My wife wanted me to take her out on Thursday evening since I’ll be gone so I don’t get a chance to pack yet. Guess I’ll do it in the morning before I leave. In the morning, I take my daughter to daycare and then go pack. It’s an overnighter so how much time could that take to pack? I’m finally on the road around 9:30AM and heading down Hwy 412 on a Friday morning. It’s already better than going to work.

I have a paper map of Arkansas (I glanced at it once during the trip) but didn’t print off any other maps. I do have GPS and some map programs on my phone (assuming I can get some signal to download them) so I can get myself unlost if needed. I have a rough idea of what I want to do on this trip. I wasn’t going to plan this very much and we’ll pick some roads in the general direction. I knew I wanted to take the Peel Ferry, camp somewhere in the forest and wanted to ride Push Mountain Road. Everything else was negotiable.

It looked like going north around the lake would take me pretty far north and way too close to all the stuff around Branson so I decided to take Hwy 90 and then work south of the lake. Then I could work east and south around toward Mountain Home and on to Push Mountain.

I did the normal Spavinaw, Summerfield Road, etc. and on to Jay, OK. I caught up to a pickup going through Spavinaw so I pulled over and let him get ahead. I caught him again as the Horseshoe Curve tightened up. Guess I should have waited a little bit longer.

On to Noel, MO. It was 11:30 so I turned at the Hwy 59 junction to see if I could find any places to eat. I ran into this cafe with several cars in front of it (always a good sign when the locals fill the lot). Someone told me that there’s only two places to eat in Noel, MO but I saw at least 6 places including this one plus a couple older ones that were closed.

Mmm, fresh bacon cheeseburger and curly fries. The burger wasn’t a premade patty and the fries were hand cut. Good eating right before a lot of twisties. I paid up and headed back to Hwy 90 for some fun.

Most of the way to Washburn, MO and there’s a big thud as I was following a car. I’m not sure if it was big pothole or a rock or something falling off the car in front of me but it was a large jolt so I pulled over into a parking lot of store to see if I had damage. I couldn’t find any damage under the bike and the tires/wheels all looked fine. I look over in the parking lot and see a couple BMW GSs sitting at the store and wondered if they were heading somewhere today. I pull back onto Hwy 90 and have it to myself the rest of the way to Washburn. Turn south and then back east onto Hwy 112 which takes me into the Mark Twain National Forest and to the Roaring River State Park. I pulled over to see if there’s a way across without having to go all the way around. I look across the road and there’s Hwy F going the right way so off we go.

The next stretch is rolling through the hills and light traffic. I was going along and noticed that I’m farther than normal without the fuel warning light coming on. It finally comes on at 157 miles instead of the normal 135 miles (43MPG) running back and forth commuting down the expressways. I got 50.4MPG on that tank and the rest of the trip was 50MPG+. Guess I was keeping it in a higher gear and rolled on and off instead of winding it out. Maybe the bag on the rear seat was making it more aerodynamic.

I basically was choosing the northern part of my route to get to the Peel Ferry. I’ve never been on a ferry and this seemed like as good of a time as any to try it out. The Peel Ferry is free and the last of the four ferries that crossed Bull Shoals Lake. I passed several Harleys when I was less than 1/2 mile away so I figured they must have just unloaded the ferry. They just started loading as I came over the hill so I just rolled on behind the line of cars. We had room for one more car so we sat for about 5 minutes and then took off for the other side.

There was a retired couple parked behind me. The wife walked up and started asking where I was from and where I was going. She was very encouraging of my trip and talked most of the way across the lake. Her husband walked up when we were loading back up to get off the ferry. He looked at the Oklahoma plates and asked if I was heading for home. “Nah, still heading out”. He gives me a big smile and tells me to have a fun trip.

There’s the dock on the other side. There’s just one person on an R1 waiting to cross over to where we just came from.

A first for me. I dropped my street bike for the first time in nearly 25 years of riding. Yes, I’ve dropped, dumped, been thrown off, etc. on my dirt bikes many times but never dropped my street bike. I pulled into a gravel parking lot to double check where I wanted to turn south. I put my feet down and the bike started leaning left. I dug in harder but my foot just slid on the rocks as it slowly went on over. I hit the kill switch accidentally as it went the rest of the way down. I took my helmet off and gave it a good pull but didn’t have momentum to get it off the ground. I looked at the mirror and there was a guy walking up behind me. He reached down and grabbed the handlebars and picked it up. He was telling me that his dad is short and this happened to him sometimes. I thanked him and started an initial glance for damage. I turned and the guy had already walked back over to his truck. My mirrors were knocked out of whack but I couldn’t find any damage on the bike after I wiped all the white chalky dust off it. I’m glad I didn’t break my bike in Isabella, MO.

