I'm digging this new subforum! I've not been posting in Ride Reports over the past year because work has relegated me to daytrips and overnighters... So, anyway, here is a random selection of daytrips I've taken over the past year: First up: A lunch ride from the annual MGNOC Arkansas Campout at Eureka Springs. June 19, 2010... It was a beautiful Saturday Morning! Temps in the low 70s. Nice, requiring only a sheet to sleep under. Only problem with 70 degree mornings is the 90+ degree afternoons... Hanging around in the pavillion and talking with a few attendees, we put together a lunch ride plan for the Oark General Store. David, "werewasi" here, had Oark on the top of his list of things to do while in Arkansas. Doug's sister and brother-in-law wanted to check it out, and hey! I'm down for any excuse to knock out a couple hundred miles of twisties here in The Hills! Around 1030am we headed out. Ten bikes and thirteen people. Quite a spectacle, actually... Ten Guzzis stopping for fuel at the same gas station in Eureka before heading South! Here's a map link of the ride. Definitely worth it if you're staying in the Eureka Springs area: Lunch ride map Here's the Guzzi Cohort after the 75-mile run down AR-23 and AR-215 to Oark: "werewasi" posing in front of the store. A long way from Evans Head, NSW, Australia: Hungry Guzzisti chowing down: Table One discussing/wondering why Table Two got thier food so quickly... And Table Three just enjoying the ambiance... The food is all home-made. And, the place is known far and wide for its pies. Be sure and save some space if ever you eat at the Oark General Store: The food was good, and after a little digesting out on the front porch, the Guzzi Cohort saddled up... ...and headed out for another round of kickass Arkansas twisties: AR-103 just South of Oark: The switchbacks on AR-103: Great road, AR-103: Rest Stop at Fallsville, the junction of AR-16 and AR-21. "Fallsville One Stop" is now open in the store there that's been open off and on over the past few years. It's nice to have a store with gas here in the middle of the Ozark National Forest: Two Spine-Frame Guzzis! 1996 Sport 1100 and 2004 V11 LeMans Nero Corsa! AR-21 is a superfine North/South route in Northern Arkansas: Typical roadside scenery here in The Hills: Rolling into Kingston for a fuel stop at about the 150 mile mark. We arrived back at the KOA about 5pm. It was a real nice group ride. I enjoy riding with other Guzzi riders. Everyone knows how to ride. There are never any mishaps or problems that can't be remedied in short order. Good times! It got real hot on the way back to the campground and all I could think about was hitting the pool! Unfortunately, that meant that Marcia, John (Lowryter), and I missed the awards ceremony at the pavillion... Water sure was nice, though!
Here's another nice little daytrip from October 24, 2009.... "I cried a little yesterday" I went on a little 225 mile ride with some friends yesterday. It's Jason's 40th Birthday and he wanted to ride to Jasper, then down to Altus for lunch. It was a beautiful day here in The Hills, though a little cool. It was 35-degrees when I left the house for our rendezvous at the intersection of AR-16 and AR-74. After topping off with gas and a few hellos, we headed for Jasper via Huntsville and Kingston. Click the Map Link, it's a really nice 66-mile stretch of Ozarks riding! Typical Ozark scenes on AR-74: Jason leading our four bike group between Kingston and Boxley on AR-21. He's really liking his new Triumph Speed Triple: We arrived in Jasper around 11am, topped off with fuel and took a little break. Lots of bikes on the road today. Surprisingly, lots of Euro stuff where I normally would see only cruisers. Triumph Tigers, Triumph Sprints, Ducati Superbikes. Mine was the only Guzzi I saw on the ride... I have no idea what Tom is showing Jason and Donna in this pic!!! No land mines in the picnic area at the Conoco in Jasper! From Jasper, we headed Southward towards Altus taking a really nice piece of pavement. AR-123. This is a popular motorcycle road, especially the section between Mt. Judea and Lurton. AR-123 is a "must-do" road if ever you're in