Chris' Valentines Day Ride Report Pt 1

[smileyman]

OK so my wife is attractive and understanding. Knowing she was having weekend visitation with her son who lives with her Ex and the fact that V-day almost always coincides with the 28 day circle of life and death, she agreed for me to have by best friend of 17 some odd years come over, spend the weekend, and ride motorcycles.

Friday night was a happy reunion with my college chum, bourbon was consumed and old stories relived until the wee hours. Saturday was cool, much cooler than anticipated so it was off to the local bike shop, Bill Eddys Motorsports for a gear refit and my buddy took advantage of a snazzy and warmly insulated Fieldsheer touring suit and we got off to a late start about 10 oclock.

We headed East out of Fayetteville and enjoyed teh Ozarks scenery until lunch in a place called Kingston. Small town kinda of a cross between something outta deliverance and the Andy Griffith show. We chowed on some good ole hometown cooking and then set out to find the real twisties.

And we did. Hwy 7 and 123 served up some of the best curves in the state and we hit them hard. Falling immediately back to the old race duels we lived out with the CMRA we rode as if that little chromed plastic and particle board trophy was on the line. I am sure we left countless automobiles wondering what they had just witnessed as a screaming Kawi 600 and a roaring Duc 900 sang the tunes of unbridled passion. We kinda kick ass.

Filling up several times without leaving our seat found us in Peel Arkansas and at a really cool crossing of the Bull Shoals Lake via ferry! The ferry ride was only a few hundred yards at a very slow crawl but the scenery and the feeling was incredible after the Pace we had run at all day. Once on the other side it was off to Mossouri and some of the finest twisties ever!

[t-homo]

Nice. What all roads did you ride in MO? Looks like you were riding 125. Supposed to be one of the best roads in the area. If you made it up to springfield, I'm going to be pissed.

[the chi]

That is an outstanding report!!

[smileyman]

We picked up in Missouri off of Hwy 125 and followed Hwy 160 (a great stretch of road) towards Mirriam Woods and picked up Hwy 76 over to Cassville. A great road once again and we had a blast in the beautiful MO highways until cold and darkness enveloped us in its icy grip of misery!

Tired and stunned we did our best to warm ourselves and regroup for the final push home. Heating our hands in the Shell Station bathroom, hogging down cheese sticks and beef jerky we faced another 2 or 3 hours of dark mystery ahead.

Of course I had planned ahead choosing my KBC helmet with the smoke tinted sheild which made night flying very dangerous. I ran with it up part way but the wind chill froze my cheeks and made my eyes run. That froze my contact lenses in place, so I would have to lower the shield, turn my lights back to bright and feel my way along. My buddy led me on the Ducati and gave me a tailight to chase, but with the visor down and fogging up profusely I would have to open it again a few miles later.

Fortunately I brought my eyeglasses as a back up and was able to ditch the contacts and dodge alot of the vision issues the rest of the way home. Still we had to stop twice more to warm our extremeties and steel our nerve for the short blast down I540 and home.

We reached the warmth (relative) of my garage a full 12 hours after we had left, covering somewhere around 410-420 miles. Most of that time we spent at full chat without even getting off the bikes for gas. My tendons in my clutch hand were almost inoperable, our backs and necks suffering from the sporty hunch we had crouched in all day.

We had a blast, vowed to do it again soon in reverse (Missouri roads were that nice!) and had a wonderful Valentines supper at around 10:30 pm!

[rogue]

That sounds like a most excellent ride!

The ferry reminds me of the first time I rode the ferry with my bike. I went with a friend and he suggested that since I couldn't touch sitting on my bike, to stand beside (kickstand down) to make sure it didn't wobble. He sat on his laughing at me, while some dudes in a farm truck was attempting to flirt with me...or harrass me...I never decided if them telling me I was too little for the bike since I had to stand beside it was their lame attempt at being flirty or if they were picking on me.

[dReWpY]

smiley what bike do you have again?

[t-homo]

I bet we could make a nice Springfield-Fayetteville circle.

[JoJoYZF]

Originally Posted by drewpy

smiley what bike do you have again?

His is the zx6 in the pics.

[smileyman]

Originally Posted by drewpy

smiley what bike do you have again?

636 Kawi.

[smileyman]

Originally Posted by t-rock

I bet we could make a nice Springfield-Fayetteville circle.

I am game. We have a ride scheduled for the 28th in the Ozarks, Jasper and the area, but probably won't get back into MO till March/April. I would like to ride with you though and you could probably show me the "show me" state soon! I was real impressed with what little I saw...