Sunday, July 6th, 2008
Day 3
Sparta, TN to Lawrenceburg, TN

I was the first one up at the campsite around 6:30am. Today’s plan was to knock out as much of Tennessee as possible. The first thing on my mind was the laptop, curious if it still worked:



…and it did, excellent. I managed to get everything packed up and ready to go around 7:45am:



Adios East Tennessee, let’s move further west:



Today was a very nice day for riding, partly cloudy and not too terribly hot. Scenes such as these were common:





One of my favorite things to do was to just stop on the side of the road (maybe even relieve myself) and just listen:

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This was quite peaceful and a nice change from the drone and vibrations of riding.

This, however, was totally unexpected:



A lot of times the roads would lead directly thru someone’s farm where they owned land on both sides of the road and pretty much the road itself. The picture above is one of those instances. Taking pictures here was a little risky since it felt like I was already trespassing. I usually would just turn the bike off, shoot a picture and take off before any confrontations occurred.

I-24, too much traffic and running in the wrong direction…not for me:



Bell Buckle, TN is nice little town:



It was only 10:50am, a little early for a lunch break, but this gas station seemed like a good place to stop:



I got a chicken salad sandwich and it was awesome.

People at gas stations asking me for directions and pointing out all the things I was doing wrong was a common occurrence on the east coast. I guess the GPS made them think I could tell them where to go, which it did, but most everyone would ask me first and then go double check with someone inside.

“Aren’t you hot in all of that?”
“Yes, I am. But, it’s not too bad when I’m moving.”
“Do you know how to get to Lynchburg, TN?”
“Let me punch into my GPS...”
[Sigh, sigh…sigh…hurry up…]
“Here we go, go south on [whatever road goes thru bell buckle], blah blah blah”
“Thanks” [walks into gas station]

I-65:



I think I’ve seen in other ride reports where this road is flooded. Not today though, dry as a bone:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/341938558_K7yuH-M.jpg

ATV’s were popular all around Tennessee. Apparently it’s OK to drive them on the road (and in one instance, I saw a couple women on a 4-wheeler drinking some Busch Light, I tried to take their picture, but I missed, I think they wanted me to stop… no thanks.).

Here was an 8 year old kid and his dad driving:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/341939181_gQ5hd-M.jpg

Another country store:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/341939293_P9RGL-M.jpg

And some more gravel roads. This was what I saw mostly throughout Tennessee. Small farms and hills, big oaks and clouds:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/341940432_BKzou-M.jpg

Everyone likes a sephia picture. I particularly like them when the objects captured are obviously post 1880. I actually never intended to take a sephia picture, but the dial on my camera liked to grab my pants and spin when I was pulling the camera out:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/341940664_ynYgR-M.jpg

I was already past Columbia, TN (the scheduled stop for day 2 on the TAT) and decided to get off the trail and head down to Lawrenceburg to see what the motel rates were. I also stopped by O’Reilly’s to recycle my oil and pick up some fresh Mobil 1 15w50:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/341941370_HJcMc-M.jpg

I forgot what the motels were asking, but I decided to make a quick trip over to Davey Crockett State Park which turned out to be around 30 to 40 dollars cheaper for a campsite by the creek with water and electricity, good deal…or so I thought…

Much like I used to pick the ugliest dog of the litter, or pay too much for an ugly car, I picked what I thought would be the best available campsite, but it was right beside the most unsightly of campers.

There were about 60 campsites overall and there were about 10 campers on the far south end and about 10 campers on the far north end of the creek. And then there was 1 rough looking camping box with wheels on it, being pulled by a beat-up 1980’s Chevy truck right smack in the middle of the park. It looked like an elementary school classroom where one kid had farted. The site next to this Sanford and Son scene had prime access to the creek and being the closest site to the bath house, I figured it wouldn’t hurt for me to pull up beside this mobile junkyard and set up camp next door. What could go wrong?

