Friday Sept 8th
Departing Memphis,

We leave the parking ramp in Memphis around 9:00am with the ranger cadence blaring on the radio. "I want to be an airborne ranger ... live a life of guts and danger" Echoing in the parking ramp, it sounded like a hundred rangers jogging out of the ramp. We left a nice impression on the good folks of Memphis.
(It's a fun CD to have on the bike when you're riding through traffic.)

Another great weather day starts this 100 mile leg of I-40 west towards Little Rock, Ark.

Missouri's tourist traps are a hoot!.

We then head north on Hwy 31 and Hwy 107. These are the best roads of the trip. They are in good shape, 45mph and 50mph corners, with a couple 35s mixed in.

"We don't need no map Chappy"

You mind if I check anyway

This gal looks smarter than the GPS, lets ask her.

The John F Kennedy look out had a great view of the Greers Dam near Heber Springs. Chatted with a couple that was ridding '72 Harley. When he saw the BMW with the Wing and Yamaha. He made a great stereotypical remark. "Looks like one guy wrote a bigger check than the others!" We all laughed.

Greers Dam

If you're going to be dumb, you've got to be tuff!

Somewhere in here Greg almost gets himself a dear out of season. "Hey, I caught that on film!"
Nope, batt-reees were dead. Greg can you do that again? He declined.

These shot are all stills taken from the video camera
PASSING ON YELLOW!!  PASSING ON YELLOW!! We rode 30 minutes behind this straight truck at 35 mph. I couldn't take it any more and "safely" passed on a double yellow. You would have thought I had shot the president for all the crap I took. Keep up boys!

Following the suggestion of Road Runner magazine. We decide to stay in West Plains, Mo. And using the Garmin 376C GPS, we find a hotel with a pool, the Best Western. (The gps mapping and tracking are obviously great. But I believe I use mine just as much for hotel phone numbers and finding restaurants. Don’t leave home without it!) We had dinner at the Huddle House next door, which is along the same line as a waffle house. Food was OK but that was all we needed after a good day of ridding. I don't know what the fascination with the Huddle House was but there were a few jokes made. The pool, hot tub and a few Crown and diets capped a quiet evening.
 

Saturday Sept 9th
West Plains, Missouri

After watching the weather at home the last few days. It was becoming more apparent we were going to see some rain on the way home. So we set a full days ride to Des Moines. We stayed on Hwy 63 up to Columbia, Mo. 50 miles west on I-70 and we head north again. We stay on Hwy 65 up to Leon, Ia. where we jumped on the interstate then home.

We hit the rain at Princeton, Mo. The GPS was showing spotty showers that we thought we could ride through. However every few miles we traveled, so did the rain. We spent the last 90 miles in the rain. But arrived in one piece.

Even rode my motorcycle in the rain. And you told me not to drive,  but I made it home alive.  - Billy Joel

            Total trip for me was 1,936 miles. And with the exception of the last 90 miles the weather was great and all of bikes all ran flawlessly.
For those traveling the area I would recommend Beal St and Charlie Vergos'.
And roads SR-5 and SR-107 are good and would make a nice round trip out of Little Rock.
It was great spending time with good friends on the bikes.

Safe on the porch and planning the next ride.

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