Westward bound

Big Bird riding over Eleven Point River in Alton, MO

Back in San Antonio when L.F., Big Bird and I had discussed the return route from Nationals, we had pretty much agreed to a journey that would include riding through the Ozarks in Arkansas.  We purposely didn't make hard plans however, so that we could remain flexible based on weather and suggestions by fellow riders.  After riding the Tail of the Dragon on the trip up to PA, it was unanimous that at the end of Nationals,  we would head south from Gettysburg and spend a couple more days riding in the NC/TN area.  There are so many great rides in the vicinity of Deals Gap and Talico Plains that we wanted a few days to explore those roadways more.

View from under the Eleven Point River bridge

"Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."  Although Dwight D. Eisenhower made that statement about planning for battle, the same can be said for any endeavor.  There's no doubt that having a scheduled timeline is valuable and can help get you to your destination on time, but remaining slave to a plan instead of flexing with current circumstances and opportunities may result in seeing the roses, but often takes away the opportunity to actually smell them.  So after watching weather forecasts calling for thunderstorms over most of the mountainous area of NC/TN, we made the call to adjust and blaze a path straight west from Gettysburg towards the Ozarks.  What a great call that turned out to be!

Although there were a few times during the last couple of days we felt sure we were going to get wet, we've managed to remain dry since leaving Gettysburg with only a couple of weather delays.  We've enjoyed dry roads and clear skies for most of the return trip so far.

I had been to West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri before, but I had never driven through what has turned out to be some amazing scenery.  Even though we took the interstate instead of back roads through West Virginia, it took us through the mountains and offered up some pretty spectacular views and curvy roads.  Once in Kentucky, we jumped onto the Bluegrass Parkway and spied lush green, meticulously manicured land  surrounded by white fences marking beautiful horse farms. 

Yesterday, we made it into Arkansas via the Mark Twain National Forest in southern Missouri and rode nothing but curvy, mostly newly paved roads winding through the Ozarks National Forest.  We've been sticking to roads identified as "scenic" rides in my Harley-Davidson road atlas and we have not been disappointed.  At about 300 miles, yesterday's ride was relatively short compared to some of the rides we have done since leaving San Antonio over a week ago, but we were satisfyingly exhausted at the end of our 8 hour riding day.  There were areas that ran for dozens of miles that rivaled the curves offered up in the 11 miles of Tail of the Dragon!

Kind of like call signs for fliers, bikers get assigned road names.  In both aviation and motorcycling, you don't usually get to choose your own name; your personality or an event will usually result in one being assigned to you.  Fortunately for me, my Navy aircrew call sign of "Sunshine" followed me into my biker world.  Although I think it reflects my typically cheery disposition in the morning, I'm told it describes the  ever-present smile on my face :-)  Sometimes you look around at the name patches on vests and wonder how in the world that individual earned his or her road name.  Big Bird is one of those cases.  A couple of folks we ride with relayed stories of Vic riding down the road and randomly being dive bombed by huge birds.  I thought it must be an exaggeration and they were just looking for a name to stick on him.  I have now seen it with my own eyes!  Yesterday, we were rolling merrily along when out of the blue, two huge birds flew right out in front of Vic!  Not just randomly got in his path, I mean flew straight at him at a high rate of speed!!  Although muffled by the sound of my pipes, I laughed out loud when I realized I had just witnessed his road name in action.  Big Bird it is!

We're not sure how much longer our good weather karma will hold out, but we plan on riding some more of the twisting roads of the Ozarks today and explore the sites that await.