NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, MO, AR and KY or "to the Ozarks and back"

[ssevy]

Day #4 – Spring Mill Campground to Madison Inn Lodge
397 miles

Randy and Denny and I set out at an early hour and headed west on Rt. 60, eventually intersecting US 50, where Denny turned right and we turned left. It was great to right some miles with Denny again, and I'm sorry that I did not grab some photos of him with us this trip. I had originally intended to really focus on the riding and not worry about any ride report, but now with snow on the ground and both bikes put to bed, I wish I had taken the time to better document this ride.
Since I didn't get any new shots of Denny this ride, here he is a few years ago at our Adirondack ride, offering a hand gesture that is unclear (screw you and the horse you rode in on perhaps?):


And here is his custom painted blue and orange TBS:


Once Denny had split off, we continued west on US 50 and then weaved our way across back roads which took us south, then west, then south, then west, etc., until we finally pulled into Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, which had a "No Vacancy" sign prominently displayed at the main entrance (remember how we decided to be "footloose and fancy free" and make no reservations?). Another member from the rat forum had planned on joining us for the evening, and we were hoping he might have secured a few tent sites for us. Since cell phone reception had been spotty all day, we didn't even know if he was here, so we proceeded to ride around the campground loops until we spotted his bike. He had indeed secured the last site, but unfortunately, it was a primitive site up on the side of a mountain, and I needed my bike's battery to run my CPAP machine, so we couldn't share it. We did manage to hike up and finally meet CharlieS, but could only chat for a few minutes, as we had to secure a place to stay and daylight was fast disappearing. At this point, we had already ridden 340 miles, and after hiking up the ridge to meet Charlie and then back down, our asses were dragging.
We jumped (well, crawled whimpering) back on the bikes and headed back whence we had come. Taking a turn south, we found a McDonalds in Ironton, which we intended to exploit for their free wi-fi in hopes of finding another campground or motel. My cell phone chose that very moment to decide its battery had done enough work searching for non-existent cell towers all day, and so we made a quick decision based upon the rapidly fading Google Map on my screen and decided to keep heading east where there must be more options.
We ended up riding about another hour, and finally pulled into the parking lot of the Madison Inn in Fredericktown, Missouri quite late. We snagged a room, unpacked the bikes and hit the rack for the night. Our originally planned long day of 340 miles had turned into an excruciatingly longer day of 397 miles, and we were both thrilled to climb off of the bikes at the end.
Serendipity being what it is, though, this major re-routing took us farther south than originally planned, and we found the best road of the trip the following day.

[ssevy]

Day #5 –Madison Inn Lodge to Dogwood Springs Campground
260 miles

Randy and I packed up the bikes and jumped onto 67 south, which was a beautiful divided highway with perfect blacktop and no traffic. Having seen no Missouri police thus far (but we had seen 4-wheelers with no plates running on the highways, so hell, how risky could it be?), we decided to wick it up a bit to make up for some of last night's wasted miles. So we cruised along about 85 or 90 MPH, and the bikes just purred along beautifully. After about 40 minutes of this, we turned west onto Rt, 34, which turned out to be a real gem. Lots of curves, perfect pavement, and no traffic. While we didn't yet know it, it would be the best road on the entire trip.
Because of the re-routing yesterday, we changed our route plans, and headed for Jasper, Arkansas, to serve as our home base for exploring the Ozarks. Honestly, I don't recall much of this day's ride after wonderful Rt. 34, except that we had some great barbecue for lunch somewhere along the way, and some idiot knocked down a few traffic cones and nearly clipped Randy in some construction just north of Jasper.
The weather was just settling into a nice prolonged high pressure cell, so Randy and I were looking forward to riding some of Arkansas' most famous roads under blue skies and with a minimum of traffic, as the tourist season was nearly over.
Since we would be staying for several days, we opted for the two man cabin, complete with electricity (yay!), air conditioning (yay), and cable (don't care). The driveway was a bit steep and rocky, and parking was side hill and tricky, but it beat the hell out of tenting. Oh, I almost forgot, they had a pool too!