Meet Randy:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327691335_dkfMk-M.jpg

Randy is only 46 years old, he’s not too interested in what your life is about, but he drag races that truck you see in the background (heck, it’ll even “lay rubber down as long as you want it to”), has self-proclaimed “mental problems” that he takes medication for, has had open-heart surgery, had something fall on him and break his lower spine, spends hours cleaning paint off of old pennies for monetary use, bought his box on wheels for $165 (which actually has A/C, TV, plumbing and electrical hook-ups and glow in the dark stars on the ceiling (this was mentioned several times)). Randy calls the Amish in the area, “The Midnighters” (probably a “short” version of Mennonites, and he was telling me this like I knew what a “Midnighter” was). He’s not too happy that the “Midnighters” are able to bypass some of the local tax laws.

Randy also probably told me a few other details of his life within 30 minutes of my arrival, but I forgot a lot of it and some I wish I hadn’t heard.

Here he is explaining how he came across the hundreds of coins he had in his pocket:

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Anyway I decided to dart off into town to get dinner (and to give my ears a break) at DQ:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/341941821_Hi6Ya-M.jpg

Inside, a man and his grandchildren sat two tables down from me. The man’s voice carried all throughout the restaurant and would constantly order each of his grandchildren to, “EAT IT!”. I should have counted the number of times this was said, but I’m guessing it was over 30 times. I’m sure it ruined everyone’s meal. I started to think that I had picked the wrong town to spend the night in…

I roll back into the park and see Randy walking away from my campsite…great. Not wanting to show him any more electronics (he had his eyes on me a lot); I really had nothing to do. The mosquitoes came out and I got into my bivy before sunset.

Much like the night before, there was no breeze, high temperatures and it was terribly humid. Remaining completely still in the bivy was the only way I could remain in there. Getting out wasn’t really an option due to the mosquitoes.

Needless to say, the plan tomorrow was to get up extra early and get out of town, I got to sleep by planning out each step I needed to take in the morning to get everything packed and ready to go.



Total mileage: 667
Daily mileage: 199
Wildlife observed: 2 peacocks, vultures and your typical deer, wabbits and birds.
Favorite Sight: Peacocks
Favorite Scent: DQ Blizzard
Favorite Sound: The creek
Favorite Taste: DQ Blizzard
Favorite Feel: Warm shower
Ailments: Boot causing bruise on calf, wet clothes (all of them), and mosquito bites

Quote

I'm a little less than 2 hrs south of Appomattox & I know what you mean. I can smell it from here. JUST KIDDING! I thought I was the only wierdo on the planet that actually finds the smell of cow dung somewhat pleasant.... but only if it's properly aged & the ambient temperature is below 80F. Must be a country boy thing. Enjoying the story & pics!

Monday, July 7, 2008
Day 4
Lawrenceburg, TN to Sardis, MS

My GPS tracks show that I was rolling at 6:57am. I got a picture of Randy’s mobile recreation unit (probably at around 6:56am):



Breaker, breaker, one, nine…we have a crotch-rocket cowboy westbound on six four, keep your eyes peeled:



Much like yesterday, I was just trying to knock out as much of Tennessee as possible and my destination was uncertain. Scenes such as these were common:





I really tried to get a good shot of the last picture, but it just didn’t come out as well as I had hoped. In the distance the trees were larger where the fog began. It looked much cooler in person.

Every once in awhile I’d stop on a bridge to take a picture of the creek or river I was crossing:





Eastward:



Westward:



I fell:



The bottom of the river in the previous picture is not rocky. It is just rock. One big, long rock. And what happens to a rock when it sits under flowing water? Yes, it becomes smooth. And if the conditions are right, which they apparently were, you’ll get some algae growing on the rock. That was the situation here. I was thoroughly warned about this section and I’m glad I was because it would be easy to try to cross this creek at 35-40 mph on this particular section of road. Somehow I was able to find enough footing to get the bike back up and roll it to the other side.

Falling down here was the “breaking of the ice” for me. Before, I was just getting a feel for the TransAm Trail. Getting in rhythm with finding each turn, getting used to browsing the GPS, making sure I was on schedule and constantly thinking about fuel, tire pressure and any other mechanical thing that could go wrong. Shortly after I fell and got the bike upright, I began to “laugh out loud”. No longer was I uptight, but now I was just having fun.

