Mission: Scrub the rubber whiskers off a new set of Metzelers, sidewall-to-sidewall, using only naturally occurring road surfaces.

Equipment: 1994 HD Wide Glide, 65K miles indicated.

Time: 5 days, no reservations.

Place: Arkansas & Eastern Oklahoma

Stats: 1,377 miles, 44 mpg avg., $2.98/gal. avg., ½ qt. 20W50

Day 1 – Ft. Worth, TX to Mena, AR (400 miles)
Took I-30 to US 259, went north to Idabel, OK. Ate lunch at M R Pigs downtown, recommend the “Pulled Pork”. Continued north to Broken Bow, nice and scenic. Take 259A through Beaver Bend Resort Park. Excellent road, nice 10 mile loop, beautiful lake and scenery. Continued north on 259, went west on 63 to Talihina. Want to get the full length of the Talimena Scenic Drive. Glad I did.

Talimena Scenic Drive is OK 1 then AR 88. About a dozen scenic vistas, make sure you stop at “Panoramic Vista”. Nice sweepers all the way to Mena, AR. Don’t miss this road. And it was nice and cool at upper elevations. High temperature = 95.

Notes: Mena is dry. Arkansas is by county, and all the counties surrounding Mena are dry. Bring your own. Ate dinner at Papa Poblano’s. Saw signs and apparently a chain in Arkansas. Ordered the Charro beans, didn’t expect to find sliced hot dog in them. Maybe a white trash, trailer park, Arkansas thing. Not done in Texas or Mexico. Stayed at the Sun Country Inn, $89 +tax for a Jacuzzi suite.


Day 2 – Mena to Eureka Springs (300 miles)
US 270 east to “Y” City, AR 71 north. Ate at Fred’s in Boles. Excellent and cheap. Nice sweepers and beautiful county. Continued north to AR 23, all the way to Ozark (liquor stores). Cross Arkansas River and I-40, go north on AR 23. This starts the “Pig Trail”. Great twisties. Don’t miss. Then went east on 16, really started getting desperate for gas, found in Fallsville. Continued east on 16 to AR 7, went south 11 mile to Lurton, to pick up AR 123 east.

Best road in Arkansas. Take 123 east from 7, as good as anything in the Black Hills. Follow in to Mount Judea, ate lunch at the only café (no credit cards). Go north of town across bridge, took AR 374 toward Vendor to AR 7, north to Jasper, west on AR 74 to Ponca, AR 43 & 103 to Osage. Lurton to Osage – AWESOME!!! Best road of the trip.

Notes: Took 62 over to Eureka Springs (liquor stores). Town reminds me of Lead, SD, but without the casinos. Plenty of nice places to stay. Stayed at Rodeway Inn – Swiss Holiday, $89 + tax for Jacuzzi. Ate at Myrtie Mae’s, excellent salad bar. High temp. = 95.

Day 3 – Eureka Springs to Hot Springs (300 miles)
[font="times new roman"][size=3]Took 62 west to Gateway, then back. Twisty, but a lot

 

Thanks for the info Sarge, next time I ride on southern route I'll refer to your post.
Oh, and thanks for telling us about them dry counties! [sm=icon_guiness.gif]

 

The last time I tried that ****, I ended up with a Custom paint job!

Thnaks for the report, y'all got Cameras out there or what?

 

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Must do rides:

I agree, HOWEVER, Hwy 123, and Mt. Nebo are to be included on my list. I've been thru Arkansas/Oklahoma 3 times this year, twice just this month and love it. 1500 miles each trip done in 3 days..