2019 Arkansas motorcycle trip
Day 5
|
May 27
 Another beautiful day for riding. Once again Patrick and Wes are leading the ride, and once again I get to bring up the rear. John and Mike typically ride faster than I do. Patrick and Wes ride faster than all of us so it is fun just trying to keep up.
Winding our way into Eureka Springs. After passing the train station Wes turned left on a new road. It was nice and curvy and wound its way around Eureka Springs and connected with US62. At the end of the road was an Exxon station. What?? This was the road I intended to bypass Eureka Springs on our initial drive in! Why did the GPS send us down the other road? Garmin makes a line of GPSs specifically for motorcycles. One of the common complaints is that someone will generate a route in Basecamp or Mapsource, and when they load it into the GPS the GPS will recalculate and change the route. Does my new GPS have the same affliction? This would gnaw at me the whole day.
Crossing the Kings River on US62 with the hammer down.
At Berryville we turned and worked our way to AR-21.
On the road to adventure. I could do this every day for the rest of my life.
Turning onto AR-103 at Oak Grove.
An antique store that would go unexplored.
Crossing into Missouri.
We pulled into a school parking lot for a stretch break and to check the route.
We stopped down the road for a restroom break.
 Enjoying the roads and scenery as we worked our way to MO-86. The outcropping in the distance reminded me of Devil's Tower.
 After some backtracking we arrived at the Dogwood Canyon Nature Park. The road down to the park had some nice curves.
 The park was designed by the same guy who did the BassPro shops so it had a similar vibe. It was peaceful with the dam and stream.
My Sweetheart and I.
 We fed the fish, checked out the displays, then had lunch in the dining hall. Tasty food! I had fish and joked they probably cooked one we just fed.
They had some live snakes on display. This one is a rat snake.
Donna is getting charged up.
 They had a treehouse built by TreeHouse Masters that was accessed by a rope bridge. It swayed a lot! We walked along the stream for a bit. No one was interested in a 3.2 mile hike so we headed back to the bikes. Park admission is $20/person, with additional extra-cost upgrades available. They offered segway tours which would have been fun, but the cost was prohibitive.
 Wes has a friend, Keith, who lives in this part of Missouri. We headed for a meet-up at Shell Knob. Here we are crossing Table Rock Lake on another girder bridge.
 Wes called Keith only to find out Keith was at the Dogwood Canyon Nature Park. We'd passed each other. We took advantage of the shade and waited on Keith. Mike took advantage of the wait and walked to a nearby liquor store for supplies.
 Keith arrived and led us back south. He is familiar with the area so he is leading now. We're crossing back over Table Rock Lake.
The lake looks inviting.
 We rode to the Roaring River State Park area. We crossed over the massive Table Rock Lake a couple more times. Not a cloud in the sky.
In one part the road was like riding a giant rollercoaster...very fun.
 We stopped in Seligman for a stretch and to refresh our drinks. At the far end is Keith and his black Victory.
It didn't take long to cross back into Arkansas.
 We took AR-187 back to Holiday Island, passing through Beaver and crossing the suspension bridge again.
The bikes are back in the garage after another great day of riding.
 The riding is done, but not the fun. Tonight is steak night and Chef John is at the grille.
 Steaks, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, strawberry pie...I can feel my pants tightening. Debby's strawberry pie has become a trip expectation. They don't last long.
Supper time!
Maybe I'll take up smoking and drinking? Maybe not... That evening after supper I checked the routes I had created to see if I messed up on the routing or if the GPS had recalculated my route. The verdict...it was me. For some reason I created the Day 2 route using the wrong road around Eureka Springs. Doh!
124 miles. Click here for the next day's adventure.
|
E-mail me