Today we get to ride the creme de la creme of the Ozark roads. What can I say? These roads are more twisty, in great shape with bigger ups and downs than Tail of the Dragon. There, I said it. We are officially changing the agenda for the next Tennesee trip to the Ozarks. The weather disagrees with us on the best ride. The road is more technical than anything we have ridden. 10 mph hairpins that require first gear, and they went on and on. The rain and fog are so heavy, we can't photo or video. In a small way, the weather protected us from an "incident" by slowing us down. We have never experienced so many steep, narrow downhill hairpins and had we been driving normal speeds, might have left the road, or come real close to doing so. In this case, the result would have been a bike drop on rock - nothing serious.
We stop for a meal in Jasper in a historic building. We meet an old timer who talks about his touring days on the Goldwing. He is meeting the local IT. Guru to fix his laptop. The guru is a young girl with an cracked screen iPhone. I eavesdrops on the conversation and she actually knows what she's talking about. Seems that Ozark teens have a lot in common with their peers in Toronto.
The locals tell us about the great roads and lodging options in the area. This place is worth a 1 week vacation and we resolve to come back.
The rain lifts and we get back to the roads. There is a video that may not be published, which shows how much we love the roads. Our paths cross with a pottery shop for a local artisan at the fork of two roads. We are tired from the curves so it's time to stop for a break. A dog sleeping in the shade under and SUV opens her eyes to see what's causing the commotion as four vroom vrooms invade her quiet space. When we emerge from the store, she saunters over to check us out and is rewarded with a scratch under the chin and behind the ears. Dogs are dogs out here. She is dusty and has burrs in her fur. No fru fru bandana clad couch puppies in the Ozarks.
Tom finds a mug that is perfect for his son (who has started drinking tea with his Dad) Shhhh, it's a surprise.
We now need to make distance to get home on time. The G3 road is a straight line to the northeast. We have another blast. The curves are not as tight as the G1 roads, but it's hill country so the curves are mixed with intense roller coaster hills. The tops are not quite airborne, but they do provide that lift off feeling. The bottom of the dips give that G force pit of the stomach that we used to love when we were kids (hah, we're still kids, only older). Dave rescues a turtle crossing the road. We see a lot (I mean a LOT) of wild life carnage on the roads and this act of kindness is a small karma moment.
Tom's GPS is acting up again, so I take the lead. There are new roads that don't show up on the GPS so we wing a section and end up in the south side of Sikeston. Oh my. God, this is the south side of the rail tracks and it feels like a ghetto. Abandoned buildings, gang banger flying colours. Tom stops to check the maps in the parking lot of an abandoned building, Dave is freaking out, I check the mirrors in case someone comes from behind. Haven't seen this during the trip. We quickly move on to the next town, but on the way we cross the rail tracks and everything changes. Closer to the highway, we have a totally forgettable Mexican meal and end up at a recently renovated best western. It's in the soft start period so still needs some work done.
Tomorrow, slab for 8 hours to put us in striking distance of Toronto.
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