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  1. NEW VIDEO BELOW - updated chapter 4 I had a forced vacation from work for two weeks so why not take a trip, the roads west are full of sand and snow so I decided to head east where Spring has already taken hold. The original plan was to leave early Thursday March 29th and make it as far east as possible but Rapidsnipe convinced me to stop over in OKC to spend the night and ride to the Ozarks together. So as usual I woke up at 4am all messed up turned on the weather channel to see that a tornado hit Holly Colorado and ripped the place apart, looked on my map and sure enough I was scheduled to ride through there about 10am, then a local report from Denver showed the TV weather man standing in about 4 inches of snow along I-25 so I panicked and rushed to the window to find somewhat clear skies and no sign of snow. Denver is only 65 miles north of here so its close enough but there is a natural weather break at about monument where the weather seems to change for some reason. I could be blasting snow here and Denver will be sunny and warm or vise versa, I imagine those folks in Monument Colorado and east of there get the worst from both sides of the divide. It just seems to funnel between Mount Evans and Pikes Peak right into that place! In any case when I finally left at 7am the sun was shining but it was cold as a witches tit! I had my farkles on full blare and not so comfy as 30 degrees seeps in every nook and cranny of my Aerostich it can! My hands where warm on the bottom from the grip heaters but my finger tips were frosty. It wasn't till I made it to Lamar that it started to warm up to about 55 degrees, then I could relax a little and take my hands off the grips to stretch. I cant stand the cold too much, I would rather be roasting that freezing any day! Riding in that kind of cold just makes you stiff and miserable, but I knew that the Ozarks were waiting. I was approaching the Kansas boarder and finally came within about 5 minutes of Holly Colorado and did not see any sign of massive devastation? The weather channel said that there were reports that the tornado that hit Holly was a mile wide! I did see a water tank toppled over but no debris lying around? what gives - then I could see that they had a traffic jam up ahead in town, the closer I got to the center of the little town the worse it got, a house would be missing roof tiles and there was a lot of mud in the street, then closer you would see broken windows and more debris till ground zero, right at the RV park. Why do tornado's zero in on trailer parks?? It was totally destroyed, trees ripped from the ground, aluminum siding wrapped around bushes, no trailers to speak of that I could even recognize and wood and what looked like a home but only the foundation left. There was a tree ripped in half with one half of it upside down hanging upside down across the street and 500 yards away on the power lines above. HALF THE TREE! wow then as soon as I was in Kansas it was all back to normal again! I was getting hungry so I stopped in Garden City (not so aptly named) who's main industry seems to be feel lots and a huge Tyson plant on the west side. I saw what looked like an authentic Mexican food joint, so I stopped. Everybody was speaking Spanish in the place so I figured hey must be good right! NOPE! It was awful! At least my server was nice to look at, a sort of J-Lo look alike complete with big back-end like hers! I was pleased to find that it was now 75 degrees outside! So I shed my jacket, vest and glove liners for something less bulky! I could see a big storm off to the north but my route just had me skirting the edge of it the whole time. Lots of slab lots of wet roads but no rain. Typical Kansas Your average small town this is Minneola KS Big Wind you know how they call Montana Big Sky well KS is... BIG WIND The closer I got to Oklahoma the less boring the roads got, they were becoming rolling hilly tree lined roads with all these great pink trees that just seemed to dot the land scape, along hwy 160 in southern KS there is some interesting red clay landscapes that were rather pretty. I was surprised at how nice it was, but then over the hill the smell of yet another feed lot would just ruin it! Finally in OK I just cruised into OKC fresh and ready for bed, I would get off the main roads and take a little detour off into some sleepy little place such as Calumet OK just west of OKC nice place that is! Thursday I soon had Rapidsnipe and his wife knocking on my door at the motel to take me to what would be one of the best steaks I have ever eaten in my life, hes a young guy and they are a very young couple very cute together, and shes got him on a very short leash! UMM maybe you shouldn't show her the video Chase! There I met Gary Swanson and his family he would be joining me and Chase the next day into Arkansas. THE VIDEO! I took great pleasure in building this video its rather long at 21 minutes and it has highlights of the best the Ozarks have to offer, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri all are part of the mountain range that extends across the region and makes for some great riding. I could not beleive that these guys were not out there every weekend riding these great roads!! The Ozarks a video oddessy - 6 guys 500 miles of some of the best twisty roads Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri have to offer. Highlights of hwy 62 out of Eureka Springs, Push Mountain, Talimera Skyway, and the heart of the Ozarks Hwy 16. Music from the Breath Sunshine cd, Tori Amos, John mayer, New Order, and Paul Desmond. Day two Oklahoma Chase and Gary met me at my motel and then we went across the street for breakfast all suited up for the worst. It seemed that my very presence created a high pressure zone in Oklahoma that was pushing the wet weather off and to the northeast. It was overcast be we did not see much rain at all, stopping in some half closed town for gas I once again shed myself of my over gloves and jacket - unzipped the vents on the stitch cause well it was getting downright hot. Following Rapidsnipe (Chase) I could see that he was using the route I had programmed in my Garmin but for some reason I had no clue what direction I was going, east, south, west