Mid-Day October Ride...

[Guest 91talon]

Well, last night (10/09) my buddy Dustin and I were talking. He let me know that he started his staycation on Thursday (10/10) and would be home for a week, so if I wanted to go for a ride some time to just let him know. In about 15 minutes we formulated a plan to get together for a ride Thursday around 1. LOL

He rides a Suzuki V Strom 650, and we have done a few rides together before. So we met in Ozark, just outside of Lambert's restaurant, and then began our ride.

Not at Lambert's

It was an awesome day for a ride: 75 degrees, sunny, pretty much no wind... just about perfect. We started out by heading east on NN and then south on some lesser traveled, but still nice, roads. Our first main goal was crossing the recently reopned Riverside bridge. It had been closed for a couple years due to storm damage, and probably some other things. It's a single lane bridge, and it looked like they had done a nice job in repairing it. From there we took some more "outer" roads to Hwy 14 and then east to Sparta. Almost a mile from Sparta, I noticed that there were a lot of vultures circling a hay field that had recently been mowed down. They hadn't bundled the hay yet, and as we got closer I noticed that there was probably about 30-40 vultures picking through the hay, all over the field. I hadn't seen anything like it before.

We caught 125 just east of Sparta, and then headed toward Hwy T. As usual, 125 was in really good shape and the traffic was light, probably because it wasn't even 2pm yet. Catching Hwy T, we automatically noticed that the surface wasn't as good as 125. It didn't have loose gravel on it or anything, but it just wasn't as smooth. We decided we would try UU back to 125, as neither of us had ever ridden that road before. About half a mile into it, we pretty much regretted that stretch of road. I hate chip and seal, and this road had loads of it. Usually right in the middle of a corner, after you've already commited yourself to a certain line. I had a bad experience with that crap before, and it puts me on edge now. Needless to say I had to pull the stock VFR seat out of my ass once we hit the stop sign to get onto 125.

The rest of 125 south was amazing. There were no cars on the road, and we were able to run at a nice brisk pace. The scenery on some of the roads is spectacular, and makes me wish they had turn off points. There were times when I forgot that Dustin was behind me with his video camera going, as I was focused on the road and the next turn. I didn't have to worry too much about him though, those VStroms are pretty nimble bikes. We made our way down 125 to 160, and stopped and a deserted Post Office to try and decide where we were going to go next. After a few minutes of looking at maps, and remembering certain things, I finally convinced him that we should ride down to Peel's Ferry, as he had never been on it.

Wrong way down UU. Pavement ended.


Just another silver VFR...

Again, the roads were nice, and there wasn't a car in sight. When we finally made it to the staging area for the ferry, there was a couple of bikes in front of us. A guy on a Harley, and another on a fully bagged 2008 FJR. Those two had ridden from Kansas, and were on their way to Eureka Springs, in a round about way. LOL. So the four of us finally loaded our bikes on the ferry and were standing by our bikes for a couple seconds. The guy on the FJR looked over at his friend with the Harley and said "Have you ever ridden a ferry before?" I couldn't help but laugh, and said "That's a loaded question!" The guy on the FJR laughed and corrected himself with "Has your bike ever been on a ferry before?"

Not too long after that, there came an older couple, maybe in their 50's or 60's, riding a couple of BMW 650's. Nice bikes. We all enjoyed the bikes only ferry ride to the other side, and it was kind of nice having a few bikes to ride with for a bit. The guys on the Harley and FJR cut off at 265 (I think that's the highway) and the four of us kept heading south toward Peel. I was in the front, so I had to set the pace. Now given that the older guy on the BMW had a full face helmet on, I couldn't see his face, but I could tell by the way he was keeping up with us (and leaving his wife to go at her own, still respectable, pace) he was enjoying having other people to ride with as well. We went our separate ways once we hit 14. Dustin and I went west and they went east.

Abandoned Post Office. Boy, that Government shutdown has taken a toll.

Waiting in line for the ferry, which is in the distance

A half-full ferry of motorcycles.

Hwy 14 was a fairly nice stretch of road with nice sweepers, good pavement, and pretty decent visibility through the corners. We rode 14 all the way to 65, and then headed back north. We were going to go west on 86, but they had 12 miles of road construction, and that sounded like a bad idea. Instead we kept going north to 160. Heading west on 160, which is another fun little road with plenty of twists and turns, we finally hit some traffic. They weren't slow, but not really up to the pace we wanted to keep. Either way, it was still a nice little jaunt. Once we hit 165, we went north until we came to 176. Once on 176 we went west toward Galena.

176 was another nice road, and this time Dustin took the lead. He kept a faster pace than I had up to that point, but he knows that road like the back of his hand. Another reason why I let him lead. :)

Once we were past Galena, we went north on AA. This road is probably one of my favorites in the area. It is nestled between a hillside and creek for just about the entire road, and it's covered with trees. Even when we took that road in the middle of summer, the road was totally shaded. Today it was still totally shaded, and dropped the temp to closer around 68 degrees. It has some nice sweepers, strung together with tighter, higher speed, corners. And then there is the scenery. Simply amazing. Again, another road I wish they would make turn outs for.

Once we hit A, Dustin headed west, toward his house, and I headed East, and then north back to my house.

Overall, a good way to spend a few hours in the afternoon with your friend. The nice thing was that I still had a bit of gas in my tank when I got home. So roughly 200 miles on a tank, with PLENTY of spirited riding. Yep, I still love my VFR!

Here is the route we took:

http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=1bKTvtC

And just something we saw on the way home:

[Guest]

Pictures now added.

[HispanicSlammer]

That hwy 14 is interesting, the up and down roller coaster part is crazy, not a fan of that - not when there are driveways and locals merging into traffic. The closer to the ferry it gets the more fun it gets too. I have had some good rides in your part of the country, I enjoy the Arkansas ozarks alot too.

[Dutchy]

thanks for posting, keeps the rain that is betaing agianst my window at bay

[Switchblade]

Looks like a great ride .. Thanks .....

[Guest]

Thanks all. Yeah, 14 is a fun little ride, and I'm glad we went when we did, otherwise we probably would have run into more traffic. It was a great way to kill an afternoon, that was fairly close to home still.

I agree that the roads down in some parts of Arkansas are far better than what we rode, but we still had fun.

[Dutchy]

Right, Staycation over, park up and get back to work

[Guest]

Thanks for the edit assit with the map, Miguel. I couldn't figure out that whole embedded thing. LOL