ARKANSAS IN AUTUMN '07 - Mini Bash Report

Post by **boxermania** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:35 pm

Preliminary report, soon to follow with many pictures, commentary and the like from the attendees.

First and foremost we must recognize GypsyRR, that on her own staged the event. It pretty much followed the format of prior BBÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s, where the primary objective is exploring new ridding opportunities and enjoying each others company in a non-structured setting.

Needless to say the rides were great as was the weather. Quite frankly this country of ours never ceases to amaze meÃ¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦just look in your backyard and you will find great places to ride.

We had an excellent show with 17 attendees, 7 of which have been to one or more of the prior bashes and 10 new attendees, with Miss Vickie, and here they are:

The dubious old geezers, err.....I meant to say....former Bash attendees in their splendor;

BiffÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s R, Boxer, Boxermania, Buddy, CycleRob, Machew01 and RBrider

And the new faces;
GypsyRR, duckdave, ladybeemer, Mad1150, Mkomara, NoRRmad, OU812, priapismic, Ride2red (sorry if I messed it up Drew), Sparky(Boxer's better half) and Miss Vickie.

These folks came all the way from: New York, Virginia, Ohio, Chicago, Texas, Louisiana, Florida/North Carolina and Arkansas.

Well, since I have yet to download the pics and IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m kind of tired, I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to go on and onÃ¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦however I do have to say that if you find yourself in the Ozark area and aside from the great rides, the place to go for a nice drink, food, atmosphere and the Irish band (Friday night) is: KeltÃ¢â‚¬â„¢sÃ¢â‚¬Â¦...I new since I heard about it from priapismic I knew it was going to be greatÃ¢â‚¬Â¦..so with that I bow out you my fine feathered friendsÃ¢â‚¬Â¦..for now

priapismic · Post by **priapismic** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:48 pm

+1 for everything Boxermania said! The weather was great, the roads were awesome, and the company was the finest to be had anywhere! It was great to meet all of the folks and finally put a face and "real" name behind the screen names. Congrats to Gypsyrr for putting it all together, and kudos to all who attended for making it a wonderful, memorable event.

Here's our Saturday night group dinner - most of us anyway. LadyBeemer and Mkomara had to split early in the day, and Al (Boxermania) did the honors of snapping the pict, but here are the rest of us:

Let's see if I can ID everyone: front row is Rbrider (Bob), CycleRob (Rob), Boxer (Phil), Gypsy, Mrs. Mad1150 (Vickie), standing in the back row is Machew01 (Michael), FNG Ride2Red (Drew), Biff's R (Jeff), Mad1150 (Mark), NoRRmad (Craig), another FNG (and friend of Boxermania Buddy), OU812 (Steve), and yours truly Priapismic (Bob).

Here's another pict from Friday night at Kelt's Irish Pub in nearby Altus, AR. Clockwise from bottom at 6:00 is CycleRob, Ride2Red (Drew), Buddy, Boxermania (Al), mkomara (Maureen), and LadyBeemer (Linda).

More picts can be found at: http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b385/ ... as%202007/

Hope to meet even more of y'all at the next bash!

Post by **OU812** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:14 pm

Al, thanks for forgetting me.

Post by **DJ Downunder** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:00 am

Great pictures...It looks like you guys had a good time...Who won the lucky dip?

DJ

Post by **Daryl_stamp** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:47 am

Thanks for the report. I used to ride around Arkansas when I was stationed in Memphis and there sure are a lot of great roads there once you get away from the flat part of the state. Wish I could have joined you guys.

DLS

Post by **boxermania** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:09 am

OU812......darn, you must still be dazed from that late night ride with CycleRob.....you name is there....are you sure you checked well?????

Sorry.....I've corrected my dastardly oversight......

Post by **OU812** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:57 am

Hey Al, just a little fun. I had a great time, and thanks for all you did to make it special!

Post by **ladybeemer** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:23 am

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:08 pm Post subject: Just Back!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just got back from the bash. I only had time to head up there Thursday from Dallas and return today.
It was so good to meet many of the members, what a great bunch. Sorry I missed saying goodbye to many of you this morning, but I'm envious of the time you all still have to ride.
A big thanks to Gypsy for organizing the bash, she did a great job, thanks to Cycle Rob for the tech session and cheat sheet. Thanks again to gentleman who let me ride in his porsche!

Can't wait until the next time!

Linda

R4R&R · Post by **R4R&R** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 8:01 am

"If you plan it, they will come" - From Camfarm

He's right on that, and this is a great example of that. I wish I could've made it but I'm changing jobs and given the distance, I don't have the vacation time to get there and back. It looks like you all had a great time and I wish I could've been there.

I'm looking forward to more pictures and reports....

Post by **Motomo** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:24 am

I rode back to Dallas with Ladybeemer on Saturday. We had a beautiful ride home. Too bad we didn't have more time in Arkansas. The day we were up there was fantastic. The roads are amazing.

It was great to meet everyone. I feel bad that everyone had to see my gorgeous new R1200R. I know it made everyone sad that they didn't have one.

