We took a little trip on the BigYellowBike to Harrison, Arkansas, October 3-8. There was a gathering there of some of the folks from our bike forum: http://www.gl1800riders.com/. I've been looking forward to this ride for over a year. Many of the folks I talk to in the chat room every evening attend this gathering, and it was my first chance to meet several of them face-to-face.
We started out Tuesday evening as soon as I got home from work, and rode an hour and a half to Logansport, Indiana, to the home of our friends, Ross and Joyce. We stayed the night there, then headed south early Wednesday morning under overcast skies and occasional sprinkles. As always, stopping in advance to put on our rain gear kept us from getting any real rain! The day was spent in good company, burning up the miles and enjoying the ride. We had a little unscheduled side trip down a very
rough and stony dirt road, and hope we don't have to do that again any time soon! We had a little scare when Ross's bike had trouble negotiating the deep gravel one time...no damage done other than two very dirty bikes, though. We met up with Polecat, another friend from the forum, at a Bar-B-Cue place in Owensboro, KY, and he joined the group, making us one yellow bike and two oranges. We stopped for the night near Paducah, Kentucky, at a motel full of bass fishermen in town for a tournament. 
I was growing close to finishing the socks-in-progress, so cast on for another pair in the motel room. Apparently there was more interesting stuff going on in our travelling companions' room, because in the morning we saw this: tore the headboard right off the wall...hmmm. We met up with a lot of my GL1800riders.com chat room friends in Harrison.
<-- Here are Galute (Rickey) from Arkansas and John P. from Alabama, 
<-- John H. from Louisiana,
<-- Fuzzy (Dale) and Suzi from Texas. Galute led us on a beautiful ride through the mountains around Harrison on Saturday. We stopped a few times for pictures and great BBQ before some of the group split off and headed home.
<-- Bass, Arkansas. This little town has a general store/post office, closed now for many years. Mr. Dodson, the proprietor and former postmaster, lives alone there with a number of cats who have their own little house. We spent a lovely hour or so there, enjoying the peaceful view and visiting with Mr. Dodson. I think this was everyone's favorite stop for the day.
We headed for home Sunday morning, sorry to see the gathering end but full of good memories. Our companions once more were Ross, Joyce and Polecat.
We rode the ferry at Bull Shoal Lake, and rode many miles of twisty mountain roads. Rich and I had a very close call in the evening with a semi whose driver was apparently a bit distracted, but otherwise there were no scares. We spent Sunday night in Salem, Illinois, then lit out in the morning for home. Polecat split off toward Ohio and we dropped Ross & Joyce off in Logansport in the afternoon. We're all looking forward to the next gathering. It can't come soon enough to suit me!
Here's a link to Galute's trip report, for those who want to read more: Harrison, 2007
Galute has a wonderful gift with words, and has posted another trip report about his ride to Alaska this past June with a few of our other friends from the Gold Wing forum. You can see it here: Alaska or Bust
