The Arkansas 5(plus) vs Mother Nature...We won! - Barely

This is how it all started. Sitting at my desk, this is the view I have from my school computer looking outside. Sorry about the screen lines, but you get the idea. It was around this time I started day dreaming about taking a ride away from this place. This is right outside my window and it sucks.

The view from the house is not much better in terms of riding. Sure my younger two kids love it, but it is not very conducive to actually riding the FJR.



I am sure my older 2 kids are in the house somewhere playing on some type of electrical device. I am just not wired that way. I have to be either doing something or planning something.

It was around this time, that I was thirsting for some adventure. I must have come across a ride report about Arkansas. I asked some of the guys that I play poker with about riding in Arkansas, and they immediately said the riding was great. That kinda scared me because they are all Harley/Cruiser owners. NOT riders like many of us are. But a good road is a good road to any snowed in Illinoisan. The more I heard about the area, the more it sounded like a great place to kick off the riding season with.

So the plan was hatched, many replied to the Arkansas Run thread, but few showed up. It was certainly a tough time frame because I had to work it into Spring Break. The Temperatures were promising a few weeks out. The closer we got to leaving, the lower the temps plummeted. The temp and subsequent snow finished off Griff being able to make it. He later said they got 6 inches of lake effect snow. Mother Nature has her own Agenda.

So Allen and I planned to meet in Marshall Illinois early enough to get in before dark, but the temps were dropping. We agreed to move the time back to around 10am. That would let the temps climb before he headed out. (False Assumption) Mother Nature had other plans.

Allen called me to let me know he was heading out. I have only about 45 min to Marshall and he has 90 min to get there. As I am almost to the garage to get geared up, the daughter asked if I would make her breakfast before I leave. I feel guilty about taking off for a few days, so I whip up something for her to eat.

I gear up and open the garage door and it is below freezing. Like 28 degrees. Mother Nature hates US.

Allen actually beat me to Marshall despite a get off -low side on brand new front tire on a round about near his house. So glad he was okay.

We snacked on some Arby's real quick before hitting the road. Temps hovered around the low 30s.

Allen was not showing any ill affects from the low-side as he stretched the legs of his bike on a super flat and long section. Not gonna say how fast he rolled it too, but the Gen 3s can get small in a hurry.

We pulled into a diner in Vienna after about 212 miles of 2 lane.



Yep, that is HOT TEA in my cup. The food was good, but clearly the weakest of the food porn to come.

I did not take tons of pics because I knew a much more capable and skilled master was taking the good shots. I will try to add to Pants' amazing report.

Talked to Pants on the way down and he decided to stay at the Hotel. Allen and I rolled in and the party got started with the Arkansas 5(+)



Shot from the next day above. Can't show any from the night before. That could incriminate someone!!

Gotta go for now. I'll Leave you with one Road pic and a Food Porn pic since the original idea was Arkansas Run....Ride, Eat,Repeat.



Hey Marty, They even had homemade ice cream.

Pants looks very deep in thought that picture, I believe he is telling him self that that corner will not Hinder him twice in one trip. OR thinking about the pie at Oark Cafe.

There is too much winter in those pictures, I see curvy roads and pie to ease the visual affect, I'm there in 7 days...woot !

Good stuff, more more more, you'll have to "borrow" some of pants pics.

I actually was looking for snow on the ground, those fields looked ,,, well, pretty spring like. Are u guys pulling our leg with this cold crap!?

P/B - Close, but no cigar. I'm trying to re-position my hemroid (look mom, no hands!!!) after sliding on that frozen black crap just a few minutes before.

T/S - it was cold that morning no joke. Of course, I don't bleed anti-freeze like you northerners. Below 50 and my tootsies get chilly.

Cav - don't let those GenIII boyz disrespect us. If we air up our tires to spec, and dump the house/kitchen load, we can hang just fine.

(But holy crap on a cracker - is that '14 red color gorgeous!!!!!!)

