estrip09: 2009

A fine Colorado morning on the way home. This is on the cut-off between Fort Collins and Laramie, WY. About 7300 feet.

The plows have been keeping the highway clear of snow.

Stopped for breakfast in Laramie. All the cars in the restaurant look like this or worse.

Driving conditions weren't all that wonderful, was glad to be inside a warm car. The wind was very strong up in the mountains.

Miles and miles of Wyoming. All the little antelopes weren't at play today.

Dropping in elevation, and the sky comes out!

I think I'm getting close to Utah!

This little hill has eyes!

34 miles to Evanston, WY, and the Utah border.

Utah. Interstate 84. Just East a ways from the SLC area. And, a little North. (put that in so Utemike didn't have to correct me :-)

Near 3 Islands State Park in Idaho.

It's warmed up into the 80's now. Acres and acres of Idaho potato fields.

Millions of years ago (according to the information poster here) there was an icy river here that formed this canyon. It was draining the ice water from the melting glaciers farther inland, as the Ice Age was melting. There were also large cold lakes in this area.. It's beautiful here along Hwy 20 in Eastern Oregon.

Still about 50 miles East of Bend, OR, btu the 3 Sisters are showing up. They are West of Bend.

Angie, my daughter, with Nathan and Jonathan. Can't believe how much Nate has grown this summer! This is in Bend, OR. Angie had just found out less than an hour before this picture, that they have to make an immediate and permant move to Lincoln City, OR, on the N. Coast. Husband Darren works for Bi-Mart, and is being transferred to the store up there.

Slick must own this eatery.

Sisters, OR is a quaint little Western town.

A flowery balcony in Sisters, taken out the window while driving by.

Mount Washington. Unusual to see this little peak without it being covered with snow. Give it another month! In the high Cascade Mountains now.

Cant's see it well in this picture, but that's 3 fingered Jack mountain off on the horizon.

I was stopped several times today for road construction. They are doing as much as they can before Winter sets in. This is the First day of Fall!

Sahalie Falls, a little ways off highway 20.

The bottom of the falls. Always green, summer and winter here.

Tall trees.

The path to see the falls.

An even taller tree. Walking back to the car. It's been a long trip, will be a little over 2300 miles in 3 days. I added about a hundred extra the first day out, until I changed my mind about the route homw. Still saved over 200 as it turned out, and only had one little snow storm to contend with...I should have stayed with my original plan to got out my favorite road, I-40. There will be another time. This will wrap up the trip blog to Eureka Springs 2009. Hope y'all enjoyed it.

Silver Spoke Giant Cheeseburger..I think there were 8 of us that ate there Saturday evening, and we all had these. Only differenc, 4 had diet coke, 4 had water :-) oh, and Big Dog had a lite brew. These were really tasty.

The restaurant really wasn't open, so we had to pay Amy in the bar for our food.

It's still early, but raining pretty hard still. There will be music here tonight, but I doubt if many will be there, the weather is terrible, and people are preparing for the ride out in the morning.

Amy and ?. These young ladies cook, do the dishes, wait tables, and tend bar. The sure did a fine job on our dinners tonight. Later on, Amy will be singing on the deck.

Jim Ayers and Mark Hicks thought it would be good to have an ice cream social after dinner. So, I took the Green Lizard to Walmart for some ice cream and supplies to eat it with. We had about 12 people enjoying it. I even bought a quart of low carb for the few of us that shouldn't eat the real stuff :-) Cheap B isn't a diabetic, but he figured he could have more topping if he ate the low carb ice cream :-) Works for me!

This is about the only sun in Eureka Springs today..It's been raining pretty hard all morning. These first 5 pics were taken around noon on 9/19/09.

Couple of nice shops. Picture is bleary because the rain was pouring.

Street people are a little different here. There is WiFi in town, so most of them have a laptop. And this one has a very cute 6 week old Jack Russel puppy!