for all I knew I was so disoriented that I couldn't get my bearings. I again was awake at 4am, a byproduct of working nights and sometimes I just lose all track of time. I pride myself on having a great sense of direction, and can read maps rather well. However when you lose track of time you cant tell direction, since morning seems like evening and vise versa. The first time I was in Tennessee riding to the Texasmac with Kevin in his Jeep I could have swore we were heading west cause it seemed like the sun was going down, I mean I was awake and for all intents and purposes I head into work after I wake up - WEST. I get all confused now. So there I was just happy to follow along, and check my gps once in a while to see if we were going to go pioneer for a bit and go local? Nope right on course. Rapidsnipe suggested we make a detour to go ride OK hwy 2, said it was a good road, so we headed northeast on hwy 270 to Limestone, that seemed to me like a rather boring road till we made it to the hwy 2 turn off and headed south. I could see the squiggly lines on my gps and was happy to see the first twisties in 700 miles! The road did not disappoint as Rapidsnipe was soon rolling on the throttle and leaning it over into a very sweet and long sustained sweeper, I could tell he wasn't just some squid like he described himself to be, no he can ride! I was twisting the throttle for all she got just to keep up he wasn't gonna lose me! The after that a series of tighter turns and some blind right handers had us bunched up behind some slow moving campers out for the weekend. We passed them all one by one and I soon realized it is just like Colorado slow movers don't let faster vehicles by here either! I guess that only happens in TN, CA, Montana, and northern Texas? great turn after great turn would pass by slowly till we could see enough daylight to get by them one by one. Chase stopped at the turnoff to hwy1 to let Gary catch up to us and soon the horde was again in front of us, since it took a while to get my gloves back on. He was right it was a good road but too much traffic. We decided to wait some more and just let the Mongol horde get far enough ahead that we could have the road to ourselves. It wasn't long before we were at the entrance to Talemera State Park, they have a nice visitors center there where you can de-water yourself in peace. I set up the camera and let Chase take the lead. I think it made him a bit nervous to be on camera, I usually don't tell people I have then on camera so that they just ride their normal ride, but it was obvious I was going to film the Skyway, it was beautiful. He rode rather well if I can say so. The Talimena Skyway ( hwy 1 east/west) is split into two sides 3/4 of it is in Oklahoma and the last bit is in Arkansas, with it being intersected in half by hwy 259 (north south). It is an exciting road with nice fast sweepers throughout and stunning scenery approximately 2000 feet in elevation and a 1000 feet above the valley below. I has some breathtaking scenes that rival the Cherehola Skyway - not as long but certainly just as beautiful and fun if not more scenery. You can see more below from the road than the Cherehola, but then again the trees were not leafed out as of yet. I was enjoying it, particularly one section that had us heading down a steep hill where you could see the road on the other side ramping up the next hill. Talimera State Park Oklahoma/Arkansas boarder hwy 1 The Talimera Skyway Talimera Talimina who knows what it is? Somewhere on the Talemira Chase took us off the road and over to the Three Sticks Memorial on hwy 259 on the opposite valley you could see the Talimera from there rather well it has some great turns up the mountain. Gary stopped at the three sticks memorial I could see that Chase was a bit ruffled from me riding behind him with the camera on, so I asked him if he wanted me to lead, which I happily did, making them both go back to that spot on the Talimera so I could get that picture above. There were some nice tight ones just before the turn off at 259 that I wanted to do again, I must say that is one of the highlights of my trip the Talemera is a wonderful ride. I am a bit more experienced rider so I was soon a bit of a ways ahead of the two of them when an interesting rhythm section came up 4 successive tight esses that I could see though to the end, I did not slow down - my mistake cause I had to trail brake through the first one and that had me off my pace and I was crossed up a bit into the next three trail breaking it the whole way till on the last turn I was barely going 10mph - it seemed to me like I was going to fall over! I did not cross the line at all or otherwise blow any of the turns but my aggressive braking has scrubbed off so much speed it caught me off guard when I had no power in 5th gear to round the last corner, lugging it hard till I could fumbling with the shifter to get some power to the ground and not fall over. It must have looked pretty stupid from behind. The guys were about a half minute behind me so they did not see any of it! Heh me lugging the last turn must have looked awful. Like I said they looked easy but were much tighter than I had anticipated oops!! Who knows why they put them there - obviously did not need them as you could see all of them, it is just enough to make you slow down to half speed. There were some nice down hill turns on the back side to Mena where we had some lunch at Wendy's. I said "we must be in Hill Billy country", Gary said "whys that" "cause the women are wearing overalls" pointing at the woman behind him The further we got into the Ozarks the more Redneck things got, teeth didn't look so strait, shirts were optional, as was women with shoes, hair no longer seemed to be combed and strange sightings occurred regularly. Wild turkeys running out into the road, and turtles run over, of course the ubiquitous skunks are everywhere. It was the airport phone booth converted into a mailbox that had me laughing out loud though - most definitely redneckish! What was it it about this place that says wear overalls with no shoes, and have a straw hanging from your teeth? I don't know but I was relaxed by it, seems to me do as the locals do! We rode some back roads and took a merry long way around to