Wife and I went for an all day ride today. Had lots of fun/neat things happen. A few were...

* While stopped at Old Fort Harley in Ft. Smith, read about the SAVE THE TA TA'S poker run. Turned out to be a breast cancer benefit ride! Their T shirt moto: "Big or Small... Save'em All!". Both wife and I got a kick out of this.

* BEAUTIFUL weather for a ride in the Ozarks. Sunny w/clouds, highs in the 70's. Trees are just starting to get a hint of autumn color.

* While at Winslow, AR, comin' up the backroad came a vintage tractor cruise! About 8-9 restored vintage tractors came putting up to the little park to eat some of the smoked ribs with fixin's. Seems they were just out cruisin' the backroads!!! Some really neat stuff: Massey-Ferguson, Farmall's, even a diesel powered Oliver!

* Hit the very edge of Fayetteville, home of the Bikes Blues & BBQ Rally. Saw TONS of sharp looking bikes. Looks to be a huge crowd this year. Didn't want to go down to the masses, however, so we hung a right on Hwy 16 and headed east for the mountains.

* Had a great ride down the Pig Trail (Hwy 23) taking a quick detour at Cass out to the General Store at Oark and dined on a fabulouls pulled pork BBQ plate. We have come to really enjoy the Oark Cafe inside what used to be an 1890's general store.

There were a couple of downsides to the day, though:

1. No sooner had we left Turners Bend General Store than we rounded a curve to find traffic stopped and emergency vehicles. Not good. Turned out a cruiser bike overshot a curve and ended up in the ditch. Fortunately he was only skinned up and suffering from a concusion. Good news amid the bad news of having wrecked.

2. Further down 23 Hwy at the northern outskirts of Ozark, AR was a more ominous looking bike wreck. Emergency vehicles hadn't arrived yet. Looked to be a crotch rocket off in the large ditch. Some 20 feet or so from the bike were three people tending to the rider. Met the emergency vehicles en route a mile or two later.

Other than the downed riders, it was a fantastic day.

Prayers for the two accident victims we saw.

 

Where do you live in eastern OK? My parent live up by Grand Lake.

 

Hate to see any accidents, but for some, a minor one might be good if their the ones to learn just what respect ya need to give a bike and the road. Glad nothing serious here.

 

Two motorcycle wrecks in one day. Both wrecks appear from your post to be a failure to negotiate a curve or at the least failure to stay on the roadway. The crotch rocket I would hazard a guess was a younger rider and the cruiser I would hazard another guess is an older rider. Opposite ends of the age spectrum but same results--in a ditch, injured. Seems that there will always be people wrecking. This has been cussed, discussed, argued and over talked. I still see too many riders new and old that have inflated egos that don't match their skill sets.

 

Hope they are both ok. Simple solution when on roads your unfamiliar with, slow down through curves. No need to be all macho in showing off how fast you can take that curve up ahead.

 

Well wreck #2 had just happened, so I was in the process of whoaing up while CAREFULLY watching all the slowing/stopping/gawking traffic... the wife was the one that relay details later.

It could have been there was a cager involved (stopped on shoulder w/dents). Whether the rocket overshot the curve and hit the cager is just not clear. There wasn't any type of intersection there for the cager to be pulling out of... so it sort of tilts toward the notion the crotch rocket overshot the curve and clipped the cager?

Anyhoo... it looked FAR more ominous than wreck #1. Could have very easily been a life-threatening injury... or worse. Haven't seen any local internet news mentioning the accident... so hopefully the fellow pulled through.

And yes, I agree: Some people simply have no business riding a two-wheeled vehicle. Period.

 

All in all, sounds like ya had a really good day. Good to hear!

 

Its a beautiful if curious time of year when the leaves start to turn. Like how many warm weather rides are left before the winter and all that it brings......at least for some of us.

 

Sorry to hear about the downed riders, (I hope they are ok) but it otherwise sounds like an awesome day.

 

Dangit LA...... y'all are making me homesick for the Ozarks. Grew up in Rogers, Ark and haven't been back in that part of the country for many years now.