Arkansas State Rally

Back from the Rally. We didn’t spend much time at the rally site at all, but had great rides through the mountains of Arkansas. Originally we had tentatively planned on heading up on Thursday but waited till Friday. Just Darlene and I traveled up. I picked a route through Oklahoma, I thought it was pretty good, some good highways, a bit of scenery. I think Oklahoma may be a bit limited in that manner, but also wanted a pretty direct route. Driving into Ft Smith was a pretty typical older city, the end we came in on seemed to be pretty industrial but I think its just more characteristic of the city.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn city center which was a good spot for the main street cruising. Hung out a bit on Friday night to check out the scene.
Saturday morning we rode with Don and Martha, and Glen and Kim. We went up highway 71 to Fayetteville, a great twisty ride, and eventually caught up with the rain. We then did the Pig Trail, a truly great ride! And then Magazine Mountain. A bit of road work on the Magazine route but not enough to detract from the ride. I would have to say that these were definitely the best roads I have ridden in my short riding career. Just beautiful. Twisty roads, up and down hills, tree canopies….
Sunday the ride back we pretty much took the direct route back, and ran into a bit of rain. Just enough to put on our rain gear for about 45 minutes or so. We got back home about 2:30, total miles 810.

AE HOG Bug Run

Saturday night was the annual bug run. Basically you go on a night ride, get a small sticker (or more) and at the end of the run, the bugs get tallied for a variety of awards. As it has been for days and days, it was hot and dry, not exactly bug weather.
We met in Highland Village and we hit the road about 7:45 pm. It was a fairly large group, I think there was over 40 bikes, maybe more. The first pod out was quite large. We were second and there was a smaller pod went out behind us. It was quite a distance to our first checkpoint. I think by the first checkpoint I had about 3 bugs on my whole fairing and windshield, with absolutely none on the sticker!
Some of the ride was on FM 455 which is quite a crooked road, not nice curves but turns and turns and turns. But it was a good ride. I guess we got to our destination in Justin (Off the Trax) about 10:00 and lo and behold, Pod 3 had arrived before us, WTF? Well it turns out that Mike didn’t get the memo and did all 4 checkpoints, while the other 2 pods only did 3 checkpoints. No matter, we had a great ride, and still no bugs of any consequence!
The awards were given, no winners in this house, and the 50-50 was very large, I think it was over $170. We got home around 1 am. Late night and late ride. Darlene was practically falling asleep while riding! And no wonder we were up early for our yardsale that morning in the heat!

Coyotes

The other day coming into work, on Preston Road, just north of Hedgecoxe is a field with a tree line. Along the tree line were two coyotes watching a man walk along Preston after getting off the bus.

I'm surprised how often I see coyotes in the city, and during daylight hours.

Sliders Ride - Trip report

Well another good trip is in the books. It was an interesting trip in many aspects. Of course I cleaned my bike up a bit Friday night, and wouldn't you know it, Saturday morning opened up to rain and thunderstorms. We picked up the group in Mckinney, on the way. They were delayed by 15 minutes start hoping the rain would clear. We had rain or threat of rain till Greenville, were we stopped for fuel and probably about 10 minutes after we left Greenville we out-distanced the rain. A short stop on a farm to market road, for everyone to get out of rain-gear and we were back on our way again.

Mike Wylie was the lead road captain and he picked excellent roads. We had what could have been a very close call as we were negotiating a curve in the road, an oncoming pickup truck lost the rather large trailer he was hauling and somewhat miracously the trailer left the road and went into the ditch without crossing directly into our path as it occurred directly in the middle of our pod.

We ate at Krystal in Longview, hence the "Sliders" referece. I must say, I try to avoid fast food at the best of times, but I can honestly say I will not eat at another Krystal again unless its for a HOG ride. But, we did try to kick it up a notch with the wine that the Riley's brought along for the occasion!

Jefferson was an awesome town. We stayed at the Excelsior Hotel a wonderful old hotel that is supposedly haunted. It may have been but after the ride and the alcohol I don't think anyone would have woken up for a ghost, unless it was a very noisy one!


We were in no hurry Sunday morning and although we were downstairs by 8 am, pretty much everyone else was already gone. We went next door for breakfast as we did not realise we had to order in advance at the hotel. We were on our way by 9 am, on to Pittsburg for a LoneStar point. Oops missed the entrance, uturn and lo and behold some other HOG members, Paul and Michelle and Mike and Carol. So we hung out for a bit then travelled together the rest fo the way, mainly on FM 21 till we hit 30. Along the way we saw two vehicles off the road in the ditch, one apparently fairly recently!

An uneventful drive from there, we arrived home about 1:30. Bikes are very dirty from the rain Saturday morning, maybe I'll wash mine tonight. In total about 380 miles. A good trip, great roads and great people.

Sliders Ride

Well its been a few days, not that they have been uneventful, just normal day to day stuff. Kids are getting ready for school, first day on Monday. Ryan is enrolled in CCCC. Have been riding to work putting a few miles, etc. Still having cold start problems, need to push for the injector upgrade and to check the fork oil/steering head grease issue.

We got the floor in the game room all finished finally, including the trim. Haven't started the big room yet, not sure when but is should be soon. Maybe next week, I have no hockey so could make some headway in the evenings.

This weekend is the 3rd annual Sliders ride, we are heading east! Longview to eat sliders at Krystal then on to Jefferson to stay in a haunted bed and breakfast. It will be a hot ride, consecutive 100+ days with no relief in sight. Updates to follow...