Shortly afterwards there was another creek crossing of the same variety. This one was narrower and I somehow made it across safely:



I liked stopping at cemeteries and browsing over the names. They seemed lonely, I’m sure they enjoyed the company:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327757925_qLz6J-M.jpg

Yes, this is part of the trail (if only I knew at this point how nice this trail is compared to what I was going to encounter out west):

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327758454_kwVYv-M.jpg

You can’t cross the Tennessee River without singing out loud Alabama’s “Oh Tennessee River and the mountain man, we get together anytime we can…”:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327759667_ejAxY-M.jpg

“Oh Tennessee River and the mountain man, we play together in Mother Nature’s band”:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327760248_h7Jjm-M.jpg

On the other side of the bridge were some cool homes. I really liked this particular area:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327760900_Sd9wk-M.jpg

I could see someone walking into this wall:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327762074_ExHHt-M.jpg

And then comes miles and miles of gravel roads. All of it looking similar to scenes such as these:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327763174_ritMY-M.jpg

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/327763687_BS2u4-M.jpg

Then I came up to Selmer, TN, a scheduled stop on the TAT. It was only 12:30pm but I had already put about 150 miles down and wasn’t sure of the next available motel. I wasn’t planning on camping tonight as I needed to wash clothes and take a good shower. And, Selmer didn’t look too inviting of outsiders. So, I decided to eat lunch on my bike on the side of the road and march westward:



Let’s go muddin’!



(I didn’t find any mud)

At this point the forest got thick and the habitats that I saw looked very shady. The TN/MS border is roughly around here with TN to the left and MS to the right. No welcome to Mississippi:



I’m sorry for not producing a better picture, but this wasn’t an area I wanted to spend any extra time.

I had let my gas run low because all of the premium pumps that I found in Selmer were out of order. So I made a detour to this gas station near Kossuth, MS:



I would find that many of my detours led me to something I would never forget. This time a very, very pale and thin old lady (but still able to walk briskly) gave me the meanest look I have received to date. She was mad that I hadn’t moved my bike away from the pump before I went into the store to get water and snacks. Wish I had a picture, but I’m glad I didn’t because it would probably give me nightmares.

The gravel roads were nice in Mississippi, just deeper in places and the rocks were bigger:



Holy Kudzu:



I didn’t get many more pictures after this because I was getting tired and smelled bad. I darted to the next motel I could find which turned out to be in Sardis, MS. Soft bed, clean towels, just what the doctor ordered:



Those tiled ceilings are good for drying clothes:



I was in bad shape here. Walking was hard because my feet were just raw, monkey butt was an issue and I was just plain tuckered out. I spent a good amount of time in the hotel room just drying out and I actually started to feel better sooner than I expected. So, I found the closest non-chain restaurant I could. It was a BBQ joint that was just some hole in the wall, err, bullethole in the window:



I dropped more meat on my plate than I was able to keep on the sandwich:



After dinner, I figured out what I did wrong with my GPS. I had updated to City Navigator 2009 2 days before I left. The only way to fix it was to re-map the entire TAT route by hand (which took me a week to do at home before the trip started) or revert back to City Navigator 2008. I called Garmin and they were going to overnight a CD to me at the Budget Inn in Beebe, AR. My next planned destination.

I’m done, over and out:

http://Nichelob.smug...081_Mtt9X-M.jpg

Total mileage: 982
Daily mileage: 315
Wildlife observed: Everything I’ve seen before and some armadillos…dead ones. I would like to see one that is actually walking around.
Favorite Sight: Super 8
Favorite Scent: Not sure what the crop was, but it reminded me of pysillium husk.
Favorite Sound:
Favorite Taste: Potato salad from BBQ place
Favorite Feel: Definitely the bed and not my air mattress.
Ailments: Bug bites, tweaked left ankle acting up again, fatigue, soggy feet from wet socks

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Day 5
Sardis, MS to Beebe, AR

…and that could only mean one thing, big waters ahead. Actually, once I passed the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was expecting I would slowly ascend as I moved westward; this was a pleasant surprise to be close to sea level so far inland.

After riding over 300 miles of backroads yesterday, I caught a few extra winks of sleep this morning and was rolling shortly after 9am:

Eastward:


Westward:


Dirt:


One of my original plans was to take a picture of each city sign that I saw. Here is Crenshaw, MS:



I was then going to make a video to the tune of Johnny Cash’s version of “I’ve been everywhere”. This probably would have added another couple days to my trip, they were everywhere. I scraped the idea. (I looked up the lyrics and there are a few places that are on the trail: Oklahoma, Tennessee, Richfield, Colorado and …Jellico! A few other places are very nearby: Tulsa, Little Rock and Crater Lake. Did I just plan another trip?)

