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*** I originally shot these pics in 1280x1024 size. Click on the link for 800x600 pics ***
At the encouraging of Tourmeister, here is my first ever trip report for a ride. We went to the Sport-Touring.Net National meet in Eurekea Springs, Arkansas over the dates of June 23-24.
We left Austin on Sunday (Fathers Day) heading up to OKC to see my family. We ended up loading the bike on the truck (so I built a ramp on Saturday) so we didn't have to leave so early to avoid the heat. We took the truck to take the dog (to leave her with the family in OKC) and extras (tools, fluids and other items that might be needed by other riders) also because of my limited experience on the bike. Since I only had it for 5 weeks and most of that time I was out of town. The Friday before the trip we went on a 2-up ride to the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. We figured out real quick that the factory Sprint seat is not very suited for 2-up riding. It also didn't help that we were not in riding shape yet.
It worked out real well that we trucked the bike up, with the heat here on Sunday, I was not ready for a 6-7 hour ride in that kind of heat. We stopped in Fort Worth and I considered pulling the bike off the truck and riding the rest of the way since it was a little cooler up there, but we decided to wait until we hit the rest stop in Oklahoma. That turned out to be a wise decision, as soon as we crossed the border we hit a massive delay. There was a wreck on I-35 that closed it in both directions. One stalled car (Volvo not holding its water) on the shoulder that we talked to said a semi ran over something and that was why it was closed, traffic was already backed up over the Red River at this point. They routed all traffic off of I-35 and onto US-77 at the Thackerville exit. It took 3 hours to get from the Oklahoma rest stop to Marietta (about 20 miles).
We ended up rolling into my parents house about 11pm. We unloaded everything and put the bike in the garage. We did some running around in OKC on Monday (it was raining some of the day).
It was raining Tuesday morning and I finally decided to load up the bike on the truck again for the trip to Eureka Springs. Of course, it cleared up about an hour outside of OKC. With a lunch stop at Goldie's in Tulsa we rolled into ES about 6pm. Most of the group was already there. We unloaded everything and headed to meet everyone for dinner. They had pretty much put most of the group in one building with the rest of us scattered in other rooms. That way we were able to just park all of the bikes in the parking area in front of the building without worrying about cars.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid124/p75256b03754e005a21347203c23dfb2b/f81cba15.jpg
We had a group of three from Thunder Bay, Ontario (more about them later) one guy rode a Honda VTR from Bellingham, Washington since his VFR is out of commission. We had people from all over including one guy (a fellow SprintST rider) who flew into Denver from England and rode a rented BMW to the meet.
They even had the welcome sign out for us.
]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid124/pcc10a60e3670afdb0b8ce63da388c592/f81cb96d.jpg
On Wednesday Naomi and I slept in and went for a solo ride. We took US-62 and had lunch at the Ozark Cafe in Berryville, we then headed up to Table Rock Lake in Missouri.
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_TableRock-480.jpg
We came back by Branson and headed back to ES, we did about 140 miles that day. While Naomi went shopping in ES I was talking to some of the group when some of the guys from Thunder Bay, Ontario rolled in. Basket had a 0mph mishap out on the road and was in the hospital in Harrison. It seems that he stopped on the side of the road while waiting for the rest of his group. His bike (a Kawasaki ZZR-1200) started sliding of the shoulder and slid down the embankment by 4 feet. He tore a ligament in his left shoulder. Scoop had ridden the ZZR back and it had no damage other than some brush scratches on the left side. Scoop and I took the pickup to Harrison to pick up Basket and Scoop rode his own bike (a Honda Superhawk) back to ES.
On Thursday we did a short ride around the area including stopping at Inspiration Point on US-62 West from ES.
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_InspPt-480.jpg
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_InspPt1-480.jpg
We also stopped at Thorncrown Chapel outside of ES on US-62. In the pictures that I had seen before, the framing always seemed to be heavy timber or Glue-Lam type of beams. It is actually made from mostly 2x6's (I notice these kind of things).
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_Thorncrown1-480.jpg
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_Thorncrown2-480.jpg
We came back early as Scoop and Basket were trying to find a rental truck to take the bikes back up north. They finally located a Budget rental truck in Rogers to take the bikes back to Duluth. They had ridden from Thunder Bay and hooked up with a friend in Duluth for the rest of the trip to Arkansas, so they were going to leave the ZZR at his house. So we headed to Rogers to pick up the truck.
After dinner on Thursday night we had one other incident, dketchum's son dropped his SV650 on the ride back to the campsite. He came back to the motel and found me to bring the bike back here to Texas. So that meant the I HAD to ride my bike back. Mark was fine, just a little more upset about having gone down. He highsided and broke the shift lever, front brake lever and bent the handlebars along with some scratches and dents.
