Vientiane Restuarant

A few days ago I got the urge for some Pad Thai, a Thai dish that is one of my favorite. I knew of only one place that made authentic Pad Thai and that was at Thai/Mex, a place in Danville that opened not too long ago. I rode over and it was closed down and for sale. I never thought the idea of a mix like that was going to work and it didn't. I had eaten there once, the Mexican food was terrible but I took home some Pad Thai and it was great. It was closed though, so I headed over to Vientiane at the intersection of Hwy 10/27. They have some great Asian food but when I was there last I hadn't noticed Pad Thai on the menu. I was probably too busy eyeballing all the other great dinners. They have pictures on the wall of the meals they offer. I'm sure that you could get any combination of food you want, just tell them what you would like.
I asked the cook if she could make Pad Thai and she said, sure. I made sure she understood that I wanted the real thing, not any watered down noodles, she assured me I would like it. I did like it, it was wonderful and filling.
For anyone that likes Asian food, Vientiane really should be the next place to eat. Not the old regular tasting American Chinese food that one gets at Mulan's or New China. This Asian food is different. You can even get curry and I love yellow curry, chicken, peppers and steamed white rice. They have a buffet that I've never tried and have no idea what they offer on it. They always have egg drop soup and hot sweet sour soup in case you just got to have some of the old regular.
I spent alot of time in Thailand and was married to a Thai for several years and not once did I eat anything remotely like what you find at any of the American Chinese Restuarants.
For a different eating experiance try it, you'll like it.

American Legion,Shores Lake and Hwy 215

Finally the weather met my idea of comfortable for a long ride. Its been way too long since my last one. On this ride I decided to go to Mulberry and take Hwy 215 North to Shores lake. To my recollection I had never ridden or even driven on it. I was hoping it was going to be paved all the way to the junction of Hwy 23 just North of Turner Bend Store.
I took Hwy 64 West and stopped at this American Legion Post situated along Cedar Creek in the center of Clarksville.

To get to it turn left off 64 just after crossing Cedar Creek, then turn left and over the jogging and bicycling trail.

This post has the look of a castel which I think may be unigue in Arkansas.

The grounds are well kept and there is an old anti-tank gun out front.

After leaving Clarksville I took I-40 to Mulberry then 215 North. This is an old bridge along 215.

The creek flowing under the bridge.

A look at the road going North.

The only community before arriving at Shores Lake.

The lake is in the valley in the distance.

After 14 miles of really nice road and scenary, I arrive at the turnoff to the lake.

I was really surprised, I thought this would be a run down area with maybe a picnic table. I was wrong, this is a nice area, beautiful lake with dock, clean edges, camping (I don't think it has electricity), a swimming area with sand and several restrooms. One of the restrooms has showers. This is a pay area. I know I'll be returning to camp out here.

After leaving the lake area, I went past the turnoff to look at the feeder stream. These rocks were on both sides of the road.

The bridge over the feeder creek.

The feeder creek.

The rock outcropping was big.

Going back and turning right on 215 again, this bridge was across the creek coming from the lake.

Above the lake looking down.
Mountains and dirt road. I made a decision a long time ago that when I get to dirt I don't turn back. If I had a Harley I would turn back because of the belt drive. Luckily Cindy is an old Honda.
More of the lake from the overlook.
The overlook.
An old wooden bridge along the way.
I stopped at least five times in the eleven miles to Hwy 23. It was rough fighting the gravel, pot holes and dust.
Another stop.
After what seemed like hours. I find civilization in a Babtist Church Camp.
Hwy 23, finally.
Looking back, 11 miles to Shores Lake, 14 more on pavement to I-40. It was a good ride, a tiring one, one I won't soon forget. It was about 3pm by this time, I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink since about 9am. I went South on 23 from here, stopped at Turner Bend for food and drinks and talked with some bikers. Then home.

This video starts at the intersection at Shores Lake going East to Hwy 23. I started my video and wasn't totally surprised when the pavement gave way to dirt and gravel. The rough pavement doesn't make for a good video but its the best I could do.

