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Oklahoma Weekend

The_Veg

D'OH!
I had a good ride the weekend of Feb. 11. That Thursday night my friend Randy came up to Dallas from Austin and stayed at my place. We drank beer, watched Faster! and talked bikes before turning in. Bright but not-so-early the next morning we loaded up and pointed our bikes north. It was cloudy and chilly but we didn't care. We have a friend named Ken who lives just off the intersection of US 259 and OK 63- or in other words, about five miles off the Talimena Scenic Drive! For the uninitiated, the TSD is 54 miles of two-lane bliss running between Talihina, OK and Mena, AR. It twists and turns along the top and sides of a ridge of the Ouachita Mountains.

Anyway, here's Randy at my place getting ready to go. Can you tell there's a near-cherry '84 R100RS under all that stuff?
 

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The ride up was uneventful except for getting into a traffic jam on the way out of Dallas and behind a bunch of slow trucks in the backroads. Stopped and had a pretty tasty lunch in Bonham TX at a place called Shumardii Steakhouse. Decent eats if you're ever in the area. I was leading and once in OK I screwed up the intersection between US 271 and the Indian Nation Turnpike. That's okay, there's a second-chance exit a few miles up. No toll paid and back on 271. I have mad ethis mistake before as the sign is kinda misleading.
We stocked up on groceries in Talihina, suing the last bits of space left in our tankbags and hardbags. Then on to Ken's place. Ken was really happy to see us and before too long it was time for dinner. Ken invited his neighbour Ingrid to join us and we had a great meal. I'm not oridinarily a fan of pork chops, but Ken's were grilled to perfection and wuite yummy. After dinner we tucked in the bikes for a good rest.

Here's The BatBike getting cozy with Ken's '77 R100/7 and '78 R100S.
 

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And here's what Randy's RS looks like unloaded and cleaned up. Note the Luftmeister auxillary tank. He just got a pair of those from eBay and is still experimenting and deciding whether or not he likes them. I've already claimed dibs if he decides to part with them. :D
 

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Ken is retired. He used to live here in Dallas where he worked as an engineer at Texas Instruments. He bought the place in OK as a weekend/vacation home, but after retiring found himself up there more and more and liking the city less and less so he moved up permanently. The cabin came with a workshop in which he spends plenty of time. Ken does lots of woodwork and he makes some mighty fine guitars and mandolins and such. The workshop is actually bigger than the cabin and he's been known to park his bikes there when the garage is busy as the headquarters of the twice-annual Boxerworks Forum Rallies. The workshop has also accomodated many a two-wheeled traveler.

Here's Randy getting ready to turn in. He's got the sleeping bag up on the motorcycle work-stand (barely visible behind the Metro shelf of embryonic guitars) but thought better of it and moved to the floor. That's my bag and mattress in the foreground. See the thick wooden shelf in the background, with all the boxes and tubs stacked upon it? You can't see in the picture, but the space underneath that shelf houses a bunch of dusty old bikes just waiting to be cleaned up and refurbed or restored or just plain rediscovered. There are a few more out in the garage too.
 

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Thanks Brad!

Here's another shot of Ken's workshop. If you're into tools and woodworking, this place is AMAZING.
 

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Here's a shot of one of Ken's guitar bodies. Terrible pic; it does *NO* justice to the craftmanship. Ken not only does the usual spruce top/maple sides but also gets into woods like cedar and bois d'arc. I forget what combination this one is. He also does damn good work with bindings and inlays. I sure wish I'd got a really good close-up of that purfling!
 

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I didn't take any pictures Saturday because it was rainy so we only went for a short ride and relaxed indoors most of the day. But that night Ingrid invited us over for dinner.
Ingrid is one of the coolest people I've ever met. She's a German immigrant who's retired from the fashion industry. She rides a Kawasaki but we forgive her that and have started to convince her that Beemers are not so ugly. She and Ken have been friends for many years and it was she who gave Ken the idea to move up there. She moved up first, then sold him a bit of her land and he built his place and moved up. They were neighbours in Dallas and now neighbours again in OK. She took a pair of old hunting cabins and connected them and turned them into a very nice house. She did it all single-handed and didn't stop there. She built terraces and steps and porches around the house in conrete and stone, and built a very artfully done and tastefully decorated storm shelter with an art-studio on top. Ingrid's residence is a wonderful oasis of European charm and sophistication up in the hillbilly backwoods of Oklahoma.

Here we all are after dinner. L-R: Ingrid, myself, Ken, Randy
 

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Sunday was a beautiful day but halfway through it I had to head out so be back at work Monday morning. Randy stayed another night and went home Monday. I had a slow ride back due to several things. One was enough headwind to really seriously eat into my MPG. I got about 135 miles to one tank! That time I was ten miles into reserve when I passed the only gas in a 30-mile stretch. A mile later I got a sputter. Did a U-ey right away. Back to the gas station where the tank took 5.7 gallons- it's rated for 5.8. But the main thing that slowed me down was picture-taking.

Here's a river not far from Ken's place:
 

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I was going to finsh with some closeups of just how mud-splattered parts of The BatBike got but you've all seen that before on other bikes. To get form the main road to Ken's place is about 300 yards off-pavement. It was muddy the whole weekend. I didn't go down in the mud, thanks to The BatBikes inner-GS shining through. :D

All in all a great weekend escape.
 
Great report Veg, nice pictures. I probably would have gotten in trouble picking at the old bikes in there :p
 
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