Biking Through Arkansas

Just to give you an idea of what my plans are, this is map of all the national parks in the the country and a suggestion of a good route to take.   I followed it amazingly closely without even planning to.

Arkansas is one really pretty state. I thought that then and here 40 years later I am living here still thinking it’s a pretty state.  Most of the bottom half is relatively flat, but when you get north a bit, you run smack into the Ozark Mountains. Now they aren’t much in the way of mountains, not like the Rockies, the Cascades or even the Adirondacks. But they are beautiful.  

Arkansas has no national park, at least it didn’t in 1973. But it did have the Buffalo National River, now a national river, but not then.

http://www.nps.gov/buff/index.htm

It has many fine places to hike and most of all, for me, a great highway on which to put a Motorcycle through its paces. The idea when riding roads like this one are to make a turn and have your foot pegs scrape the road. That’s the mark of either an experienced biker or a dumb one, maybe both.

The Ozark Folk Center was opened for the first time in May 1973. It sure didn’t look like it does today, now that I am living within 15 minutes of it.  It has real biker days, featuring bike riders from all over the country who are welcomed to Mountain View, a far cry from folks who crossed the street to avoid us back in 1973.

And I had to go to Toad Suck, Arkansas because with a name like that, there had to be something there. There wasn't. Now there is a Toad Suck Days festival, but I have not been to it now that I live here.

As much as I love Arkansas, I need to go to Kansas because there’s no other way to get to Colorado.

Grand Canyon Scootering

Scootering Travels Continue

While we were down near the four corners where Colorado, Utah,New Mexico and Arizona meet, of course, we had to see the Grand Canyon, that huge hole in the ground we love so much in this country.  Both of us are amateur photographers and scootering does not stop me from using a camera.  It does preclude lying on the ground to take a pic or climbing a tree to get a better composition, but with the Grand Canyon, there’s really no such thing as a bad photo.

I can’t hike to the bottom again, nor can I ride a burro. Thankfully I have done those things 40ish years ago, so do not need to repeat it. Especially the burro ride. That was one harrowing experience. How did that burro know where to put its feet to not fall off? Has one ever fallen off? How about if anyone ever fell off a burro?  He stayed put, but the rider went tumbling off into the abyss.

The scooter is limiting as far as leaving the rim trail with all the other tourists. And they get in the way. Or stand in the way and do not move. They cluster up in groups and talk about what they are having for dinner and where. Or they try to get the entire family in the same photo overlooking the canyon with no one falling over.  That takes a very long time and I and my scooter become invisible.Don’t even start to tell me, I should say, ‘Excuse me, may I get by,” because many of the visitors do not speak English. Waving my arms just alarms our them: They might flee in alarm, but then they see me as some sort of deranged scooter rider, or maybe they do already.

The North Rim is equally beautiful, but there were miles to go on that trip to Oregon, so driving around the canyon was not feasible this time.

****Blogger is refusing to load photos this morning. I will check back later this PM.


But I had a great time.*****

Oh, and wrote the cutlines already, so I will just leave them there until I can get pics up here.


Jan, relaxing on her scooter

But is there a grander hole in the ground anywhere else? 

Finally at 4:40pm Blogger allowed me to upload photos. Enjoy if you are still reading.