Arkansas - Slowly

Kay and I finally made it to Arkansas, but it took a couple of days. There are so may great places in Oklahoma to visit, especially when you are riding dual sport motorcycles. People ask us "where you going?" and we just say "east", which is generally true. Normally we don't have a specific plan or route. We just wander, find a back road we like, and see where it takes us. I try to stay off the highways as much as possible. We discover some very interesting and unusual places this way.

Northeast of Shawnee, just cruising along a county road, we ran across a sign that said "Jim Thorpe's Birthplace" with an arrow pointing south. Humm. We turned around, went back and followed the arrows south and found this marker.

GPS waypoints:
N 35 25.318
W 096 45.213



These are the types of roads we like to travel - west of Okemah



Anytime I am near Henryetta and have some extra time, I like to stop and visit my Grandpa Maghe's gravesite. He was my only grandpa I knew and I really liked him, so I like to stop and clean things up a bit and think about him. He was a WW1 veteren. This time I marked his gravesite for my kids.




GPS waypoint:
N 35 26.411
W 096 00.762



We stopped in the outskirts of Eufaula for fuel. As Kay was preparing to leave, she had a wino friend eyeballing her.



We wandered back roads along the north shore of Lake Eufaula, staying to paved county roads as much as possible. Eventually we wandered close to Stigler and decided to stop by one of our favorite places, Kickstart Bed & Breakfast. It was good to see Mike & Patty, proprietors of this motorcycle-only B&B. We always have a great time and sat around that evening talking about motorcycles.







The next morning we wandered east and north, stopping by the locks on the McLellen-Kerr River Navigation system.



Sequoyah's Cabin


We finally made it to Arkansa via back roads and even some dirt and gravel roads - pulling in the back way to Devil's Den State park, a secluded park right on the AR/OK border.

Kay taking a break at Devil's Den State Park


The warm sun prompted Kay to take a nap while I explored the area.


We rode some back roads over to Highway 16 and rode the "Pig Trail" down to Turner's Bend, a popular motorcyclist hangout on Highway 23. Later we spent the night in Ozark.

Arkansas

Sorry for not closing out the Australia posts as some people requested. Yes, we made it home safe and sound.

Today we head out on another adventure. Our original plan was to trailer our BMW daul sport bikes to Tennessee and ride "The Dragon", but a change of plans has us just riding locally to Arkansas, Missouri, and from there we are not sure. Our travels usually do not include much planning. We don't make reservations, we just have a vague idea of where we are going and what we want to see. For this trip we are just going to jump on the bikes and head east, then when we get to Arkansas we will decide whether to go north to Missouri or south to Louisianna. Our only plan is to get back by the following weekend. Should be fun.

Sea Kayaking

Kay and I spent a couple of days in Apollo Bay, along the Great Ocean Road. We found a nice hotel with free Internet and laundry service - woohoo! The weather was a bit stormy but we didn't let that deter our fun. For the entire trip I have been wanting to go sea kayaking. We attempted sea kayaking in Puget Sound two years ago but it didn't turn out so well, so we were hoping for better luck this time around.



Maybe we should just give up on sea kayaking!

Koala Search

While eating dinner in Lorne, Kay heard about a place in the nearby national forest where we might be able to see some Koalas. These would be out in the wild and they said we had a pretty good chance of seeing them if we looked hard. So we drove about 5 kilometers from Lorne back into the dense forest and went for a walk along a trail in the forest.



After our luck at finding Koalas, we wanted to search for something a bit more dangerous and exciting - the feared Black Mamba snake!

Great Ocean Road

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Adelaide is a stunning drive for motorcyclists, and pretty darn good for cars. It winds along the coast for several hundred miles, in and out of small coastal villages, along beachs, around steep cliffs, and always with a stunning view of the ocean.


We rode the ferry from Sorento to Queenscliff, bypassing Melbourne on our way to the Great Ocean Road.




A flat tire did not slow us down much.



We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast owned by this nice German lady named Charlotte who lived in Ocean Grove.



