April 23, 2005

Poplar Bluff To Waldron

The wind gusts had died to 20-30 MPH by the time we arose and the temperature had dropped to 45 degrees. Thus it was out with the leathers, winter gloves, bandana and extra layers of shirts.  We struck out across Missouri which became rolling hills and farmland interspersed with forest and twisty roads leading to many rivers across the state.  We passed through two of the many Mark Twain National Forests that dot Missouri and again saw thousands of flowering dogwoods interspersed in the newly awakening woods.

One particular road we took was State Route 76 which followed a nice, twisty ride parallel to US 60 out of Poplar Bluff.  By now we were figuring out our GPS and this road looked great and was nearly a direct route  to Monett.  It was narrow with dramatic ups and downs much like a roller coaster and the twisties often followed a steep up with an immediate left or right down.  It took a great deal of concentration to remain in the right lane and not let the worry about the possibility of an oncoming vehicle  being in your lane. The scenery was great and the winds still blew...though a little less strong.  As I traveled mile after mile of this magnificent biker road the fatigue I had felt earlier from yesterday's challenge seemed to melt away.  It was a wonderful and challenging type of road that gives all biker's a private high.

After a few medium sized towns along the State Route 14 we again joined up with US 60 and rode into Monett where 66-0315 rests.  This is the Bird that started this idea in my mind last August on my Mid-America trip.  It was a pleasure to see it again. It stands on a pedestal in a lovely City Park next to a small lake.  It was ironic that this time I witnessed birds building nests and feeding young  in nearly every opening in the plane's skin.  Sort of like Mother Bird and many Little Birds.  We took some pictures, went to lunch down the road and headed south with a target of Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

Once out of Missouri, we took the scenic IH 540 to Ft. Smith arriving there an hour ahead of schedule (understanding we are really 24 hours behind schedule) so I decided to press on to Mansfield a half hour down the road so the next day's ride would be shorter.  When we got to Mansfield, there were no motels so we were forced to press on to Waldron another half hour down the road.  It was getting late, we were getting tired, we needed to stop.  Waldron is a town of about 4-5000 people and we expected to find a decent motel there.  But the route by-passed Waldron and would require us to search around considerably.  We decided to take the first one we found. I won't mention its name for obvious reasons because it was much like Bates Motel from the movie Psycho.  But we were tired and my sciatica nerve was in a dull  minor ache so we took it. I asked if they had internet access and received a puzzled look and the comment "I don't understand anything about that thing.  I know some people do it. But I don't know how."  I managed to work dial-up so I must be one of those who know how to 'do it'.

This part of the trip was coming to an end.  We settled in.  I wrote a journal (at last), Bill fixed the AC so we could get heat (it was getting cold), and we again worked at understanding how to make the GPS do its thing.  I was getting along pretty well but Bill inserted a problem for himself by damaging the left 25% of his LCD screen with his belt buckle.  He could only read names and maps that extended into the right 75%.  And his ability to set way points and such was severely limited. He said I owed him a disability rating.

Here's some pictures (Full Album HERE):