the Ozarks and would like to see some beautiful curvy pavement! Map Link. There's a great place to camp at Haw Creek Falls near the mid-point of this ride. Donna on her M750 heading down AR-123, just above Big Piney Creek: Near the end of AR-123, we stopped at Hagarville for a quick pit-stop, 60-miles down the mountain from Jasper. From Hagarville we were now riding in the Arkansas River Valley. Flat compared to where we'd come from. To Altus, we took US-64 through Clarksville. Map Link Jason had picked Kelt's Irish Pub in Altus for our lunch destination. We rolled into Altus, 150-miles into the ride to find Kelt's on the main street in this little town in the middle of Arkansas Wine Country. Tom's T-Bird Sport, my Nero Corsa, Donna's M750, Jason's Speed Triple: Kelt's Irish Pub. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but the food and beverages are mighty fine, not to mention the interior decor. Kelt's was made sorta famous during filming of that TV show "The Simple Life". They apparently couldn't keep Paris Hilton out of this place. : After a nice meal, we headed back towards home. We decided to run US-71 North. It's not used much anymore since being superceded by I-540. Along the way the route also included AR-282, an old highway alignment that pre-dates US-71 and its route over the mountain between Alma and Mountainburg. We did run about 30-miles of I-40, but I didn't mind. Dean Spring Road and AR-282 were worth it! Map Link The reason why US-71 was moved to the mountain. The highway crosses a low-water bridge over Frog Bayou after passing under the A&M railroad trestle: The fall colors sure were nice near Artist's Point. Lot's of Leaf Peepers out, but I didn't mind. It was a great day for a motorcycle ride! So, why did I cry you ask? Well, Back up on AR-123 we passed one of my favourite spots in the Ozarks. The highway runs along Big Creek Valley between Piercetown and Mount Judea. At Vendor, there is a house I've shown pictures of in previous ride reports. I really love this old house and kinda dreamed of saving it somehow, someday. Well, I guess I can quit worrying about it now. Someone's careless behavior has solved my problem. When I passed "my house" yesterday, there was not much more than a pile of ashes, tin, and stone. Sad, really. There aren't many 19th Century houses standing in these parts. Fire usually takes them. This house was not safe from that fate, so that is why I cried:
Thanks GB! So here's a real-deal "DAY trip". An excerpt from my epic Colorado trip last year. The 2009 Colorado Classic 1000.... Saturday, 20 June. The Colorado Classic. Well, the reason Andrew and I showed up for the MGNOC National a week early was to take a crack at The Colorado Classic. It's a 1000 mile/24 hour group ride put on by the Colorado BMW Club that qualifies the participants for an IBA SaddleSore1000 award. This would be Andrew's first attempt at a SaddleSore1000 and it would be my first IBA ride on the LeMans Nero Corsa. The alarm sounded at 0300 Saturday morning and we quickly got into our riding gear, then rode the 30 miles across The Denver Metro to Lakewood and Rally HQ. We arrived just after 0400 and lined up at the start line. As would be expected, there were many BMWs. One other Guzzi! BigTex showed up on his new Stelvio! There were also some F650 singles, Yamaha FJRs and a few Goldwings... Along with one d00d on a bobbed HD Softail... The riders meeting was held at 0445 Departure was at 0500. All sixty entrants left the hotel after each handed the rally staff his "start card" at the starting gate. Eric Levy, the rallymaster picked a really great route for this ride that included many of the big passes that people talk about riding. I'd ridden a few of them before, but many were new to me! Our route had us leaving Denver metro heading South on US-285 to Fairplay over 10,001 foot Kenosha Pass and 9,993 foot Red Hill Pass. Then north on CO-9 to Breckenridge over 11,541 foot Hoosier Pass. From Breck, we grabbed US-6 and ran 11,992 Loveland Pass to catch I-70 to Empire. Then West on US-40 of 11,315 Berthoud Pass to Winter Park and our first fuel stop... Wow, what a ride!!! We were maintaining