Saturday, October 19, 2013

First Group Ride - Jasper Figure 8

Today was our first group ride on the bike. We went with Eric's boss, Brett, and some other friends of Brett. We didn't sleep well last night because we were so excited to get going. We knew it would be really cold, so we had all of our new heated gear laid out ready to go. We decided to get up early and hit the road for a "pre-trip". We rode to Branson in hopes of seeing the balloons launch as part of the Branson Balloon Festival. We got down to Branson and went to the rec-plex, but the balloons hadn't launched. We headed back toward EE/65 for the meet-up spot. We filled up at Walmart, then met Brett and Dean at EE and 65 at 8:15am.

From there, we rode EE to Highlandville and went south on 160/13. We took 13 to 86 to Blue Eye and ate breakfast at Raymond's (slow service, but good food.) We met up with Mike Chapman who is a friend of Brett's. We also met up with Jeff Haymes (lead singer of Studio 54) who is a ton of fun. We all ate and then headed out. Here is the route we took:

311 to Green Forest
103 through Rule/Rude then 412 to Osage
103 south toward Compton
43 to Ponca (stopped at a local craft fair to take a break)
74 up Mt. Sherman to Jasper




Jeff's battery died and he coasted down to Jasper to get a replacement battery, and then headed back home.

7 to 374 to 123 through Mt. Judea (did a great job on the difficult switchbacks)
To Lurton
7 back to Jasper

We ate at the Cliff House Inn. BEAUTIFUL scenery.




From there, we took the lead and went through Harrison on Hwy 7, then Hwy 14, then Hwy 125 to Peel's Ferry.



We crossed on the ferry, and then drove home on Hwy 125. It was getting dark and cold, and we were on high alert for deer.

We stopped for gas and zip ties, and returned home around 7:30pm. Ready for tomorrow!


Ride Info:

Click for Route Link



Starting temperature 38°
Starting mileage 70156
Ending mileage 70520.
Total miles 364.

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