Hotsprings where Dutch was waiting for us. His gixxer buddy pussed out - his loss too bad he didn't meet us in Oklahoma to ride the Talemina with us! Now here is the strange part neither Chase nor Hondalover drinks beer - so I started in with the teasing. Telling then that they must be Zima drinking pinky flipping guys who don't drink beer! HeH! Then Dutch, and Gary, Chev started in on them too! Dinner In Hotsprings Left to Right - Rapidsnipe, Hondalover, Chev, Dutchintercepter, HS, GSwanson. Thursday day three Arkansas we woke up to a steady drizzle of rain and so it took us a bit longer to get situated, everybody was donning rainsuits and I was digging out my overgloves that are supposed to keep my elkskin ropers dry. They worked out ok but for some reason as usual my farkles started to fail. My gps kept saying aquiring satalites and not zoning in on the route, which is strange it didnt work untill we made it all the way to Ola where we stopped to fill up and respite from the rain. I asked Rapidsnipe to take the lead since his was working, but I think any of us could have it was rather simple to stay on hwy 7! There was a really nice section of highway 7 right before that near Hollis, lots of nice banked curves and a few decreasing radius off camber turns thrown in for good measure. It was a bit tricky because of the rain - we wanted to go faster but the painted lanes seems much narrower than normal and some of us blew a few turns, slipping on the yellow paint. It eased up in Ola and so RapidSnipe and Gswanson peeled off to head back to OKC when we made it to Russleville. Two riders down 4 left, we headed up hwy7 ever climbing into the Ozarks on those fast sweepers passing the slow traffic as we could, it was pretty much double yellow the whole way? I really think those yellow lines are painted for RV's with no concept that Motorcycles can pass safely and quickly in shorter stretches? I wish the law could see it that way too? I mean it was solid double yellow for the entire stretch from Dover to the hwy 16 turnoff! Crazy! Somewhere on hwy 7 my camera could not focus on the hills in the background In any case we did what we did. The rain stopped enough for me to film part of hwy 16 to Witts Springs where it started to come down hard. I fell in behind Chev for most of it but he was struggling with the bike in the tight turns so I passed him and caught up with the other two, Chev and Hondalover had communicator on so I knew that if Chev fell too far back he could radio us to stop. It was at lunch later that I felt his front tire and the massive cupping he had on that old bias ply on his vfr1000, 16 inch wheels with heavy cupped bias plies and 3 guys on sport radials makes for a tough day for Chev, I could feel the tire fall off on the sides about 15 degrees sharper than the middle too, it must have felt like riding in a dingy boat in a hurricane trying to keep us with the rest of us?? I know a bad tire will ruin any ride, he was riding much faster than I would on those things!! I think they were the OEM TIRES?? Dunlop bias plys would have had me worried right off the bat! Then he was into the tread indicators too! JEBUS! OH man hes got more balls than.............. We stopped in Tilly for a picture stop. Hwy 16 wet wet wet The sky was getting ready to open up on us We continued on with me in the lead while it rained we team-worked lead duty. I lead pretty much the rest of the day from then on, my gps was working again. Hwy 341 Push Mountain was the next great road, not that those in between were bad, but that road is a monster, lots of tight turns and long straits that suck you in faster than you want too. I sort of took off a bit alone as my tires were just sweet in the rain, I was getting some great feedback and took it almost as fast as if it were dry. Never slipped once I felt confident the whole time. The clouds finally parted in Mountain home where we stopped at the first restaurant we saw, dripping wet and very hungry it was almost 3pm when we made it there. We waited an awful long time for our meal so plans to continue to Missouri were shelved in favor of a more direct route to Eureka Springs, we found some interesting back roads, and managed to salvage the rest of the day on some decent roads. We pretty much headed west from Mountain home till Harmon then did some back roads to a strange road 281 near the Missouri boarder, it as mighty twisty in places and long 270 turns that seemed to never end, and a up and down a steep hill I was glad to have found it, very interesting riding there. Turns out it was a typical Missouri road as they all seem to be like that in the Ozarks up and down roller coaster hills that dive off one way or another into a thick forest area it engages you completely! This is where the skill level seems to shake out on those iffy roads, your either comfy or your not! I liked it but rode it cautiously. Then the gas gage was showing near empty with only 156 miles on the clock? So we stopped in Ridgedale and Dutch and Chev came out of the bathroom looking absolutely disgusted. I decided to just hold it right then and there. then it was over hwy 86 and west again to Eureka Springs over the bridge at Table Rock Lake we soon encountered a car that had driven off the road and down the embankment about 20 feet below the road. I guess whoever it was was hurt cause there was an ambulance. There was a bar/nightclub on the hill above us - my guess is a drunk came down the driveway and went across the road and down the other side! We took MO hwy 86 all the way to 23 and headed east to Eureka Springs it was starting to get dark already and when we made it to the Traveler's Inn there were a hundred or so dual sport bikes there. It must be the motel of choice for motorcyclist, the owners were sure friendly to us. The place was a model of convenience - a Pizza Hut on the right, a Liquor Store to the left, and across the street a breakfast buffet! What more could you ask for? Saturday day 4 Missouri We had a nice breakfast in Eureka Springs then rolled down the hill to the train depot. Train Depot in Eureka Springs This place reminds me of Manitou Springs where I live Spanning the generations Ideal setting indeed Eureka Springs is a pretty town Underway ATTACH I have attached the entire route I took