Hot Springs Yesterday

The family and I went to Hot Springs yesterday. I had to get out of town, it felt like I was starting to grow roots. Heres some pics.

There were lots of bikes in Hot Springs, it was extremely loud, reminded me slightly of BBBQ. I don't mind loud motorcycles in their place, although I don't think Hot Springs when there isn't a Rally in progress is the place. There were even a few bikes not only revving thier engines but had Rap going full blast at the same time. I was getting about as ticked off as the non-bikers. I mean, no kidding, I went to Hot Springs for R&R and I can't even hear myself think. I also had the misfortune of having a run in with a "bad ass biker". He didn't like me stopping my car with the bumper a little ways into the cross walk. Not something I do purposely. What an absolute idiot, a disgrace to the human race, the guy had obviously forgotten to take his Xannex. It was one of my Kodak moments and I don't think his girlfriend was so impressed with him after he ignored what I had to say. What a punk.

Wow, that sounded like a gripe session, I didn't intend it that way, it just happened and I shall not repent.

Plans

I'm working on plans for a whole new bunch of posts this year. So keep checking back when warm weather arrives.

Open Road

I would like to thank Crus'n Open Road for this video. It and his website is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4mU8ZqMZPU


http://virtualhale.com/cruzn/openroad.php

I went and didn't go

I put a couple of better pics on the Telegraph Tree post (9/16/2009), hope you like them better Dick.

Zach and I went for a ride to Clinton with the intentions of going to the Rally of the Ozarks there. We took Hwy 95 from Morrilton and arrived in Clinton about an hour later. It still looked early for the rally. We both didn't have a lot of time to spare that day so we didn't bother paying the $5.00 to go in. There wasn't a lot of people there yet and we had already heard bad news about the rally T-shirt. I have a bad habit of collecting rally T-shirts but I refuse to ever buy another one with the back covered in business advertisements and we had heard that was the case with this rally T-shirt. That's too bad because the logo really looked good.

We decided to eat at Western Sizzlin in Clinton. WORD OF CAUTION-DO NOT EAT THERE. That was the sorriest buffet I have ever had. I won't go into details but suffice it to say it just plain sucked.
While at the restaurant more and more bikes came down the highway, giving me the impression that this rally has a late start. Next year I'll come back but later in the day, possibly stay the night in Clinton. I'll just bet this rally really picks up momentum late in the evening.

My thoughts are this... Don't get there early and it'll probably be a good one. Hopefully they will take off the ads from the back of the T-shirt next year. The Mountain View rally had the same problem in 2007, but this year they had a really cool looking T-shirt devoid of ads.

On the way back from Clinton we took Hwy 65 South to 285. Hwy 285 is a very narrow highway. It and parts of Hwy 95 got me a little nervous. This time of the year the deer move a lot during the middle of the day. We had one cross in front of us on both 95 and 285.
After 285, we took Hwy 25 into Conway, at Hwy 64 we made a right. We made a left on Salem Rd at the next traffic light, following it all the way to Prince St (you can go a little further if you like and take a left on Hogan Ln. it also takes you to Prince St) where we made a right, next make a right on Hwy 60, cross the Ark. River. We continued on 60 to Houston and then took Hwy 9 to Morrilton.
If you feel the need to go to Little Rock after crossing the River, a little ways up the road is the Hwy 113 turnoff to Bigalow that will connect with Hwy 10 into LR. It's an interesting and at times very curvy road.

You probably didn't need all that info, but if your looking for an easy way to get to the South side of Conway without going through the busy part of town, Salem or Hogan is a good turn off.

BBBQ 2009

Have I mentioned yet that I won't be attending the event this year. It just so happens that I work all four days of the BBQ and I won't have any vacation until January. I'll make up for it next year. Zach is in almost the same situation, he's going to make it there for one day though.
So have fun all of you that make it to the 10Th anniversary of BBBQ.