Start of day 8. Well, not the start, but the first picture of the day. A grocery store in Berryville, Arkansas. I'm taking the little back roads from Eureka Springs to Branson, Missouri today. It's been raining most of the way from Tulsa this morning.



The annual picture. There have been several different motorcycles parked in front of these signs, in past trips. You can stand in Missouri here, and take the pictures of the signs that in Arkansas.



Bridge over Lake Taneycomo.


This is the only picture I took in Branson. Rain was heavy most of the time. I didn't take the camera to "Legends" last night, wish I had.




Bassman's little red Aveo. It has been drizzling rain all morning, and the weather channel shows heavy rain over where the BBQ joint it..So this will be our morning's transportation.



I was here last year, and just had to come back...wonderful food!



There are some cold units you can pick up salads or desserts, then there is the meat line! Beef, Pork, Ribs, Bologna, Hot links, and Italian sausages. Beans, Corn on the cob, and potato weggies.




Last year I went with a combo, today I just ordered a rib plate. Those little racks are on top of each other, it's a double stack!



Don had the beef brisket, Mal had chicken strips and potato weggies. All the portions were big....





A plain dining room, but lots of old interesting pictures.



Mal's "to go" dish was totally topped off with left overs.



Don took us on a ride through the country side. Water over this road made us turn around. It doesn't look deep, but it's very powerful, and we didn't want to chance driving through it.



"The Boys" checking out the water.



Don is making "home made" ice cream for an evening snack!



End of day 6. At Bassman's house in Catoosa, OK. Malachi (Joe Blanc) got in this afternoon too. I'll stay here until Tuesday morning, then will head out for Branson, then down to Eureka Springs.
China Buffet in a Tulsa suburb. They had 7 Islands of food!



Didn't take any pictures until about the 3rd plate ful.



Malachi, Debbie and Don. (Bassman)




Joe is walking over to get a picture of the sign from the other side.




Malachi took this picture in the city of Ness City, Kansas, yesterday. It's and old bank building. I thought it was an interestin picture, so wanted to include it in this blog.




A local attraction in Tonkawa, OK. Mexican Restaurant, and a club, and some other businesses.



A natural gas "burn off". I passed many, many oil wells this morning...



A Nazarene church in Barnsdall, OK. One of my new favorite towns.



Many empty buildings in down town
An old Bigheart Oil gas station in Barnsdall, OK. Bigheart used to be a big gas company, but it has disappeared like so many other in this part of the country.



Passed many pretty horses today............some beautiful animals!



Cheapest gas I've seen on the trip was 2.21 in Oklahoma, Most expensive was 3.29 in Denio Junction in SE Oregon.



Farms, Ranches, and oil wells are commonly mixed in Oklahoma.



Lots of nice Round Meals here in the farm land. The cows love it! We're in the "Green" part of Oklahome, the North Eastern area.





Downtown Pawhuska, OK, on a busy Sunday morning! Probably not much busier on any day, lots of empty buildings.



This was home to Anita Bryant, and Clark Gable! Nice little city, but almost a ghost town now.



Must be an Indian name. The Osage Reservation is near here.



Lots of Web worms in this part of the country. Lots of the big Pecan trees are full of them this time of year.



Malachi arrives at the Casa Don Exum, in Catoosa, OK. We'll be hanging here for a couple of days before going on to Branson and Eureka Springs. Joe (Malachi) lives in Silt, Colorado. You can tell he's sort of weird, check out the helmet by clicking on the picture.



Bassman's gas tank. He's Bassman and in BASEball, not the fish. He plays in a Country Band called Lost Highway. He has a very nice place here in a Tulsa suburb.



Coco is the friendly watch dog!



Raindrops falling into Don's pond. It's well stocked with fish. This is just one end, it's much larger than what you see here.



The Lost Highway used to pracice in a room in one of Don's outbuildings. Now, it's occupied by his son and daughter-in-law. The turned it into a small apartment for them.



