The Rest Of The Story

Saturday, after getting out of that HORRIBLY BORING workshop, Mike and I made it out of Miami around 3:15. We didn't stop until West Silome Springs, OK around 4:30. I had to use the bathroom and get something to drink. From West Silome we drove until Sallisaw where I just had to stop and stretch my legs a little bit. Then we went on until Potoeu where we stopped at a Braum's to eat. Mike ate his hamburger and shake while I ate my raw carrots and caulifower. Yummy! While we were there he called his cousin, Matt, who lives not far from where we were going to be staying. He was going to ask him if he wanted to come out to our cabin but Matt was on his way home from Tulsa where he'd spent the day taking tests and had just started home. He was still quite a ways off, so that visit didn't happen. Thank goodness, because I really didn't care to spend my anniversary trip with his cousin, I don't care how nice the guy is. When Mike told him that we'd come down on the bike Matt said "Bicycle?" We're like 250 miles away from home, NO we didn't come down that day on a bicycle! I got to laughing about it later and Mike said "Yeah, that would be like the Tour de get-five-miles-away-from-the-house-and-call-someone-to-come-pick-yer-ass-up"

But, I digress. From Potoeu, we drove until Heavner and we stopped to call the campground to find out how to get there. Turns out the campground wasn't really in Heavner, but on further south. We finally made it around 7:45 and the lady showed us around and then left us alone. We took the bag off the bike and kind of settled in a bit and Mike asked if I wanted to take a quick trip up the mountain to look around before the sun went down. Sure! We just got off the bike after several hours of riding, why not jump right back on and drive some more. But, I'd walked around enough that the stiffness was pretty much worked out, so off we went. Right across the highway from the campgrounds there were these vegetable gardens. Huge suckers. As we pulled out, I said "Who would plant gardens way out here?". It was a wide valley with tall pines on the campground side of the highway and open field on the other side. There was this big building surrounded by smaller buildings on the other side of the highway, but they were situated way back off the road and the gardens were not too far from the road, not close by any means, but closer than the buildings. We got up to the driveway to those buildings and read the sign. Oklahoma Department Of Corrections. OMG! We were staying right across the highway from a prison! I had to laugh. How rich. The ad in the magazine didn't say anything about that. So, up the mountain we went. Talk about a breathtaking sight. The sun was setting and it was gorgeous. We went about five miles of the scenic route then turned around and came back. It was completely dark by the time we got back to the cabin.

When we got back, we both took showers, then both hopped in the hot tub. I don't think a hot tub ever felt that good. The lady had turned it on for us when Mike called so it was all heated up and ready for us when we got there. We stayed in it for about 20 minutes, then Mike had to take another shower because he was all hot and sweaty again from that hot water. It was pretty hot, but I didn't bother taking another shower. I just went to bed. The cabin had a toilet and a sink in it, but we had to go to the bath house for a shower and the hot tub. No big deal, it was only about 20 feet away.

The next morning I got up a little past 8:30 (totally sleeping in for me) and we were on the road by 9:00. We drove on a road called Holson Valley Road, which is exactly that. A road that is completely in a valley at the foot of the mountains. It took us to the highway that leads to the beginning of the scenic route. The Talimena Scenic Drive was just unbelievable. The whole time I knew that these mountains could in no way ever compare with the Rockies or even the Smokies, they were still very, very beautiful. Today I kept thinking "Yesterday I was on top of these wonderful mountains and today I'm at work." The drive was so exciting I kept wanting to burst out in song, or something, to show how much fun I was having. It was wonderful!

We stopped at scenic overlook after scenic overlook until we were finally scenic overlooked out. We thought there were 13 and we kept stopping and stopping until we realized there were, in fact, 33 of them. Only 13 of them were "interpretive stops" where they have signs up telling you about what you are looking at. We finally stopped at 23. That was enough, we felt.

We stopped at the Arkansas' Queen Wilhelmina State Park and Mike ate the buffet the restaurant offered. The people who happened to be taking the drive on their bikes the same time we were stopped at the same places we stopped at the almost the same times. We got to talking with them here and there, Mike doing most of the talking while I was doing all of the picture taking. When Mike was polishing off the last of his meal, a waitress comes over to us with a slice of this sinfully delicious looking pie and sings "Happy Anniversary to You" in the Happy Birthday tune. Then she finishes it off with "In a couple of daaaaayyyyssss!" That's when I thought she had the wrong table because our anniversary had been the Wednesday before. So I asked her. "Do you have the wrong table?" and she took a step back and to the side and dramatically swooshed her arm back and pointed, saying "Nope, those people over there sent this" and it was those nice people we'd been "traveling" with. They were grinning ear to ear and laughing and waving at us. How nice was that? I wish that I would have gotten a picture of them, because they were the roughest looking biker people you've ever seen. Well, maybe not that you EVER seen, but they definitely looked the part. I have discovered that biker people are their own brand of people. That part I already knew. But, what I didn't know was that they are, for the most part, some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

When we finally made it down the mountain and off the Talimena Scenic Drive, we started heading back north to get back home. But, we had two more scenic trails to take before we got there. The next one was up Mt. Magazine. Right before we went up, I told Mike to stop because I wanted my rain suit on. I could tell it was going to rain and I didn't want to get soaked. He stopped and we both put ours on and while we were putting on the finishing touches, it opened up and poured. It rained so hard we couldn't even look around and see anything. Mike had to keep his eyes straight ahead to see where he was going. Once we got to the top, all the rained stopped. We got off at the scenic lookout and I took some pictures of the rain that you could still see below us. It was amazing. That storm lasted about 10 minutes. On the other side of the mountain, the sky was blue with big puffy white clouds. And it was like that the rest of the drive home. I finally took my rain suit off at Ozark, Mike had taken his off at the top of the mountain. I was still kind of cold so I left mine on. By Ozark, though, I was smothering and couldn't wait to peel that sucker off.

From Ozark, we got on The Pig Trail. I finally got to ride The Pig Trail. It was very beautiful, too. It was more of a viney type green instead of pines, like the Talimena Trail. It didn't have that delicious smell of pines, but it was still gorgeous. I actually prefer the viney look. That twisty trail only lasted a few miles, we didn't have time to drive the rest of the way, it goes on up to Eureka Springs, but we turned to go toward Fayetteville instead.

By the time we got to Fayetteville, we were both extremely tired and worn out. Ready to get home and in bed, in other words. Mike decided to take us on the dreaded Interstate. The quickest way home, but also the quickest way to get beat half to death by the relentless wind that all Interstates offer to bike riders. The few miles between Fayetteville and Bentonville were the roughest and hardest of the whole entire trip. We stopped about a mile from the Missouri state line and put our helmets on (MO state law) and came home through Pineville, Lanagan, and Anderson. When we got home, we walked in the house and fairly collapsed on the bed. By the time the alarm went off this morning, both of us were wishing for more sleep. But, noooo, off to work, off to work.

Everything went great, no mishaps, no anything going wrong. It was perfect. We are going back in the fall, only this time we have to take the gang. Yay. So, Roni, if you and Kelly want to go, that would be great. I'd have someone to talk to. :)