OFFICIAL SFO 2013 RALLY thread = May30-Jun2

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What's in that guy's ear ^^^^^^^^ that there need to be a sign warning people that children will be walking into it.

Composition was perfect!

:D :D

 
What happens at SFO stays at SFO, but................

The cruiser crowd was doing karaoke on a stage in the hall adjacent to our dining area. One of our FJR brethren joined in the fun (he may be in the above picture). It was hilarious. He not only sang, he danced to the music. The audience clapped and cheered. Bravo!

 
What happens at SFO stays at SFO, but................
The cruiser crowd was doing karaoke on a stage in the hall adjacent to our dining area. One of our FJR brethren joined in the fun (he may be in the above picture). It was hilarious. He not only sang, he danced to the music. The audience clapped and cheered. Bravo!
I cant find the smiley thats drinking beer, But it would be perfect... Thanks Anyway Fred....

 
What happens at SFO stays at SFO, but................
The cruiser crowd was doing karaoke on a stage in the hall adjacent to our dining area. One of our FJR brethren joined in the fun (he may be in the above picture). It was hilarious. He not only sang, he danced to the music. The audience clapped and cheered. Bravo!
hmmm... I wonder which one that might have been....
biggrinsmiley.gif


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What happens at SFO stays at SFO, but................
The cruiser crowd was doing karaoke on a stage in the hall adjacent to our dining area. One of our FJR brethren joined in the fun (he may be in the above picture). It was hilarious. He not only sang, he danced to the music. The audience clapped and cheered. Bravo!
hmmm... I wonder which one that might have been....
biggrinsmiley.gif


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OMG, not gonna get any sleep now

 
Well, I was in the midst of writing my report and got whacked by the system... lost everything I had done, an hour wasted....grrrr

I'll start by saying we had a great time at SFO 2013 - as usual. Kudos to Mike for putting everything together, even though he ended up not being able to make it for reasons previously documented in this thread. Also, thanks to the proprietors of The Hub, Debbie and Randall, who always go out of their way to make sure we have everything we need to make our stay as pleasant as possible. Of the 18 in attendance this year I didn't hear any negative comments about the accommodations.

As for the Ozarks, well, it's just my favorite place to ride. Yep - there I said it and I dare anyone to point out a place with better overall riding. The people in Arkansas are friendly, the food is excellent, for the most part the roads are in pretty good shape and they're sparsely traveled. All that adds up to fun times and wonderful riding. Plus, they don't call Arkansas "The Natural State" for nothing. There is sheer beauty everywhere you look. I tried to capture some of that with my photos this year. Keep in mind most all of my photos were taken on the fly with a little Canon point and shoot. No professional quality stuff here. But when the landscape is as beautiful as we witnessed in Arkansas this year it doesn't take Ansel Adams to capture it... on with the show.

Pegsparks and I started off on Wednesday afternoon and on our way to Memphis for the evening hit what has become a Forum legend thanks to Gixxer...

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Where we each had "The Piggie" and then I HAD to have some of Mrs. Penny's Coconut Cream pie...

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We spent the night in Memphis and met up with Gary - Winewhisper for the ride over to The Hub on Thursday. Our route took us north up to Missouri where we caught US160 and traveled pretty much the entire width of the state on the same road. It comes highly recommended! We did have to don our Frogg Toggs for a brief encounter with the wet stuff. Turns out it was the ONLY rain I encountered during the entire SFO (other than the delayed start Saturday morning due to the rain).

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Along the way we got into a little Monkey Business, but somehow stayed out of trouble.

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Friday morning eight of us headed the 10 miles down Highway 7 straight to Jasper to have breakfast at the Ozark Cafe.

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Then it was off to ride. These next few shots are from along Hwy 14 (FANSTASTIC road!)

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Then, after a very impressive run up Push Mountain we were not only due for some gas, but in need of a break.

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On into Missouri again, as we cooked through US 160 we saw this famous guy.

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Who knew he had his own pawn shop.

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They have some beautiful scenery in the southern parts of Missouri as well.

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Along the way the Grey Ghost had a birthday. In just four short years she turned 70. Still runs like she was born yesterday!

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By this time we had worked up an appetite. So where else to stop other than "A Place to Eat"?

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Back into Arkansas to get Gary's "ferry cherry" popped.

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CLASSIC alert!

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Then back to camp for the evening festivities.

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You've already seen this one, but it's too good to miss a chance at a second look.

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We were glad our Canuck friends could join us. The view the camera had is not much different from the one I was starting to get about this time....

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For the record - the Texans won the most games, but in the end Brian and I won the last game. So I am declaring us the pool champs of SFO 2013!

