Day 2 – August 23, 2004

{PHOTOS} Ride from Harrison, Arkansas to Texarkana, Texas {HOME}

The ride started this morning started out a little chilly, but not enough to put on a jacket. The clean air and beautiful surroundings made me completely forget about the temperature. Within a few minutes we were out of town and headed down the road again. As we passed a sign the said, “Crooked and Steep next 37 miles”, I realized I would never have been able to find a road like this in California. I did find out that the “steep” was not near as steep as it would have been in California however. We passed caverns and gullies and a lot of back woods before coming to Dogpatch. I kid you not. I never realized this was more than a town in a comic strip. It is closed now, but according to the waitress at the Ozark Café in a little town called Pruitt, it used to be an amusement park like Disneyland. If I had known, I might have tried to make it there just to see if the female characters from the strip worked here. Oh well, a time long since gone. I include some pictures of the café but you’ll have to go there to really understand the ambiance. As we drive down the byway, we come the top of a mountain where we look over the edge and see what they call here the Grand Canyon of the Ozark. The views from these places were meant to be seen by the gods. It is the only way I can figure it could have been made so perfect. Watching the huge birds play on the currents much like the seagulls on the coast, but somehow even more graceful. Even Diamond stood up and peered at the fowl display in the sky over the never ending valley. To see tops of these hills and think back to a time when there were no roads and realize that our forefathers would have to make the trip across here in a period of weeks to months instead of hours, makes me glad I live in this time. You can still see today the way it must have looked back then with the exception of the roads. I tried to get a picture of Diamond as we ride, but she doesn’t like to pose on the bike unless it is stopped. It seems the population has sufficient time to spend at home as we see numerous signs selling home made quilts. We get to the top of yet another mountain and find a roadside stop. Diamond is getting a little antsy, so we stop and give here a little time to stretch her little legs. The parks are not so much more beautiful than in many other states we’ve been in, but here they are not so crowded with people and you are actually able to enjoy them. As we ride on we passed a little place called Booger Hollow with a population of only 7, I found the billboard entertaining and could not resist adding it to the site. We have reached the half way point of the Scenic 7 Byway and we start down the other side. We somehow add another bike to our procession from time to time, but after a while they ride on by. We have seen many bikes on this road and they all seem to be in a sort of blissful trance. They all acknowledge us with the usual wave, but all seem to be lost in their own thoughts. I guess that is part of the draw of this kind of trip. I never seem to get enough of it. A few more rivers, streams, and even a lake or two and we ride into Hot springs, Arkansas. It seems that this was the home town of a certain President of ours named Clinton. Live and learn! A few short miles down to Arkadelphia and Byway 7 is in the rear view mirror as we take Interstate 30 on into Texarkana. Twice on the 7 Byway we had stopped for one reason or another and it rained for a few minutes, but now we are on a main highway and boom we get a downpour with no place to get off the road. We pulled over and covered our packs, but with the temp being in the 90s, we just ride on through it and dry as we ride. Even Diamond didn’t seem to mind. She just hunched down behind the windshield and watched the rain. We stopped in Texarkana at a La Quinta in and are greeted by a couple of very friendly faces as we call it quits for the day. As long as this day had been, it seemed all too short. The next few days will be, I suspect, no where near as interesting, but you never know. Till the next time, I’ll see you on the byways…