On Friday the trip back to OKC was fine, the weather was pretty nice. It was a little windy (as is usual in Oklahoma) and I figured out that another windshield may be needed soon.
On Saturday we left OKC bound for Austin with me on the Sprint and Naomi with the truck and Mark's (dketchum's son) bike in the back. We hit some light rain about Gainesville, TX until we hit Denton, TX. We stopped and filled up and ate at Braums there, also bought some groceries to take back to Austin, I grew up on Braums and we always have to pick up some groceries when we are around one (I wish they would build some closer to Austin).
It had let up so we were back on the road. When we got close to Hillsboro, the clouds ahead looked very ominous. We stopped at the Nautica outlet store there and bought a jacket to go over my mesh jacket. We ended up making it to West, Texas before pulling over and trying to wait out the rain, it was a torrential downpour at that point and everything I had on was soaked. We waited about an hour there under a canopy. About 9pm we decided to try to make it to Waco for the night, with Naomi blocking from behind for me I rode along at about 50 mph until we hit north Waco and found a Days Inn. It had started to clear some when we pulled off, but I was soaked, cold and tired. We pulled the bike up on the sidewalk next to the room and backed the truck up by the bike.
It was sunny and clear when we left Waco this morning and made the short trip to Austin. Arriving in Austin, the clouds were dark and ominous again, we took the highway to the west side of town since most of the clouds and lightning were a little more to the east. We got lucky, it was dry all the way home today. It started sprinkling about the time that we got Mark's bike unloaded. Dave and Mark came up to Austin from San Antonio on Sunday to pick up the bike and their gear that we hauled back.
I found out that I definitely NEED some rain gear. Oh well, I guess that just gets added to the list of needs. The Triumph did great, I averaged around 53mpg for the trip, and the seat was not too bad in solo mode, butt horrible for our 2-up riding though. I will be looking into getting a Corbin or Sargent sometime soon.
It was a great trip and we had fun with everyone. The discussion is having next years "International" in the 4 Corners area of southeastern Utah or southwestern Colorado. There is also talk of having a regional in the fall in the NW Arkansas area.
At the encouraging of Tourmeister, here is my first ever trip report for a ride. We went to the Sport-Touring.Net National meet in Eurekea Springs, Arkansas over the dates of June 23-24.
We left Austin on Sunday (Fathers Day) heading up to OKC to see my family. We ended up loading the bike on the truck (so I built a ramp on Saturday) so we didn't have to leave so early to avoid the heat. We took the truck to take the dog (to leave her with the family in OKC) and extras (tools, fluids and other items that might be needed by other riders) also because of my limited experience on the bike. Since I only had it for 5 weeks and most of that time I was out of town. The Friday before the trip we went on a 2-up ride to the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. We figured out real quick that the factory Sprint seat is not very suited for 2-up riding. It also didn't help that we were not in riding shape yet.
It worked out real well that we trucked the bike up, with the heat here on Sunday, I was not ready for a 6-7 hour ride in that kind of heat. We stopped in Fort Worth and I considered pulling the bike off the truck and riding the rest of the way since it was a little cooler up there, but we decided to wait until we hit the rest stop in Oklahoma. That turned out to be a wise decision, as soon as we crossed the border we hit a massive delay. There was a wreck on I-35 that closed it in both directions. One stalled car (Volvo not holding its water) on the shoulder that we talked to said a semi ran over something and that was why it was closed, traffic was already backed up over the Red River at this point. They routed all traffic off of I-35 and onto US-77 at the Thackerville exit. It took 3 hours to get from the Oklahoma rest stop to Marietta (about 20 miles).
We ended up rolling into my parents house about 11pm. We unloaded everything and put the bike in the garage. We did some running around in OKC on Monday (it was raining some of the day).
It was raining Tuesday morning and I finally decided to load up the bike on the truck again for the trip to Eureka Springs. Of course, it cleared up about an hour outside of OKC. With a lunch stop at Goldie's in Tulsa we rolled into ES about 6pm. Most of the group was already there. We unloaded everything and headed to meet everyone for dinner. They had pretty much put most of the group in one building with the rest of us scattered in other rooms. That way we were able to just park all of the bikes in the parking area in front of the building without worrying about cars.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid124/p75256b03754e005a21347203c23dfb2b/f81cba15.jpg
We had a group of three from Thunder Bay, Ontario (more about them later) one guy rode a Honda VTR from Bellingham, Washington since his VFR is out of commission. We had people from all over including one guy (a fellow SprintST rider) who flew into Denver from England and rode a rented BMW to the meet.