I turned south back toward Arkansas and Mountain Home. I stopped in Mountain Home, AR to get some water (I drained the camelback a couple hours earlier) and a flashlight at a convenience store since I forgot to grab one this morning. I headed south on Hwy 5 until I ran into Hwy 341 (Push Mountain Road). There’s a group of Harleys turning onto 341 in front of me from the other direction. I follow them through the first few turns and then I pulled off at a drive to let them get some distance. I had 341 to myself but it was 7:00PM so the sun was low enough to cast some good shadows on the road through the forest. I kept the pace a bit lower than I wanted because of the visibility.

I decided that I’d better find a place to camp while there was still some light to set up camp. There’s a sign saying wilderness area on a rocky trail heading back into the forest. I had to go a little over a mile to find a spot that looked good enough to make camp. As soon as I stop and take off my gear, I immediately get swarmed by buzzing insects. Some of them are biting but all of them are annoying. I quickly throw the tent up and try to stake the flys down but it’s pretty rocky. I grabbed a nearby rock to persuade my stakes to dig in enough to hold. The rock I grabbed was flint and shards broke off every time I hit the stakes. It’s supposed to be calm so I decided that staking the flys was good enough and jump into the tent to get away from the attacking insects. I grab a towel and wipe down and put on some fresh clothes. Now to get some food in my belly. I decide to take the easy way out and heat up some soup for supper. I open the zipper far enough to stick my stove out of the tent and fire it up (gotta love canister stoves with ignitors). I ate my soup and called my wife (3 or 4 bars on the Edge network in my tent) to let her know that I was safe and heading to bed.

The moon was so bright and clear that it seemed like someone left the light on. The night life was making a lot of racket but I didn’t hear anything crashing through the trees nearby so I wasn’t too worried. The bugs/birds/whatever finally annoyed me enough to go get my earplugs out of my tank bag. The temp dropped enough to get in the bag and I fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up at 5:30AM and thought “I’m not in that big of a hurry to get home yet” and fell right back to sleep. I wake up again at 7:30AM and am ready to get moving again. I make some hot cocoa and eat a granola bar for breakfast. It takes me a little over an hour from waking up until I’m pulling out to go. Back down the rock road to the last stretch of Hwy 341. My steering is feeling really heavy and I think my front tire is low/flat and I’m thinking that the sharp flint rocks cut my tire. I check the tire and it’s fine but coated in a bunch of white powder from the rocky trail. I go around a couple corners and carefully scrub the dust off the tires and it’s feeling normal again. Whew. I finished Hwy 341 and headed west on Hwy 14.

I was wondering how many small towns I’d have to go through until I found an open gas station on a Saturday morning when I got to Big Flat, AR with all the boarded up buildings on Main. I get to the other side of town and there’s a newer gas station/convenience store that was open. The white haired (and bushy white beard) husband and wife running the store asked me where I was heading and came from. I told them how I came from OK the day before and camped in the forest. “Weren’t you worried about the bears?” I said that I wasn’t too worried about it. “Yeah, I used to sleep out in the forest without a tent when I was younger. You’d probably be fine as long as you don’t get between a mother and her cubs”. We talked for 20 minutes or so before I decided to get back on the road.

Not a lot of pictures from here on out because it was just wandering through some mountains and valleys. I was going down Hwy 65 and realized that it was heading north around a bunch of mountains that were on my left. I decided to double back to Hwy 74 since it was heading right into the mountains. It was a fun road comes to a T without any warning. I quickly grab some brakes and take the south route down Hwy 377. More winding through the hills with the occasional clearing across the ridges.

I run into Hwy 16 and know it will get me home. I’m familiar with it west of Hwy 23 and decide to see how this part of it is. It was a lot of winding through the hills with a bunch of 30MPH cautionary curves so just roll on and off the gas for a while. I see some burned ditches and trees as I got farther along. I smell some smoke as I come around a corner to see some state workers keeping an eye on a smoldering ditch. I pass through some more small towns and start wondering where I can stop for lunch. I see a sign for the Hwy 23 junction and realize that I could be at Oark Cafe around 12:30PM. The special was a pulled pork sandwich with baked beans and homemade potato salad. Mmmm

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful until I got back to Oklahoma. I was going down Scenic 412 through Kansas, OK. The speed limit was 45MPH and it looked like we were out of town so I got back up to speed. I met a cop and he tells me that he clocked me doing 59 in a 45. I told him that I thought it was 55 again (Really did think that, not a story). He takes my license and insurance and goes to his car. I breath a sign of relief when he gets out of his car without his ticket book. “I’m cutting you a break and letting you go. Slow it down”. He follows me for a few miles and turns off down a country road. I’m not sure if he was checking my speed or waiting to see if a warrant or something comes back over the radio.

