Spur of the moment ride

Last year for the forum meet and greet aka "collision", I thought there was no way I could go in May. I am a farmer and figured I'd be stuck in the tractor that weekend. Well I finished what was necessary to get done on Thursday. Friday at 4 I finished some catch up work with the livestock and started packing the bike for a two night trip.

Then the surveyor stopped to survey some ground that Dad was exchanging with me for a building project. He didn't leave until 6. I jumped in the shower and hit the road within a half hour. My destination was Eureka Springs, Arkansas. 666 miles by Google maps. I stopped at the first gas station and took off across Indiana. My feet didn't touch the ground until I was on the opposite side of the state on exit two. I got gas, grabbed a ham sandwich and are it while walking in circles around the bike stretching my legs. After the sandwich and a water bottle I took off for St Louis. I got to the arch and said I want to see that so I programmed my GPS to it. The exit was closed and my GPS tried taking me back past the same exit rather than finding and alternate detour. I wasted an hour trying to go past/under the arch.

I stopped for fuel just past downtown (probably in Ferguson). I got in contact with E4nf3 from the forum. He was staying in a hotel somewhere near Rolla, Missouri that night so I set my sights on that. I rode until I caught him at 1:30 AM. I slept and grabbed breakfast at 7. Then it was grabbing fuel and hit the road time for both of us. We had another three hours to get to ES.

We made it there at 10 AM Saturday.

I unpacked my bike and grabbed breakfast with a crew of 10 guys from the forum. Then it was time for the 30 bike parade from the hotel to the dealership in Rogers about 30 miles away.

We went there drank a couple beers and I took a scenic tour with Silverback, Cali_Bob, bsggd13, harleybob, and GotGold. Me Cali and Baggd walked downtown ES then. We headed back for the hotel ad parked the bikes so we could start drinking with our friends. Come 12-1 AM I hit the sack to awake by 8 to roll home.

I rode the first 200 miles with E4nf3 but his fuel tank was a little smaller than mine and in order to make the time I wanted to get home I decided to break away from him and ride until my gas light came on. At my first stop I googled churches that had a mass in St. Louis for 11 when if be passing though. I made it to the church 3 minutes prior to the opening hymn.

After mass I hit the road again. I didn't stop until somewhere in central Illinois. I hit the road for Indiana catching an absolute downpour along the way. I chuckled when I passed 6 bikes under an overpass.

I got back to Indiana and grabbed fuel about an hour from home. I made it home by 6 PM in time to help my girlfriend and a church fundraiser.

That was the most last second memorable trip I've ever and probably will ever take again.

I hope you enjoyed.

Several years ago the wife and I discussed going to Daytona over Memorial Day--she wanted her first tattoo and would go no where except Tropical Willies. We started fussing about it and she said never mind, forget it.

At this time, we worked in the same company, but different buildings. Friday morning she sent me a fax showing the weather and a note that if I could act like somebody we should go. The fax was delivered to me and I started calling her, but she was on the phone. Her office mate asked her what did I send, he's ringing the phone off the hook. Anyways, after getting that message, I left at lunch to get the bike ready and she left at 2:00. We were on the road by 3:00. Rode way up into the night, got a room, started out again the next morning.

We took the scenic route, as little slab as possible. Ran into another couple at a stop on the GA/FL line, rode with them, stopped and had dinner, and rode down A1A towards a full moon. Beautiful! The other couple wanted to party,so we parted ways and got a room. She got her tat the next day and after a short stop at the Iron Horse, headed north. Got back to work on Tuesday.

A great spur of the moment decision.

silvereagle50 said:

mquilty, who would you be boring? bring the stories on. What else do we have to do except read stories about others travels.

Click to expand...

Ok. .. well my tattoo artist is a pretty popular assist and it is hard if not impossible to get a spur of the moment booking with him. ..I wanted him to finish my shoulder and he was booked two months out(I would be worried if he wasn't busy. ..lol) ... I follow him on Facebook and saw were he said that he was at a tattoo convention in Pittsburg Pennsylvania (413 miles) and he has some openings. .. I messaged him on Thursday and asked if he wanted to work on my arm. ..he said hell yes. So after working Friday night I got off of work at 7am saturday and was on the road by 730 and road straight to the convention. I got tattooed for 4 hours went to the hotel slept and came home Sunday morning. It actually worked out pretty good. ..I had a free night stay with my choice hotel rewards and he cut me a deal for riding up there. That was an awsome trip. ..west VA is breautiful! As was Pennsylvania.