It’s about 200ft in elevation where I was traveling in the Mississippi River Basin. I could watch the altimeter for miles and it would not change. I started to wonder if big muddy would change directions on me. It seems entirely possibly.

Capturing the vastness of the rice fields on camera is impossible, but here’s my best shot:





Find the crop duster:



My first welcome sign and I only get half of it:



It’s big, it’s muddy:



Goodbye Mississippi:



Hello Helena, AR:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328347238_rQCdg-M.jpg

Al waved me over and asked me if I was riding the Transam Trail:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328347367_6Ykr3-M.jpg

Yes, sir, I am. Al said he sees a lot of riders coming thru. Some standing, some driving too fast and sometimes he’ll see 2 or 3 groups a week.

All I left behind here and on most parts of the trip was simply a puff of dust:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328347677_AHEqr-M.jpg

Shade was sparse; here was a big oak tree out in the middle of nowhere. It kind of reminded me of “The Shawshank Redemption” when Andy was describing to Ellis on where to go when he got out:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328348688_jF7Ro-M.jpg

So I ate lunch there at about 1pm local time. Still had a little ways to go before reaching Beebe, so I marched onward, bring on the levees:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328350483_RWYSm-M.jpg

Not all of the roads were traveled on very often, but still easily passable for the Orangutan:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328351095_mM6DU-M.jpg

I was wondering when I’d cross I-40, this is westbound traffic:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328351701_WSZj5-M.jpg

Here is my westbound path from that point:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328352261_35UA2-M.jpg

Time for another granola bar; I sat at this church and watched a crop duster work a field to the south. I thought about the cemetery behind me and how creepy it would be to find [My Name] and [My birthdate], 1878 – [Today’s Date], 1908 on a gravestone. I knew it was back there, but it would have been a long and hot walk in boots to find it. I moved on after the crop duster show:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328353017_RKxFb-M.jpg

I roll into Beebe, AR, find the hotel that Garmin was sending the GPS CD to and I got a room. I wonder how and why this privacy lock was broken? No privacy for me:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/328356732_Syf4b-M.jpg

Turkey and swiss sandwich at “The Grill”:



I actually met a crop duster pilot here and learned that his pilot license was very limited. It sounded like a cool job until someone else walked in and was talking about how someone had recently gone down in one of those planes.

Laundry time again. One of my pet peeves is when “your” is used when “you’re” is the correct spelling. But, when “you’re” is used when “your” is the correct spelling, I just laugh:



Made good time in the straight flats today, and although possibly obtainable, the max speed is inaccurate once again:




Total mileage: 1169
Daily mileage: 187
Wildlife observed: Remarkably few wild animals today, I did see a fat deer who didn’t “run like a deer”, maybe pregnant? Maybe old?
Favorite Sight: Rice Fields and crop dusters
Favorite Scent: Nothing in particular but the incense in hotel lobbies is obnoxious.
Favorite Sound: The KTM running strong and Al from some farm near big muddy: “They just dumb”
Favorite Taste: Eh, I guess the grilled turkey and swiss from The Grill in Beebe.
Favorite Feel: Letting the back wheel get loose accelerating out of the gravel turns
Ailments: Nothing in particular, it seems sleeping like a rock has helped a lot with any pains. Do have some strange bug bites left over from Tennessee though.

What a friggin' awesome thread! Keep up the good work soldier.

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Day 6
Beebe, AR to Russellville, AR

The lady at Garmin had promised me the CD that I needed to fix my routes by noon today. I “slept in” to 8am, called the front desk when I was awake and learned that the CD had not arrived yet. So, I took my time getting breakfast at Waffle house, reorganizing my luggage, changing oil and adjusting some of my controls. One thing I wanted to do was move my handlebars forward to make standing up more comfortable. In the process, I found the 10mm socket that I couldn’t find before leaving:



LMAO, I drove all the way to Arkansas and this socket never fell off. I had already replaced my socket set with another 10mm socket, so now I had two. By the way, moving my handlebars forward allowed me to stand for longer periods of time, I’m glad I took the time to do this.

