Have you ever been to Lake Barnett?

The believe the following ride took place in 2004.
After meeting up with my old friend Charles near Vilonia, we headed North on Highway 5. When we reached Hwy 310 we made a left on it. We doubled back after reaching Mt. Vernon.
I took this pic of an old gas station along Hwy 310.


After getting back to Hwy 5, went went North and made a right on Hwy 31, not long afterwards we passed thru the community of Romance.
We found these cliffs covered in graffiti along Hwy 31.



We stopped for a break along a lonely stretch of Hwy 31.


After leaving Romance, the highway follows a ridge. The painted cliffs were along this ridge on the North side of the Highway. After coming down off the ridge we came to one really nice secluded lake, Lake Barnett. The following are pics from there.




We found this old house along the way to Floyd. Looks like an ongoing battle with nature and nature is winning. Tomorrow I'll post pictures taken at Floyd. The roads on this ride were with good surfaces and were interesting but not a curve lovers dream come true.
There is a chance I may go to The Biggest Little Motorcycle Rally in Arkansas at Clinton tomorrow :).

Russellville again?

You can see the Road at the bottom left corner of the picture.

Pretty bad condition, the seat on the left has fallen apart.

I spent all day sharpening my mower blades, then mowing the lawn and finally going to a birthday party. Finally I get a chance to sit down.
How about a little tibbit from Russellville? This is a Rock Spring on the West side of Skyline Drive going up the hill from Hwy 64. I have no idea what it was for but I know its been there since I was a boy. Often we would ride bicycle around Skyline Drive. In those days the road was dirt, it was a long push up the hill but the trip down made it worth it. We would stop here and fill our canteens. Someone, I don't know who has kept this spring in fair repair, its probably worse now than I've seen it in years. When it was in good condition, it had stone seats on the North and South side, you could stop in and get a drink, cool off or get out of the rain (I don't think I would do that nowadays).
I would consider this a Russellville landmark, I don't know what the Historical Society says about it.
The nearest store at that time was Prices Grocery, a few blocks to the NorthEast of St. Mary's Hospital. It was just a little neighborhood store, it stayed in business until probably around 25 years ago. There were several small family stores in Russellville area. A few of the buildings are still standing, being used for other businesses.

Two Weeks to BBBQ!!!!

A few pics from past BBBQ's.
Harley Davidson Van

Boss Hoss 1957 Chevy

Boss Hoss Corvette

Old Harley Sportster

Harley Panhead

Russellville area again

Timothy Dwight Mission Sign along Hwy 64.


This is an example of Sequoyah's Cherokee Alphabet.

Since I'm in the middle of day shifts, I can't ride anywhere so I'm using my archives for the blog. Just informational in case you've ridden by here and never stopped to read the signs.
This is the infamous Dwight Mission...Park? Historical Spot? uhh, how about boat launching area for the Game and Fish Commission?
At one time under these two bridges ran the Illinois Bayou. As a small boy I fished here with my Grandfather and my Father brought us here to play on the vines. The Bayou ran North to South and there was a trail that ran between the Bayou and the hill that Dwight Mission was on.
Alot of the land in the area of the causeway across the lake was stripmining land. The lake was a good thing for the area, kind of a land reclamation. I remember there also being some good bottom land here, with good squirrel hunting. What was'nt stripmined was bulldozed.

The Dwight Mission Sign has been allowed to get rusty, I think the Historical Society has forgotten about it. Not too many years ago someone, I guess the Highway Department put up the Cherokee Crossing signs at the West and East end of the causeway. They are in English and Cherokee.
Last month (Aug. 16)I had a few pictures of Sequoyahs salt kettle, which is in Dover. He's the Cherokee that invented the Cherokee Alphabet while living near Scottsville, Ar. and now here is an example of the Cherokee written language on this sign. It actually took Sequoyah twelve years to finish his alphabet. The wait was well worth it, other Indian tribes also used it.
Sequoyah, who was known by the white man as George Gist (or Guest) was actually half white. His father left the family when Sequoyah was young and Sequoyah never learned to speak English. Before moving to Scottsville in 1821, he lived in Galla Rock, which is where he and other Cherokee were relocated from Georgia in 1817. Galla Rock is Near Sweeden Island Park, South of Atkins, Ar. Most Cherokee did'nt move west in this move. It was'nt until the "trail of tears" between 1834-1839 that they were reunited with the rest of the Cherokee. Approximately 30,000 Cherokee moved West through Arkansas on their way to Oklahoma.

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2473
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=553

Trash is as trash does

I don't really need to say much about this. I did'nt want to ride by too slow, would'nt want to irritate the inhabitants, four legged or two.

North of Appleton, Ar.

This could of been a really good pic but six big dogs prevented me from getting too close.

The same with this old barn, the dogs did'nt take to kindly to me snooping around, so I was only able to shoot from one angle.

This is actually a very old house being used as a barn, it could be a good pic, but I did'nt want to go in the gate.

The same here, a nice pic waiting to be taken. I would have went in the gate for this one, but it was locked.

I snapped These four pics North of Appleton on a paved and named county road. I did'nt write down the name, but it goes North from the middle of Appleton. The chimney is just west of Hector in the Walnut Grove community. The road is paved all the way to Hector and has at least one paved side road from it. Its a nice ride.