I added 725 miles to the bike, did my first primitive camping, dropped my bike and avoided an expensive ticket (2nd time in my life I’ve been pulled over on a bike). I had a good time and am getting better at traveling some distance on two wheels.

Google Map link

It’s pretty chilly this morning and looks to stay mostly that way all day. I grab my solid textile jacket since it’s my cold/rainy choice (it sucks at 85+ degrees even with the vents all open) and put an extra layer under my solid riding pants. Everything feels pretty good going down the road except for some chilly air on my left wrist and crawling up my arm. I pull over and see that the cuff on my jacket is twisted and letting air in. I straighten it up and everything feels good. I’m I would turn on the heated grips if I’d stop procrastinating about getting some. I noticed that I have a little more than half a tank and decide to keep rolling. They sell gas on the road and I want to make Oark Cafe for a late lunch if I can keep moving enough today (it’s already 8:00).

I’m heading up county line road to I44 and all the construction but traffic is light so I get rolling down 412 pretty easily. It’s nice getting rolling before everyone else gets going. It’s a quiet ride on 412 for the most part. The cross wind starts blowing harder or changing directions and gets under my helmet. My eyes are starting to water so I shift around to get it to stop. 412 runs out, I turn at Sam’s Corner to bypass Locust Grove. The low fuel light starts blinking so I fuel up at the station just west of the lake and get ready to make my Spavinaw run.

I’m running through the first part and I see a tractor up ahead. I’m getting closer and see it’s a tractor on a trailer being going into the twistier part of the road. He’s running 35 and crossing completely into the other lane. I hope for him to turn off but he’s still going. I can see that it’s clear for at least 3 turns away and I twist the throttle. He’s already across the line by a couple feet and going but he can have it all because I’m gone and not waiting around for him to crash head on into someone. The rest of the way to Spav is fun but over too soon after following the tractor through half of it. The car in front of me on the north side of town pulls over apparently to park. I look in the mirror and see him pulling right back out. I give him a big wave to make sure he knows I’m grateful that he let me by.

I have Summerfield Road all to myself so I’m working on being smooth rather than fast. I glance down at my speedometer and think “I guess you can do both”. Several nice turns in the cloudy and a bit chilly day until I run into a slow car on the last couple curves. I settle in to follow the car into town and turn toward Missouri.

Just over 2 hours into the trip and I finally get to see what condition Hwy90 is in. I haven’t been on it for 3 years so I’m not sure what to expect.

The first few curves out of town are rough with a groove in the middle of it for my tire to try to fall into. I hope the rest of the road isn’t like this. The next part has some patches but not holes or sunken sections. It’s very rideable and still fun. The middle of 90 is repaved in sections and nice with the roughest parts just outside of Noel and just outside of Washburn. I’m not going to wait another 3 years to take this road.

Let’s skip the drivers that can’t stay in their lanes going 20+ under on the way into Eureka Springs.

The trip down Hwy 23 is pretty good today. The sun is out and the chill is mostly gone. There’s lots of sweepers and not a lot of traffic today. I know the damaged sections are coming up in the forest. The foliage is thick and I flip up the inner sun visor in the forest. Everything is looking good when I run into the construction signs. Around the corner and see all new pavement on the first redone section. They must have just finished it because it looks done and the signs are all still up with the warnings. The next repaired section is the same (nice new pavement with all the warning signs still in place). I wonder if the photographer is going to be in his usual spot on the south side of the forest. Looks like he found something better to do on a chilly day.

Hwy 215 turnoff and I’m starting to get hungry. There’s signs about construction and local traffic only so I’m wondering how bad it is. The first part is normal and it’s a nice ride along the river until I take a turn much faster than I should have. My thoughts are running but I’m totally calm through this (“I’ve got this” “The bike can do this” “You can do this too”). I see I’m still completely in my lane so I give some gas to keep it stable and kept on going. Why do little minor things give you mini panic/pucker moments when you can do stuff like this? I realize that maybe I pushed lunch a little too far and my focus isn’t what it was earlier in the day. I back off on the pace a bit more and look for the construction that’s coming up. I meet a few sport bikes, cruisers, BMW RT, Goldwings. I figure if these guys came through there then I surely can. The pavement isn’t too bad but some of the rock (gravel) that you have cross is a little deep in spots. Slow down and keep straight. I made it through but think about maybe checking Hwy 103 to the south instead of going back this way. I hear it’s pretty good and I haven’t been on it yet.

Oark Cafe. There’s some Goldwings and cruisers out front so I park on the side next to a yellow & black BMW F800GS (still my favorite color combo on that bike). I walk in and order one of the best burgers around.