My cell phone indicates that I called Garmin at 9:49am to get a tracking number for the CD. A representative at Garmin says, “That CD is on backorder, it will be 2-3 weeks before it ships out”. I’m speechless.

I start packing up immediately and looked at the radar. Rain was going to be unavoidable. A late start and a wet ride, wonderful. 1st picture of the day:



And then we get into the good stuff, but rain was definitely on the horizon:



This is where I run into Bernie and LeJean, they were just simply “riding around”:



LeJean reminded me of Bill Clinton, maybe it’s an Arkansas thing? I asked them if it was going to rain (they were traveling away from the dark clouds, I was headed directly towards them), they both said very sarcastically and almost in unison, “Nahh, no way, it’s not going to rain…nope…lol”.

At this point, I put my camera, phone and wallet in ziploc bags and rode off into the wet stuff. And just as expected, the rain came. Nice and steady; great for the crops, but not so great to ride in. Soon afterwards, I see a man moving from his tractor shed near the road, to his ranch house further back. I see an open carport, so I press my luck and drive into the man’s driveway. He waves me in and I park under the carport. Meet Gene:



Gene, his wife and his mother were the nicest people I met throughout the entire trip. I’m pretty sure I could have stayed overnight and would have had dinner and breakfast. And, if time hadn’t been an issue, I may have let this happen. But, I decided just to wait for the rain to settle down a bit and head on.

I thought I would be able to take a few pictures through the ZipLoc bag, but they didn’t turn out too well:



The rain stopped for a bit and I stumbled upon some awesome cloud formations. But, unfortunately, my camera was unable to capture any of it. I’ll post it anyway, because it was one of my favorite sights:



I ate lunch here:



I was completely wet, and getting my “water proof” gloves off and on was a chore. I just took my time and enjoyed the rushing waters before the rain started to pick up and I moved on again:



Here was my first grand view of the Ozarks:



I looked for campsites all throughout the Ozark National Forest. I found a few places, but they were all unmarked. Not wanting to do any illegal camping, I searched my GPS for the nearest State Park which turned out to be on Lake Dardanelle, about 20 minutes south of the trail:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/329446469_U5338-M.jpg

(Remember the bungee webbing hanging off the back of the bike)

As I was staking the tarp out, I got a little lazy and missed the stake with the rock I was using. However, my hand did not miss:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/329446225_hez4u-M.jpg

That first aid kit that had been “getting in the way” of all of my more important stuff previously, was now a very welcome site. With the cut being directly in the crease of my hand, it took a few extra days to heal.

One bad thing lead to another, about the time I took this picture of the park headquarters (Arkansas has some really nice State Park facilities):

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/329446985_bPpp8-M.jpg

… I felt a minor disruption somewhere in my drivetrain. It went away immediately, so I thought nothing more of it. More on that later…

I drove around Russellville for awhile and came across a Whatta-burger. I have heard great things about this place from a couple Texans, so I figure I’d give it a shot:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/329447093_AheJZ-M.jpg

Let me tell ya, What A Burger!... no, it wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but still a pretty good burger. The milkshake was better.

But, it all had hit the spot. I was enjoying the town, making small talk with all the laid-back country folk and soaking in the beautiful weather. Then I find this in the parking lot as I was rolling the bike backwards:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/329447248_vXhv7-M.jpg

In the brake caliper you’ll see what’s left of my bungee netting. Flippity-flopping, gee-digity, pooper-scooper. I got what I could out but decided to take it back to camp to get the rest out:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/329447770_sorN2-M.jpg

It turns out that park landscaping around my campsite was a great bike lift. I had to take the whole caliper off and remove the pads to get everything out. Minor inconvenience.

I was in the bivy before sunset. Tomorrow’s plan is to find a new bungee net and to simply make it to Alma, AR before heading into Oklahoma.

Total mileage: 1331
Daily mileage: 162
Wildlife observed: Deer, rabbits, birds
Favorite Sight: Ozark panoramic views
Favorite Scent: The ol’ sniffer just doesn’t work as well as it used to.
Favorite Sound: Older couple at Whatta-Burger: “Where are you traveling from?” “Charlotte, NC” “Oh my, where are you traveling to?” “I’m trying to make it to Oregon” “OH MY!”
Favorite Taste: Whatta-burger milkshake
Favorite Feel: Getting my wheel back on
Ailments: Small cut to hand, holding up well otherwise.