from Colorado to the Ozarks in back, and put place markers on all the best roads. MS Streets and Trips VFRS parade the town lots of bikes in Eureka Springs hundreds of them We started out Sunday with a quick jaunt up hwy 62, as seen in the video, lots of traffic though and small towns in between makes it a ride you should be cautious on. It was soon after crossing the boarder that the road got interesting, Hwy 112. Southern Missouri in general is full of great roads that all share one thing in common, they seem to be like a wild roller coaster ride. You can't help but get sucked into taking the turns just a bit faster then you should. Cresting a hill and then diving off in one direction or another, I always roll off near the top of hills cause well who knows whats there or which way it goes. In Colorado there is often gravel from a driveway at the top of hills so I am conditioned to slow down before cresting a hill. Its the quick acceleration of rolling down then back up thats so much fun, however Missouri seems to mix in a few sweepers in between and then a few tight ones - just enough to make the road that much more unpredictable. Its the unpredictable nature of this kind of road that can put you in a ditch though so be prepared for whatever. I had my GPS set to take the "Shortest route" I have found that it often takes me to great roads I would not have known about, but sometimes it leads me to a dead end or a dirt road. Such was the case with the Roaring River State Park , the GPS showed a clear route back to hwy 76 from there but it was not the case - we ended up stopped at the fish hatchery which well was pretty interesting, not planned but interesting. There were hundreds of people at the park all fishing, it seemed like it wasn't even sport but there they were none the less. Roaring River State Park MO one wrong turn on hwy 112 had us stopped at a fish hatchery Once on Hwy 72 we headed east, its sort of a road that skirts the tops of hills sides and dives up and down past cow pastures its very pastoral and in itself a very pretty road, we were starting to see a number of other bikes as it was the weekend and at one section two Ducatis were railing a corner and came right into my lane a bit. I cant comment on the speed but if you cant stay in your lane your out of control! I saw them coming and took the turn a bit wide cause you could tell they were hauling ass. Then we rolled in behind a couple out for the day on a nice Black Goldwing, looked like they were having a lot of fun, they even stayed with us a bit after we passed them, we all got caught behind a fairly fast moving Toyota truck and when I saw an opening I took it, then the road opened up into 4 lanes as we went under an overpass and the rest of the guys got by. I guess me passing the Toyota took the wind out of his sails cause he slowed down right after I did. I wonder if he was pushing it at 9/10ths or something? Heh I sure wasn't! 76 to 160 is very interesting in these parts but its a main road so there is some traffic - not much cause its rather rural out there but more than side roads. their is a curious 180 degree loop that slings back around and up a mountain side at Walnut shade that you can really rail on if that was what you like to do, but I could see that as one hell of a speed trap for motorcyclist, there are houses on both ends so you have to slow down before and after. Then I turned off on Road H, its all chip sealed with the familiar white chip rock that they tend to use around there, it can glare in direct sunlight but it is very grippy so I upped the pace a bit. lots of fast sweeper all the way up to the Mark Twain National Forest, looks like some good off road around there too as we passed a number of trailers hauling dirt bikes and ATVs must be off road heaven back in there! I loved it, canopy trees covered the area in places then you would see glimpses of rock ledges overlooking valleys below. Its very pretty there, and the roads are challenging. Looping back south on 125 all the way to Garrison Chev and Hondalover peeled off to go home. We stopped for a good bit and counted the sport bikes that went by. I was dumbfounded that neither Chev or Hondalover had been there before? Its only a half days ride for them to get there? I suspect they will both be returning very soon! It was actually my second trip into the Mark Twain and it was different the second time, I recognized some things but most things no didn't, I think I was off the main path for a while the first time. Hwy 76 intersects the road and you dog leg off a bit for what I consider the best part, its gets tighter on the southern side of 76 and its banked so you can go really fast and just have a total blast, Me and Dutch were just flying in that section waving at the bikes coming the other way. It wasn't too long before we were on the Ferry to head back to Arkansas. Since we could not do the entire route we planned the day before we decided to do the Missouri part back wards and track back to Russelville in the opposite direction. The ferry ride was very cool, more bikes on the ferry then cars, and it is FREE! Peel Ferry bikes outnumbered cars trying to cross Bull Shoals Lake Hwy 125 intersects hwy 14 where we turned east and that is when Dutch decided to wick it up a bit on those great sweepers, for a good half an hour we were just blasting it with out a single car! It was great, I was just really enjoying the faster road - from the tighter turns on 125. The Ozarks has it all. Lunch in Mountain Home was a banquet, we stopped at the Exxon station and the clerk recommended "the Steak house" in the middle of town - still on hwy 62 When we got there the place was empty, seemed abandoned but after we went in it filled up. Glad we did! It looks like it might be a chain - I have never heard of it but it was a good stop. "The Steak House" 859 Highway 62 E Mountain Home, AR 72653 Tel: (870) 425-8515 Lunch menu is more like dinner - I asked for bread and they brought me a freshly baked loaf of bread! Salad, fix 'ns its was a huge meal for a great price. I ate so much that I was tired afterward, I was loafing a bit so Dutch took off to go find some chain lube by himself I told him I would catch up to him back at the Exxon. Then we were off to go ride Push Mountain Again. I