Ride to Arkansas

Yesterday, 6/29/13, promised to be a beautiful day with a predicted high of only 81 deg. (27 C)  We decided it was time to add Arkansas to the map of states travelled, so a trip was planned to the Pea Ridge National Military Park, site of a major Civil War battle, with a stop in Eureka Springs, Ark. for a late lunch on the way home.  We designed the trip to avoid interstates and to go the "interesting" roads.  As you can see from the Google map, there are some very "interesting" roads down in that part of SW Missouri and Arkansas.  We were travelling without benefit of a GPS, so made a couple of wrong turns; one of which led us to a delightful Amish woman and her two young sons selling homemade baked goods at a roadside stand - her horse tied under a shade tree and her black two-wheeled cart parked nearby.  The cookies we bought from her were delicious!

Pea Ridge was interesting, educational, scenic and somewhat saddening when one looks across the battlefield sites and thinks on the thousand of men on both sides who lost their lives there.  Cannon fetishists will love the place as there are cannon everywhere.   The on-site museum is small, but very interesting.


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After Pea Ridge, we headed East on Hwy 62 toward Eureka Springs.  If you like to ride the twisty-turny up & downs, then Hwy 62 West of Eureka Springs is the road for you!  Lunch was a really great pulled pork sandwich & fries (chips to you Brits) at Bubba's BBQ in Eureka Springs.  It was almost 3:00 pm by the time we finished lunch, so we decided to forego any sightseeing in Eureka this trip and head for home.  I didn't mark the return trip on Google, but we took Hwy 23 North out of Eureka Springs, then 86 across the tail end of Table Rock Lake at Eagle Rock and followed it in to Cassville, Mo  At Cassville, we took 37 North through Monett, Pierce City, Sarcoxie (and a couple of smaller villages) staying on 37 until it intersected Hwy 96, where we turned East toward Carthage, Mo.  We stayed on 96 until it intersected Hwy171 just south of Asbury, Mo, which closed the loop.  At that point we were nearly home!  I forgot to set the trip meter at the beginning of the trip, but from Bubba's parking lot to my garage was 126 miles.  Did I mention the fierce NW wind we fought on the way home?  The less said about that, the better!

This ride was a trial by fire of my new Airhawk R air cushion seat pad.  I give it two thumbs up!    My backside really did not start feeling tired until well past Eureka Springs on the way home, and never as bad as before I got the Airhawk R.  My lower back protested more than my tail bone.

This trip made me really wish I had one of those helmet cams to record video. There is some absolutely beautiful scenery along this route.

Nice ride report thank you, it sounds like you had a lot of fun.

    Another nice report Gyro. Eureka Springs is where Scooting the Ozarks holds their rally, You can check it out on the main forum page under rally information.

Hi Yo wrote:

    Another nice report Gyro. Eureka Springs is where Scooting the Ozarks holds their rally, You can check it out on the main forum page under rally information.

I plan to be there! I've not registered yet, but plan to in a couple of weeks. I've already made a few posts over on the STO forum, and have joined in on their Monday night chats a couple of times.  

Nice report Gyro. I love the roads in that part of the Ozarks. We will be heading down there in Sept. on our way to Texas. We may see some folks coming home from the STO. You will enjoy that Rally. I know we did back in 2011 rain and all. Your lucky you have some nice roads to travel near where you live.

Cathy