Wow, I really admire your adventurous spirit. Your begging to give me the fever. I need to get out there and see this country. Amazing thread. I can't wait to see more.

Thursday, July 10th, 2008
Day 7
Russellville, AR to Alma, AR

I was a little slow on the go again this morning. GPS data shows that I was moving at 8:24am, about an hour and a half after I’d like to get moving. Maybe it was because of this little fella:



Pretty cool, huh? Yeah… not really; this guy was fearless. Most squirrels that I have dealt with will run away before you can even make a move towards them. Not this guy; the fact that I’m 100 times bigger than he was made no difference. He was clearly interested in my oatmeal:



I’ve never seen a squirrel at this range. I could have reached out and grabbed him easily; at one point I thought he may even try to jump on me. What a jerk. He settled for a ball of oatmeal packages, took them up the tree and proceeded to shred them into 2000 pieces. Did I say I liked everyone I met in Arkansas? I’m sorry, I forgot this little nutsack. I guess the people in Arkansas are so nice that the squirrels have taken advantage of it. I will look for this guy the next time I’m in the Ozarks and may even purchase a nice .22 just for him.

Anyway, I saw these guys around the park several times yesterday, but didn’t know that they were riding:



…until the next morning. They were doing 600 miles a day moving towards Colorado. The guy I spoke with loved that trailer. I doubt I had enough luggage to fill up half of it…different strokes for different folks I guess.

Bam, scored a new bungee net at the local motorcycle shop:



I thought the story of my trip would maybe earn me a discount or some good advice…nope. I barely got a response. Kind of like this:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3g1KcOw7zas&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3g1KcOw7zas&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Anyways, moving onward and looking westward:



Obvious rain clouds, but luckily I had about 15-20 miles to travel due north to pick up the trail where the sun was shining:



If you like fast gravel/dirt roads, the Ozarks are chock full of them. Seemed to be the best area I came across for dual sporting on the east coast:



With multiple choices of terrain:





I was happy here:



Then comes the big story of the day. I’m trying to make this as brief as possible because I do not have any pictures (I do have video of the entire debacle, but I don’t have the software to edit it yet). Remember my GPS routes being off? They tell me at what point I need to make a turn, but they don’t really say which road/trail that I need to take. Imagine a road that splits into 3 and then eventually comes back together. That’s what happened here:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/345289258_SErj2-M.jpg

All three roads would have taken me to my next via point, so I chose the shortest. (Note to self, the shortest road will probably be the most difficult). You can see above where I had to turn around when the contour lines start to get really close together. To make a long story short, I fail to climb the mountain, drop the bike 3 times, almost make it to the top (where it would have been easy riding), turn around and come back. My second fall had trapped my leg between the ground and my bike. For a split second, I thought that this was where I was going to spend the night. But, luckily, I had enough movement to get the bike up enough to remove my leg and get out.

At this point, I wasn’t sure which way the real TAT trail went and I thought I had picked the right trail. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t heard about this section in the previous ride reports. My pride took a beating. It took a few more miles for me to convince myself that I had made a “shortcut” and that it was no big deal. But being so close to the top of that mountain and not making it still hurt. Not only will I bring a .22 for that jerk of a squirrel next time, I’m also going to bring a lighter load and conquer Pilot Knob.

Anyways, I retreat for now and hit the big wide fast stuff. They spend a lot of time maintaining the roads:



I finally come up to the Oark café and they had my favorite on special:



Looking out from the café, I could have gotten a good picture of these two kids without a care in the world:



But, I forgot about the town drunk (the road maintenance crew up ahead told me about him, he was getting a nice 12 pack of Busch Light as I was leaving) driving off into my picture:



Oh well, here’s the road maintenance, we’re losing our trail, mile by mile:



Shortly afterwards, I meet Lloyd, Billie, Charlie, Lacy:



…extremely nice people from Missouri. I wish I had more time to talk, but I had to keep moving on. Once I exited the Ozark National Forest, things got a little more sketchy. Here is the famous Warloop Rd:



It does have a few drop-offs and rocky sections, but nothing the EXC was scared of. What was more frightening was the area around Warloop. Not somewhere I’d like to be changing a flat.