took the lead and the GPS routed us through some strange back road that ran for 5 or 6 miles then turned to hard packed dirt, I just shrugged and kept going looked like we landed into some private redneck compound off to the right but it ended right at the foot of Push Mountain! I stopped to take a picture of the 'White River" White River at the base of Push Mountain hwy 341 I started filming and was soon finding myself falling behind cause Dutch was in his element on Push Mountain, I found the pace to be pretty fast, but I could manage. Lots of long straits then afterward a hard left or right and a series of tight turns. I had to brake more than I like too, but I wanted to keep up, he was starting to walk away from me. The road is relentless and at the end I could tell I was not up to much more of it, I would have rolled off cause at that point I was pretty much beat from the 300miles of twisties we already did. I took the lead again and slowed the pace down a bit - seemed like I couldn't concentrate well I retraced the route we did before and stopped in Tilly to stretch a bit, Dutch got on his cell and checked in with his wife to tell her he was staying another night. I asked Dutch if he wanted to do the rest cause well I wasn't up to the task so he took over lead duties and we short cut back down hwy 27 to Dover and for an overnight in Russelville. It was one particular up hill road that caught me a bit off guard a bit, it was a very tight Esse Turn into a decreasing radius that had me almost blowing the turn. I took it way too fast and it scared me a bit, Dutch said some guy he was riding with had ran off the road on that very same turn its a sucker turn that is much tighter than the others so you are not ready for it. I managed to get through it fine but I really had to push the bike over hard to make it. That is when I decided it was time to find a place to sleep for the night. Lake Dardanelle Russleville AR right out side our rooms at the Days Inn on I-40 hwy 27 was rather challenging by itself as well some tight hairpins on the way down, and cruisers in the way had us making quick passes, it was still challenging. The sun was setting and it was cooling off, a perfect ending to a great days ride. Sunday I have attached the entire trip from Colorado to the Ozarks and back in an MS streets and trips file, its marked with all the best roads Missouri into Kansas Dutch and I took off early retracing our path up hwy 27 from Dover to Tilly to ride that sweet section of hwy 16 together, I was feeling better this time and was ready to roll. 27 didn't seem as challenging going up but it was fun, then we had some fun on the sweeper at Ben Hur. Before we left Russleville we stopped at the Wafflehouse on I-40 for breakfast and I just couldn't help but notice that manager was a ringer for former President Clinton, same nose, same face, same accent, even the same mannerisms it was uncanny, but not so fat! Then we had a talk with a guy riding a Kawi zx14 - hes like me tours the whole country on the thing, with his wife on the back too! Dutch started having knee pain, and kept stretching his legs out. Not used to relentless twisties 2 or 3 days of riding can stress your knees pretty good. I was feeling pretty good and so we parted ways at the hwy 7 intersection, he said he took some back roads home so he managed to have some more fun. Me I continued up 123 to Mount Judea, this is my personal Favorite as its chock full of some nice turns - without anybody else riding with me I just took it easy or so I thought the pace was easy on the straits then for some reason I was leaned over all the frickin way in the turns?? odd heh I passed a couple out for a joy ride in one of those Mercedes roadsters, and just had a blast the rest of the way before the road gets super tight. Its right at Mt Judea that it becomes a very tight switchback decent into the town. Not much there a school, a few shops and one awesome café road stand, thats not much to look at either but the Bacon Cheeseburger is fantastic! A God fearing town the entire area is named after places and characters in the Bible. I stopped for a few pictures on top of Mount Judea Mount Judea I forgot how fun and challenging hwy 123 is in AR Hasty off in the Distance from the top of hwy 123 I started heading west with the intent of just finding as many side roads as possible on the way, just playing it by ear and yes I found some great roads, I kept taking a stair step pattern in a north west route. The ride from Mt Judea took me to Hasty where its seems to be very rural very poor in terms of the condition of the houses around the place, it sort of was depressing to look at with such beauty around in the natural scenery. A dilapidated trailer with an ad hock roof built over and around it? Hasty seems to be the correct term. I managed to make my way to Jasper to fill up and again head west. I was riding in the hilly section - not so many mountains but more hills now. From Jasper I went west on hwy 74 and then North a bit on 27 again then I got on a main road 412 which I found to be boring so I headed north again on hwy 23 up to the next turn off on 127. I was pretty much all alone on both those roads. The only strait road in Low Gap A sign near Low Gap very true On Highway 127 (Rock Road) is a great convenience store/gas station with soft serve Ice Cream, the ladies were cleaning the machine so they were selling Ice Cream for half price, I couldn't resist, it was a nice store for such a lonely place! I gassed up and headed out again. The Hwy sort of snakes around up to Beaver Lake where the turns are very fun then you cross a bridge over the lake and completely avoid the bigger towns on the western edge of the Ozarks. There are large towns all along the north western edge of the Ozarks that make the ride a real bore. I managed to avoid most of it. Skirting the edge of Rogers up to Pea Ridge, its a strait road on the map and it has a lot of traffic but its very scenic none the less (hwy 94) then I crossed over into Missouri I Stayed away from the main roads here and headed west again on a fun road hwy from Jane to Noel, its a fun road, there is a spider web of great roads up near Pea Ridge you can have a blast on right on the boarder! Then the Ozarks were done! I had some