Looks like y'all had a good time...minus the ice of course!

--G

Poolboytoo said:

Pants looks very deep in thought that picture.

Click to expand...

Is it just me or is he doing a Steven Spielberg lookalike contest??

Tyler said:

Poolboytoo said:

Pants looks very deep in thought that picture.

Click to expand...

Is it just me or is he doing a Steven Spielberg lookalike contest??

Click to expand...

I hope not. I hope he is thinking, "I wish Redfish and his Pop were here. They would have the two best looking bikes for sure."

I know I was wishing I was there.

Or perhaps I'm thinking - "One day I'll do a tour and ride report with Tyler, and it will make Pashnit look like a selfie poser. It will be the standard by which ride reports are measured!"

After the food stop in Vienna Illinois, Allen and I rode some nice roads into Missouri and Arkansas. It got dark on us and I spotted a few forest rats lurking near the road. Allen and I ate at the Diner next to the hotel. It was not memorable enough to take a food pic.

Saturday Morning after finishing breakfast at the Hotel, Pants fired up the GPS for a route. He was a great route master and knew all the best places to go. It was still cold and rainy so we headed over to a place to warm up, wait for the roads to dry off. We got over to Ponca to look at some elk and visit this old homestead.

Being a History teacher gives me special access to take bad pictures from select locations.



Actually, I do use these photos and information to try to keep my students awake when talking about frontier life and the hardships that would come along with living in a place like this.

The roads are drying up as we are looking over the old homestead and trying to get a peak at the nearby elk that Pants photographed. Pants just got finished saying "Hey, do you want to go see where I shitted my pants yesterday?" and we all said "Yep, lets go" Funny how we nearly did the same thing as Allen, Pants, and I all had Wobble/Slide moments here at the same place. Off we go to the scene of the near accident.

This was the area that pants had the hemorrhoid moment the day before.........and then we all had a similar moment with similar conditions......man we are stupid Maybe it was Mother Nature trying to win.

It was here that I noticed a "small rock" in my tire. The rear tire squirm that I had here made me question levels of grip the rest of the weekend. After contemplating where to go for lunch, it was settled in about 2 seconds that we should head to the Oark Cafe. Off we go.



As stated, this is a must stop place for the area. The parking lot had Adventure bikes, Sport bikes, Cruisers, and Sport Tourers there when we pulled up.



This is just the lot on the side, there was other parking along the back.

As noted here, Arkansas is a helmet free state. I had a brief chat with these two before they thundered off.



Back inside, we were served up some delicious specials.









Dessert is a must. I am a connoisseur of cherry pie............this did not disappoint. Almost enjoyed it too quickly and missed the "cherry shot"



I went outside after a fellow FJR owner asked about the Carbon pipes that Allen and I had. He was wanting to hear the pipes and since Allen was still eating his dessert, I went outside and fired them up for him. He had a black cherry FJR with a really sweet Corbin Smuggler. I need one of those!!

Walking by Allen's bike, my eye caught this and I was prepared to give him some bad news until further inspection.



At first glance, from a distance, Allen was going to be fixing a flat..................but it was just a sticker he picked up.

Off we go to a Bridge Pants likes. I thought someone on here had a "thing" for Barns. I think Pants has a bridge fetish.





My panorama shot of the bridge. Taken with an I phone on the bike, I almost fell over trying to rotate around.



We rolled along some more great roads and find another............................Bridge!!!



Some of the best times are re-hashing the roads just traveled.



Weather was shaping up great.

Time to hit the Restaurants



Alfredo for me.



Pizza for the rest of them.

The remainder of the night was memorable and not memorable for some reason.

Morning arrives and we head over towards Push Mountain. Allen let us stop by his gas station but they were closed.





This is after Push Mountain. It was sublime. Pavement was perfect. It was here that I really began to notice problems in the curves with my rear tire. No matter how hard I tried, I could not figure out what was wrong with the suspension. It just felt unsettled. Earlier Pants looked at the setting and confirmed they were good to go. Tire pressure was not checked. More on that later....



