4 days, 5 good friends and plenty of awesome riding!

remember to click on pictures to see hi res version of pics.

Our group usually does an annual Mothers day ride each year to Northern Arkansas. (Last years write up) This year the schedule did not work out so we had to push it back a couple of weeks. 

We finally got things worked out and the plans were set. We decided to stay at the same place we do every year. Mountain View RV Park is a nice little place and the owner of the location is an all around nice guy.

Thursday May 17th
We decided to hit the road around 6:30am. Rob and Stephen met me at our regular Starbucks to start the day. My wife also joined us before she headed off to school and a day of teaching our youth. We were meeting Jackie in Paris Texas at Nancy's cafe for breakfast at 8am. I got a text from Richard on Monday asking if we were still headed to Arkansas. He said that he was getting a new toy and would ride up after he got off work on Friday afternoon. Richard introduced us to all of these great roads and he is always fun to have on a trip. We were looking forward to seeing his new toy as well.

The rest of the day was pretty easy, the weather warmed up and by the time we made it to the hotel, the temperature had reached the low 90's. We did the quick Subway for dinner and I think we were all in bed by 9pm. We are some wild and crazy guys.

Friday May 18th
We woke up to a morning of sunshine and temps in the low 60's. We headed over to the little town of Fifty Six and our usual breakfast place named Cody's. 

  

We like this location as it is only 14 miles from our favorite place in Arkansas - Push Mountain Road. We ride it up and back at a pretty spirited pace. The road is laid out perfectly and the pavement is top notch. the cool thing is the lack of car / truck traffic. It is almost a non factor. Makes for some fun fast runs. 

End of Push Run

We had a great day of rising. We hit all of the cool roads, 14, 16, 87, 74, 123, 341 and many more. One cool thing about this part of Arkansas, it is hard not to find a fun twisty road.

Here are some pictures from that days ride. It was so nice. Not a ton of traffic, just another reason to come up on the weekdays.

Sand Gap break

Rest Break - Arkansas style

Car was parked outside Anglers

Richard left Dallas around 3pm and arrived around 10pm. He was riding his new toy. It was too dark to take pictures and he was exhausted from the long ride and dodging deer in the dark. We were glad he made it safe and sound. 

Richards New Italian Mistress

Saturday May19th 
 We started the day like we did on Friday with Breakfast at Cody's and a jaunt up and down Push Mountain. We decided to hit some of the roads we missed on Friday and would go to Jasper to eat lunch. The morning was so nice. It stayed cool and the clouds kept the temps from getting to warm.

I am pretty fast on Push, not as fast as some.. hehehe

We were enjoying the roads and having a good spirited run, We were enjoying the day when we came across a motorcycle accident on AR16 about 5 miles from Witt Springs. We stopped to offer assistance and helped with the CPR but it was not to be. The gentleman died due to trauma from hitting a tree after going off the side of the road. He was there on a Victory Vision. It seems that they were having a rally in Eureka Springs. We ran into some of the group at lunch in Jasper. It was an eye opening experience. This was the 2nd time I have helped give CPR, the first time turned out well. This time we were too late and the injuries too much. The mood changed for much of the afternoon, our pace slowed and we just enjoyed each others company. We all know that riding has its risks. This just brought it closer to home for us. RIP Ronald Bogart

We finished the day without incident. It was a great weekend of riding. We put in a good 600 miles on some great fast twisty roads. It does not get much better than this. 

Sunday May 20
We reversed the route from Thursday and took the long way home. It was hot by the time we hit the metromess at 4:45pm. We logged a good 1400 miles for the 4 days. We had a wonderful time and we are looking forward to going back in June to attend the end of the COG Rally and the Start of the STN Rally . I love going to NE Arkansas, but what makes the trip is the company of good friends. It was a great weekend with Fantastic friends.. What more can one ask for? Till next time.. Ride Safe!