Hope I can make the next bash. Maybe we can do it in Hill Country.

I volunteer Ladybeemer to plan it!!!

Post by **sjbmw** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:54 am

You are a a good looking group. Congrats.

Post by **duckdave** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:13 am

The Bash was a Smash! It was so much fun to meet everyone. Thanks to Boxer for draggin' me around with him for a ride, hope Mrs. B gets feeling better; CycleRob-thanks for the diagnoses ("leaking pumpkin, dirty forktubes, dry starter bearing"); OU812-loved your Pilates plate; Priapismic-thanks for not insulting my underwear; and all the rest of you (Biff's R, NoRRmad (NYC right?) and too many for an old guy like me to remember) thanks for coming all the way to Arkansas, it was a great pleasure meeting you.

GypsyRR-Thanks for organizing this; Sorry, but I told my wife you packed in at somewhere near 350# (she's dang tired of hearing about you!).

Wooooo Pig Sooiee---How 'bout them Hogs!

Post by **GypsyRR** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:55 am

First an apology: I'm borrowing a PC laptop and do not have my normal software for processing photos. If they are too big, I'll have to resize them later tonight when I get home.

I'm still traveling, hoping to make it back by tonight and will be incredibly busy when I get there - but here is a quick report before I get back on the road. I took a lot of raw photos and they cannot be converted to jpegs on this little latptop I borrowed - so they will have to be done later. Unfortunately - they are the best of the photos. These will have to do until I get more time.

I only made it 150 miles yesterday before starting to fall asleep on the road coming over the Talimena Parkway - now that is really tired, if you can fall asleep through THAT.

I had a great time meeting everyone. Special thanks to CycleRob working on my bike and the mods you did. If you ever have a chance to do a tech session with him, you'll find him to be an incredibly patient and knowledgable teacher.

Friday, we had a sort of "impromtu" tech session on my bike. I think this may have been the only time EVERYONE was together at one time..........waiting into the darkness for my bike to be put back together.

HOpefully more photos to come when I get a chance, but this was just too funny. Joan and Ron didn't mind us using their parking lot for working on bikes. They appreciated the quietness of the BMW's, but I'm not sure they would have appreciated the way we put all of the accouterments to use:

Biff'sR didn't seem to mind being the torch bearer though.

I increased my riding skills exponentially by being able to ride behind some of the best. Thanks to them for letting me tag along: Machew01 - one of the smoothest fast riders I've ever ridden behind. The guy never uses his brakes in the twisties! He is that controlled. CycleRob - effortless skill, it seems, and incredibly fast in the twists and the hairpins. Be sure to watch for the video he took of his ride along 123. RBRider - another incredibly fast and skilled rider who left me in the dust on the hairpins (sorry about the long ride to breakfast - but I bet it was the prettiest ride to breakfast you have ever taken!) He rode behind me for a while, and then he took the lead of the pack. OMG - the guy can handle those sharp hairpins and twists! He was so far ahead of me, I was never able to watch his technique, so he gave me some pointers later. Unfortunately - we don't have hairpins like these in Texas. I'll have to make frequent runs to Arkansas for practice now. And then there was OU812 on his Light Truck (LT) - he is fast even on that beast. I followed him most of the time we were in the pack. He's good about giving you 'head's up' about what is coming - either by signals or his braking.

Some more photos of the riders will be coming, but here are just a few to start:

Here's Buddy on his GS coming around the bend to meet up, and ride with us:

A rest/water stop along the way:

Machew01 and OU812 (on his LT) - we had all gotten split up on 16 after 2-3 of us had to make a stop (it was a long way to breakfast that morning)and finally all hooked back up together at this spot.

One of the roads:

Here is where we ate breakfast. What an overview. Others will post some of those photos, mine are in raw format and still need to be processed:

One of my favorite rides was on Saturday. Machew01 and I went exploring new roads. One of the roads turned to gravel. We stopped and discussed options: turn back or go on through. I knew I regret not going down that gravel/dirt road if we turned back, and Machew01 can ride that K1200S on anything - so we went down 8 miles of dirt and gravel with some nice turns and steep inclines which followed a meandering brook. I was grinning from ear to ear the whole way.

And this photo just needs to be put in here. Machew01 and I came upon this. After 2 days of riding with me, he pretty much figured out I would want to stop and take photo. So he stopped to let me. THANKS, Mac! While there, a really fun character on an 2000 RT rode up and we had the most pleasant conversation with him. He is full of fun stories, and if I have time, I'll try to link to one of those as well.

That's his RT in the background. I have a photo of him too - but like the majority of my photos - they are in raw format and I can't process them until I get home.

The roads were all great. We never found a bad road there, I don't think. And there were plenty of barns and old buildings and one church for me to add to my collection of photos - but I rarely stopped to do so. Stop - and you get left behind!!!! Next year, I'll go one day early to photograph.

Thanks again to all who came. I think we set a record for Bashes in the total number of women attendees. We had Jenny (Boxer's wife), Vicki (mad1150's wife), Ladybeemer, MKomara, and myself. It was great to meet some other women riders too!!