Here’s 103 just south of Oark, AR. Over 400ft drop in those first few curves.

Here’s the view from the first 10mph switchback. There’s a waterfall just below this but I was already too far past to take the picture when I saw it. The road was too steep to push back up and I didn’t want to turn around in a blind corner.

Here’s the first switchback. The sign before this said 2 1/2 miles of steep downhill grade and they aren’t kidding.

Here’s the route I ended up taking today. It ended up being around 450 miles. I think I’m ready to do something with that stock seat.

My wife was planning on taking the kids to see the grandparents and her sister over spring break so that seemed like a good time to take a couple days.  I took Thursday and Friday off for spring break week and started scouting for good spots to camp. I didn’t want to overplan and then lock in. The plan was to just roll with it and have fun. My original thought was to spend the day in Arkansas and end up central or eastern. Then I’d explore some roads around the eastern side of the state and work back toward home direction. Then Saturday would be a nice day to take it easy and look around without needing to push much.

The weather reports got worse every day as the trip got closer. The temps dropped a little more and rain/cold/snow were creeping into Saturday evening. I started looking farther south and considering some Texas options (Big Bend Park, Gulf, Hill Country, etc.). The night before I was going to take off, the weather said it was supposed to be freezing Friday night/Saturday morning. It was supposed to be 60′s on Thursday with 40′s low and 70′s Friday afternoon before the cold front came in. This was still going forward even if it needs to be changed. I scaled back to one night at Talimena with a fairly ambitious route back through central Arkansas then home (assuming everything worked out).

Here we are all loaded up and ready to roll.  Tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad and a stuff sack full of clothes in the dry bag with some Rok straps holding it all very securely. Laptop, food, jacket liner, extra warm gloves, rain pants, walking around shoes, stove and a couple Nalgen bottles of water were loaded in the top case. I threw my phone, camera, maps and a few miscellaneous things in the tank bag. Probably could have been on the road for several days with this load but that’s part of what I wanted to check out. The dry bag and top case weighed 45 pounds (case/bag and all) according to the bathroom scale. I noticed a little bit of weight but it wasn’t much of a change at all.

It’s warmed up to a comfortable temp and the roads are pretty quiet on a Thursday afternoon. Here’s a little chance to stretch and adjust.

I was rolling along the Talimena Scenic Drive a bit when I decided to stop and check a scenic overlook since there seemed to be one every 1/2 mile. There were several people at this particular overlook. All the others I saw from the road had been empty. I pulled in behind a yellow V-Strom with a guy in yellow gear smoking a cigar. We get to talking and he tells me that he also has a yellow VFR. Here I am riding a red bike and wearing a blue jacket. My perforated leather jacket is yellow/black. I didn’t know you were supposed to color match. The people in the cars take off and we hang out talking for a bit. Turns out he’s from Dallas area and was taking his newly acquired bike out for a test run. He bought it a few weeks ago to take on an Alaska trip this year because he didn’t think it was the best choice for that (even though about every kind of bike has done that trip). We looked around and noticed a lot of smoke rising up and down the valley. I noticed that a lot of ditches, fields and brush piles were burning on the way here. The smoke was so thick in the valley on the other side of Mena that it looked dark and orange even though there was a couple hours of daylight left. The Strom rider was telling me about a side road that was supposed to be pretty fun and that he was going that way to check it out. I was getting low on fuel and knew if I could make another 10 miles or so before the warning light came on that I could make it on into Mena. I didn’t let up on the gas because worst case, I’d double back and take some more twisties. The light started blinking over 20 miles later so I was fine.

I got back to the campground and setup in the semi darkness. The wind is getting stronger and colder. It blows my stove so much it ends up going out early with a lukewarm pot of water. I threw in some oatmeal instead of fighting with it. Peaches, granola bar and a can of V8 rounded up supper. I added a couple layers and crawled into the sleeping bag. The breeze was blowing through the tent pretty good and the temp was already dropping below 40. Stupid me, I checked the overnight low of 47 in Mena, AR in the valley. It ended up being around 37 in my tent on the mountain according to my thermometer hanging in the tent. It was cold, 2:00 in the morning and I was still trying to figure out if I was going to ever do this camping thing again. I finally pulled my fleece pullover out of the sleeping bag’s pillow pocket and positioned it half under my head and half over my face. I fell asleep again and slept like a log. The answer in the morning to last night’s debate was “of course I’m doing this again, I love getting up in the morning at camp” (strange because I’m really not a morning person normally). Next time I’m bringing a camp pillow and a stocking cap.

