Talimena The Experiance

[drgibson]

Sorry it took so long to get to this I have a lot going on right now. Anyway here it comes...

My first group ride



Long post Long Post Long Post



Saturday 5am the alarm goes off time to get up and hit the road! Need to leave the house and drive for an hour to the starting point. (Remember to buy a new alarm clock)

Left the house at 6:30am fueled up just down the street from the starting point. (a Honda dealership) In the parking lot my wife decides to stress test her modular helmet, it fails the test. Broken helmet an hour away from home where the spare helmet is, leaving in 30 minutes. Should I leave her here and let her ride the bus home? Maybe there is someone in the dealership who can help.

I locate the coordinator of this shindig and he is going to try to track down dealer and see if they can fix it.

Enter the dealership…

This is a motorcycle dealership? Doesn’t smell like one! Since when does a dealership have a Starbucks inside,

and what the heck do they need a baby grand piano for?

Sign up is up stairs, in the arcade?! I need a GPS just to find my way around.



Signup goes smoothly,

we all watch a video on riding in groups, they go over the itinerary and we meet the road captain for our group and everyone in our group is given an orange bandanna to tie to their motorcycle. (thank goodness we aren’t in the pink group) There are 8 bikes in our group 1 BMW GPS installed (road captain) 1 Kawasaki Vulcan Classic 1500 (the only Kawasaki cruiser) 1 Suzuki M95 (the only Suzuki) the rest are Harleys. There are 49 bikes total and 70 riders. The groups are leaving 10 min apart and we will be the third group out. The first stop is 113mi away in Oklahoma. Our group has to wait for a member who has to buy his wife a new helmet. So we are now group 4.

[drgibson]

It is nice weather so we are riding without the liners in our jackets. As we cross the Red River into okieville it starts to sprinkle, as we pull into the gas station it starts to rain. Fill up with gas put on the rain suits. We leave out as group 1 (what a bunch of wimps).

An hour later we arrive in Talihina for lunch. The rain only lasted for about 20 minutes. We are almost finished eating before another group arrives. (did I say they were wimps?)

Lunch was good it was furnished by the Chamber of Commerce who evidently twisted the arms of several of the local restaurants so we had quite a choice of food.

For the next leg of the ride everyone was on there own as long as you could get to Mena Ar. by 4:30pm to check in to the motel.

Talihina is on one end of the Talimena Scenic Highway Mena is 60mi away on the other end. Time is 1:30pm right on schedule. We top off with gas and start out. I have never seen so many motorcycles. Only saw about 5 cars but there were hundreds of bikes. Almost had to drive one handed I was waving so much. The sky was mostly cloudy and the air was hazy so the views were not as nice as I would have liked, but the road... ahh the road was a blast. Every thing you could ask for; elevation changes sweeping turns, tight turns, open areas, forested areas. We thoroughly enjoyed it... to a point; toward the end (the best part) we got behind a rider (who’s gender will remain anonymous) that didn’t realize that the yellow and black signs were only suggestions. Argghh by the time we got to a place to pass we were in Mena with about 20 bikes stacked up. I passed her anyway. (oops)

Hotel room was comfy, supper was good, I was beat so we filled up with gas and turned in early 9:00pm. I woke up at 1:00am sick as a dog, at 2:00am I had to get the wife up (good thing I didn’t make her take the bus home) to run over to Wally world which was just next door to get some medicine so I could hopefully ride the next day (I did not want to be the first into the sag wagon). I skipped breakfast and we continued on. We stopped at Iron Mountain the CMA camp Ground very nice facility. Then we ate lunch in Idabel Ok. Not the best BBQ I’ve had. After that my allergies kicked in and my eyes kept trying to swell shut. On top of that we (as in a road captain on a BMW with a GPS) got lost. A one hour trip turns into two. My gas light is on and I forgot to rest the trip meter so I’m not sure when I will run out, it’s hot, my butt is sore, I can barely see, and I want ICE CREAM!!

Well we finally make it and I got my Ice Cream but I’m still over an hour away from home and I need to find a gas station.

The door Prizes were cool Leather Jackets Honda Wax and travel kits for cleaning, a Triumph jacket, hats, t-shirts, etc…

I was hoping for fall colors but we were a little early for that. The event was well organized, they were prepared for emergencies (even had a nurse handy), Had a trailer that would hold two bikes, tools, radios, cell phones, (like they’d work in Arkansas) No one had bike trouble, or issues that prevented them from completing the ride. Total miles for us was 654. All in all it was a positive experience and I would do it again.

So if you get the opportunity to go on a ride then… go on a ride.

This was lunch on the first day.


Don't try this folks it takes experiance..


Ahhh there she is...



I let my wife pose with her too


The Road...

[Trapper]

Good story and pictures. Thanks.

[Pinhy]

sounds like a great time! we did 410 miles down around lake Okeechobee and back once...that was all in one day. 650 in 2 sounds doable.

i cant see doing 1000 in a day like some have done.

.

[bud van houten]

sounds like a great ride. a friend and i were planning a trip there this weekend, but i have been having a charging problem with my bike, so we canceled. i am going to ride it sometime, really look forward to it. later, bud

[sundude]

Great pics and story. Sounds like a great time. Wish we had roads like that down here.