Open Barn Doors

After a day in Nashville I went over to Taylorsville, KY and spent the evening with my sister Betty and her husband Carl. They certainly have built themselves a nice nest there with a partially underground home and a huge shop. Betty continues here genealogy projects and Carl is way into his CJ-3 Jeep project. They had just returned from a Jeep outing in Utah.




I unloaded the Sportster and road up to Ohio for Gary Mac's annual Open Barn Doors party. I arrived on a Wednesday and it had started raining 30 miles from his place and I arrived wet around the edges. It continued to rain off and on until Friday evening and the ground was very saturated. But Saturday, the day of the party, the sun came out and the wind with it and started to dry things out. It was still an inside party though. Gary and I built a wine glass holder over the bar and I helped with the clean up and decorating. The boy needs a barn keeper!


Then the long trip home. I returned to Betty and Carl's, loaded up the bike and spent the night. The next day I went over to Charleston and spent the evening with daddy and Ron and left out after coffee at Boomland with daddy's clutch. A long driving day on Tuesday and Wednesday and I arrived mid afternoon at Pueblo, CO to pick up a 2010 Triumph Bonneville that I had bought on ebay. Then I made it down to Raton, NM that evening and finished up on Thursday evening back home.

This was my first extended trip with the Vixen and it performed well. There are still a lot of little things that need attention, but I have plenty of time to see to them.

King Biscuit Blues Festival

The Deco design Hotel Seville in Harrison, Ark was a delight to stay in and we enjoyed dinner there and made some new friends.

We visited Eureka Springs and had lunch in the old downtown area and had to add on some home made dessert. Lots of motorcycles there as it is only a short ride from Fayetteville. The loop on the old highway 62B was lined with Victorian homes and tall trees - very attractive. The Springs are not note worthy and had names like Black sulfur and Arsenic. This chapel is located a couple of miles west of Eureka Springs and is very interesting, both the story behind it and sitting inside of it with music playing in the background and looking at all of the trees outside.

Next stop was Helena for the King Biscuit Flour Hour Blues Festival. We had arranged to meet up with Bill, Joe's brother-in-law on Tuesday. We caught up with him at the campground and I went to pick up my Vixen motor home. We had a very spacious camp spot on the edge of town and we met several other campers. We took Bill's truck and toured over to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and the Shack Up Inn, where we had camped two years ago. The place had expanded quite a bit and is worth stopping in when you are in the area. Thursday we went to the Festival and stayed all day. We were all disapointed with the style of music being played. I was counting on old style piano and guitar slow strumming and singing, but it was more high energy electric guitar and drums with a bit of rap/blues singing. We did finally find some buskers (street performers) that met our expectations.


So Friday morning, I decided to move on, the Festival just wasn't doing it for me. Joe and Bill concurred and we took the long way back towards Nashville, Joe's home. The tires on my new to me trailer looked a bit low and on checking, one had 6 lbs and the other 10 lbs, both showing major cracking on the outside. The trailer was 6 years old and barely used, but the tires had rotted in the sun. So two new Goodyears from very helpful people and we were on our way, only to have the trailer hitch break off of the Vixen when we pulled into a gas station. Luckily, this didn't happen while on the road as we could have done some major damage to the bikes. $50 and an hour later and we were good to go, this time with a second safety chain tied to the frame of the Vixen.


This is in front of Joe and Diane's home in Southwest Nashville and Bill's Airstream on Saturday. I left later to visit a friend of mine east of Nashville.

BBBQ

We met up with the Daniels, our third cousins in Fort Smith. Joe and I had last met them in 1955 just before they moved from Cape Girardeau to Fort Smith. This is Pat on the right, her husband Cosby Hodges on the left and Tom Daniel in the middle. The youngest daughter, Julia was also there. We spent the night in their luxurious home on the golf course and we all went out to dinner. Anne, the fourth family member and my childhood favorite, died from cancer about four years ago.

The Bikers, Blues & BBQ bike rally in Fayetteville, Ark is supposed to be second only to Sturgis in size. We heard numbers like 300,000 but it must be very difficult to get a good head count as no tickets are required. There is a ton of bikes though, all throughout NW Arkansas. We camped at Dan and Debra's place in Fayetteville, a 30 acre hilltop that was a 20 minute walk from downtown. The rally itself was mainly vendors and outdoor music, the fun part being just watching people and bikes parading up and down the main drag which was closed off to cars. Lots of custom bikes and different creations. Our hosts are currently building a low energy house and we enjoyed their company and interaction.