a pretty nice "sport-touring pace", so I didn't snap many photos. Loveland: From Winter Park, we continued on US-40 past Granby and Kremmling, then headed West on CO-134 over 9,527 foot Gore pass. Near Toponas, we rode South on CO-131 to Wolcott ...and our second short hop on I-70 East and then took US-24 southward over 10,424 foot Tennessee Pass (a famous railroading pass) to our second fuel stop in Leadville. Man! It was cold in Leadville! Andrew and I decided to grabs some coffee and take a break after refueling here. We needed it! From Leadville, we headed South a bit, then turned West on CO-82 towards Aspen and a crossing of famous12,095 foot Independence Pass! It was here that I had to don rain gear for the first time of the day. It rained on us and got pretty cool on the eastern side of the mountain. Things changed rapidly, though, and by the time we were down in Aspen, I was burning up hot! We stopped for another gear change at Carbondale where we were to head South on CO-133. Shedding the rain gear and a layer had me feeling better. So did a liter of water! It was amazing how quickly the temps and weather changed on this trip! Southward on CO-133 over 8,755 McClure Pass and to our first "mandatory fuel stop" at Hotchkiss, 480 miles into the day's ride... *** Click HERE for a map of the route from Lakewood to Leadville. *** Click HERE to see a map of the route from Leadville to Hotchkiss. The first half of our trip had been quite an adventure, but there were still more than 500 miles to go! From our mandatory fuel stop in Hotchkiss, the rallymaster routed us over CO-92. It's a beautiful road that winds its way along the northern side of Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The road was wet from a rain shower, but man!, what a road! ...and plenty to see: Soon, we turned onto US-50 and headed east a bit... ...before turning South on CO-149 towards Lake City!!! This is a great road, and a must-do when travelling in this area... At Lake City, we stopped for a break and to put our rain gear back on. This time it was mainly for warmth, as we were about to cross 11,361 foot Slumgullion Pass and 10,901 Spring Creek pass before decending through the high country past Creede and Wagon Wheel Gap. Of note: one of the two bikes in front of me is the HD Softail custom pictured at the start! That guy could really ride. He didn't hold us up at all, as you might see judging from the speedometer's needle on my Nero Corsa!!! He went on to complete the ride with no lights only about 15 minutes behind Andrew and me!!! At South Fork, we headed East on US-160 toward Pagosa Springs over 10,850 Wolf Creek Pass. We were lucky, it had just rained on the pass, but the clouds had moved away by the time we got there. The roads were a little wet and slick, but we were glad it wasn't raining. Or worse! At Pagosa Springs the route carried us South on US-84, then East on US-64 towards Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico and our second mandatory fuel stop... By this time it was around 8pm and I was concerned that we would find the gas station closed there... Heading South from Chama, my fears were realized when I started noticing rally entrants passing us going North. Something wasn't right. I figured the stations were closed, but continued the 15 miles South of Chama to see for sure... Well, my fears were correct. Both stations were closed. One was out of business. One was just closed for the evening... Great !?!?!? I grabbed my cell phone and luckily had service... A call to the rallymaster confirmed that the fuel stop had been moved to Chama (15 miles North) and we were to get our required reciept there... No problem, really, but it could have been. I had stretched the fuel stop on the last tankfull and we had stopped at South Fork for fuel... Had I refuelled earlier at Creede, I'd be at risk of running out... Not a good place to run out of gas on a Saturday night... It was just a reminder of why I think large fuel tanks and/or fuel cells are a good thing when riding at night in the boondocks!!! Andrew and I ran back up to Chama and fuelled, along with a large group of ride participants... It's now