I got up at 7:00 feeling pretty good after some good sleep and a walk up the hill to the restroom. Crawled back in the sleeping bag while I listen to the ipod and wait for it to warm up a few degrees. I decided to skip the push back through Arkansas and just let it warm up a bit before I get moving again. I should have gotten around quicker since I ended up losing the extra layers because I was getting too warm. That’s why this was a test run.

There was a little breeze but I made a windscreen with my laptop bag and the food bag. Much better than the night before. I was actually able to boil some water without the wind trying to blow it out.

Breakfast is caramel hot cocoa and an apple cereal bar. There’s plenty of other food along but I wanted to get on the road and lunch isn’t too far off. Time to finish packing and head up to the Inn to pay for my camping spot. A grand total of $15.50 with taxes.

Here’s a video from the OK/AR state line back toward Talihina OK. I might need to re-upload this video or break it apart. My other videos on Vimeo were taken with the same camera but were full frame.

I gassed up in Talihina and found some lunch at Underwood’s Outlaw BBQ on the south side of town. There were some other places along the way out to the scenic bypass but I thought I’d look around first. There were several cars here when I pulled up so I thought that was pretty good sign.

I got a spicy sausage bbq sandwich and potato salad. The potato salad was very peppery, almost spicy. It was all really good.

The trip home was fairly uneventful except for meeting a flatbed semi on a 15mph switchback north of Talihina. I saw him in plenty of time and rode clear out on the shoulder to give him room. I was planning on hitting it harder than I did on the way in. It was a beautiful day with light traffic. I made the most of the few curves on the way home and kept a good pace. Pulled into the garage a little past 2:00pm and took a shower. I went to an afternoon movie (Green Zone) then came home and finished unpacking.

The family decided to have a big supper together instead of trying to get ahead of the weather that kept me from staying out another day. They ended up in the middle of it and had to get a motel north of Kansas City. I had a really good night’s sleep without anyone around to wake me up.

My experiences with your restaurants has been more trouble than it’s worth. My local store has not gotten an order right in 8 tries. I’ve tried another store and they are 2 out of 4 for getting my orders right. I don’t find 2 for 12 an acceptable average for a restaurant whose motto is “Have it your way”.

You may be wondering what types of issues I’ve had and that’s a fair question. I happen to like all the condiments on my burgers/sandwiches/etc. so there hasn’t been any type of special orders in these experiences. There’s been wrong sandwiches, wrong drinks, missing fries, etc. It’s been at least 2 or 3 issues on every order. Once I ordered a limited time burger that had cheddar cheese, sauteed onions, etc. The promotion had been running for a couple weeks so I thought they could make it by then but they had to remake it 4 times after me talking to the manager and taking 45 minutes to get it taken care of. I boycotted that store (only went to one other store once) for 3 years over that deal.

Your marketing has been very good during all this time. My son could tell me exactly what toy was in the kids meal during this entire time. Doesn’t matter if it’s Sponge Bob, Transformers, etc. but he knew I wouldn’t take him there because we’ve had a few talks about why we don’t go there. I will put up with a lot for my kids so I told him last week that we’ll give Burger King another chance. He’s really been wanting the Transformer toys so I went through the drive through on the way to drop him off at the day care.

Me: “I’d like a BK kids meal”
Drive-through: “4 or 6 piece chicken?” (I didn’t ask for chicken)
Me: “(to my son)Do you want nuggets?”
Son: “Yes”
Me: “4 piece please with chocolate milk (son says “Dr Pepper” from the back), I’m sorry make that Dr Pepper”
Drive-through: silence
Drive-through: more silence
Drive-through: “$3.31, please pull around” (What about asking for the side or a sauce to go with the chicken nuggets?? What about asking if the toy is for a boy or girl?)

We pull around and I ask for some honey-mustard at the window, take the food and drive him to the daycare. I get back to pick him up and find that they had given him a toddler toy instead of the Transformer toy he was wanting. His little sister liked the ball that came with it but she’s one. This is when I decided enough was enough. There’s plenty of other options around and I don’t need you. Seems you would try a little harder if you needed me.

I don’t want anything from you. I’m going to make sure this makes it to the appropriate person in the corporate office and I’m going to make sure the local store manager knows what is going on and then we are done.

Thank you,
Dale Shrauger

Turn to watch the garage door come down, flip the sun visor on the helmet, let the clutch out and I’m rolling as it begins. The bike is glued to the road as I turn out of the drive and go around the corner to exit the neighborhood. The next hour and change (my watch didn’t jump in front of my eyes so I’m not sure how long exactly) was an exercise in effortlessness. Every shift was precise, every light was green, every car would turn off or be right in the passing zone to glide by and the wind just gently flowed by with its comfortable cool breeze.

