Final Leg

Ouachita National Forest

The weather continued to threaten for the last two days of riding, but we only encountered a couple of little sprinkles for the remainder of our time in Arkansas and back into Texas. 

I shot an unbelievable amount of photos in the Ozarks and Ouachita National Forest, but the images just cannot do justice to the majesty of this part of the country.  The rolling hills and curves just went on for seemingly forever.

Big Bird and L.F. making the turns look easy

"If I have to explain it to you, you wouldn't understand."  That cliche' phrase has been overused in the marketing of so many past times, but it really does hold true for riding a motorcycle.  Each day of riding typically ended with a hearty meal, a beer or two and lots of recounting of the day's ride.  As I was trying to articulate how perfect the riding was in Arkansas, it dawned on me that it really is true- if I have to explain it to you, you truly wouldn't understand.  I've taken this as a challenge to my writing ability though, so I will try anyway! 

One of the foundational concepts of riding is counter-steering.  If you want to  turn right, you press and push forward on the right handgrip and vice verse for left.  This causes the bike to lean toward whatever side you pressed  and the bike starts turning to that side.  This seems counterintuitive since steering requires you to push the opposite handgrip in the direction you want to turn.  The big difference is that counter-steering requires momentum, meaning you must be at some minimum speed for it to work.  You may have experienced this concept with bicycling at some point in your life.  Think about pedaling slowly and you want to turn right, so you push the left handgrip out and forward  to make the wheel turn to the right.  You don't really press the handlebars downward since it would throw you off balance so you just push the handgrip out.  Now imagine pedaling fast and going into a turn.  Your body leans and your hand pushes, and presses, the handgrip to the side you're  turning.  I chuckle anytime I see bikers awkwardly maneuvering their motorcycles in confined areas where they don't have momentum to use counter-steering.  For the most part, we don't steer and balance well at very low speeds!

Riding Tail of the Dragon.  Photo by US129photos.com

I can't speak for other riders, but when I first learned how to ride, I'd have to think about "pressing" every  time I'd go into a turn.  With experience, it just kind of happens.  Now, when I start to go into  a fairly sharp turn at speed,  the bike just seems to know what to do.  My body weight automatically  shifts to adjust to the changing center of gravity of the bike and the handlebars just kind of descend on the turning side so my hand presses to stay in contact with it.  When I reach the sweet spot in the turn where momentum is slowing down enough to cause me to roll the throttle to accelerate in response and I'm pushed back into my seat and the bank of the turn, I can't help but to feel giddy with how awesome the whole process feels :-)  This doesn't really explain the whole experience of riding, but hopefully it gives you just a little sampling of the many reasons why riding can be so therapeutic.  In fact, many of us refer to our rides as "wind therapy"!

Big Bird and L.F. at Stokers Dallas

Well, if I haven't lost you yet with my whole description of turning, here's a little side trip we took once we got into Texas.  I don't watch TV, so when Mylissa mentioned that she wanted to stop by a place called Strokers when we passed through Dallas, I didn't really realize that it was more than just a bike shop.  It turns out that Strokers is practically a biker empire in Dallas owned by Rick Fairless.

Love the sunshine wheel at Strokers!

In 1996, he opened a motorcycle shop that has now morphed into a dealership for Victory and Royal Enfield motorcycles as well as used Harleys and had its own reality TV show ("Texas Hardtails" on the SPEED channel).  The shop also custom builds bikes and parts.  There were some really cool parts I wanted to get to customize my Streetglide, but unfortunately, all the parts  were  made for Victory bikes :-(

We had lunch at Strokers Ice House next door to the shop (which also had it's own reality show called "Ma's Roadhouse" on TRU TV) and got to tour the back garage and see dozens of custom bikes and parts.  All in all, it was an interesting stop that included good food and cool bikes!

The final bag drag

This morning we made the final push home in winds gusting up to 30 mph.  Although windy, our weather karma held for another day and we made it home on dry roads.  I'm writing this post from the comfort of my own home!  Even though it's nice to not have to pack up our belongings and load them up on the bikes every morning, I'm sad that it's already time for this trip to come to an end.  I will do one more post with a summary once the laundry is done and I have some groceries in my house!