pitch black outside and we're only 2/3 done with the ride... We have to run Brazos Summit on US-64 in the dark. It had rained earlier, so the road was wet, too... On this 30 mile stretch of highway we saw only one other vehicle... It's a very lonely road!!! But, it's a nice one to ride in the daylight... Here's a couple of pics from a previous trip over this road: At Tres Piedras, the route carried us North on US-285. It was dark and cold by now and I was glad I'd added another layer and my winter gloves at Chama! US-285 is a pretty monotonous road. Straight as an arrow! This was actually a good thing, though, at 10pm after 17 hours on the road! After crossing the border back into Colorado, Andrew and I stopped for fuel at La Jara. It was getting late and we were getting tired... This was Andrew's first ride of this type... He's actually doing great, considering he's only been riding 1.5 years and the R11RS is his first bike! I can see Andrew fading, but I can also see the end of the ride nearing, so I urge him to push on. At Saguache the route turns West onto CO-114. I see the sign telling me that Gunnison is 70 miles distant... I roll on the throttle and Andrew follows. I knew what he'd be thinking when he saw the remaining distance. Later, he told me I was right... He was cursing me in his helmet. He was also cursing the ride. We were 900 miles into this and it was a constant struggle between the cold, the wet, the tired, and the desire to have a successful finish on this ride!!! Well the rallymaster had quite a little surprise for us... I hadn't been on CO-114, but I'd seen it on the map... What the map doesn't really show is how the road tightens and steepens the farther it goes!!! It was on this road that we crossed the last big pass of the ride, 10,149 foot North Cochetopa Pass. By the time we got to the last 8 miles of the road, we were riding 35-40 mph and stuggling with the tight curves in the total black of the Gunnison National Forest at night, but we pressed on... Thankfully, as the road decended, the temperatures began to rise back above 40-degrees and I was able to keep the fog off my windscreen... Riding the past 30 or 40 miles with my windscreen up, or partially up, was really cold!!! Soon enough, US-50 appeared out of nowhere in the darkness... I let out a whoop! 8-miles to Gunnison, then 27-miles North into Crested Butte and we were done!!! I didn't even mind the cold rain the last few miles into Crested Butte because the end was so near... We finished just before 0200 Sunday morning... Just short of 21 hours on the road to comlete the approximately 1027 mile route!!! *** Click this LINK for a map of the second half of the ride. We were happy to see Eric, the rallymaster, in the parking lot of the Old Town Inn under an easy-up to keep him dry as the riders rolled in. He checked our odometers and our gas reciepts, then awarded us our finishers trophies!!! Andrew and I sat in the lobby of the hotel and watched two groups of other riders roll in... Then started talking about a place to stay... After a few minutes of negotiation, we were able to secure a room that had cancelled and get a late check out of 1pm. Nice, considering check-in was 3am !!! The next morning, I visited with a few participants downstairs while Andrew was catching up on his sleep... Fun bunch of people! The Rally Baton rode with me, the whole way, in my H+B topcase! OK... I'm 5'-10" and have my boots on. Eric, the rallymaster, is TALL !!! LOL!!! About noon, Sunday 21 June, Andrew and I head back towards Denver. We take US-50 over to Salida and survey the fairgrounds, then grab a burger at the Windmill restaurant... From Salida, we take US-285 back to Denver (along with everyone else who's returning there from a weekend in the mountains). It was on this leg of the trip that my Nero Corsa returned its best fuel economy EVER! 48.5 mpg in the 170 miles from Crested Butte to Jefferson!!! Much better than the all time worst fuel economy of 31 mpg I recorded between McPherson and Wakeeney, Kansas a few days earlier!!! Andrew and I were both pretty beat up from the ride, so Monday, 22 June was a "rest day" just hanging out in Parker...