Lunch in Noel where there is another cool convenience store with a nice overlook that views the river. Stopped in Noel Missouri great road hwy 90 Elk River The gas station there has a restaurant in back that has bay windows that overlook the river. It wasn't long before I was in Kansas again and the wind was beating me relentlessly all they way to Wichita, nothing much to report about that! Monday the ride home Kansas sucks windy all the way from Whitchita, so much so I was leaned over going in a strait line, then the small town mentanlity there of - we dont need to provide bathrooms from passers by - I did fill up my bike. I came out of the bathroom to listen to the clerks and owners complaining about that. I guess it was me they where talking about, I guess they have never seen a motorcyclist before? I decided not to buy anything else and move on. Colorado hwy 94 87 miles away from Pikes Peak I could make out a faint outline of the mountain, I felt like Zebulon Pike himself when he first saw it Zoomed in you can see the outline of Pikes Peak vaguely I did catch up to that pickup later too! This was the first glimpse that I was almost home, yet it took me another hour to get to the city limits of Colorado Springs One whipped Pirrelli Diablo rear tire cords showing after 2600 miles, it was a great tire in the rain and never once slipped. Tuesday
  2. From the album: Travel Shots

    Scans from my Butler Motorcycle map. Legend: G1 = Gold (yellow) roads, best paved motorcycle roads; G2 = Red roads, a notch below G1, great motorcycle rides; G3 = orange roads, a little less dramatic but still amongst the best motorcycle miles in the Ozarks

    © Butler Maps, 2012

  3. From the album: Travel Shots

    Scans from my Butler Motorcycle map. Legend: G1 = Gold (yellow) roads, best paved motorcycle roads; G2 = Red roads, a notch below G1, great motorcycle rides; G3 = orange roads, a little less dramatic but still amongst the best motorcycle miles in the Ozarks

    © Butler Maps, 2012

  4. http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/pigchasingpirates.mp4 I was itching for another out of state ride, the NY ride was going on around the same time up in the Catskills but boy I just could not swing that much time off it takes 4 days just to get there reasonably and no way I am gonna ride interstate the whole way out there! I decided I wanted to ride the Ozarks again. So I contacted a bunch of vfrd people who live relatively close to the Ozarks and a few who live close to me and low and behold found out that a bunch of Texans lead by Dutchintercepter where already going. Turns out they were all from around the Tyler Texas area and have known each other for years. I have known and ridden with Dutch for a few years myself so I asked if I could tag along. "Sure" he said and soon I was on my way to Arkansas. It was a bit of a gamble since I would work the night before leaving, I asked my boss if I could leave at 4am so I could get in a nap and he agreed it was OK, so I would be somewhat awake. I found out from an email list that one of my favorite musicians was playing in Lawrence KS so I bought tickets and headed for Lawrence Thursday morning, I skipped my nap and headed strait for KS in the pre dawn moonlight. I was excited I would get the chance to see Pat Metheny play again - I have seen him once before in Denver 15 years ago and was delighted. I was going to head into Oklahoma and pick up gswanson and then head to the Ozarks but the Pat Mentheny gig was too tempting. Lawrence KS is the home of KU the Jayhawks and its not too far from Topeka KS where Lee2002 lives and he asked me more then once to come and stay with him. I thought a good deal about it but did not think it was fair to show up at 3 in the afternoon and then go strait to bed for 3 hours! So I headed to a motel in Lawrence and did exactly that. The trip out to Lawrence was rather windy and well crazy. I was blowing gusts of 50 mph in Colorado as the sun came up, and cold about 40 degrees on the plains near Kit Carson Colorado I was freaking cold I ended up stopping to put on a layer of clothes under my transit suit and thicker gloves. Colorado was the worst part since the road was 2 lanes and bumpy, bumpy and windy is a sucky combination and will it plays havoc with your gas mileage! 130 miles and my tank gage was flashing already! Good thing there was a solitary gas pump in Kit Carson, I filled it up and was rather amazed at the amount of traffic there was at 4 and 5 am in the morning on the way of of Colorado springs, lines of cars rolling into the Shriver air base and into Colorado Springs it was crazy, folks live out in the sticks and a whole bunch of them, commuting every day from out there must be a real chore! I made my way strait east to Oakley KS for another fill up since well the wind was still blowing 30mph but more steady and not so gusty and the smooth interstate made for a much nicer ride to be honest, the wind wasn't so bad anymore and I could cruise and listen to music for the rest of the day. Only my ear buds stopped working! Jeez, I pulled them out and stuck in foam ear plugs and boy everything got quiet and serene - even the 30 mph wind was quiet and I just cruised down the interstate with 50 miles more per tank then I got in Colorado! All damn day long the wind was relentless! I stopped again in Hays for a burger at a steak burger place called Freddie's good stuff! I like that place, not so much Hays but the burger made for a nice meal. Then I put my head down and settled in for the rest of the ride, the further east I went the less windy it got, so much so that each town would get a little less brown and a little more green, more trees popped up and the moisture in air became noticeable, still windy mind you it did not go away but it wasn't killing me anymore! I could see signs up for places like Abilene KS - good place to live and have a career? What? OK good for you Abilene, I suppose it goes along with the Abortion is a sin signs on hwy 50 - Kansas is a conflicted state, strait up bible thumping fire and brimstone side by side with heartland hospitality? I guess the further west and windier it gets the crazier it is! By the time I made Topeka I waved at Lee thinking "well hello sorry I will see you come next summer summit", I