The laptop took a beating today, look at lower left corner:



But, it still worked. I found Alma and had a little mexican food:



I had 2 or 3 choices of hotel/motels in Alma. One looked like a trucker joint, the Days Inn looked like Saddam Hussien’s sons’ home (like it had been obliterated with .50 caliber machine gun fire):



Or the Comfort Inn:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/329521479_LT9dk-M.jpg

I obviously chose the Comfort Inn. I changed all of my oil, washed some clothes and lived luxuriously…well, at least by Alma’s standards.

Today’s stats:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/330319970_Gf66M-M.jpg

Tomorrow’s plan is to attack Oklahoma’s long and straight roads and find some cheap camping.


Total mileage: 1499
Daily mileage: 168
Wildlife observed: Turtles, deer, another dead armadillo
Favorite Sight: Ozark mountain tree filled range views
Favorite Scent: I don’t smell very well, nothing stuck out
Favorite Sound: “Today’s special is Fried Chicken…[something, something, something]”
Favorite Taste: The fried chicken, of course
Favorite Feel: Out running Charlie, catching a little wheelie.
Ailments: Bruised calf from boot still, hurt my pride a little bit, gas tank took big hit, burned hole in bag, banged up laptop.

a:applause: wsome thread ....

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but this is a great thread! In case I've missed it, what's the model of the GPS you are using?

That's a pretty sweet little restaurant in Oark.
Only problem with that it is no premium gas.
Stopped there myself on my TAT trip, as well as that Mexican place in Alma.
The one in the strip mall right? I can't remember the name of it.

Nice:ride: Can't wait for more
Dan

Thanks for taking the time to document with photos and text and share it with us. Looking forward to more.

Quote

Honda recommends 91 octane minimum for my bike and it has been difficult to find that on some dualsport rides. Have you had trouble finding stations with premium along the TAT and what is the minimum octane you try to run?

Garmin GPS Map 478

Great unit. I have one and it works quite well.

jdubb75 said:

Friday, July 11th, 2008
Day 8
Alma, AR to Bartlesville, OK

“Free” Continental breakfast was waiting for me this morning. I sat between 2 women carrying on a conversation, 1 on the far left side of the lobby and 1 on the far right side of the lobby. I’m not sure what they were talking about, but if you drew a line from one lady to the other, it would have run right over my plate. I’m not so sure this motel thing is better than camping out.

Anyway, I stuff my face with stale bagels, fruit loops, orange juice, 2 or 3 hard boiled eggs, pack my bike and get back on the trail around 8:30am. I still have some of the Ozarks National Forest left to enjoy:



Throughout most of Arkansas, the water looked a little cloudy to me:



…but the road worker I talked with yesterday said it looked clear to him…? I made sure this section was NOT clear after I was through with it:



There isn’t a whole lot to write about today, I was just riding:



Leaving Arkansas behind me:



Here is the very last bit of Arkansas on the OK/AR state line:



And here is how Oklahoma welcomes me:



… with no welcome sign to be found. But notice how the road gets a little muddy entering Oklahoma…a sign of things to come?

Nahh, Oklahoma is just fine:





See, they’re even grading the roads here:



I even found God’s mountain:

http://Nichelob.smugmug.com/photos/330349814_c7eYt-M.jpg

(wait… which one isn’t?)

Here comes the long and straight roads I’ve been looking at on the maps and yes, they’re definitely long and straight:



Who says I didn’t stop and smell the roses? (or whatever plant this is):



Finding places to “irrigate the land” was becoming easier; this looked like a good spot:



All bridges should be built this way:



Then there would be less of this:





It’s hard to see but flooding had taken out the far end of the bridge above. There was a path leading into this river, but the boulders in the foreground were obviously intentionally placed to prevent “most” people from advancing.

The next available bridge was about 5-10 miles away, so trying to get through this may not have been such a bad idea and I’m pretty sure the Orangutan was capable of completing the task. But, fortunately, the better side of me decided to take the long way around, however I’m sure it would have been fun to try.