ARKansas - June 2015

[emptysea]

There was enough of a WiFi signal to check our weather apps and the forecast for the area was for, surprise, rain coming in in mid to late afternoon. After pricing out some canoes, kayaks, and rafts solely because there is not much else to do at the BOC if one isn't actually canoeing, kayaking, or rafting, we decided to head to Harrison.

Harrison is only about 50 miles or so from Ponca and the Buffalo Outdoor Center, but we would be on state roads and, on the advice of one of the BOC staff, we decided to grab lunch in the town of Jasper, Arkansas. The combination of back roads and a lunch stop would, we reckoned, put us into our hotel in Harrison a little before the afternoon storms would roll in.

Buffalo Outdoor Center to The Ozark Cafe'
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There's really only one route from Ponca to Jasper and that is AR-74 (Jimbo Covert to those interested our mnemonic methods). 74 is a terrific stretch of road. A curvy ribbon of asphalt that crosses over a 2000 foot high ridge before dropping over 1000 feet into the little town of Jasper. We had traveled over many roads on this trip; some historic, some scenic, many wet, but this was the first road that really gave us what we we had been anticipating since we started planning this trip so many months before.

Alas, another day without Ferret-Cam. As I write this over a year after the events, I am suddenly puzzled as to why I didn't stop at a Walmart and buy a new camera. I guess that's all water under the Cordura at this point. I snipped the next two pictures from Google Street View and I hope they provide some understanding into why I enjoyed this leg of our trip so much.

AR74-1
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AR74-2
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We parked in front of Emma's Museum of Junk in beautiful downtown Jasper. I think Emma was out for lunch, because the store was locked, but there were some items still on display in front of it. Either that or Emma was out TO lunch and just forgot to bring some of her junk inside. Either way, we didn't go into the 'museum' but it might be a fun place to check out sometime in the future.

Jasper's main drag reminded me of a mining town in Colorado or maybe Alaska. We didn't stay long enough to fully explore it, but I liked what I saw of it.

Mike G. checking out Emma's junk. Jasper, AR
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Our destination was The Ozark Cafe'. It's a neat little diner with a menu that ranged from biscuits and gravy to burgers to quesadillas to ice cream. One difference between Ozark Cafe' and most mid-western diners is that they are also a music venue. There was not a band playing on a Monday at noon (go figure), but there were handbills advertising a variety of musical performances throughout the month.

I liked the decor. It reminded me of a cross between an old-time service station and a boathouse -- with a little blues bar tossed in.

Ozark Cafe' Jasper, AR Outside
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Ozark Cafe' Inside
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My recollection is that it had been sunny and hot for most of our ride from Eureka Springs to the outdoor center and partly cloudy and hot for our short trip into Jasper. As we left Jasper, though, it was definitely cloudy. The clouds didn't seem to settle the heat down, though.

Only a couple of ways to get from Jasper to Harrison and AR7 (Bob Avellini or Rick Monday, take your pick) was the route Glen chose. Nice choice. Very curvy on the way out of Jasper then straightening out near the end of the 30 some-odd miles into Harrison. A little challenging, but not dangerously so, at the beginning with a nice comfortable "cool down" stretch to our hotel. 74 and 7 make Jasper, AR a pretty worthwhile destination for any motorcyclist touring the area.

Ozark Cafe to Hotel Seville
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Another road picture courtesy of Google. This time AR7
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Our arrival at our hotel was a little earlier in the day than we had originally planned, but the cancelled kayak trip afforded us the opportunity to beat the rain to our hotel. We probably could have planned a longer route for the afternoon, but it turned out that our plan to just barely beat the rain worked perfectly (for the one and only time all week, by the way).

The Hotel Seville in Harrison is one of the most remarkable properties at which I have ever stayed. Here we were in the middle of Arkansas in a fairly small town and, in the middle of what seemed to be the industrial section of it, stands a Spanish-Moroccan styled boutique hotel that was built in 1929. Recently renovated, the hotel features small, but very well finished rooms, underground parking, a quiet and comfortable bar, and an amazing lobby. Our plan was to stay at the Hotel Seville for three nights and it felt like it was going to be the most luxurious base camp of any motorcycle trip I've ever taken.

We got the bikes parked, checked in, and off-loaded our gear. It was time to shower and relax for a bit before reconvening in the lobby to plan our next meal and the next day's ride.

Underground parking and civilized unloading of gear
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I showered, unpacked, checked in with work, and headed down to wander around the hotel. It had already started raining pretty heavily by this time. We talked to another group that was mostly couples on big Harleys (maybe one Goldwing). They talked about a particular road they had been on that day that was not to be missed. Either Glen or I wrote it down, but circumstances would prevent us from exploring it.

Underground Parked. Note the rain in the street beyond.
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Comfy inside this piazza of a lobby.
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The hotel has a space just outside the garage where one could wash one's motorcycle. I know that Mike A. washed down his Goldwing and I think I washed the CB1100, but I can't recall. It didn't matter in the end, though, because the rain continued to pelt our bikes and rewrite our route maps for the rest of the week.

Dirty Bike #3 - Hotel Seville, Harrison, AR
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We met in the bar and it was just our group and the bartender for most of the night. She helped us order pizzas from a local joint, mixed a very competent martini, and was just the right amount of attentive.

I seem to recall that it was over pizza and drinks that we decided to shorten our stay at this lovely hotel by one night. Hurricane Bill had already made land and was arching it's way toward us as a tropical storm. We did not like the looks of the path-probability cone as it had Harrison in the dark purple "high percentage" area. It looked like the next day would be OK, though, so we thought we could get a day's worth of riding in, spend the night in Harrison and head north the following day. We went to sleep thinking that was the plan, but we were dreaming.

End of Day 4