Rich Mountain Rendezvous (9/20-22 Mena, Ark.)

[hardybaker]

Thanks to the crganizers for their efforts in making this rally a success. What a bunch of great folks to spend several days with. The company there was superb. What a wonderful rainy Friday it was too. Life is good.

 

[sKatZ]

Can't get my pictures to play nice but Saturday started foggy and ended up sunny with a great ride to Magazine Mountain with TTR and Dan on his CBR250 that hauled him back to San Diego starting on Sunday. Some day I'll figure this photo thing out...

 

[Rainmaker]

Thank you to those that put on the Rendezvous!. It's always nice to get together with friends. Thanks to Dave for leading the way up and Steve for the nice easy ride home.

Even with a foggy wet friday and a few leaky tents a good time was had by all.

 

[sKatZ]

Finally photos!

Saturday started out a bit foggy...

But it cleared up beautifully and we rode up to Mount Magazine State Park and headed to the highest point in Arkansas.

Watch that first step...!

The boys (Dan and TTR) finally caught up.

It was a great day of riding with this intrepid explorer from San Diego on his trusty CBR250 steed. We had a terrific time and can't wait to come back next year!

 

[fboldcrow]

Kat,
I look forward to the return of you both & your little silent screamer of a bike. I'll post up for the others later just how much that bike was packing when it arrived. Swear I saw a sink in there somewhere!
Very cool ride! Gotta get a hold of my friends for a long ride.
Frank

 

[sKatZ]

Kat,
I look forward to the return of you both & your little silent screamer of a bike. I'll post up for the others later just how much that bike was packing when it arrived. Swear I saw a sink in there somewhere!
Very cool ride! Gotta get a hold of my friends for a long ride.
Frank

Absolutely, Frank! Q was quite disappointed that you didn't come play Don't disappoint the Q... not pretty...

See you on the roads some time!

 

[euromedic]

Thanks for sharing everyone. Count me in for next year.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

Well, I've been trying to get pix to include in my own little report, but phone is refusing to talk to laptop....or maybe vice versa...

Anyway, yes, despite leaky tents, rain and fog... Saturday's weather more than made up for Friday.

This was my very first motorcycle rally. And it was a blast!

Special thanks to Dave, for navigating and leading us to Mena (and getting us underway in such a timely fashion).

To Cindy, not only for fantastic job of organizing, but also providing shelter in a storm!

Thanks to RockmanTex for leading a lovely ride Saturday. To Walter for a zippy ride Saturday afternoon. To Hardy and company for letting me tag along back to Texas with them on Sunday.

Thanks to Electrified and his lovely wife for the beautiful topcase, which made me feel that I would be prepared for the trip. (Ha! I was not well prepared. I have a lot to learn about this whole motorcycle camping stuff!)

Icing on the cake is that we raised a goodly amount of $$ for a very worthwhile cause.

I can't wait for the next trip!

Thanks TWT, it'd never happen for me if it weren't for this group.

 

[SwampFox]

7 of us sidecar folks made it to Rich Mountain this year. My camera soured on Friday's rain, but I did manage a few poor quality pics from a waterlogged cell phone Saturday. Here we are holding up traffic on the Two Mile Creek bridge:

James & I visited the Mountain Fork River bridge:

And traveled along the River a ways:

Where James had a splashing good time:

A wet Corkie on Friday:

And a grumpy Maddie on Friday:

On the way home I found myself all confused as to which way to go:

 

[cdc]

Well, I've been trying to get pix to include in my own little report, but phone is refusing to talk to laptop....or maybe vice versa...

Anyway, yes, despite leaky tents, rain and fog... Saturday's weather more than made up for Friday.

This was my very first motorcycle rally. And it was a blast!

Special thanks to Dave, for navigating and leading us to Mena (and getting us underway in such a timely fashion).

To Cindy, not only for fantastic job of organizing, but also providing shelter in a storm!

Thanks to RockmanTex for leading a lovely ride Saturday. To Walter for a zippy ride Saturday afternoon. To Hardy and company for letting me tag along back to Texas with them on Sunday.

Thanks to Electrified and his lovely wife for the beautiful topcase, which made me feel that I would be prepared for the trip. (Ha! I was not well prepared. I have a lot to learn about this whole motorcycle camping stuff!)

Icing on the cake is that we raised a goodly amount of $$ for a very worthwhile cause.

I can't wait for the next trip!

Thanks TWT, it'd never happen for me if it weren't for this group.

You looked like a Pro!

