing I can really say about 123 is “Whoa”. I mean really, it’s just amazing and twisty and smooth and and and !!!!!!! I can’t really say enough about it. Probably my favorite stretch of road on this trip. While getting to the end of 123, my fuel gauge is flashing me and telling me that I’m about to run out of gas. I get on highway 7 and blaze about 3 miles to find a gas station that’s been closed for about 2 years. Damnit. The bicycle guys there tell me that back the way I came was another gas station about 5 miles.
Who-da-thought-it gift shop. All 87 octane all the time. I ended up getting some gas as well as getting some valuable information. Mt. View was dry county. Mt. Home was a wet county. They were both about the same distance. Decision time!! It was easy really, I wanted a beer. So that’s how the big ol loop occurred in the map above, picture of how I worked it out in my head.
Wanted to go explore a bit but was racing some rain. Great roads up there and I Love that area.
