Oct 6, 2005
After leaving Tony, we drive through downtown Hot Springs. I have been to Hot Springs about 6 times to go to the off road park, and I never knew that this part was there. I never really been to downtown but thought I had. Neat old buildings on both sides. Erin tried to grab a few shots as we moved through traffic.
Here is a shot of the lake as you go across Scenic 7 on the south side of Hot Springs.
As we are cruisin, we get just a few sprinkles and the air starts turning colder. We stop to pull the leather jackets out and gloves are a definite necessity!! Here is a last shot of Highway 7 before tucking the camera away.
We get about 25 miles south of Jasper and go to my old friend Eric's house. Here is our next safe haven from the cold for the next two nights. He lives conveniently 1/2 mile off of Scenic 7, but it is all gravel road. I honed my technic for navigating gravel on this trip.
On Friday the 7th, we continue north to make more journal entries but forget the camera. Tis a shame. We decided to run the Pig Trail that Billy had put into the journal earlier this year. Our plan was to run it on the way home but we were already looking at a 9 hour trip home and decided since we were close and Friday was a free ride day, we would get it in early. Good idea Woody!! The roads on 7 north of I-40 were fun and twisty with curves marked as low as 25mph. Beautiful views of the Arkansas Grand Canyon, an old Indian Motorcycle Cafe on 62, and the Pig Trail were items to note for the day. We passed an old 49 or so Indian in pristine condition sitting in front of a white cafe. Had to turn around to get a better look and sat there staring at it for about 2 minutes before heading on.
Here are some shots of Erics place before we left...
The forest behind his place.
The path to his natural spring fed pond.
The pond.
His place
Erin has been seeing these pink flowers everywhere and wondering what they are. Eric had one in the front of his house and she snapped a photo of it. Nice job Erin!!
We got back to Eric's about Sundown Friday night and he makes us a country dinner!! Erin grabs the camera we left behind and gets a few shots of this spectacular sunset.
The next morning we head out early to meet Billy in Harrison. He is going to join us for the ride to Lebanon Missouri where we are meeting Joe and Leslie to hand off the journal for its next leg of its journey... This is Erin, Eric, and I.
We pull into Harrison precisely at 9 and go to the meeting spot. We set the camera up for another automatic shot....npt to shabby! Theres Billy wishing he had his face mask!! It was a very brisk ride this morning. We head to McDonaleds for some coffee and breakfast. Billy actually finds an old schoolmate managing there! Small world!
We head up 65 into Branson and then to Springfield to catch I-44 to Lebanon.
Here Erin gets a shot of Billy cruisin. We are ticking away the miles at 75mph hoping to get into Lebanon around noon.
Erin gets several shots of the ride to Springfield.
We pull into Lebanon at 12:03 and head in to find the Country Kitchen. As we pull in we see Joe and Leslie who look like they just arrived as well.
Here's the group!
We get a photo taken from a passer by heading into the restaurant.
We hand off the journal to Joe before heading in for lunch.
An automatic shot...
We go in and have lunch and a lot of laughs with Billy, Joe and Leslie. We do not get back on the road until 2:20 and head to the gas station. We are on the highway at 2:30 and heading back to Plano Tx.
Billy keeps us company on the road until Joplin Missouri near the border where he breaks off and heads south to home in Arkansas. We hit the turnpike and make great time until we get off on 69 south. We didn't get far from the turnpike when I noticed the Valk wasn't able to lean like it should. I thought Erin may have been fighting me from the pillion but nope, so I started worrying about the front tire. I alerted her that there may be a problem since the bike won't lean....then she started noticing that she was sitting higher behind me......the front end started getting louder so I slowed from 65 coming into Adair and when I slowed down that thing started wobbling. We looked for a station with air and finally found one after making two stops. I made her walk a block to the third stop. I broke out the plug kit and we looked for something in the tire but couldn't find anything. We bought some Dawn there at the station/store and they provided us a bucket of water and I filled the tire and looked for a leak. Couldn't find one...but it was airing down slowly.....at first. I soaped the stem and bead and still no bubbles. Then noticed it was holding air now. We sat there about 30 minutes and no leak down. We bought a can of fix-a-flat just in case and jumped on the bike and headed out. We were told there was a tire shop 8 miles down the road in Pryor.
Before we could reach Pryor, we were flat again. This time I noticed that the tread was pretty hot. Didn't know if that was from going half a mile on a flat tire or not, but it seemed hot to me. Compared to the rear tire it was hot.
Aired it up after it cooled down and it held the air. Still has 35 pounds in it now, two days later. We called my brother and he went to my house and picked up my car and trailer and headed up north to pick us up. We sat there in this Conoco station which was the central meeting place from most of the town. Think they even had a town meeting while we were there. Got a few cat naps in and a cup of coffee, waited 4 hours for bro to get there at midnight. Loaded up the bike and headed home arriving at 5:00a.m. Sunday morning. Slept most of the day yesterday except for unloading the bike and putting the trailer away.
Great ride, nice cold weather, great to meet new friends, and traveling with Woody at our side.... What a great week....
Gonz
Gonzo
02' Shadow Spirit "Vicious Cycle", 98 Valkyrie "Eragon"