really wanted him to come along on the trip but hes only go so much time off and family matters pressed the weekend out. So I rolled into Lawrence on some back road to avoid the toll on I-70 and had to stop for a crazy accident , a car had gone off the road and over an embankment cops everywhere! I finally rolled into the hotel and got my key then laid down and set the alarm for 6pm and dosed off for a nap, up for 24 hours is not good! But I think I could have rode another 300 miles if there were some twisties to keep me awake! I woke up and headed for the Theater and was surprised to see Lee standing on the corner waving at me to park his bike next to his! Wow I did and walked up to him in disbelief I was not expecting to see him there? He chastised me for not staying at his place and I explained myself and well it worked out - turns out Lawrence has a first rate brewpub its right next door to the Liberty Hall theater where Pat was playing so we stopped in and got a brew and talked for a bit, Lee just sort of had a little did not even have a drink really handed me his beer after I finished mine, he had to go to work at 11pm so he was just being nice. I was glad he stopped over, way way out of his way to come meet me. Lawrence is a nice place, and there was a very large group of folks at the show, it was amazing, I said goodbye to Lee and walked in sat down and 2 seconds later Pat came out and started playing a whole list of my favorites and a few new ones, just a duet and a scaled down version of his Orchestron, a one man band computerized synthesizer that he did some amazing music with. Just him his guitar and a bass player, and the Orchestron. He is a very gifted musician. He even played my favorite tune of his. Great show and afterward I walked next door and sampled another beer from the Free State Brewery again, and listened to the local conversation about meth labs from a biker dude out on the patio, bantering back and forth with a lady about the state of the justice system and drug policy in the USA. In any case I had enough and went back and finished off the night with a big mac and fell asleep with the tv on back at the hotel. Up early in the morning surprised to see the parking lot mostly empty - boy these Kansas people get up early in the morning! I took off south and looked for back roads into Missouri apparently another vfrd member from Kansas saw the veefalo as she headed out of Lawrence while he was on his way to work at KU, Huskysooner saw me leaving and pm'ed me asking if that was really me! YUP! I met him a few years ago at Lees Kansas meet in Topeka. I stopped in Baldwin City KS for breakfast knowing I was gonna be alright speeding when I left cause just about every cop in the county was having coffee in the restaurant in the next room over from mine, I had some eggs and listened to the locals joke - some guy comes in he says "hello darling" to the lady at the table next to mine and she says "well if you call me darling what do you call your wife"? He says back "old bag"! Then he says "maybe thats why I have been married four times"? Like I said all the cops were still drinking coffee so I made my escape from Kansas in a big hurry doing some good time on the back roads trying for Harrissonville MO - but somehow I got ahead of myself and had already turned off just blindly following the gps route I made the night before and passed right through it without even knowing it! I was gonna look for a new set of ear buds since my singing to myself was getting tiresome! That area of Missouri is a bit flat, but allot of trees and the further east you go the more the roads get like roller coasters, not many turns just a lot of undulating up and down and some of it quite dramatic you can catch some air if you are going fast! And I was - and I did! Thrills come cheap on a motorcycle! I just kept on going and going and going then I turned on a familiar road I have been one 3 times before or so I thought I did? I ended up taking a frontage road and not the main road and had to double back, strange place called Tightwad MO! Lakes around there are nice, and further up the road I missed the turn, and ended up going through Warsaw a couple of times cause I missed the right turn on hwy 65. Then I turned off that road again onto hwy 7 another road I know from before - this one still is a roller coaster but it has some turns in it. Unfortunately the locals like to think they can race you when you get behind them and proceed to make their vehicles go faster then they are capable of safely driving! Dude in a beat up Chevy pickup tried to hold me off as long as he could and the oncoming traffic is the only reason I waited patiently behind him as he drover over the double yellow a number of times and then onto the dirt shoulder in the right turns, what an idiot. I saw a dotted line and clear lane and was past him so fast he had no idea - then he disappeared in the mirrors just as fast! I stopped in Lebanon MO at the walmart and was back in business with tunes when I picked up some JVC mushroom buds, the fit just right and isolate the sound just as good as the foam earplugs I was using, best of all my rendition of "landslide" by Fleetwood Mac in my head was finally over - why do I torture myself with the same tune over and over again, who knew you can make that song last 3 hours if you sing it half assed half remembered lyrics and made up lyrics to fill in the parts I did not remember! Thank goodness for walmart! Well I have had just about enough of the up and down roller coaster shit of Missouri and well almost 1 mile into Arkansas the road started to turn RIGHT AND THEN LEFT - oh yea I forgot what that was! TURNS THESE ARE TURNS and good ones too! I turned off at hwy 178 to follow along Bull Shoals Damn and ran smack into a nightmare of traffic? I don't know why all the businesses were closed and 80% of the buildings were shuttered? It was depressing but I did get to see the Bull Shoals Damn! I am sorry for the bad pics the camera was set to low resolution quite by accident. The road got interesting after I got past the lake, and the traffic thinned down, I got behind a caddy of all things that was keeping a very good pace in the turns, I got around him soon enough and he stayed with me a bit until the turns got