Here's Randy packing his bike at the Madison Inn:


This is the type of grippy macadam we enjoyed in Missouri and Arkansas:


Our cabin at Dogwood Springs Campground:

[ssevy]

Day #6 –Dogwood Springs Campground
Mileage – NFC?

At this point in our trip, we decided to use Dogwood as our home base and ride as many of the best looking roads as possible. Today we grabbed an early breakfast in Jasper, visiting with the locals at a small diner, and then enjoyed superb clear weather for the rest of the day. We rode Rt. 7 south, and then 16 west, and then I can't remember. We ended up passing through Eureka Springs, and we stopped at the Thorncrown Chapel, as well as the Beaver Dam Site. Not much traffic at all, so we ran these roads at our own pace. A beautiful day to ride!
Eureka Springs was exactly like every other tourist town that I have ever passed through, and like Lake George Village NY, which is about 10 minutes from my home, not a place I would ever waste a second day. We did have some great barbecue, and an interesting discussion with the owner of the restaurant. We were the only customers, and he told us he was originally from California, a lifelong Democrat, but he wouldn't be voting for Hillary because of all of the dead people associated with the Clintons through the years. Not one Arkansas resident to whom we spoke was voting for Hillary, even though she had been their first lady for two different terms. As always, I found our conversations with local residents to be a fascinating aspect of our trip, and this was especially so this time with the presidential election so near.

Here's the early morning view from Rt. 7 just south of Jasper:


Another:


And now one looking down the road:



Here's the dam:

[ssevy]

Day #7 –Dogwood Springs Campground to Crowley's Ridge State Park
Mileage – NFC?

Today we rode south and then easterly on more highly-rated roads. We were the only ones on Rt. 16 east for many miles, and while the riding wasn't unpleasant, we both though the Ozarks were not as impressive as other places we have been in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and the Adirondacks where I live. For someone who lives closer to the Ozarks on the flatlands nearby, I can really see their appeal. Considering Ohio and NY as our home bases, there are just so many more appealing places to go that require less flatland traveling to attain.
One highlight of the trip was our lunch stop in Mountain Home AR. We stopped at a Valero gas station/convenience store to grab some water and fill up the bikes, and were shocked to find a beautiful buffet lunch inside, all the product of a very friendly cook in a spotless stainless steel kitchen out back. We both filled up happily, and I finished off with a lovely blackberry cobbler fresh out of the oven. A remarkable meal in a convenience store!

Here's the cobbler:


Here's a shot of a building constructed by the CCC, an organization that FDR formed to put unemployed men back to work. When WWII came about, these men were all used to military life, as this was the blueprint for the CCC camps, and so we instantly had thousands of men ready for training. This is at Crowley Ridge, where we camped:

[ssevy]

Day #8 – Crowley's Ridge State Park to Econo Lodge Gilbertsville KY
Mileage – NFC?

Great weather again today! We headed north and east, with the Land Between the Lakes as our destination. There are several campgrounds there, and the distance would make for a good long day's ride. Along the way we saw the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi river, standing in the same location that Lewis and Clark did, Pretty cool shit!

Under my tent fly when I began taking down my tent:



As we approached the plains near the Mississippi, farmers were burning off the rice fields, and there were huge clouds of smoke visible many miles away. With the wind swirling, they looked like tornados. I sent this photograph to my wife and daughters and told them that Randy and I just missed getting swept away by this "tornado". When I 'fessed up, they were not amused:



Eventually we crossed the very tall bridge over the Mississippi and turned into Fort Defiance Park. Speaking with some state workers who were raking there, they mentioned that the ground we stood upon was 11 feet under the water last spring during the flooding! It's amazing that these huge trees are able to stay attached to land. Looking out into the Mississippi, you see many trees that were not so resilient, and you can't help but be amazed at the size of the trunks as they pass by. Big Muddy indeed!

You can see the difference in color of the very brown Mississippi on the right, and the relatively clean Ohio on the left as they merge here off the point of land:


A panorama from the same spot:


As the day was getting on, we were ready to check into a nice campground and set up our tents. We pulled into one of the US Forest Service Campgrounds, and began to fill out the paperwork. I mentioned we wanted a site with nice grass, and the attendant said they all had nice grass, but if we set our tents up on the grass we would be fined and asked to leave. They had paved sites for RVs and expected us to put our tents up on the blacktop. This was the most ridiculous thing we had ever heard, and it was especially grating to us because the guy (who was paid by our tax money) took such obvious pleasure in conveying the news to us. A perfect example of territorial imperative, and since the forecast was for rain soon, we rode north and stayed at a cheap motel instead.