We could see the storms brewing in the distance and knew there was not going to be any early morning riding for us, so a few of us made the best - or was that the worst - of the situation by making it a LATE night in the parking lot. Some guy named Julio Cortez or something was involved...
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Next up - Saturday's ride down the Pig Trail and over to the Oark General Store for the famous cheeseburger. Then my solo ride home on Sunday.

 
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I can't believe the Pieman has never been to Oark!!!

It's just there waiting for you buddy. Lot's 'o pies in stock like right now.

No Bloody Marys...but I bet there's some white lightnin' out back somewheres...

 
I can't believe the Pieman has never been to Oark!!!
It's just there waiting for you buddy. Lot's 'o pies in stock like right now.

No Bloody Marys...but I bet there's some white lightnin' out back somewheres...
If you continue east on 215 for about three miles, it'll turn to gravel. if you turn left there, in a couple of hundred yards you'll find another little restaurant. I think that's where they keep the 'shine ;)

 
I can't believe the Pieman has never been to Oark!!!
It's just there waiting for you buddy. Lot's 'o pies in stock like right now.

No Bloody Marys...but I bet there's some white lightnin' out back somewheres...
If you continue east on 215 for about three miles, it'll turn to gravel. if you turn left there, in a couple of hundred yards you'll find another little restaurant. I think that's where they keep the 'shine
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Did anybody take their FJR east out of Oark on FR1003 to Rt 21?

:D

 
continuing the escapade....

As mentioned we had a late night Friday night and watched an awesome light show as the storms rolled in around 3 am. At 8 am the storms were still rumbling outside so we slept in for awhile.

Finally, around noon we put together a little route and a few of us loaded up and headed out -

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You just never know what characters you might run into in the Ozarks.

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We struck out of Jasper on AR Hwy 47 W and went in search of Elk. No luck there, but we did have a few deer make an appearance.

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Did I mention that there is just a bunch of beautiful scenery in The Natural State...

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Then it was on to The Pig Trail

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Some Woodstockish music festival called Wakarusa was going on... and this was just one of the many auxiliary campgrounds, damn!

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Gary chatting it up with some of the attendees of Wakarusa. These kids were here from New Jersey for the festival.

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We finally made it to the Oark General store for lunch around 4 pm.

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Randal, Fred, Brian and Gary waiting on lunch.

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I had the cheeseburger - Awesome!

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After the cheeseburger I said my goodbyes to my SFO pals. I had planned to head to Hot Springs for Saturday night. It makes my ride home on Sunday three hours shorter and I still get to hit a few good roads in central and southern Arkansas on the way to the boring slog across Mississippi on US 82.

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Chasing the rain, but I never caught it. Must have been just ahead of me, it sure made for a gorgeous sunset!

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All good things must come to an end they say... so Sunday morning I jumped on AR 9 and headed south out of Malvern, AR.

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Then I hit AR 8 - I love this road. The sweepers are awesome and it is desolate. Hopefully I'll never meet an AR State Trooper on this leg of the trip... that could get ugly.

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Out of nowhere I passed by this place. Out of respect I yelled out a big "War Eagle"!

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Still chasing the rain, but I never caught it. Just a few drizzle drops and some road spray.

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Approaching the Mighty Mississip.

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As I crossed the Mississippi I had that sinking feeling that other than the next five boring hours SFO 2013 was over. But, I also had a smile on my face, knowing what a great time we had and how we somehow managed to avoid most all of that ominus weather that had been predicted to ruin our entire weekend. Nothing could have been further from reality. Yeah, we had a few rain drops, but what is SFO without at least some rain?

What we did have was a camaraderie among a group of guys that have grown to love SFO, so much so that the threat of a few rain drops is not going to keep us away. In the process I met a few new faces and hopefully made some new friends this trip in Roy, Mike, Randal, Marty, Gramps, Phil and Mark, I had a shot or two of tequila with some old friends from prior SFO's, Bill, Jeff and Brian, saw our Kentucky brethren and Mike (who is lucky enough to live in the Ozarks now). And I got to room with the Old Pilot himself, Fred and rode over with the Winewhisper, Gary and Pegsparks Terry & of course got to see and ride with my old buddy Texas Gary.

So till next year, I wish you all many happy miles and smiles ahead my friends!

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Nice pics, Turk! They're making me begin to get anxious to get on the road to CFR.

Tell me - is Happy still running around The Hub? I loved that pup...



And glad to see that SFO was mostly dry. When we were at The Hub a couple of years ago, we had one helluva super-cell move through that graced us with a nice double-rainbow once it moved through.



 

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