 

[ThomasM]

Thomas and I did our ride in the soupy mix of rain and heavy fog. I attempted a short cut back to Mena but found myself riding up to the front gate of a maximum security prison. We received the cold stare of hundreds of prisoners who would have preferred to have to have eaten us for dinner. We quickly made our way back to the main highway.

I've got many IFR hours behind a yoke, and now a few behind handlebars. Quite an interesting ride. But, after lunch and down a few hundred feet from the campground, it was quite nice and Fred led us on a great path around, well, somewhere in Oklahoma, or Arkansas, not sure as I didn't look at or even bring a map. Even got a bit of rocky road in when Fred sent me off down the wrong path to the campground. Polk county road 100 was quite a fun challenge though. Climbed back up into the cloud covering the campsite just in time for dinner. Pretty awesome day for a Friday that could have been spent at work.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

You looked like a Pro!

Thanks Camillo. Enjoyed meeting you. Look forward to riding with ya.

 

[Durathump]

Had a great time and met a lot of great TWT members. Couldn't meet a friendlier group of people.


Our friend heading back to San Diego on his CBR250

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A travelin' TW200

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Our tent stayed dry and didn't float away.

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[fboldcrow]

Thank god someone got a picture of Kats packed ride as mine was blasted out. Can't wait to get back down there with the TWT crowd without all the wetness! Will post up pics Saturday.

 

[ThomasM]

Might have a been a bit over that speed

I saw nothing!

We only saw a couple of law enforcement types. A unmarked in Palestine...where I didn't make a full stop on red making a right turn. Not sure Thomas noticed him, but I guess we slowed enough. Then another near Marquez (give or take 10 miles) coming towards us that slowed down, but ended up turning right instead of around. Good thing I had slowed down because we had just made a warp speed pass just before the bend when we saw him.

Totally missed the one in Palestine. Saw the one in Marquez and was pretty sure we were about to do some Dukes of Hazard style maneuvers through the woods, but guess he was interested in something else or didn't catch the pass.

If you get to ride with ThomasM sometime, he's a good follower. Watches what is going on and anticipates what we need to do well. He even got a good view when I got passive/aggressive with a goofball that didn't realize her right lane had to turn right and decided she needed to move left with us. She decided to back off just a hair before I was going to move over. I think she still moved over on the vehicle behind us though. She did have that right, since she was in a nice car.

That was quite the set of maneuvers after that woman made a left in front of us. Kind of went on instinct when stuff started happening faster than I thought it should. As for following, it was so nice to have someone else making all the decisions for a change - appreciate all the navigation from someone that's been there and done that.


I'm definitely going to pick up a few MSR fuel bottles to keep in my panniers for some extra reserves. Fuel mileage went down quite a bit faster than I had guessed it would as altitude went down and temps went up and I quickly lost confidence in the bike computer and GPS fuel location data so ended up with extra unnecessary fuel stops.

I had intended to spend more time off pavement, but with Friday's rain, it just made more sense to hook up with the Hot Springs group that Rusty led on Saturday. That turned out to be a fantastic decision. What an awesome day.

This trip I decided to leave the GoPro and all the related stuff at the house so I wouldn't be tempted to jack with it and just shot a few pics with my iphone. They all appear to be duplicates of ones already posted by RB and WB and others though.

Looking forward to next year.

 

[jar675]

I had a great time, even with the loud group Saturday night. Thanks to all who put this together.
The Studebaker garage and the Exxo station was a highlight of the trip for me. Meeting the owner was probably the coolest part. He's a legend in the automotive performance industry. Here's my pics.





View attachment 28312

 

[jar675]

Some more

 

[SpiritAtBay]

re: last pic JAR675 posted.
a Saturday night casualty

 

[SpiritAtBay]

Here are a couple of pix. Will try to load more...

 

[SpiritAtBay]

How rainy Friday was spent; huddling in front of the restrooms, runs into Mena (ate breakfast and, on a separate trip, lunch at Skyline Cafe.

a supply run to WallyWorld, and a washateria to throw wet sleeping bag in dryer.

but everyone smiled throughout the mist, fog and rain.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

Beautiful Saturday!

Hardy enjoying the cast iron rocker and some sunshine outside the antique car museum.

Lunch at Pam's Hateful Hussy Diner.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

Really enjoyed meeting Avanell.

Giving up for now on loading any more photos, suspect that my internet connection is just too slow...

 

[Ouroboros]

I found some great riding around Lake Quachita.

 

[Tourmeister]

I found some great riding around Lake Quachita.

And you only took ONE pic!?

 

[Rainmaker]

I had a great time, even with the loud group Saturday night. ......

I'm trying to figure out who those guys were that way I don't camp next to them next time! They kept my up all night talking about geography .