tighter and tighter then I was gone, and there was Yellville up ahead - I pulled into the Carlton Motel and saw a bunch of bikes from Dutch's Tyler Texas group and talked with the guys, then about an hour later Gswanson pulled in with 2lthr (Gary and Steve) and then Dutch himself pulled in on a KLR? I see he tells me hes parting out the black viffer cause he cant deal with all the electrical issues and wont sell it outright cause he does not want to pass that mess on to somebody else? Rumor has it hes gonna pick up Gswansons old Betty? Gary got a RWB vtec last year but still has his 5th gen in the garage. Its already black! Then here comes flavadave and his girl on the back 2up, we walked over to the bbq joint down the road and had some grub. Dutch joined us, it was good, the food in Yellville is OK but not great, but the BBQ was the right price (CHEAP). The next day the Texas crew took off onto destinations their own and I had prepared a route for the viffer group, down the fast sweepers on MO 14 and over to Push Mountain for an early morning romp - we actually ended up behind one of the Texas guys Dutch's buddy on his Bandit, he lead us up to Push mountain and said he was just going to run it a few times and go back. I was rocking it pretty good on the veefalo when all of a sudden a fast moving red blur went by and I could swear it was another vfr1200! sure enough it was but he did not stop. Everybody thought I had turned around and was coming back since I was leading and got ahead just 2 of use alone for a while me and Steve. Then we headed over to North Fork and took in the sights at the North Fork Damn Then we settled in to some great roads all day long for 350 or so miles of Ozark bliss! I call it the Ozark lullaby since some of the roads just sweep back in forth like a waltz, and you just get a great rhythm going, then we came up on hwy 16 and then the fun started it was more challenging and technical, I did not remember it being so much fun I love that road, one of my favorites and I think I like it best of all of them personally, Pulled in for a stop at Pelsor and then we hit hwy 123 as seen in the video above, those pirates would not get out of the way! I had to pass the whole group on a long bowl between two hills with a mile long passing lane at full speed, full speed cause the lead pirate tried to speed up his HD to hold me off? I guess 110 hp and 170hp v4 is a big mismatch! He got small in the mirrors too! The only thing in them anymore after the next few turns was 3 vfrs behind me they all made it safe around the pirates! Douche bags on Harley's think they own the road? Why not just let the faster bikes pass and be done with it? Jeez? Back to the motel and more food at the café down the road it wasn't bad - it was a buffet! Then beer and sleep! Most of the Texas crew was already back so it was an all night party and BS session! Good folks these Tyler riders, most of them are on two wheeled Texans a bigger site then vfrd and they all know each other! The next day I found out that the pirates were a small percentage of the Harley's in Arkansas that weekend - Blues Bikes and BBQ was in Fayetteville for the weekend rally some 10000 cruisers in the Western Ozarks - good thing they limit themselves to 200 miles or less cause we were far enough east to avoid them for the most part except that group on hwy 123, its a famous road and is featured on most sites and motorcycle maps as a destination, the 10mph hairpins on Mount Judea are the attraction. I personally like the sweepers better especially when there are no Pirates on them! Too bad we had to go west past that bunch of vagabonds! I decided to head into Oklahoma with Gary and Steve the next morning and stay in OKC with Gary - hes always such a good host. We took 100 across, and I made a route full of back roads and side trips off the main drags and for the most part we missed the horde! But it added an hour or two to our ride some 500 miles back to OKC! I lead from Yellville into Oklahoma and then Gary took over from there, and took me past Tinkiller Lake and cool side track with hills and turns in Oklahoma I was not expecting, good to know! Then 200 miles of strait boring road into Edmond, then Steve cut out for home and Gary and I made our way to his house and I got a great home cooked meal of beef stroganoff - Garys wife Cathy is a great cook, and a dog lover, they have so many dogs I cant remember how many there are, she liked the tee shirt I was wearing of my local brewpub cause it has a picture of a Lab on front! Laughing Lab the beer is called and so I told her when I got home I would get her one and send it in the mail! Gary had to work in the morning and always commutes on the bike when the weather allows so we were up before sunrise and I was off on the road myself back to Colorado, and sure enough the further west I got the more the wind started blowing soon it was like Kansas all over again! I headed across the Pan handle and that bumpy mess - budump..badump..budump..bang (a big pot hole) badump.. for about 2 hours strait! I was relieved to be back across the boarder and into Colorado but the very south eastern tip of it, meaning another 2 hours to go at least. I found a road that skirts along the Comanche National Grasslands into into the Northern tip of Pinion Canyon and enjoyed a western change of scenery after 6 hours of plains plains and more plains, but then I was back onto the plains when I came out of it. I stopped in Rocky Ford for a cold drink and was sitting in the shade by the side of the gas station, on a milk crate when an old Hispanic man came up and walked past, then a few minutes later he came out of the store and stopped to talk to me. He says "did you see that couple arguing at the gas pump"? Me "No sir"? He says " the woman was yelling at him.. its your baby I know it is yours"! Then he says "the guy was yelling back.. its not mine.. no its not"! Then he hits me again "the woman yelled and said I know for a fact its yours...the other 3 I am not so sure about"? He completely blind sided me with a joke and so I must have laughed for an hour strait! Old fart sucked me in, and got me! What a way to end an out of state ride.... come back home to jokes! pig chase.gpx
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