BBBQ 2008 Saturday Afternoon

As I said yesterday, I split up with the group Saturday afternoon and went for a ride out West. It was a good ride. I can't say much for the scenery, some was good and some so so and some just plain flat riding. One thing about riding I've discovered though is that it doesn't really matter if the scenery isn't that great or not. Its the ride that matters, just getting out in the fresh air, enjoying the sunshine and the sound of the motor in the open air. There isn't much I'd rather be doing.

I took some pictures to give an idea of what I mean about he lay of the land. Also, what was worth taking pictures of. I'm sure there's more out there but on the route I took I just didn't find much worth a stop for a picture.

I have heard that South of 102 and North of 62 are some nice riding roads. I guess what people are referring to is Hwy 16 which runs through a small section of the Ozark National Forest. Hwy 12 to the North of 16 looks interesting too, I'll return later on and see what they have tooffer. Here's a link.


View Larger Map

This and the picture below was the hilly part of Hwy 102.
Above is the way 102 was more often than not.
I had always wanted to go to Cherokee City, Ar., now I can say I have. This was the highlight of my visit. This was on Hwy 43 North of Siloam Springs.
I don't think I have ever been to Cininnati. Now I can say I have been to Cininnati, Ar. on Hwy 59 South of Siloam Springs. What you see is what there is. A hill with a curve, made it more interesting.
After turning onto Hwy 62 East, on my last leg towards Fayetteville, I found this Self Propelled Howitzer at a National Guard Armory in Lincoln, Ar.

A litte further down the road is Prairie Grove where a major battle was fought during the Civil War. It is memorialized with the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. Here's a couple of links.

http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/prairiegrovebattlefield/

http://travel.webshots.com/album/558930214wUsmDV

Cindy in front of the visitor center, Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.
Rhea's Mill Tower.
Base of the tower with some mill stones.
The plaque above describes the cabin in the three pictures below.



I followed the driving trail for a little ways. It eventually went from pavement to that white limestone gravel which is a little more dusty than I wanted that day.

I road on into Fayetteville after my stop at the Battlefield. The traffic was horrendous. My original plans were to visit the Track Center. When I arrived at the turnoff and looked at the traffic in that direction, I just kept going East, to Hwy 265, made a left to Township and ended up at the motel, missing a lot of the heavy traffic.

A few minutes after I got back to the motel the rest of the group arrived. We took a break then prepared for Saturday Evening.

BBBQ 2008 Saturday Morning

Time to wake up and have a continental breakfast. Waffles, Bagels, Cereal, Bananas, Orange Juice and Coffee (much coffee) and I'm ready to go. Today is the day we ride North to Pig Trail Harley Davidson for a free meal, drinks, and stunt riding exhibition. Below is a video of us rolling into PTHD.

There's plenty of shopping to do at PTHD and they have probably every model Harley there that's made. The place was jam packed shoulder to shoulder people with long lines at the check out desks. I took some pictures at PTHD but most of them came out really bad. I think I must of had the setting wrong or something.

All my inside pictures looked this bad.
A few people in the back parking lot getting ready to leave.
I just don't know about this. CP and I both thought it was a little distasteful, but then I guess if a biker wanted to have a funeral with a Harley Hearst, here it is.

I watched the stunt show which was good, but I'll have to admit it's much better at night. I've got videos of the night stunts posted on the 2007 blog entry and I have them at my Youtube site "bikingarkansas". I like the burning tires at night.

When in the dealership I looked up on the balcony and there stood CP. He had ridden up with Melanie and got together with some neighbors of his. They had plans on riding to Eureka Springs. He was a little concerned since his bike had heated up Friday and he blew a primary gasket. Anyhow thats what I remember him saying it was. CP, let me know if I'm wrong on that. From what he said later, everything worked out and it turned out to be another great BBBQ for him as well.

When I got all of PTHD I wanted, I split up with everyone else and went for a ride to the West on Hwy 102. I followed 102 and ended up in Ok. and Mo. then I came back into Ar. and followed Hwy 43, 59 and 62 back to Fayetteville.

BBBQ 2008 Friday, another great time.

