Today we did our first ride with another couple. My friend from school, Barb Head, and her husband Steve also ride a Goldwing. When Barb found out that we got our bike, she invited us to go riding with her and Steve. We couldn't say no! :) This ended up being a very adventurous day for us, and Eric learned a lot about riding the bike. Here's a summary of our ride:
We met Barb and Steve Head at the Ozark McDonalds at 7:30am. We drove to Harrison, AR to eat breakfast at Neighbor's Mill. We had the sausage and egg casserole, a pumpkin and cheesecake muffin, and a cinnamon roll. The food was awesome as usual! This is one of our favorite places to eat when we go down to Arkansas to hike and such.
After breakfast, we continued on Hwy 65 to Western Grove, where we got gas. We turned south on Hwy 123 where we survived some steep switchbacks as we climbed up Mt. Judea (Eric did great on them)! We continued on Hwy 123 to Clarksville, where we ate lunch at Fat Dawgz BBQ. There was a car show going on at the town square.
We then rode on Interstate 40 to Ozark, AR, and headed north on Hwy 23. This part of Hwy 23 is called the "Pig Trail" and we saw thousands of bikers on the road. This was the same weekend as Bikes, Blues, and BBQ in Fayetteville, where there was rumored to be 500,000 bikes. It was an amazing site. We got our photo taken by a roadside photographer (Website: www.pigtrailpictures.com), which was pretty cool, even though the picture was not good enough to buy.
We went through Huntsville, and then made it to Eureka Springs where we saw TONS more bikers.
We snaked our way through the town (at 5 mph....yuck) which was super crowded. Eric did pretty well, except for one spot where we had to stop on a steep hill, another car was right behind us, and he had to start from a dead stop and turn right into heavy traffic. This is a huge challenge for a novice biker, but he did it!
We continued on to Harrison, where we ate dinner at Colton's Steakhouse. Unfortunately, our headset bluetooth units ran out of battery power. No communication on the way home. :( Next time, we will bring chargers to use while we eat. We finished in the dark, then drove home (fast) on Hwy 65 with lights blazing! Great ride with good friends!
Ride Info:
(We decided for ourselves we are going to post some ride info for ourselves so that we can use it to help up plan how to dress for future rides, figure out our stamina, etc. Feel free to ignore this stuff.)
Route Link
Starting Temp: 53 degrees
Start Time: 7:30 a.m.
Clothing: We wore jeans, t-shirts, running long-sleeve pullovers (Cindy pink fleece), jackets with liners. We used the chin shields in our helmets during the morning and night, but not during the day.
High temp was 82. At peak "heat" we wore just our t-shirts and jackets without liners. Felt very comfortable. On the way home, it was 56 degrees. Wore the pullovers along with jacket liners. Comfortable except for hands being cold.
End Time: 9:15 p.m.
Starting mileage 68722
Ending mileage 69108
Total miles 386
We met Barb and Steve Head at the Ozark McDonalds at 7:30am. We drove to Harrison, AR to eat breakfast at Neighbor's Mill. We had the sausage and egg casserole, a pumpkin and cheesecake muffin, and a cinnamon roll. The food was awesome as usual! This is one of our favorite places to eat when we go down to Arkansas to hike and such.
After breakfast, we continued on Hwy 65 to Western Grove, where we got gas. We turned south on Hwy 123 where we survived some steep switchbacks as we climbed up Mt. Judea (Eric did great on them)! We continued on Hwy 123 to Clarksville, where we ate lunch at Fat Dawgz BBQ. There was a car show going on at the town square.
We then rode on Interstate 40 to Ozark, AR, and headed north on Hwy 23. This part of Hwy 23 is called the "Pig Trail" and we saw thousands of bikers on the road. This was the same weekend as Bikes, Blues, and BBQ in Fayetteville, where there was rumored to be 500,000 bikes. It was an amazing site. We got our photo taken by a roadside photographer (Website: www.pigtrailpictures.com), which was pretty cool, even though the picture was not good enough to buy.
We went through Huntsville, and then made it to Eureka Springs where we saw TONS more bikers.
We snaked our way through the town (at 5 mph....yuck) which was super crowded. Eric did pretty well, except for one spot where we had to stop on a steep hill, another car was right behind us, and he had to start from a dead stop and turn right into heavy traffic. This is a huge challenge for a novice biker, but he did it!
We continued on to Harrison, where we ate dinner at Colton's Steakhouse. Unfortunately, our headset bluetooth units ran out of battery power. No communication on the way home. :( Next time, we will bring chargers to use while we eat. We finished in the dark, then drove home (fast) on Hwy 65 with lights blazing! Great ride with good friends!
Ride Info:
(We decided for ourselves we are going to post some ride info for ourselves so that we can use it to help up plan how to dress for future rides, figure out our stamina, etc. Feel free to ignore this stuff.)
Route Link
Starting Temp: 53 degrees
Start Time: 7:30 a.m.
Clothing: We wore jeans, t-shirts, running long-sleeve pullovers (Cindy pink fleece), jackets with liners. We used the chin shields in our helmets during the morning and night, but not during the day.
High temp was 82. At peak "heat" we wore just our t-shirts and jackets without liners. Felt very comfortable. On the way home, it was 56 degrees. Wore the pullovers along with jacket liners. Comfortable except for hands being cold.
End Time: 9:15 p.m.
Starting mileage 68722
Ending mileage 69108
Total miles 386
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