Ride to Muskogee, Ok. and BBBQ 2010

Friday Oct. 1st I loaded up and headed to Muskogee,Ok. where I was to meet my Daughter Shanna. From there on Sat. we would drive to BBBQ.
I'd would first like to say that some of these pictures are not that great, I had made up my mind to get to Shanna's house before dark. I left Russellville at 11 am, I thought that would be eary enough.

I rode down I-40 to the Hwy 23 (pigtrail) exit. I went North up the trail. Motorcycles were everywhere. I immediatly got behind a foot dragger (definition: a motorcycle rider that cannot ride slow without having their feet down, can't go into a curve without hitting the brakes, wobbles when getting started from a stop, etc. etc.). At first he was comical but then he started swerving to the other side of the road in curves so I accelerated and left him behind in a cloud of pinecones. When I arrived at Tyler Bend there were probably 150 to 200 bikes there. I wish I taken a picture but I had a long ride ahead of me. The above pic is at a restroom break on the trail.

They have straightened out several curves along the trail since my last ride there.

Doing so has created some scenic views.

This one wide spot will probably be made into a scenic pullover.

There were hundreds of bikes along the trail.

This is on Hwy 16, to continue on Hwy 23 you must go for a short distance on 16 then go North again.

Back on the trail. This is a cabin just off the Hwy.

I finally arrived at Eureka Springs. The town was absolutely filled with Corvettes and motorcycles, traffic was at a crawl. There was a Rally going on at Eureka Springs Harley Davidson. I made one stop on the Northern edge of town at the Train Depot.

Letting my bike and rear end take a breather. You can see by the no parking signs that I always follow the rules.

There were still bikes coming by but not as crowded as downtown.

This thing spins in a circle.

After leaving Eureka Springs I continued on 23 North. When I got into Missouri, I made a left on hwy 86. I followed it for a ways then took Hwy F, which is a shortcut to Hwy 112. F goes through the Mark Twain National Forest and is a beautiful ride, nice curves, deep valleys and scenary. I eventually arrived at the Roaring River State Park.

This is a park I would like to come back to. Nice camping area in the valley between mountains and along the River. They also have a State run Inn.
Leaving the park I continued on Hwy F until I arrived at Hwy 37, my next turn. I know I should have written down the directions on my hand, I didn't. I made a left turn, thinking that, well, I should go South not North, wrong. By the time I came to the Ark. state line I'd already driven at least five miles and I was not going back. If I had went back, and went North on 37 I would have made a left on 90 and followed it all the way to Ok. through the mountains and missing all the traffic. I wish I'd turned around. I ended up in Gateway, Ar. and followed Hwy 62 and the traffic jam for the next hour and a half through Rogers.

I made a stop at the Airport in Rogers. Being Air Force, I could not bypass this display of the F-101B Voodoo.

I ended up spending a lot of time at the display. I met a man named Bill here who was waiting on his Brother to show up. He was ex Air Force and we shared a lot of stories.

I entered Oklahoma at Maysville, Ar. on Hwy 20 and not long afterwards came up on this Historic marker out in the middle of the flat land.

This is the other side of the road from the marker.

I can't remember the name of this town but I stopped to take a picture to show that I wasn't too far into Ok and the Sun was going down and it was getting very cool outside.
Right now I can't remember the name of the town but I was about 70 miles from Shanna's house. I arrived at 9 pm. The entire day, I had a bowl of oatmeal and some tea, half a 20 oz. bottle of Mt. Dew and a Milky Way bar. I was starving, thirsty, cold and tired. Shanna took me to the Sonic where I bought the biggest burged they had. Tormorrow, BBBQ.