The mechanics of brake, weight, shift, look, accelerate seemed to be far away today. They were still happening but it seemed more like flowing with stream than negotiating the road. I would enter a turn a few mph faster than I normally do but it was so easy. I’d pick my apex and the bike would just take me there. My exit speeds were higher than my normal pace when I’m deliberately trying to make a quick clean curve. It just flows so smoothly around the bends.

There are several other bikes on the road today. Everyone gives a big wave today. Seems they are glad to see a break in the rain with a beautiful day too. This trip was over far too soon today. I glide into the garage and park the bike. The gear goes back on the hangers in the corner of the garage.

I change into my mowing clothes and head out to take care of grass with 3 weeks worth of rain fueled growth. Somehow the mowing didn’t seem to take long today. I ride to church to run sound for the youth group(always the tech). The usual “Do you ride a motorcycle?” question (helmet sitting on top of the wireless receivers and the jacket on my chair) doesn’t get an answer tonight. I just smile and they know the answer.

Sorry about no pictures but I don’t think I would have bothered to take any even if I remembered to grab the camera.

We suit up and head out of the neighborhood. We get to the first stop light (1/4 mile) and he’s trying to talk to me. I stop at the light and turn around to find out he was saying “This is fun!” . We get another 1/2 mile down the road and he’s talking and pointing into the subdivision of his classmate Creed. I didn’t catch exactly what he was saying but just nodded and pointed up at a formation of airplanes overhead (Was there supposed to be an airshow today?). We get to the next light and he tells me “That was Creed’s house, well his street because I can’t see the house. What were you pointing at?”. I was thinking this could be a long ride with 3 conversations in 1.25 miles. I’m torn on whether or not I want to get an intercom setup with him jabbering all the time.

We settle in and there’s no talking for a little while (ahhhhhh). He’s looking around and seems to be doing fine. We go through some small curves with some late turn-in’s to make them a little more fun. I slow down to ask if he’s OK and the response was “GO!GO!GO!”. Some back roads and winding through a couple creek bottoms bring us out to a minor highway. Decision time: Are we riding to ride or should we look for a destination? Me: “You want to go to a lake or ride around?” Him: “Let’s go to the lake!!”.

We head south and cross over the Arkansas river. I’ve been noticing he’s been looking around and moving more on this trip. He seems to be a lot more comfortable on the bike. All of a sudden there’s a couple hands on my shoulders and he’s standing on the pegs to get a better look. I slow down and he asks me “Does that hurt your shoulders?”. I tell him that it doesn’t hurt me but he needs sit down and hold on. We are getting close to Haskell, OK so I decide to turn down the Stone Bluff Winery road. It’s a couple miles long and straight but a few of the hills are like a roller coaster. I hear him trying to talk to me as we come up to the first stop sign before the hills. I just pull over and turn the bike off. “Dad, your helmet says ‘D’—-’O'—” (I know where this is going) “–’T’. ‘D-O-T’, why does it say dot on your helmet?”.

Roll on down the highway and turn south at Leonard. There’s a couple good curves on the lake road but it’s rough pavement. Up over the crest of the hill. The road going down to the lake is pretty steep. I’m in engine braking in 2nd and still need to grab the brakes to slow some. I was hoping there was some overflow coming off the lake. There’s a channel that drops into the valley with a couple waterfalls. Unfortunately the lake was down a bit right now so no cool waterfalls.

We go around the lake (it’s small) to the covered picnic area on the far side to park. We see a couple boys playing behind a rock across the road while we are taking our gear off. He asks if he can go down to the dock and I tell him to go ahead. There’s another boy that’s a couple years older than Gabriel fishing with his mother. We look around and enjoy the scenery. It’s late afternoon and the sun is shining off the water pretty good. Mmmm sunburn. I figured we’d hang out for a few minutes then get back on the road. The mother starts talking and we find out they live 5 minutes away and come down to fish for perch regularly. “We have an extra pole if your son wants to fish”. He was all over that since he’s never been fishing before.

45 minutes and just a couple nibbles but he’s enjoying himself. The other boy caught 3 fish in the time we were there and Gabriel really liked that. We also got to hear someone in the distance trying to rock out from where they were stuck in the hills. Weeeerrrrrr, Weerrrrrr, some unintelligible frustrations, Weeeerrrr, Weeeeerrrrr, more frustrations, Weeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr, normal driving sound.

I had agreed to help some friends tonight so I figured it was time to go. I didn’t plan on spending an hour here but it was worth having some fun. Time to head back up the hill to head for home.

