Sooner State Valkyrie Riders

Friday morning, July 15th, I zipped home from work and piled into bed for a short nap. I couldn’t sleep long because Bandit would be arriving soon and we had miles to travel! Inzane was calling, and we had some riding to do in Arkansas before we could answer that call.

Bandit, my good friend from New Mexico, arrived at my house in western Oklahoma just after noon. After arriving, Bandit was complaining about a noise he was hearing on his bike. He had heard this noise before he left home and suspected something wrong on the rear end. After removing everything and a thorough inspection, he found nothing obvious wrong. I took the bike for a spin(those of you that know Bandit know what a challenge THAT was) and suggested it might be a wheel bearing, but he assured me that wasn’t it. He decided to continue on with the trip and hoped to find the problem later.

We were to meet the Kansas crew in Arkansas on Saturday morning so we decided to ride on to Tulsa for the night after a quick tour of the ranch. Other than a short rain shower as we passed through Stillwater, it was an uneventful though rather hot trip. We arrived at the wonderful Miss Brenda’s house to find a feast of feasts. A much better meal than the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I fed Bandit for lunch earlier that day!

Saturday morning we jumped on Hwy 412 east into Arkansas to meet the Kansas crew in Bentonville. After a few minutes of looking for a non-existent Shell station, we finally met up with Raymond, Rhonda and Dana for a tour of some curvy Arkansas roads. Well, that was the plan anyway. Upon arrival Bandit noticed his rear (car) tire was rubbing the drive shaft and noted that the ‘noise’ had gotten worse. Raymond took his bike for a spin and after returning echoed my opinion that he had a rear wheel bearing failing. A quick parts check found that we had a full set of bearings and seals. All we needed was a way to get the bike off the ground so we could get it fixed. After a bit of discussion and an inquiry with local rider that happened by the gas station we headed for the local Honda shop to see if we could borrow a bike lift/jack. As we pulled into the Honda dealer parking lot, the bearing locked up on him. If you are going to have luck, it might as well be good luck!

I would have bet $50 that the Honda dealer would not loan us ANYTHING, but I would have lost that bet. They loaned us a small jack and after a little dumpster diving for a block of wood we had the bike off the ground. Another 30 minutes later we had the rear wheel off and into the shop for them to replace the bearings(left rear was toast). In roughly two hours after arriving at the shop we had the bike back together and ready to roll. No more funny noises and no more tire/drive shaft contact! Action Honda in Bentonville really treated us well regardless of the fact that we didn’t want them working on the bike.

Now that we had Bandit’s bike back in road worthy condition, we grabbed a quick lunch at Braum’s and headed east towards Eureka Springs. We took hwy 72 north from Bentonville through Pea Ridge and intersected with Hwy 62 into Eureka Springs. Traffic was heavy for a few miles but we were finally able to break away from it and enjoy some of the nice curves as you come into Eureka Springs. Since we came from two different directions that morning a gas stop was in order to get everyone filled up at the same time. As soon as we stopped the sky opened with what seemed like an endless downpour of rain. We waited roughly 45 minutes for it to pass and finally gave up on it ending and headed on down the road. Our original plan was to take Hwy 23 south to Ozark(I-40) for the night, but because of the many delays earlier in the day, we decided to ease on over to Harrison for the night since it was already almost 5pm. We spent the evening drying out and enjoying a nice meal at the Dixie Cafe.

We made a new plan on Sunday morning, which was basically: “Lets go south for awhile, then try a different direction later…” Its nice to have no particular place to be, and plenty of time to get there! We departed Harrison Arkansas heading south on Hwy 7. It was a bit overcast but a beautiful curvy ride down through Jasper. After a stop at an overlook for pictures we made our way down to Dover Arkansas for a gas stop, which is just north of I-40(Russellville). At this point we recalculated the plan and decided to go northeast for awhile. We took Hwy 27 out of Dover and intersected with Hwy 16 east to Clinton, Ark for lunch. I really enjoyed this leg of the day as the roads were nice and curvy. Others complained about the condition of the road(asphalt marbles in the corners) but I was too busy having fun to notice. I did however have to stop at one point and wait 10-15 minutes for everyone to catch up. Good curves were just meant to be straightened out!

After lunch in Clinton, we continued east on Hwy 16 to Greers Ferry. The exact highways are a bit fuzzy at this point but I think we took Hwy 92, and then Hwy 25 into Batesville. We departed Batesville on Hwy 25 then intersecting with Hwy 37 to Tuckerman. The goal was to make Jonesboro for the night. A short run north on Hwy 67 and we headed east on Hwy 226 into Jonesboro. The last 100 miles or so of the day we had departed the mountainous regions and moved into the flat farming area of eastern Arkansas. With that change was also the heat and humidity that would plague the next week of our trip. Another point of interest is I finally stopped at a rice field just west of Jonesboro for an investigation. I’ve ridden past these fields on numerous occasions and always wanted to see what they looked like up close. Nothing exciting to report about that other than they ARE flooded with water!

Monday morning the clouds were dark but we were able to avoid any rain as we continued our journey. This would be the first day we actually had a final destination in the plan. At the end of the day we would be in Paducah, Ky for Inzane V! We departed Jonesboro on Hwy 49 to Paragould and then Hwy 412 into Missouri. We followed Hwy 412 to I-55 where we headed north. Our next stop was a welcome center for a bathroom break and to find out how to find the Dorena-Hickman Ferry. This is one of the few remaining riverboat Ferry’s in the United States and the only Ferry that crosses the Mississippi from Missouri to Kentucky. After departing I-55 it was a beautiful ride east through some small farming communities. Lots of Corn, Soy Beans and Cotton growing in the surrounding fields as we followed a small winding two-lane road down to the river.(Hwy 80 and then Hwy 102). The Ferry arrived very shortly after we did and we rode down a boat ramp right onto the Ferry for our boat ride across the mighty Mississippi.

Once we arrived in Kentucky we made our way to Fulton, Ky for lunch. It was only about 50 miles into Paducah, but we did take a few detours. As Raymond was looking at the map we realized that if we made one little side trip we could make 5 states in this one day. We were only a few miles north of the Tennessee border so we went south to the state line for a picture before heading back north towards our destination. We started the day in Arkansas, then Missouri, across the Mississippi into Kentucky, south a few miles to Tennessee, and all we needed was Illinois to make five for the day! Paducah, Ky sits right on the Ohio River which divides Illinois and Kentucky in this part of the state. A quick loop north across the bridge into Illinois as we arrived in Paducah was all it took to complete our day. We arrived late afternoon at Ground Zero and would spend the next week with 600 of our closest Valkyrie friends!

You can view pictures of this part of our trip here. All of my pictures, including the Inzane event pictures are here. There are also over 800 pictures in the VRCC’s Just Pics from Inzane V.