We wanted to stay in Queenscliff and go on a "Jazz Train". This is where they have an old steam engine locomotive pulling 4 cars of people, about 200 people. They serve you a nice meal first at the station, then they have a different jazz band in each railroad car. The train stops periodically and you swap cars to hear another band. You get a night of great food, drinking and listening to music while traveling on an old steam train. We thought that would be totally cool. So did everyone else - it was sold out for 3 weeks in advance! This would be a great idea for some place like Guthrie, Oklahoma.

The next day we made it to Lorne, a wonderful small town along the Great Ocean Road with a protected beach, cool shops and a good hotel room. We ended up spending 3 nights in Lorne just hanging on the beach, working on my suntan, hiking in the woods, strolling along the beach, and just having fun.

We worked on our tans in Lorne. Kay was able to find us matching swimsuits that looked like the Australian flag. As you can see, my suntan is a work in progress.



We stopped to hang out at a beach in Anglesea, where I fed some seagulls



Kay was able to attract way cooler birds than I was. She fed about a dozen cockatiels from our hotel room in Lorne.



There were seafood shops in every little town and village along the coast, most with open doors and windows.



You could just walk in and buy fresh seafood and have them cook it for you while you wait.



Thank goodness for McDonalds or we might have had even LESS access to the Internet. I was quite amazed at how hard it was to find Internet access of any kind in Australia.



The vehicles in Australia are much smaller than in America. We saw lots of Toyota Land Cruisers like this. Even the work trucks and delivery trucks were small to fit on the tight roads.



We saw literally dozens of these small campers from a company called www.wickedcampers.com. It seemed young families or young adults could rent these used, brightly colored vehicles fairly cheap and go on an extended vacation.

Motorcycling in Australia

After our day on Phillip Island, we traveled across the south of Melborne and took the ferry across the bay to Queenscliff. Our goal was to drive the Great Ocean Road, which we told was well worth the trip. And they were right. My only disappointment is I was not on a motorcycle. This road winds and twists its way along the ocean, kind of like Highway 23 "The Pig Trail" in Arkansas, but much longer and MUCH more scenic. And where you see any great winding road, you will see lots of motorcyclists. Australia must have a helmet law because EVERYONE wears a helmet, and interesting thing, most everyone wears full riding gear. Nice.

Motorcycles parked at a cafe in Lorne along the Great Ocean Road.



Lots of shops on Phillip Island had motorcycling pictures, jerseys, clothing, etc.




This restaurant in Lornes on the Great Ocean Road attracted dozens of bikers each Sunday morning.



The Great Ocean Road east of Melbourne is a motorcycling mecca. Hundreds of miles of tight, twisty roads with only moderate traffic, no police, and stunning scenery.

MotoGP baby!

We were invited to MotoGP testing by John Hopkins, seated in leathers in back of race pits.

Kay and I were sitting in a restaurant in Cowes Australia, which is located on Phillips Island. We saw a group of Japanese guys with Repsol Honda shirts walk in for dinner and I thought "holy cow, they were here for MotoGP testing!" Sure enough, I checked the Internet and several teams were here for testing, including Nickey Hayden, John Hopkins and Casey Stoner. We tried to get in to watch the next day but no luck.




Casey Stoner, world champion, rocketing past at 150mph on the front straight - IN THE RAIN


Being resourceful, we decided to try the same restaurant the next night and were seated right next to MotoGP rider John Hopkins!!! We chatted with him a bit and he invited us to the track the next day. No way was I going to pass up this opportunity. These are the BEST riders in the world on the most expensive, one-off race bikes made - basically Formula 1 for motorcycles.

There were only a handful of non-team personell there and we had full access to the track and pits. It was raining most of the day but I got several good pics. Unfortunately I didn't have my top level gear but was happy anyway. Kay was floored by the noise and the speed as these guys rocketed past on the front straight at 150 mph IN THE POURING RAIN! Pretty darn cool.

2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden pulling into pits 3' in front of me.