More local color.

I had lunch here today. Not worthy of a picture...oh well.

Friday at 5:30 PM. Folks are coming into the convention section of the Best Western for a group picture.

Randy (Rainman) with his daughter Megan. And, Lucky Al :-) Megan rode her vn900 here from Tennessee in the rain. All by herself!

The official picture was taken by Jamey T. It will be a lot better than this, since he was up on the second story of the motel, and we got the people in front of the bikes.

Waiting to go into the banquet room.

I'll not ever try to name names. Remember you can click on a picture to see it better. I think there was 13 or 14 tables.

The Red hat person is Rusty (Ozark Kawboy). He and his wife has a minor accident on the way down to ES. Glad they are fine....and....they are the couple that found the keys hanging out of my car door in downtown ES...Thanks again for getting them to me!

Joel (Waterman) has only a few hours left to be 42 years old here..and....Bob.(Red Rover) cheer up! You're going to win a very nice helmet as soon as you finish your meal:-)

This just happens to have been the best table in the house!

These guys are having too much fun!

Cheap B's plate (Mark Hicks) He's a real meat eater!

Flyin' Willy and Mitch...

Cassie won this patch right here at last year's rally.

Moon, Flamekiller, Jennifer, and a lady whose name I can't remember did a fine job of getting out the prizes. Went a lot quicker this year..there weren't as many, and, she called names instead of numbers. Good job, Moon.

The banquet is over, people are headed to their various motels, and the Iron Horse Stables to visit.

The Bassboat is about ready to pull anchor and head back to the Country Mountain Inn.

This group was one of the of many that share the Best Western rooms. It's a large place!

Mitch was in a racing mood. He had a race, but i didn't see who he was riding with until it was too late for a better shot.

Being a little on the "square" side, I'm not sure what this means. But I sure saw a lot of the guys doing it at the rally. I didn't want to seem uninformed, so I didn't ask what it meant :-)

Toby is telling Susan something. At least his hands are talking

Jamey, Josh (almost birthday boy), Mal, and I think that's Amy, the bartender. Not sure of her name.

Melonie "trouble" (her new nic) and Susan "Zmean1" were the life of the party!

Trouble and Malachi are doing some kind of weird dance. We tried to get them on the table, but the ceiling was too low.

Mal, Susan and Amy.

You'll have to click on this one to read the bottle. Mal and Susan we're keepers of the inventory by this time of the evening.

Stewey is truly a fun guy to be around! A quick wit, and a happy smile!

Amy has worked for Phil and Janie for a long time. She tends bar, helps in the restaurant, and is a Singer/Entertainer on the weekends.

Mr. Clean..Well He goes by Cheap B., and Amy

Shelby was on his best behavior! The ex-Canadian was having a good visit with his friend Flip.

Flip is looking a little skeptical...probably with good reason. Here comes trouble! :-)

Steve Chandler (Piper) is warming up his pipes for the memorial service.

Moon did an excellent job. I've been to 8 of these services here during the ES rally, and this one seemed to be the most meaningful to me. It was fairly brief, but to the point, and did a fine job of honoring those that aren't with us any more. And, as usual, Piper's Amazing Grace, brought tears to many eyes.

A wet boat. But...boats are suppose to be wet. I don't know why I take so many pics of this bike..maybe because I like it, and it's fun to tease Jamey about the sparkles.:-)

Last Silver Spoke Breakfast of this year. Very good food, at a very good price..and the best people in the world to share a meal with.

The Blue's Sisters..or, maybe make that Booze Sisters..Things look different in the morning :-)

Tracy is an excellent waitress! She handled breakfast all by herself every morning, for a lot of rowdy folks. She was very fast, and kept everything coming, with no mix ups that I know of. Notice all that food in front of Susan. Most of it was still there when she left to drive to Kansas..I think she either was trying to cut some calories..or.....may have had a slightly queasy tummy :-)