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Mid-South ride, eat, and meet
- Thread starter barryg
- Start date
After visiting the museum we walked out to the Capital Mall. Pretty impressive sight, all those over sized buildings and monuments. Pretty neat. Looked pretty much like what I saw on the TV. Iwouldn't mind going back for a 2nd visit; maybe visit some more Capitol museums. Good stuff, I'm a history buff.
We had some time on our hand, what's next. Leo, let's go check out Capitol Cycle, it's close. 10-4 skinny buddy, let's go. I gave the address to Lentz and we were off. As usual to fast, oh well. We were moving along at a good pace when we passed a guy on his /2. We all acknowledged him as we passed. Some where along the line we got turned around and got lost. We stopped a couple times, conferenced about where the place was. After a few false starts and stops, we got there. There was a familiar looking /2 in the parking lot with the rider standing next to it.
Hey Guys I see you made it; I was wondering if you were heading here. I hung my head in shame. He was a good guy, said he didn't live to far away. He said he needed parts for his old /2.
Hey Guys I see you made it; I was wondering if you were heading here. I hung my head in shame. He was a good guy, said he didn't live to far away. He said he needed parts for his old /2.
We went inside and met the crew. The only one I remember was Hal.Good guy, he knew BMW parts. I can't remember his last name. Impressive place. Got a tour in warehouse. Wow, Big and BIG. Parts and more parts. Good visit. Back to the motel and dinner. Lentz informed us he needed to blitz back home for a college football game. No problem, have a nice ride home.: waves
The next day Leo and I had our own little conference. Barry your the new tour master. Leo, let's head south to Fancy Gap, VA, and get back on the Parkway and ride south. I liked that part of the Parkway best. It had the highest points on the Pkwy. I really wanted to ride back up to Mt. Mitchell, the highest point in the eastern U.S..
We got go Fancy Gap and got a motel room. Leo my head light on the Windslammer is out.. I got my bulb and fuse kit out.. Leo was already pulling the assemble out., Yep burned out bulb. He pulled the bulb outa my kit and started installing the new one. In a couple of minutes, Barry, turn the head light switch on. Did as told and I had a head light, yea. Kind of nice to have one of the most skilled BMW techs as a riding partner.. I just remembered Leo had a flat tire on the way up. Leo used his BMW supplied plug kit to do a quick fix. We rode to a service station and Leo used the pump to really pop the bead in place. I decided that a K bike was definitely in my future. Having a flat on an airhead, changing out a tube, kinda cool at the shop, not so much on the side of the road.
We headed south on the Pkwy in a leisurely fashion, this time sight seeing g., not Grand Prix road racers. I had the Pkwy map with mile makers and I picked out what I thought were the best overlooks. Leo was all smiles. We took picks at all the highest point markers. Back up to Mount Mitchell, nice vista's. We got a motel room back in Ashville. At dinner that night, Leo said this day had been the best part as far as riding was concerned. I had to agree. I went to bed with a smile on my face and dreams of what my new R90 would look like after the rebuild. 
I just had a conversation with with Leo about the trip and the ride home, he brought up the fact that we ran through an early spring blizzard. I can't even remember that. Riding west, I think all I had on my mind was rebuilding my R90 and and the acquisition of a K bike. I had another couple of years of nursing the R90 along until the rebuild. Patience became the key word.
Back in the day, I rode with a few different groups, two mainly. One was the BMW club group and the other was the bar hopping biker groups. I could fit into either one. But over time I kind of fell out of favor with both groups. Both groups rode to fast with to many riders. Their always seemed to be those that wanted to run the show and everyone fell into line. I would just ask where the meeting point was to start and stop. I would show up on time, then leave ahead of the crowd and do my own ride to the next stop.
I was thinking about my BRP ride of 30 years ago. I was a different rider, then. Loved and lived to ride. I learned to ride by the old rule of hard knocks and personal survival. A buddy of mine started me riding almost 40 years ago. He had been riding his whole life. His father started him on dirt bikes, I think I remember him telling me he had gotten his motorcycle endorsement at 15 and had a new Street bike to ride. He led I followed, it was learn or die. We rode day and night. Kinda reminded me of my dad telling me how he learned to swim. He learned in Black River in Ark.. He was a little kid. His older brothers and cousins would throw him in and scream, sink or swim. He learned to swim.
