Coop's Corner: 2009 - The Helix to Arkansas

Sunday, July 29, 2012

2009 - The Helix to Arkansas - Part 2

Reservations had been made ahead of time at the Rider's Rest Motel in Eureka Springs. Much had been written about the place being a motorcycle-only motel for area riding, so I thought I'd give it a try. As expected, I was the only scooter present during those days with cruisers and Gold Wings the most prevalent. There had been a National Rally for 'Wings the week previous, so many of the riders were heading home, planning to spend time in northern AR.

You can see the lonely little Helix, beyond the shelter, out by itself. I just didn't have the heart to compete for covered space with the guys that were concerned with every fly speck on their windshields.

My machine was the only one that had an ADV sticker I'm very sure.

I was in The Clark Gable room, no surprise there.....

"Motorcycles Only" and note the enforced speed limit....

The first order of business was to connect with daughter Lauren, whenever she would be free. With a summer job at Opera In The Ozarks, she was committed to morning practice and evening performances certain days of the week, so my schedule was arranged around those times she'd be free, with solo rides and exploring set for those times when she'd be busy.

The Helix came home after the long week with just over 2500 miles in total, 500 of those miles were with Lauren on the back, two-up. We got out in all directions from Eureka Springs and since she was without a car down there, she got to see much of the area that she would not have otherwise.

The famous Christ of the Ozarks, 65' worth...

At the War Eagle Cavern, our tour guide had MN violin/bow connections; people that Lauren knew well.

On the tour, the entrance to the cavern....

Then it was off the Pea Ridge National Battlefield Monument, the Pea Ridge battle responsible for shifting MO into the Union rather than the Confederacy.

My first armadillo sighting with one actually moving and not pancaked on the road....

Elkhorn Tavern, a crucial fixture in the Civil War

We looped back to Eureka Springs so that Lauren would get back for an evening performance. This is the single lane suspension bridge at Beaver, AR

There were signs demanding a 10MPH maximum which these folks were obviously disobeying. Note the movement of the suspension bridge.

Inspirationally lovely and peaceful Thornton glass-built chapel.

We stopped for a cooling-off swim at Beaver Lake Reservoir before heading back to Eureka Springs.

The next day I went out exploring on my own. West of Eureka Springs at Inspiration Point, very near the Artists Colony where Opera in the Ozarks is headquartered.

Out for a day loop ride to the east and south of Eureka Springs, early morning here.....

Thinking I was up for an Arkansas Rustic Road or two, I started out on this one but it soon turned a bit rough for a MN Helix, so I turned around and headed back, only to find additional adventure very soon.

Cr-329 , rough and rocky. Not far past this corner, I was riding a straight south section at 20-25mph, which was maybe 10mph too fast, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed something whitish racing along beside me. With a sideways glance, I quickly discovered one of those large, square-headed dogs, running at full speed....on the other side of a few strands of barbed wire, which I deduced to be a pasture. Assuming that the dog would soon tire, I was extremely disappointed to look over and see the dog still there, no change in pace, the dog's lips still flopping in the wind. The nastiest surprise was ahead when the dog's 'sister' was up ahead, waiting for me in the center of the rough gravel. By this time I was going 15mph too fast for conditions. Before long there were dogs running beside me on both sides, one behind a fence, the other slowly drifting closer, now no longer in the opposite wheel track and easing into my 'lane'. I was watching hard for the zillions of rough, sharp, large rocks. I didn't stop for a photo until I'd passed their farmstead and comfortably out of the pups' range. It seems I so seldom have dog trouble these days, even with the preponderance of time I spend on back roads. That incident more than made up for my miles of trouble free doggie issues.

Breakfast stop at Kingston at the Valley Bed and Breakfast

In the Buffalo River Valley....

Historic Boxley Valley....

Stopped here for a break on a AR74 ridge, many, many 10mph switchbacks ahead.

Rotary Ann rest area.....

Back in downtown Eureka Springs, an authentic Leg Lamp.....

A real shortage of flat real estate in Eureka Springs.....

No comments:

Post a Comment

Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)