The boys playing behind the boulder across the road were talking about cool rocks they found. They saw us coming up the hill and ducked down. We could see their heads poking out and heard whispering. Gabriel says “I’m going to go over there”. I spoke loudly “I think there’s a bear over there, better throw a rock at him”. The boys still kept popping their heads out so I guess I didn’t scare them too bad.

We’re getting ready to get back on the bike and I ask him “Was this a fun adventure?”. He replies “This isn’t an adventure”. “Why not?”. “You have to go around the world and get treasure if you are going to have an adventure. Get some pirate treasure and shoot someone if they try to take your treasure”. I explained to him that we aren’t going to shoot anyone over some treasure. “You got to go somewhere you’ve never been before and do something you’ve never done. Isn’t that an adventure?”. He replies “It was fun but I think we need some treasure too.”

I guess I need to forget the intercoms for now and buy a handheld GPS. Maybe some motorcycle rides to go geocaching will make it an adventure. I’ll just have to make sure we go after some caches with more than a logbook.  I see there’s 5 geocaches at this lake. Maybe we can come back and have a “real” adventure.

I know this was a lot of talking for a 60-something mile round trip to drown a worm but it was fun to share my time with my son. Glad you came along.

My 6 year old has been interested in my motorcycle since I got it last year after some time away from bikes. He went from saying “I would like to ride when I’m older” to “I’m ready to ride when I get a helmet and gloves”.  I measure his head and order an XS full faced helmet and wait for a good opportunity. It was a nice day today and the 2nd child is due in a little over a week so I decided the time was right. We ran down to pick up some gloves and a jacket to complete the outfit.

He picks out some sunglasses too while we are there. I get him in his gear and he puts the glasses on. My wife and I say that he looks like Iceman from Top Gun. He’s thinking Iceman the superhero and starts posing.

Geared up and ready to head out.

Time for the fun. Two blocks out of the neighborhood and he’s yelling at me pretty intensely. I find the next drive and pull in. He looks worked up and about ready to cry. He’s not too sure about this and informs me that he’s walking back to the house. I tell him that I’ll give him a ride back the house if he really wants to go back. His reply “Let’s go to the next drive and then we can turn around”.

The “next drive” turns out to be a couple miles away after some easy curves. We hopped off and look around the parking lot a bit. I ask him if he wants to go back or does he want to drive out to his friend Isaac’s house (another 10miles from there). He decides that we should go there since we are having fun now.

We take the scenic way to Isaac’s house to find out they aren’t home.

Another decision to make, turn around or let’s go on to the next town to Sonic. His answer is “I want a grilled cheese and the toy”. We ride a bit farther into the next town without event but he’s seeming much more relaxed on the back of the bike. He’s looking around and is sitting up instead of leaning on me like when we started.

We take our gear off and see that we picked up 2 or 3 hitchhikers (tiny Praying Mantis).

Just hanging out waiting for some food.

He was feeling so happy that he was doing a crazy dance after this picture.

I make a quick call home to inform my wife that we are going to be longer than the quick ride around the block we said we were doing. We talk and finally finish up the food. We suit back up and start heading out. We are circling around back of Sonic to head out and I hear him yelling again. I think “Here we go again 20 miles from home”. I stop at the drive and ask him if he’s ok. “Yeah, I said BLAST OFF!! Now let’s go!!!”

We head back down some rough blacktop back roads and get back to our town. I start seeing this red and black glove in my right mirror. He’s just having a good time back there playing in the wind. I wish I could have got a picture of that but I promised my wife no picture taking in motion (she doesn’t like it when I do so I promised I wouldn’t with our son). I got to the twisties near our house and I hit them a bit faster this time.

Here he is after the ride.

He tells me “You went too fast in those curves”. I ask if it scared him. “No, you were just going too fast”.

We’ve been hanging out tonight and dad is his favorite person right now. I’m really glad he enjoyed it and now I need to get some good pants and boots on him. I didn’t want to go too overboard in case he hated it but I wanted to make sure that he had something.

My wife was getting her hair done so I knew I had to be back to pick up my son so I couldn’t get too far away. I decided highway 80 would be a good destination for today. It’s a bit rough but I wasn’t planning on pushing too hard. I’m just out enjoying the nice day.

I was a little tired so I thought I’d pull over and drink my caffeine that I picked up when I topped off in Coweta. I noticed that this pull off was really a trail so I decided to head down it a bit.

It’s a little rocky but fairly decent trail overall. The SV is definitely geared too high for this but it’s handling it fine. I really miss having a dirtbike around about now.

A small creek running through with plenty of rocks. I wanted to check some other spots out so I decided to turn around here.

Looks like I’m not going this way either.

I decided to get back on the pavement so I can save some time for more wandering later in the trip. Heading down 51 toward Wagoner.

This is where the batteries gave out and the spares are on the kitchen counter.