They even had the welcome sign out for us.
]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid124/pcc10a60e3670afdb0b8ce63da388c592/f81cb96d.jpg
On Wednesday Naomi and I slept in and went for a solo ride. We took US-62 and had lunch at the Ozark Cafe in Berryville, we then headed up to Table Rock Lake in Missouri.
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_TableRock-480.jpg
We came back by Branson and headed back to ES, we did about 140 miles that day. While Naomi went shopping in ES I was talking to some of the group when some of the guys from Thunder Bay, Ontario rolled in. Basket had a 0mph mishap out on the road and was in the hospital in Harrison. It seems that he stopped on the side of the road while waiting for the rest of his group. His bike (a Kawasaki ZZR-1200) started sliding of the shoulder and slid down the embankment by 4 feet. He tore a ligament in his left shoulder. Scoop had ridden the ZZR back and it had no damage other than some brush scratches on the left side. Scoop and I took the pickup to Harrison to pick up Basket and Scoop rode his own bike (a Honda Superhawk) back to ES.
On Thursday we did a short ride around the area including stopping at Inspiration Point on US-62 West from ES.
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_InspPt-480.jpg
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_InspPt1-480.jpg
We also stopped at Thorncrown Chapel outside of ES on US-62. In the pictures that I had seen before, the framing always seemed to be heavy timber or Glue-Lam type of beams. It is actually made from mostly 2x6's (I notice these kind of things).
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_Thorncrown1-480.jpg
For a better quality image – click here
http://home.earthlink.net/~bluedogok/stn/national04/STN_Thorncrown2-480.jpg
We came back early as Scoop and Basket were trying to find a rental truck to take the bikes back up north. They finally located a Budget rental truck in Rogers to take the bikes back to Duluth. They had ridden from Thunder Bay and hooked up with a friend in Duluth for the rest of the trip to Arkansas, so they were going to leave the ZZR at his house. So we headed to Rogers to pick up the truck.
After dinner on Thursday night we had one other incident, dketchum's son dropped his SV650 on the ride back to the campsite. He came back to the motel and found me to bring the bike back here to Texas. So that meant the I HAD to ride my bike back. Mark was fine, just a little more upset about having gone down. He highsided and broke the shift lever, front brake lever and bent the handlebars along with some scratches and dents.
On Friday the trip back to OKC was fine, the weather was pretty nice. It was a little windy (as is usual in Oklahoma) and I figured out that another windshield may be needed soon.
On Saturday we left OKC bound for Austin with me on the Sprint and Naomi with the truck and Mark's (dketchum's son) bike in the back. We hit some light rain about Gainesville, TX until we hit Denton, TX. We stopped and filled up and ate at Braums there, also bought some groceries to take back to Austin, I grew up on Braums and we always have to pick up some groceries when we are around one (I wish they would build some closer to Austin).
It had let up so we were back on the road. When we got close to Hillsboro, the clouds ahead looked very ominous. We stopped at the Nautica outlet store there and bought a jacket to go over my mesh jacket. We ended up making it to West, Texas before pulling over and trying to wait out the rain, it was a torrential downpour at that point and everything I had on was soaked. We waited about an hour there under a canopy. About 9pm we decided to try to make it to Waco for the night, with Naomi blocking from behind for me I rode along at about 50 mph until we hit north Waco and found a Days Inn. It had started to clear some when we pulled off, but I was soaked, cold and tired. We pulled the bike up on the sidewalk next to the room and backed the truck up by the bike.
It was sunny and clear when we left Waco this morning and made the short trip to Austin. Arriving in Austin, the clouds were dark and ominous again, we took the highway to the west side of town since most of the clouds and lightning were a little more to the east. We got lucky, it was dry all the way home today. It started sprinkling about the time that we got Mark's bike unloaded. Dave and Mark came up to Austin from San Antonio on Sunday to pick up the bike and their gear that we hauled back.
I found out that I definitely NEED some rain gear. Oh well, I guess that just gets added to the list of needs. The Triumph did great, I averaged around 53mpg for the trip, and the seat was not too bad in solo mode, butt horrible for our 2-up riding though. I will be looking into getting a Corbin or Sargent sometime soon.
It was a great trip and we had fun with everyone. The discussion is having next years "International" in the 4 Corners area of southeastern Utah or southwestern Colorado. There is also talk of having a regional in the fall in the NW Arkansas area.
Last edited by a moderator:
The Thorncrown Chapel is a perfect example of how a very simple concept has produced something incredibly elegant and aestheticly pleasing. When walking up the path to the front of the Chapel, the interplay of the light and the patterns from the beams is hypnotic...
