Mid-South ride, eat, and meet

[barryg]

A customer rode in, pretty big guy. Said it was time to move up to a bigger bike. I kinda mentioned the possibility of two bikes. No, he said, one bike at a time. Got it. A 1250 GS it is.

 

[barryg]

More Cool Bikes



Two Somebodies will get great bikes.

 

[barryg]

OTL Cool Pic


Nice old school shop pic.

 

[barryg]

Highway 14


I like this pic., I took it probably 25 years ago; along Highway 14 in the Ozarks. Some where along north central Ar.. I’m going to try and ride this area sometime this year. I havn’t up there in a while.

 

[barryg]

1988? Wilderness Rally


Me with my back to the camera in blue T. ; looking up. We’re pretty far down and it’s pretty steep up to the top of the mountain. I would find myself looking up to the horizon quite often. Yep, back in the day I had beautiful brown hair. So sad it’s long gone. Bye bye

 

[barryg]

Wilderness Rally


Back in the day, it really was a wilderness rally. No facilities. Attendees rode in with whatever they carried on their bikes. The first time I rode down to the camp site, it was after midnight. Halfway down along the way at one of the few level spots on the gravel trail; I stopped. Surely their not down here. Went on down and met those outlaw riders sitting around a few campfires at the river’s edge. We were greeted as hero’s. If Ur crazy enough to come down here at night after midnight; Ur one of us. My little ‘71 R50/5 got the oldest bike award.

 

[barryg]

Wilderness Rally. Spring Creek Campground


Where it is. If U like campgrounds that are a little more remote and secluded and away from the maddening crowds. This is it.

 

[barryg]

State Map


Another map view

 

[barryg]

The Middle of the Ozarks


Looking for a good place to ride. I like this area.

 

[mikegalbicka]

So do I. Great roads with little traffic.

 

[barryg]

Mike, I’ve got history here. My family is from north central Arkansas. I’ve been coming here for years to family get to gathers and reunions. Lived in Batesville, Ar. for 5 years, graduated from high school and attended college there. Good memories. Drove all over it. But getting to do it on a motorcycle is the best. I was a charter member of the Naturally Beemers back in 1988. It led me back to the Ozarks for many bike rides and camping trips. Good memories, gotta get back there for more rides and memories.

 

[barryg]

Parabellum ‘88

Doing a little housecleaning; stumbled across a box of old BMW articles and mags. After doing a little perusal I pulled this brochure out.

State of the art stuff back in 80’s

 

[barryg]

 

[barryg]

BMW Enthusiasts

 

[barryg]

Started riding in the early to mid 80’s. I was riding my ‘71 R50/5. Started with the Hot Springs Rally, then the Wilderness Rally. Moved on to attending Trail of Tears, Indian Nations, Falling Leaf, Rocket City, Return to Shiloh, Missouri State. Kept branching out further and further. Started meeting the regular rally rats; the old timers. Barry. U got the rally bug. Got to where that was the focus of my motorcycling. The rally rats were starting to be my extended family. Planing my trips and routes was as much fun as the rallies. At the rallies, I started telling the regulars about sites I was visited. The regulars were coming to me, Barry thx for the info on this or that site. We never knew about that place. Yea, I learned about that place over 40 years ago in history and geography books. Cool, to see it in person.

 

[barryg]

I guess in this time frame the big ride I took was to the York, Pa. 1989 MOA National. My big side trip was visiting Gettysburg Battlefield. I kinda felt like I had proved myself as a rider and the visit to Gettysburg was the visit of a lifetime as I was a confirmed Life long Civil War history buff. All good stuff for me. A lot of those rally regulars that got to know at the local rallies all gave me the thumbs up. After York, I was one of them.

 

[pglaves]

Started riding in the early to mid 80’s. I was riding my ‘71 R50/5. Started with the Hot Springs Rally, then the Wilderness Rally. Moved on to attending Trail of Tears, Indian Nations, Falling Leaf, Rocket City, Return to Shiloh, Missouri State. Kept branching out further and further. Started meeting the regular rally rats; the old timers. Barry. U got the rally bug. Got to where that was the focus of my motorcycling. The rally rats were starting to be my extended family. Planing my trips and routes was as much fun as the rallies. At the rallies, I started telling the regulars about sites I was visited. The regulars were coming to me, Barry thx for the info on this or that site. We never knew about that place. Yea, I learned about that place over 40 years ago in history and geography books. Cool, to see it in person.

Your rally list in the '80s has a lot of overlap with ours, but we added Iowa and Kansas, and seldom made it to Rocket City. I do remember Falling Leaf in Jasper's Hollow.

 

[barryg]

Paul, your history in BMW motorcycles predates me by many years. I always had plans for rallies in Kansas and Iowa. Just didn't happen; full time job got in the way. Usually I would take off work Friday or take off a half day at noon. So I had 2 1/2 or 3 days to do a rally. I usually rolled into the rally after dark on Friday and most times rode by myself. That also meant I would get back home around mid-night Sunday. Back to work usually at 6:00 am bright eyed and bushy tailed. And usually I'd head home back to bed early for a couple of days to recover. I can't do that now. I guess I had about a 400 radius max to do weekend rallies. So Kansas and Iowa rallies were out. I got a lot of invites. It just was'nt in the cards.

 

[barryg]

Iron Butt

Back when I started branching further out on my rally rides and started attending the bigger rallies I started meeting some of the BMW illuminated. I should qualify the word meet. Mostly I just saw them at the big rallies. Most of the them hung out to gather, usually I just hung out on the periphery and listened. U learn a lot just listening. Picked up brochures like the Parabellum one. I was wandering around the rally site and ran into a group at one of the many campfires. Seems like the confab was about high milage riding, most miles per year MOA, Iron Butt, other competition runs. Seems like they were riding all of North America. Alaska to the Arctic Circle, Alaska, Canada, Key West, Mexico. Wow, thought I was doing good just to get here.

 

[barryg]

If they weren’t talking Iron Butt or most miles; they were talking who attended the most National’s; MOA and RA. What 2 national clubs and 2 national rallies. It seems like everyone was talking Escanaba. These guys were serious riders. Where’s Escanaba?