A little afternoon ride here in The Hills from back on March 27: My friend, Peg, took a "Biker's Edge" beginners course this week. It's actually the second time for her, as she took the class a few years ago after purchasing her first bike - a Road King Custom. She's been off bikes for long enough that she felt like another class was a good idea to help get her back up to speed on her "new to her" '99 Moto Guzzi California Bassa. So, today we decided to go on a little back roads ramble South of town so she could stretch the Bassa's legs a bit. Here's the map link of our little route down to "Tatum Spring" near Whitehouse, Arkansas: Map Link 1st thing was topping off the tanks at the neighborhood Conoco about a mile from my place. Then a couple miles East on AR-16 to Harris Community Road. Then South on Harris Drive/County 51 through some old cattle farms to Black Oak. Then South on Black Oak Road/County 57 to Sulphur City where we turn South on Whitehouse Road/County 43 to our destination, a literal wide-spot in the road, "Tatum Spring" just South of Whitehouse. This is one of my favorite little places out in the middle of nowhere to stop while rambling around on the local backroads. Today, it's a spring where locals fill thier plastic water tanks so they can haul water home. Funny, but in this land where water is plentiful, some folks don't have wells that return much water and they have to supplement with haul water. Mainly, I suppose, it's people who live along some of the ridgetops in Southern Washington and Northern Crawford Counties... Anyway, Tatum Spring is an interesting place that I'd like to know more about someday. It's in a "bowl" on the side of a ridge along the Middle Fork of the White River. There is a pioneer cabin. Extensive stone teracing, a stone spring house, a stone pool that the water cascades into, and a few other old structures and remains. Someone obviosly put a lot of work/effort into this place a long time ago, but it's in total disrepair now. The only use being the locals who use the spring for supplemental drinking water... The pioneer cabin: The above photo shows a shed roof annex added later, but it's a classic single-pen dovetailed cabin with two doors, one window, and what used to be a stone fireplace. On the other side of the complex is the two-hole outhouse. It's floor is rotted out, so you can see the hand-dug basin that is stone-lined, the stone serving as a foundation for the outhouse. Yes, I took the opportunity to use it!: For all you flatlanders who wonder where your water comes from, this is it. We're in the Boston Mountains Range of the Ozarks. This spring flows into the Middle Fork of the White River, which flows into the White River (which flows through four Ozarks Lakes), into the Arkansas River, then the Mississippi River, and finally to the Gulf of Mexico... Thousands of springs all over the Ozarks help feed the rivers that flow down to The Gulf... Someone, at some point, took the time to plant, divide, and re-plant thousands of Dafodils and lillies along the hillside. The Dafodils are blooming now... a few other varieties of flower are blooming now as well... But, it's the Dafodils that are really putting on a show right now... After exploring the area around the spring, we mounted up and headed back North towards Fayetteville... Upon returning home, we talked about riding. Peg had some questions about "the friction zone", so I hopped on her bike, she on the back, and we went to a vacant cul-de-sac to practice some figure-eights. Two-up, I showed her how to use the clutch, the rear brake, and the throttle to make full-lock turns at walking speed on the Bassa. Finally, a little food was in order, so we rode up into town to the Hammontrees sandwich shop on Dickson Street to finish off the morning... Nice little ride! Never more than 15 miles from home, but plenty of sights to see and curves to ride...
a few photos from last weekend: Friday evening, Marcia and I road US-412/Cherokee Turnpike over to Tulsa and met up with Michael D for a late dinner at Crow Creek on South Peoria Avenue. Fayetteville to Tulsa: Map Link Saturday Morning, we met up with Gordon about 9am and headed out on the scenic route to Ponca City through The Osage Nation. Tulsa to Ponca City: Map Link As we were rolling into Barnsdall, I went to shift down from 5th to 4th and had nothing. Yep. The return spring on my Nero Corsa gave up on me 200 miles from home. What to do? Why, carry on of course! The NC was stuck in 5th gear, but luckily the land was pretty flat and there weren't many stoplights on our route. Barnsdall, Oklahoma on the way to Ponca City: Marcia, Michael D, Gordon, Me: Right at noon, we met up with the rest of the crew at Ponca City's airport, home of Enrique's. Good eating! The airport at Ponca City. Home of Enrique's Mexican. Good eating! After enjoying the meal and a little after dinner bull session, Marcia and I headed out for Kansas where we planned to meet Doug and his wife at the annual bluegrass jam in the park at Cherokee. Just before Cherokee, we pulled off the highway to check out the HUGE shovel, Big Brutus. Really neat place they have there since it was made into a State Historic Site. Ponca to Pittsburg: Map Link Big Brutus at West Mineral, Kansas: After a few minutes taking a few photos, we headed up the road to Cherokee. Saturday Night was spent at a bluegrass jam in Cherokee, Kansas: Doug and his wife at the jam. She plays bass: Some of the pickers who showed up: Breakfast at Stewart's Sunday Morning in Asbury, Missouri: Pittsburg to Fayetteville: Map Link Once again, we were blessed to have Guzzi Friends put us up for the night! Sunday Morning, Marcia, Doug, and I headed over to Stewart's for breakfast, then back home to NW Arkansas... A great 500 mile weekend of Guzzis, Food, Music, and Sights...