I see a sign “Porter 7 miles” between Wagoner and Coweta. I decide to take it so I can take 51B, 104 (back way into Haskell), 72 and Indian Road (161st). It starts out paved and quickly starts alternating sections of rock and rough asphalt. It turns completely to rock before the overpass for the turnpike and T’s right after the overpass. No sign at the T so I choose right since it’s going west. I figured I could adjust if it wasn’t the right way. Turns out it wasn’t the right way. The road gets worse and there’s grass growing in the middle of it. There’s rocks in a couple of the hills that weren’t cut out. It just drops and you get light going over it. It dumps into someone’s drive so I backtrack to the last intersection and jog north a mile before turning west again. This road does go through and I catch 51B heading north/south instead of catching it east/west like I had originally intended.

It’s fairly smooth sailing from here. Highway 104 goes along some sod farms, has a couple 25mph 90 degree turns and a 35mph sweeper before it crosses the Arkansas and heads into Haskell. Head up 72 toward Coweta and cross the river again. Turn on Indian Road (161st)and follow it until it turns north at county line road and on into BA. I get back to the house about the time I normally get home on a weekday. Jump in the Jeep and go pick up my son at daycare at the regular time.

Seeing how today and the next few days are turning out, I’m really glad I went out for a while yesterday. Might not have been really far or really exciting but I enjoyed myself. I have to take the opportunities as they come. Now I’m going go back to drooling over a Husqvarna TE610.

The first obstacle to overcome is getting 2.5.x on the machine. I found an an unofficial 2.5.21 port but it was giving me some errors on my OpenBSD 4.1 laptop. I look around some more but didn’t find a more recent port. I did find directions for compiling 2.5.16 on OpenBSD 3.8/3.9 so I pulled some configure options and hacked together a rough port of my own using version 2.5.23 since it’s current. My build errors went away but I had some errors on install while it was building the package. It was basically some man pages that existed but were in a different directory than it was looking for and a defaults file. I copied the man pages to the right working directory and created an empty defaults file. It installed fine and created a package. I used this package on a clean install since this laptop has been upgraded a couple times to be sure it was working cleanly. I upgraded both machines to OpenBSD 4.2 today and FVWM is still working fine. I’m going to do a fresh install of 4.2 on the test machine and give the port another look to see if I can get it to compile and install cleanly.

Download and install the theme and it looks like it’s supposed to but the scripts for wifi, battery and volume aren’t working since it’s trying to pull values from FreeBSD’s sysctls. This was to be expected since the original scripts were on linux and pulling stuff from /proc. A little fiddling with wicontrol, apm and mixerctl using awk, cut, etc. and I had working scripts again. I just added the FreeBSD portions of the scripts back in and used uname and some if statements to determine which to run. I guess I could add the linux version back in for completeness.

I did notice I was missing a couple things on the fresh install since it was pretty minimal. I needed to add ImageMagick, imlib and Esetroot (from eterm port) to get everything working. If you already have a fairly complete desktop then you likely already have it all but just double check before you decide it’s not working. You’ll also need to edit ~/.fvwm/config to set the path to your icons and set your preferred apps. I’m using aterm for the terminal and aumix for the volume but you can change it easily enough in the config file.

Here’s what it looks like now:

Downloads:

fvwm2-devel-port.tar.gz
fvwm2-devel-2.5.23.tgz
fvwm2 configs ver 1.1

The port file is hackish but I’ll add checksums if/when I clean it up. The pkg was compiled on a 4.1 box but it’s working on a couple of upgraded 4.2 boxes now. You are welcome to it but use at your own risk. :^)

Sometimes I even drive the bike. I’ve been taking a few trips on the weekends and losing track of time. I try to take the camera with me and get some shots whenever I get to a town I haven’t shot before. Last few rides, the camera has been staying home. I’m trying to find the balance in riding and picture taking. Guess I need to get a nice tank bag to keep the camera in so it’s not in the way. I’ve put some pictures up in the gallery over on my other site (strog.org). I went to Spavinaw, OK the other day and it has a really nice windy road heading there. It was pretty in town with the creek running by. I wish I had the camera with me. The first longer trip I took on the bike was to go to Tahlequah, OK.

The more time I’ve put on the bike, the more I realize that it’s like starting over after being away for several years. Sometimes I want to get nervous at a turn that seems too fast when I know it’s easily within my skill level and capabilities of the bike. I take a breath, think my way through the turn, look through and exit cleanly. The turn wasn’t too fast or difficult, I just need to get comfortable again. I need to take the motorcycle safety course(s) to speed up the process. I’d like to eventually do some track days on the bike but that will be down the road. I’ll go out to Hallett next weekend and just watch.