Once again, the Bikes, Blues and BBQ was a lot of fun. There seemed to be even more of a crowd this year along with more vendors. The traffic was terrible as usual and was expected. I've been enough times now to know how to skirt the traffic if I want to and that helps.

The food, well, I didn't eat from any of the vendors. I ate at restaurants and they were all good.

We didn't see as much drag racing or tire burning in the parking lot of the Motel. I was told that anyone doing it would be kicked from the motel. There was some anyway and I saw only one cop in the parking lot for both nights. We actually wondered why everyone was actually being so quiet. I did manage to get some videos.

Here's how the trip went. We missed a couple of extra riders who said they might be going. They missed a good ride.

We started out at the PDQ Hwy 7/I-40. This picture really sucks, I was kind of in a hurry to leave and didn't think about the sun being in the background. There were six of us that rode up together.

We went I-40 West to Clarksville and took the Walmart exit. Went on into downtown Clarksville and made a right on Hwy 103 N. This is one awesome road for those of you who have never taken it. It takes you to Oark, Ar. a nice little small town with a gas pump and an old store. They make some really good chicken tenders there if you feel like eating after a long ride on a curvy Ozark road. Hwy. 103 is paved until Catalpa, Ar. then it turns to dirt for longer than most cruisers would want to ride on it.

We didn't go all the way to Oark though, we made a left on Hwy 215 just shortly before reaching town. This Hwy skirts along the Mulberry River on one side and the forest and mountains on the other side, sometimes the ride is through a canopy of forest. A beautiful ride.

Before going on this ride I new the road had a short section of dirt to ride on and a single lane bridge. To our good luck, the bridge has been rebuilt, widened and the road paved. That was good news to Zach, I think he had spit shined his bike before leaving.

At a pull over on 215 along the Mulberry River.
In the foreground is Cindy and "Coondog". In the back from the left is "Hammer", "Major", "Zach" and Cathy. Of course I took the picture.

After reaching Hwy 23 at Cass, Ar. we went North on the Pigtrail. Not too far up the road was the Pig Trail Rally http://www.pigtrailrally.com/rally-info.asp. It looks like a good rally which would be a good camping spot or just a side trip from BBBQ. Bikes were thick on 23 and I heard that Saturday it was fender to fender bikes.

After arriving at Hwy 16, we turned West towards Fayetteville. There were now as many or more bikes on the Hwy as automobiles. The video below is of Hwy 16.

FAIR WARNING ABOUT VIDEOS - TURN DOWN THE SPEAKERS. I've done everything but put JB Weld in the mic holes and its still loud.



When we reached Hwy 265 we turned right and were supposed to turn left onto Township Rd. but due to a computer glitch which said I should turn onto a road called TPI or something like that, we passed Township. Eventually we did arrive at the Motel via Township and unloaded our gear.

We were all hungry by then and decided to eat at Hugo's. Hugo's is at the Square in town. If your going South on 71/College, make a right at the Castle on the left (it looks like one). After turning right, go to the NW corner of the square and make a right. Hugo's will be on the left beneath the sidewalk. You've got to really watch for it, you'll miss it. It's down some stairs but inside is some good food. I had a guacamole Burger, awesome!! I got a huge order of fries. They also serve alcohol if that's what you like.

So next it's back onto Hwy 71 to Dickson St. Here's a video of the ride down Dickson, the time was about 1pm.


Zach and I got separated from the rest of the group at this point. We had to use the cellphone to find them. Obviously before cellphones, people must have made prior plans for places to meet in case they got separated.

There were a lot of people downtown even though it was early in the day. We checked out the vendors,the bikes and the people. One thing about rallies like this, it brings out some interesting people.






After staying on the strip for a few hours we headed back to the motel for some rest and refreshments and to decide what to do next.


We took a short break, sitting around, then went for Dinner at a sport bar about a block from the motel. I forget what it was called but I got a big cheeseburger and fries for $5.11 and played all the pool I wanted for free.

Later on, some of the guys went to another bar nearby while some stayed at the motel and watched the tires burn. Here's a video of smoking tires with background noise of crazy drunks at the Days Inn.


Stay tuned for tomorrows post of Saturday at BBBQ and more pictures from Dickson Street.