My buddy rode day or night, 24/7, highways, byways, gravel roads, farm trails, mountain trials. We were always camped out next to a river at the bottom of a mountain. We had ridden down on a cow or horse trail. Hey Buddy, why aren't we in the official campground. What's the use in that. We got the whole view, this whole site all to ourselves. OK got it. 
We'd get up, ride up the the trail to the highway, then down the road to the little community store and restaurant. Usually some bikes parked outside; some street bikes, some dual-purpose, some pure dirt bikes. We'd go in and sit down. All the bikers sitting, eating, drinking, and talking about all the great rides in the area. A lot of the riders were from outa state.
Usually a small small place, all the bikers packed into a small place. Kinda funny, the Harley biker types and DP riders sitten togather all talking about the local rides in the area. My buddy and I were just there smiling. We had ridden every ride they were talking about numerous times. Y'all ever ride down to the Spring Creek Campground? Naw, never heard of it. What about the ride down to the the abandoned ghost mining town of Rush with all those abandoned mines. What, No, never heard of them. Well, let me tell you where they are.....
Sometimes I'd be looking for a ride for the day. I'd lead a ride to the old Mining town of Rush and the old abandoned mines. I'd tell everyone it's gravel road the whole way. A lot of the street bikes would turn back, most all the DP bikes made the ride. They loved it. They could've believe that at one time 10's of 100's of miners and their families lived here at one time. I think zink was the primary mineral mined. Their were shacks all over the hill sides, now all gone. This pretty much came to an end at the end of WWII.
I led rides down to the Spring Creek Campground, it was about a 750-1000 foot steep and curvy ride down to the unimproved campground. I explained all that to the street riders. We would get about 1/3 way down and some of the street riders would stop; they had had enough. I couldn't talk them out of it. I told them it's easier to turn around at the bottom.I had to stop and park my bike and and help them turn around. I couldn't stand the idea of them dumping their bikes and getting hurt.
I rode all these rides on my R50/5, R90/6, K100RT, and R1100RS, so It wasn't like I didn't know what it was like. I think the first few times I rode down the mountain to the campground was at night and that's another story. I never took any of these people down that mountain side to the Buffalo River after dark.
Other rides I led in the area was to the ferries at Sycamore and Guion ferries on the White River. Rode these ferries back in the 1960's. Guion was a mining town back then, probably still is. Back in the 60's the Ozarks were really backward. Guion was almost the end of the world, it really was a different time.
Another ride I took a few riders on was the ride to Mountain View, Ar, most of the time on a Sunday. Back in the late 60's and early 70's, I was living in Batesville, Ar. Just down the road from Mt. View. Packing 50,000 people into a secluded little town of about 2,000 really was a recipe for disaster. I went in '68, '69, '70. '68 and '69 was pretty good. Folk music and a look into early pioneer mountain music and life. I was 15/16 years old. 1970 was totally different. The hippies left Woodstock in 1969 and took over large parts of America. Music festivals and colleges and universities were basically taken over. The Mountain View Folk Festival was overrun with them for a few years. As a 17 year old country boy, it was eye opening. Any that's also another story.
Back in the late 80's and early 90's most of the hippies were gone. I still won't go back to the Folk Festival, can't stand the crowds. But I would go on a Sunday afternoon in the spring, summer, or fall.. Perfect little crowd and folk singers and musicians playing the courthouse square. Perfect afternoons of riding and folk music. Almost every biker/rider I took said it was one of the best days riding and visiting in the Ozarks. I got a lot of thumbs up; put a smile on my face, putting smiles on their faces.
Well, riding day and night all over Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains with that crazy buddy of mine, toughened me up to be able to ride with other half crazy riders on other rides. Studying my ON's and OTL magazine stories on proper riding, I willed my myself to being a better rider. Leo Goff was an inspiration. He's been riding since he was a little kid, and he always promoted safer riding. I just grew up mentally and took riding as a fun but serious endeavor.