Day 5. Leaving Dodge City. Heavy Thunder showers during the night. Still gray and humid out, and just a heavy mist.



Kansas is sort of boring to drive through. I'm glad I have the NASCAR channel to listen to on the XM.



Mile after mile of nothing. This was the first little break from the rain, but it only lasted a few minutes and I went into a storm that's brewing in the cloud you see in front of me here.



Pratt, Kansas. This is the County where I got my ticket in June. I hope they use some of the money to repair this Main street, it's brick, and very rough.



Old Theater in Pratt.



Was going to take a picture when I went through Medicine Lodge, but it was pouring so hard, nothing would have come out. This in in the City of Kiowa.



I didn't know that Carry Nation was from this part of Kansas.



It's raining in Oklahoma too. And I've picked up a strong head wind.



I saw a LOT of this today!

The Super 8 in Blackwell, Oklahoma is right across the street from Walmart! Does it get any better than this? Except when I pulled into the motel, it was pouring rain!




This little greasy spoon was recommended by the Motel. Since it was next door, I decided to try it.



They have their own bakery, and sell whole wheat or white bread for 99 cents a loaf. They also have morning pastry.



I've been VERY careful all week on my food intake. You may have noticed no food pics. Well, I AM in Oklahoma, and they have the best chicken fry in the world..so.............I wasn't disappointed. I didn't eat most of the potatoes, or the warm roll, but the gravy disappeared

http://www.blueskyinn.com/contact.htm This is a link for this motel.
Morning, day 4. this was the nice little motel in Montrose. I usually don't, but went back and looked over the blog so far. It sort of matches my mood, it's not too exciting. I think I'm a little down because I'm driving a cage instead of the bike. It does have it's advantages, but I sure miss being on 2 wheels. And, the auto focus on my best camera isn't working right. I had to dump over half the pictures I took later today. It's been a wonderful drive as far as weather and seeing nice things, but I'm looking forward to get to ES so I can get some good VROC people pictures!




Looks like a place to remember!



I parked right in front of Kokopelli here with the blue Kokopelli bike in 2002. That made a better picture :-)



Black Canyou Junction. Likes like a fun place. It's very windy right now.



A clump of Aspens, they are starting to turn bright yellow. I'm at 8200 feet here, at least that's what the Zumo is telling me. It's chilly, but not too cold.



Blue Mesa Lake.



Pinacles above the Lake.



Today is 9/11. This town (can't remember which one) was a memorial going on.



City Park.



No "square meals" here!



These guys were coming done from the very top of Mount Monarch. They had been up to around 12,000 feet!



Someday, I'd like to take this ride.



Probably would be a nice view up there!



You can click on the picture to read the sign better.



Heading down the mountain. There were a lot of bikes on the road today.



The trees are getting very pretty.



Visitors center in Canyon City, near Royal Gorge. They had WiFi out at the picnic table, so I got on line and reserved a room in Dodge City. I didn't realize how far it was..Oh well, I made it, but was a long day.



I filled up with gas here. NO ethynol. Price was 2.42. I've seen it as low and 2.30 in some places here in Colorado. Also they sell biofuel for $1.99 a gallon, but I won't use it.



I like these old buildings.



Here's one for sale.



A feed lot, one of the many around Dodge City. You can smell them for miles, the the town is full of flies.



Last shot of the Day...I'm staying in the Travelodge. Last time I was through here it was a Best Western, so it's nicer than some of the Travelodges I've been in :-) Day's end 9/11/09.



Day 3. Spending the night in Montrose, Colorado. Sunrise over the Salt Flats..Miles and miles and miles of salt between Wendover and I-15 at Salt Lake City.



I've taken a many pictures of this structure, they turn out better when you're in the Westbound lanes.



Just across the white salt is the Great Salt Lake, you can just barely see it from the highway along here.