It was lunch time and as we rolled by Carl's. There was plenty of cars there on a Sunday morning. We better stop. Griff, This one is for you!!!



Some older lady did try to photo bomb our shot here.

Since my lunch is over today, I am going to leave you with this photo specifically for Intech. Love you BOB!!!



More to come tomorrow friends!!

Food was great at Carls,

Mother Nature was beginning to come to our way of thinking. Sunshine and moderate temps were becoming the norm.

Hopping back on the bike was a little tough. I thought we might have to increase the pre-load settings after that meal. The catfish is still on my mind right now.

Roads like this quickly snapped us back into riding mode

.



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You all saw this sign in Pants' report, but it was from a different angle as he points it out. This is where the good stuff is.



We passed this place on the way, but headed back after we saw how cool it was. The guy that owns this place came out and said to hang out as long as we wanted to enjoy the scenery.





The owners live at the far left of the shot in the cabin back against the woods.



Quick stop for ice cream, Pants was acting like Oface and hit up a gas station across the street from here. I took this pic for my daughter whose name is MacKenzie.



We found some waterfalls right along the road and had to stop for the beauty shot.



Allen and his bike look right at home here.



After the Ice Cream stop it was time to say goodbye to Pants. He was headed south as Allen, Poolboy, and I headed North back to Harrison for the night.

This is a good lasting impression of the ride master for the weekend.



We headed back to the hotel. Sunday night was a good night as we prepared for the ride home.

When we got back, we met RJAMT at the hotel. Food and drinks were on the docket. First we had to clean up our bike from a couple of great days on the road. Mine was pretty buggy and could use a quick wipe down before they set up and were tougher to remove. Well, as brushed up against the rear tire, it felt a little squishy. I put the gauge on it and 17.5 is not even close. I spun the tire around to see the little rock that I saw on Saturday morning. I pulled out the tiny finishing nail and it hissed a little. It was very small and now I understood what the problem was with the "suspension" from the past 2 days. Basically we rode 550 miles of twisties and I had a flat tire with some air in it most of the time.

With some help from John-RJAMT---his T-handled plug inserter for the snake/worm. And PoolBoy's strength pushing the plug in there, my Slime pump put it back up to 37PSI. I think that is about all it would do until I got to a gas station. Allen, John, and Mark headed off to the restaurant and I stopped by Casey's Gas station for some quick air.

We had dinner and I checked the air a few times with no problems. The tire held air at 41 all the way home and still did last night before I took off. I really like those Slime Kits. Saved my butt for sure.

We hung out for a while at the room, told some stories, and enjoyed the rest of our time together. Pool boy headed back to his campsite about 10 miles south. John headed back to his room as Allen planned our ride back to Flat land. Allen did a great job picking some routes on the way back that we could enjoy. They were perfect through Mark Twain National Forest as we hit Missouri quickly. Mother Nature had finally given up and gave us a great day.

John headed off near Sikeston Mo as Allen and I hit the 4 lane back to Southern Illinois. Right before we crossed over into Illinois. Mother Nature unleashed her wrath in the form of this.



Really was an unneeded performance award. I appreciate everything that the police do, but sometimes a warning would of been better.

Such a great time. Overview coming soon.

I am happy that you guys got the chance to ride with my friend hppants. Pop and I have really enjoyed the few rides we have had following him. My BMW riding friend is always amazed with the way 'pants rides that FJR.

Arkansas is a truly wonderful place to ride and is fairly low cost as well. I am wondering why I have not ridden there more often.

I hadn't really visited Mark Twain National Forest before this trip and am happy to report I have now found some quite good roads only 2 hours from home. I ran some on the way down and Allen took us through even more on the way back. Gonna have to make some weekend moto-camping trips in Missouri instead of down in Shawnee National Forest.