[ssevy]

Remainder of the trip
Mileage – NFC?

Sorry, these last few days are lost in the fog of my memory. We stayed at a campground on a river in KY somewhere, and it was nothing special. I do have a photo of our side hill tenting:


We did eventually ride some awesome roads through northern KY, eventually crossing into Ohio and then back to Randy's house. The next day he and I ran up to this motorcycle megastore called the Iron Pony, and then stopped at one of the ancient mounds for a walk.
Here's a picture from that walk in the Great Circle:


I stayed with Randy a few days, as the weather was just awful, and then a window of clear skies opened up just enough to attempt a dry run back home. I planned on splitting the 700 miles into two days, and so Randy rode east with me for the morning before turning off and heading back home. We ran some awesome back roads up into Amish country, and then I took all back roads into PA and then NY. I was feeling pretty good, so I jumped on an interstate in western NY that is mostly new and has almost no traffic. Shortly after getting on, a Nissan passed me like I was standing still, and so I let him get just at the limit of my sight, and then I accelerated to keep him there. Turns out he was running about 95 mph, and so I began to make pretty decent time on this portion. We passed every vehicle we encountered, and I kept checking my mirrors as I passed the infrequent exits to be sure no state troopers had joined us.
Finally, after about 45 minutes of this, I suddenly see a state trooper in a Chevy SUV coming downhill across the 75 yard, tall grass median from the west bound lane, and I know the jig's up. Rolling back to about 70 mph, I realize that he hasn't painted me with his radar, but must have seen the Nissan and realized how fast he was going. The trooper squealed his tires as he spun that big SUV onto the black top, and he floored that big V8 and went by me in a flash. In order to close the gap, he must have had that big Chevy's gas pedal pinned to the floor, and as soon as he was out of sight, I rolled it back up to about 85 mph. Amazingly, he didn't actually have the guy pulled over for quite a few more miles, so I guess the Nissan never saw him at all, and just kept cruising along at 95 mph until it was too late. Being a kind sort of fellow, I did honk the horn when I passed him sitting on the shoulder .
Shortly after passing the Nissan and his new friend from the state police, I exited the freeway and got back onto back roads. Since my ass was doing fine, I decided to just keep on riding, and finished the day in my own garage after about 695 miles for the day. I think it was about 15 hours altogether, and is my longest day so far.

In summary, Randy and I had a great trip together. We saw lots of new roads, and we both appreciate just how fortunate we are to each have a riding buddy that neither of us wants to strangle after a few days! Our trips typically involve some fun technical roads, some interesting history, lots of conversations with locals, and a continued love of our bikes. Both of us enjoyed flawless performance from our Triumphs, and it was cool knowing that probably nowhere else in the world would you see this pair of old triples traveling together seeing the sights.

Time to start planning for next season! Hopefully, I'll do a better job with pictures and getting the damn thing written down before I forget so much of it! (Many thanks for the tip about using another program to do the writing – this has saved me immense headaches!)

One more great memory:

[nickjtc]

Thanks for that. Good for you. What kind of gas mileage did you get for the overall trip?

[Sin_Tiger]

Excellent  I find myself wandering in a car too and have to constantly nudge myself back to bike observational levels, good avoid 

[ssevy]

Thanks for that. good for you. What kind of gas mileage did you get for the overall trip?

Here's my tank by tank numbers, in US mpg:

mpg
42.3
41.6
43.2
43.9
38.8
36.1
44.6
39.7
36.3
37.6
45.3
42.5
43.0
42.2
39.0
40.3
37.6
44.2
47.7
37.6
37.9
40.6
35.2
47.2
44.3
41.1 (Average for the entire trip)

[nickjtc]

Here's my tank by tank numbers, in US mpg:

mpg
42.3
41.1 (Average for the entire trip)

Wow. My old bike was obviously REALLY messed up since those were the mileages I was getting to the Imperial gallon.