We had had enough of the noise and congestion by Saturday afternoon and rode over to the Buffalo River and camped at the Steel Creek campground, making some friends and throwing horse shoes. The temp has been in the mid 40's at night, so we don't hit the road til 9 or so.

Sunday, we toured Eureka Springs and continued our habit of eating BBQ and catfish. Sunday night we checked into the 1929 restored Seville hotel in Harrison which had special rates for bikers and met some of the local characters in the hotel bar after doing our laundry.

Riding Arkansas

I stopped in Commerce and spent the evening with David and Betina Zavanut and left on Saturday with them to drive up to Oklahoma where there were going to camp and search for crystals. I continued on to Glenwood and spend the night in a hotel for a change from the Vixen. Sunday I met up with Joe in Helena and unloaded the bike and we headed south and camped at the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. We thought the weather was heading away from us, but instead it came on with lightning, thunder, wind and rain which confined us to our tents early in the evening. Two miles south of us the wind took down quite a few limbs and trees and five miles north of us they had golf ball sized hail. So we got off lucky.

We rode around southeastern Arkansas visiting museums and such and had lunch with Ann Rowe in Keo, Arkansas camping along a river or lake wherever possible.














After visiting Mena and Queen Wilhelmina in the western part of the state, we arrived Wednesday evening at Mount Magazine resort and decided to spoil ourselves. We enjoyed an evening with a couple from Oklahoma city celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary.

A Vixen here, a Vixen...

It was an easy drive from Flagstaff to Bourne, Texas for the Annual Vixen Owner's Association, the 25th anniversary of my 1986 model. It was a three day event with breakfast and dinner catered, technical sessions, and a dance evening. The most interesting for me was the technical stuff and seeing what everyone else has done to their Vixen, followed closely by meeting all of the fun people from the states, Canada and one from Amsterdam.


That is Pete on the right, the guy that I bought my Vixen from.

I also went over to Kerrville and visited with Ron and Chris Bradley, friends from La Ventana.















After leaving for Arkansas on Friday, I spent the evening and next morning with David, Cynthia's brother, and Betina Zavanut on their intriguing homestead/studio/farm in Commerce, Texas. In interesting and enjoyable couple!

Tomorrow, I hook up with my brother Joe from Nashville in Helena, MS.

Pickin in the Pines

The festival was as good as usual, I think this was my fourth time there out of the six years that it has been held. The highlights were camping, cooking and goofing off with Jeff and Bob, and the close up performances of Sam Bush as well as a group of young women harmonizing. We didn't go to or pay for the main stage, but just hung out in the jam sessions in the campground and went to the workshops. Susan came by on Saturday with more beer and ice and joined us for a workshop. Creighton, Kim and the Prescott gang had their usual contingent of pickers and singers.

I left Sunday morning for San Antonio and made it here to Clovis, New Mexico and checked into a motel for a needed shower and shave.

Vixen away!

This is the new to me Vixen motor home that I bought in Napa last month and then went to Burning Man with it. I am leaving tomorrow for the Pickin in the Pines Blue Grass Festival in Flagstaff and then heading east on Sunday. Go to www.vixenrv.org to see the story behind this unusual motor home. the bike is an '06 Harley Sportster and that is my house in the background.

It seems to have been too long of a winter and a slow start to Spring, but it is finally here. So on the road again. This spring, I had classes in sculpture and in Air Brush Painting and Oakley & Liseanne, Rebecca and Dan and I went to Maui for a week in March. We all returned to Charleston in April for the annual Dogwood Azalea/Reunion. I finished up the fountain in the front yard that Gary Mac and I had started on last fall.









I also started on a statue of Isis on the left of the front steps to the house. She is full size and is formed of concrete added a bit at a time with a rebar and chicken wire frame. There is currently 20 or so applications on her with another 20 to go.
















I sold three motorcycles and bought two others, a Sportster that I leave on in the morning for Missouri and my 49th high school reunion. The class ahead of me is sponsoring the reunion, but needed to invite five classes to get enough people together for a party. There were nine in my class. The other motorcycle is an electric scooter to run around town on. It is surprising how fast and agile it is. It is a bit of a bother to plug it in when I get home every day.


I plan on taking the southern route through Dallas and Little Rock and avoid tornado alley.