A post I added in the Oklahoma Chowdown thread over at Wild Guzzi... 2-up, 400 mile overnighter on the Sport 1100!: Great time! ;-T Thanks to our host at "The Brookside Bed & Breakfast" for putting us up Friday Night! Marcia and I departed Fayetteville at around 545pm and arrived in Tulsa (via AR-16 and US-412) around 745pm. A few beers and shooting the bull, then down to Crow Creek on South Peoria in Tulsa for some really good burgers and drinks. We walked off our dinner by strolling down Peoria to a local pub for another, before heading back to the B&B. Sunday Morning, Marcia cooked up some great scrambled eggs and sausage to tide us over until lunch at Seaba Station. Just before 10am, we fueled at the Quick Trip, then headed for our meetup point, Brookside Motors, the local Guzzi dealer in Tulsa... Michael D befriended some random BMW d00d named Hal at the QT , who decided to join us for the run out to Seaba Station. Michael D in the lead, we grabbed I-44 across the river, then OK-66... Just on the West Side of Sapulpa, Michael D took us across a bridge and along a particularly old section of the former Route-66... Pretty awesome old bridge with an unusual brick deck... The route took us past a great old (and "for sale") Drive-In... Narrow and winding... Danger around every curve, back in the day, I'm sure... As usual, there were some cool old houses along the way... Soon enough, we were back on the "newer version" of Old 66 and parading Westward with some HD and 'wings... They pulled in for gas at Bristow, leaving us pretty much alone on OK-66... At the quaint (and nearly deserted) town of Depew, we pulled off the highway for a little break... Some cool old buildings in this town. Unfortunately, the only ones open these days are the grocery, the florist, the barber, and the post office... Pretty quiet little burg... Soon enough, we reach our destination for the day... Cool four-wheeled stuff at Seaba today, too... ...but this is what we're here for: It was 1230pm by the time we arrived and apparently many bikes had already come and gone... The original 2-stall privy for the old gas station: A portion of the Guzzi crew that showed up for the event: Guzzis were well represented at the event. I counted ten or eleven during the time we were there... They even have a nice old Guzzi on display inside... Marcia and I made a loop through the museum: This was a pretty interesting Street Tracker. Evo Sportster-based, but with modified heads to run the carbs and exhaust XR750-style... Ah!!! The most beautiful bike in attendance!!! The road in front of Seaba is very inviting! Gary Scott describes "the flasher incident"... A late arrival. The rare blue/champaign Quota! This guy is from OKC, but doesn't post here or belong to MGNOC... Lots of late-model British iron in attendance... Around 330pm, we said our goodbyes. Michael D, Marcia, and I headed back East on OK-66... Some random buildings on the way home: Yet another Route 66 Museum: Phillips 66 on Route 66: A great old Victorian house: Lincoln Motel: Old Gas Station: At Bristow, Michael D continued towards Tulsa. Marcia and I grabbed OK-16 for Muskogee where we'd pick up US-62 the rest of the 200 miles home... OK-16: We arrived back in F'ville about 745pm after running the 200 miles from Seaba Station. What a great time! Oh, and don't let anyone tell you the spine frame bikes can't go 2-up... Marcia and I had a great time on this little 400 mile overnighter with the trusty old Sport 1100 !!! ;-T I bought this bike new in March 1997. Going on 14 years of ownership and I've loved every minute of it!!! ;-T The Route: Map Link
Looking to go to Prague, Cz this year and ride in Bavaria and Austria. I am going to stay in Prague then in the south by Ceske Budavice or Krchleby. If anyone has been in the area I could use some infor. Thnaks Hareball