I think this is a marina. I have a name for it, but in the interest of political correctness, I won't mention it.:-)



I'm now on Hwy 6, about 35 miles South of SLC, heading over the mountains, Eastbound



Utah has a lot of beautiful rock formation, this has been a nice drive. Several passes over 6K feet, one was 7300 and some.



Big Rock down by Green River, UT.



Cantelopes, Krenshaws, Honeydews, Canary, Casabas and Watermelons. I counted 6 stands sell them along the business loop of the highway through Green River.




It on the honor system. All the melons are marked with a black magic marker



Farmers bring them in, and stores and other stand owners come in to pick them up in bulk. Some of the people that were there bought a LOT of them.



This girl was taking them from the truck, weighing and marking and putting them in bins. I saw a flyer that this weekend there will be a Melon Festival in the City Park. All you can eat melons!



And speaking of melons..............................This lady is smuggling out a couple of cantelopes!



This is the booth I bought my cantelope in. I just ate half of it for dinner, it was wonderful!!



I never get tired of seeing the formations in Utah.. I'm giving you a break and only posting a couple of the dozens I took :-)



About 10 miles West of Montrose I got into very strong head winds. Big black thunder clouds look like a storm is brewing. I made it into the Blue Sky Inn, a small "Mom and Pop" motel. Small, but very clean, newly painted, flowers in the room and a basket full of goodies (tooth paste, protein bar, Advil, some lotions and some other things I don't recognize. Nice new bedspread and even colored towels. Just an accident, but I'll have to remember this place. That wraps it up for day 3.


The sun coming up on some cattle outside of Lakeview, OR. This starts the second day. The blog pictures will always be in reverse, to see the first day, you have to scroll down. And, to enlarge any picture, just click on it.



Adel, OR. This is the entire town. I always try to stop here on the way through this country, it seems to stay about the same.



The "BAR". It's in the back part of the main restaurant.



This dog has the run of the place. He likes to lean against you while you eat, in hopes you'll drop something.



All the walls are full of dead animals and lots of interesting stuff.



Where I ate. That's NOT my pie:-) I was going to order it, but the owner said it had been sitting there since before Labor Day. The rocks are some that a customer brought in, they found them somewhere near there out in the desert.



No menu. I asked if they were serving food, I was the only customer. A couple of ladies were in the back, and one, obviously the owner, said her husband was around somewhere and would make me something. He came out and plopped this down. Good thing he cooked the eggs like I like them. Plenty of good bacon, and a little dish of whole berry home made jam. He told me he cowboyed and shoed horses! for 40 years, and never tried to teach the job to his wife. But since they bought the store, she thinks he should cook. He still looked more like a cowboy, but the food was good.



Pretty fancy "going to town" spurs.



Front porch of the Adel store, in the early morning sun.



The "green lizard". I took a picture of the Wing right here about this time last Fall. You can't tell, but the huge high valley is several hundred feet straight down the cliff I'm parked next to.



Hwy 140 has signs warning of burro's, antelope, and cattle. There isn't much out here.



There is a little rest stop with chemical potty's here. This lady was exercising I think..not real sure.



This is an Indian Fantail Pigeon. He's 10 years old and very tame. He was mostly on his own here at the rest stop. He came when called.



There used to be gas in Denio, but the station is closed.



This is the junction store, it's still in business.



Near Winnemucca. I think this is an advertisement for a veterinarian clinic. They probably also have dogs, snakes, lizards, etc.



Microwave antennas, high on a hill.



This crow was welcoming people to Western Nevada.



The white stuff on the horizen is the Bonneville Salt Flats. I'm coming down the hill into West Wendover, NV.



The little city is full of huge high-rise casinos. Since it's right on the border, and not too far from Salt Lake City, they get a lot of business from Utah. Used to be very cheap, nice rooms here, but, like about everything, the prices have gone up just in the last year.



The Buffet inside the Peppermill Casino. The Nugget, Peppermill, and Montego Bay advertise that they have over 600 feet of Buffet besides all the other eating places in them. This one did have good food. I won't eat much tomorrow:-)