I took time. BBBQ 2008

I just thought that was a good title. I took time, absolutely ridiculous isn't it, how can I take time? We've all heard that used before. I took time, I finally found time, I used up a lot of time, I don't have the time but I'll see if I can find someone that doe's, great time, it's about time, they say that in time...I could go on, but I wouldn't want to make myself sound anymore off center than I already have. Of course, when you really think about it... off center, I mean...what is off center...what is around the center. You know what, I feel like I'm leading myself to the place that many have been led to in the past. I think it's that ying yang thing. A conversation about time, space and oh man, that sounds like the Twilight Zone. I better stop right here.

In all seriousness though, I took the time through much trial and error to become slightly acquainted with Windows Media Movie Maker. I started out by just pasting some videos together and now I have finally succeeded in making my first with videos, pictures and music. Hopefully I won't get into trouble with some type of copyright law. If I'm not mistaken though, I can definitely use parts of copyrighted songs and then some songs are not copyrighted. Then of course I have found information that says I can attach copyrighted songs to any home video I want. I honestly don't know for sure, but a lot of people do it.

I'm probably wrong and I'll probably become one of the one out of 100 Americans stuffed into prison with all the people killers, dog fighters, tax evaders, smokers of Gods plants, Mother and Father rapers, video and music down loaders, sports memorabilia thiefs and of course the most dreaded of all...the trash dumpers. For some reason I don't think anyone like me would ever get the chance to spend time in prison with one of those people that got the 700 Billion Dollar bailout.

I really did make a video though, its my first like this and I didn't have much time :), so here is what I did.

BBBQ 2008 Sunday

Saturday night went on into the morning. We all went to sleep around 3 am and were up at around 630am, roughly 3 hours sleep. We had the continental breakfast and then loaded up. This is a video of what it looked like at the motel later in the morning.

Rubber burning scars on the pavement.
As in years past, all good things must come to an end. We loaded up for the ride home. Cathy showed up to ride back with us. I think she had a good time at her first BBBQ.

For the ride back, we took Hwy 45 out of town to Hwy 412 then made a right on Hwy 21 to Kingston, Ar. From there we went on up the mountain to Hwy 43 and made a left towards Ponca, Ar where we turned right onto Hwy 74 crossing the Buffalo River. Hwy 74 took us into Jasper where we had lunch.

Ozark Cafe, Jasper, Ar.
We had some good home style cooking here and as usual it was superb. Menu or Buffet , its all good.



A great end to another great BBBQ.

BBBQ 2008 Saturday Evening

After my ride out West on Saturday, I arrived at the motel just a few minutes before the rest of the group. We sat around awhile and decided on a plan for the evening. I had run into Burnie (I'm not sure if I'm spelling your name right Burnie)in the motel lobby and talked with him for a few minutes. Burnie said he would like to go out and eat dinner with us.

We ended up at East Buffet on College Ave. Its a good Chinese Buffet. I've eaten there most of the times I've went to BBBQ. After dinner Burnie, Zach and I decided to go to Dickson Street. Coondog and Hammer went exploring elsewhere while Major visited with his girlfriend who lives in Fayetteville.

Burnie got separated from Zach and I and we ended up sitting on the rock wall on the uphill Eastern section of Dickson St. in front of the building where the Christian groups give out free water. We watched people and motorcycles while getting probably irreparable hearing damage. Its a good spot to sit, I only wish I could remember to bring my ear plugs, it doe's get very loud. As you can see by the video below.

We got a call from Burnie and went to meet him in a bar area overlooking the strip.
What are the chances of meeting someone on Dickson St. that you know, especially on a Saturday night? Not good I know but as we were looking for Burnie, I saw CP again, I guess CP just kind of stands out in a crowd.

There were police everywhere. Back in 2002 the police presence was negligible, now it seems their on every corner. CP later told me he stayed on Dickson St. until about 3am and the police were picking up drunks and stopping gang trouble (not motorcycle gangs, just regular street thugs).
Zach took these pics to show how crowded it was on Dickson Street Saturday night.






After shooting the bull for awhile we split up again and headed back to the motel. This was supposed to be the big night of burnouts but the motel owner had put the fear of eviction into everyone and there wasn't as many as in years past. There were enough to make it interesting though. Here's a video of some of the action.

I like the look on Coondog's face, he's like, "what was that?".

BBBQ 2008 Saturday Afternoon Part 2

After I split up with the group at PTHD, they went on to the Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville. Zach said there were a lot of vendors there, including some big names. Here's some bike pics that he took while there.







Do I see a V-8 on that? Or is it just for looks?

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.