I need to get back on the road. 370 more miles for me today. Ugly straight miles too! See ya'll next year. Dates have been set and rooms reserved already - Columbus Day weekend in October. I think it is the weekend of the 10th. No fall colors to see (which I really enjoyed), but the roads will still be just as good and probably even more vacant!! Keep the date!

Post by **wncbmw** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:57 am

Looks like it was a success! I am glad you all had a good time (typical when board members get together!).

And I am very sorry I could not make it. Heck, with my work load at the moment, I couldn't even slip out of work early Friday afternoon, much less take off two days to get there!

Post by **Boxer** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:58 am

I made it home late last night after a full day of trailering. I-75 was jacked up when we got into Georgia after Chattanooga, so I let the new Quest take me home on the back roads.

Sparky's fun was cut short Friday morning on the cool ride up to breakfast. She was following me up the Pigtrail with Boxermania in the rear in his Porsche. Something happened in the first of the double 10MPH switchbacks, and she went into the ditch.

Luckily for us Al was right behind us, and another very nice rider of an R1200RT pulled over to help. We got her out from under the bike in the ditch and Al drove her back to the hospital where she got exrayed and saw the doctor. That laid her up for the remainder of the bash. Here's a picture of her leg.

Sorry, no picture of her lying in agony beside the road pinned down by 400 pounds of F650. If I had brought my camera dawn the hill with me for that purpose, I think those other two guys would have beat me first, then she would beat me more later.

This morning, she's a bit sore in the shoulders. Her bursa on the right side is worse from the strain, but the leg is much better. The bruise is moving to the back of her leg. No fractures!...that we can see so far. She's supposed to have it checked again in a week if it still hurts.

Once again, I express my sincere and deepest gratitude for my old friend Boxermania for being there, and helping. If I knew who that other guy was I'd thank him too. Maybe he's lurking and reading this. If so, thank you Dude! That was super!

I rushed back to the hospital following the Porsche and then while Al sat with Sparky I rushed back to the scene in the truck and retrieved the bike by the road. It suffered the breakage of one mirror stalk and the two left side turn signals. They can be fixed. The scratches are there to stay as proof...of something...not sure what just now.

We really enjoyed meeting everyone and the ride Friday with Mark and Vickie...and the ride with DuckDave on Saturday were fantastic. I'll go back one day and ride that Hwy 7 that I missed.

Thanks GypsyRR for setting it all up.

Edit by Boxer: I was just informed by Al that the fellow who stopped to help was on a Kawasaki bike. Shows how frazzled I was at that particular moment.

mad1150 · Post by **mad1150** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:04 pm

Vickie and I made it home just before 9:00pm!

The traffic on I55 from St. Louis to Springfield was insane. Vickie and I both thought we were getting tickets on I39, we were going 85 when we passed a cop sitting in the median, so we finished passing the vehicle, slowed to 70-75, got in the right lane, and he never even pulled out - big sigh of relief!

We had a great time. It was so nice to meet everyone and put faces to names! As I've said before, this board and the people that make it up R the reason I ended up choosing the R! This BB more than re-affirmed that!

Thanks Phil, for leading us around Friday afternoon. Vickie and I appreciated that as we had a safe pace to improve our turns and curve skills.

Thanks to Steve for leading us most of the way there and back (Sorry we kept losing you) No worries though - it all worked out!

A special thanks to Gypsy! Wow, you did a fantastic job, and it was a huge huge, success. Just look at that list of where people came from to attend this. And if that's not enough, how about this list?

We had:

Group rides
Individual rides
Small groups or pairs going off and doing their own thing
Great food (including some great Irish music at Kelt's Friday night)
Group breakfast
Several Tech sessions (big thanks to CycleRob!)
A perfect starting point for riding
A very nice quaint Motel (w/homemade cookies!)
A very fun Soir'ee
Great camaraderie!
...and I'm sure we can add more!

Thanks to everyone for attending, sharing stories and information.

Hope to see you all again next year!

Post by **boxermania** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:05 pm

Finally downloaded the pics into Photobucket....this is my first tim so let's see how it goes......enjoy.

http://s241.photobucket.com/albums/ff49 ... ia_photos/

My commentary will follow later.....with full color and splendor....

Post by **Boxer** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:30 pm

Finally downloaded the pics into Photobucket

Al, I've taken the liberty of borrowing a few of your pics for the eventual slideshow that I'm creating.

Anyone else who took pics, please feel free to submit your photo location so I can steal some of yours too!

Don't worry, I'll give credit for all the pics I use other than my own.

Post by **OU812** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 5:18 pm

The ride home was brutal! But surely worth it for the friends I made, and the roads we had ridden!

My total miles was 2226. The most I have ever ridden in that amount of time.

Thanks everyone!

Note: edited for CycleRob.

Post by **boxermania** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 5:25 pm

Phil......other than my wife and children you can have anything.....on second thought....do you have anything interesting to trade for my precious possessions?