Friday, September 11
“I woke last night to the sound of thunder;
how far off I sat and wondered...”
Well, it was really the lightning that woke
me last night but thunder was in the mix also.
And sometime in the night, Bob Seger started singing those words in my
head as the wind picked up and the rain came down. Sometimes at night, minutes awake seem like
hours awake….and last night was no exception to that as the thunderstorm that
rolled through our little corner of the country woke me up and kept me up. For the longest time, it was just thunder
and lightning and I thought the rain would miss us. By the time the rain came, the lightning was
slacking off. Don’t know when or how
long it took, but I eventually fell back asleep to the sound of rain, with a Bob
Seger song running through my head.
Thankfully, the storm was well over by the
time the alarm went off at 7:30. I’m not
a fan of lightning and/or thunder so that made me cower under the covers; but
the wind didn’t really bother me. I
reasoned that with us inside as anchors, the tent wasn’t going to fly away…but I
admit it was a little disconcerting to have it noisily ‘breathing’ with the
wind. This morning, Kim was saying he
didn’t mind the rain or thunder/lightning; his concern was a tree or limbs
coming down on us in the tent or on the bikes.
Well, golly! That was something I hadn’t thought about in the dark hours
of the night…and I’m glad he waited until morning to share that with me.
We didn’t leave the campground until about
noon….we wanted to give the tent as much time as possible to dry. So we used the time to get showers, do a load
of wash and pack up as much as we could, leaving the tent to the very last.
It
was a fleece wearing day. When we left,
the sun was trying to break through cloud cover and even though it was warming
up, the air had a dampish feel. Figured
that what felt decent standing still would probably feel chilly heading on down
the road, so I dug out the fleece. And
toward evening, I was tempted to dig out my jacket….but as we were coming down
off the mountain, the air was warming up, so I decided to tough it out.
Today our plan was to ride Arkansas Hwy 23
from Eureka Springs down to US 40, which includes the Pig Trail Scenic Byway. The Pig Trail was our focus. Stopped at the Crossbow Restaurant (proudly owned
and operated by the same family for 35 years) in Huntsville for a late lunch. We were the only non-locals in the place; one
lady came in and wanted to know who was cooking….she was tickled to find out
the Ronnie was in the kitchen. J Gentleman came in and headed our way to talk
bikes, etc. Told him our plan of riding
over to Oklahoma, Texas, etc., and mentioned that today we were planning on
riding the Pig Trail. Can’t do it, he
says….it’s closed…been a real rainy spring and the road just fell away. But he had some another suggestion if we were
looking for a scenic ride….as soon as he said ‘known as the Grand Canyon of the Ozarks’,
I was pulling out my phone and looking it up on the map. We rode the route he suggested, which seemed
to take us up, over, and through the mountains.
So, the Pig Trail was a no-go
this time around, but we ended up riding part of the Arkansas Scenic 7 Byway
and that was a good ride!!
Climbed the 100 ft. Razorback Observation Tower
in Eureka Springs. Cost was $1…quarters
only. Got an little nervous on the way
up but got a great overview of the Ozark Mountains. J
Stopped at Quigley’s Castle, which is
billed as The Ozark’s Strangest Dwelling.
I don’t know about strangest, but it’s unique inside and out…and the
woman behind it all seemed to be quite a character. Mrs. Quigley died in 1984 but her
granddaughter gets you going on your ‘wander at your leisure’ tour. Between the outer foundation and the
flooring, there is about a 4’ wide span of ground inside the house that creates the indoor garden. The plants growing there give the house an interesting look when viewed from the outside, extend up to the ceiling of the second floor, and
are now over 65 years old. As I said, it's unique….
Since campgrounds weren’t real plentiful on
the route we choose today, late afternoon we decided getting a hotel was the
thing to do tonight. That would allow us
to get off the mountain on our own time and not have to worry about setting up
a tent. Plug the Super 8 in Clarksville
into Phil and he did a good job of getting us there….and then he took us right
past it, onto the highway away from it. Kim
didn’t notice that we passed the hotel….he only knew that Phil was telling him
to take the entrance ramp, which he did.
I saw the hotel and started pointing and waving, (which he didn't notice) to get Kim to
realize we were passing the hotel. I’m
sure those behind me were amused by my antics.
Anyway, we made it back to the Super 8, no thanks to Phil.
Observations from the road:
*Roads that don’t have center
road markings make me nervous…doubly so if they’re mountain roads.
*It's good to be flexible in your plans.
*It pays to take the advice of a local.
*It pays to take the advice of a local.
Today’s mileage: 154 miles Total mileage: 1450 miles
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