Adventuring

Plan for the day--take a short (35 mile) ride north and east to the Fort Smith, AR Harley-Davidson store, look around, and head back to our rv park in Poteau (Poe toe) OK.  

A chance conversation with a guy working there sent us in an entirely different direction.  Taking I40 further west we picked up the southern end of The Pig Trail.  AR 23 from I40 to Eureka Springs comprises the entire length of the trail--as twisty as the tail of a wild hog--a popular backroad route into Fayetteville for UA Razorback football games. The really curvy part from Brashears to Eureka Springs we saves for another day and cut off on AR 215 to explore the Mulberry River Road Scenic Byway, county roads 215 and 103.

On this map we entered on the lower left road, turned (left) north on 23, then east (right) on the first road--AR 215, south on AR 103, west on US 64 paralleling I40 back to 23 where we turned south (and off this map) on AR 10 and backtracked the first part of our morning route to the rv park.

215 is a nice ride, gently rolling  with fun curves following the beautifully green Mulberry creek. 

 We had to be careful on the curves, because recent heavy rains left several slick wet spots that would suddenly appear at the curves.

Our turnaround point was the historic Oark General Store and Cafe.

The guy at the H-D store highly recommended the burgers, but praised the pie.  We were instructed to order pie with lunch.  Otherwise we might not get any.  

Inside the small building, we could see how the original store was converted to add the cafe.  The original counter was the food prep space, while the store was relegated to this area.  The rest of the space was taken by tables and chairs, which were constantly full.  Duane, our burger connoisseur, declared his burger and his buttermilk pie very good.  I saved my cherry pie for my before bed snack.

After lunch we resumed our route south on 103.

All of the roads we took today had their share of hills and curves,

(103 had several very nice hairpin turns)

alternating between forests

and large, mostly empty, pastures.  

We crossed lots of rivers and streams, 

and wove along several curvy town main streets.

Our little morning 70 mile round trip hop turned into a beautiful sunny, blue sky all day 240 mile ride.

Moving day on Monday.

Louise and Duane