Jasper, AR - a ride and lunch

Since yesterdays ride was long and hectic, today we were going to take it easy. There were so many great roads to ride in the area but in order to ride the 600 miles back home tomorrow, it was best that we take it easy today.



Our 170 mile route for the day

This morning I noticed a small green puddle underneath my bike - it was antifreeze. The container still had enough in there, although it was now at the low level mark and I’d have to watch it close to make sure it wasn't leaking any more. It's leaked antifreeze before but usually in the Winter when the sat a lot, never in the Summer after a 600 miles ride.



A puddle under my bike... what a great way to start the day

After some decent continental breakfast at the motel, we took off south on 23. This was a nice road with nice curves, although some people here drive very, very slow and a few times we’d get stuck behind there people going 40-45 in a 55MPH zone, it was annoying and especially because there wasn’t many places to pass and there were even less places to pull over and let them just get ahead of us.











Hitting some curves on 23

Then we took 16 east, another great road, way less traffic on this one, it was a bit beat up and narrow at times, and other times wider and smoother. So far the curves on both 23 and 16 were just perfect for me, nothing too tight or technical.







16 was a great road, narrow and beat up at times, wide with new pavement other times

At one of the scenic pullouts that wasn’t very scenic on 16, we ran in to Ken and Pam from the restaurant last night. They were going to turn on route 7 and head north toward Jasper and have lunch at the Cliff House Inn. Mike and I were also hungry and since I’ve seen gazillion pictures of this place in other people’s ride reports it seemed like the perfect place to go and have lunch.



A scenic stop on 7



And here comes Ken and Pam and some cruisers





Mike and I with some nice mountains behind us



The Cliff House Inn on Rt 7 in Jasper

The view at the Cliff House Inn was truly amazing and the food was really good too. It made me think of all those really cool restaurants with great views I stopped at before, just to be disappointed with the food and so many places have great food but no views and no atmosphere. It’s hard to find a restaurant that has the atmosphere and views and good food and good prices, but this place was had it all.

Pam, Ken, Mike and I got a table, but just minutes later Becca walked in and joined us. Later on more ST.Ners showed up to eat. This place is popular.



Not sure what Mike had, is that a brisket?

My pork tenderloin sandwitch and fries were truly delicious

After lunch relaxing on the deck out back at the Cliff House Inn

Nice views from the Cliff House Inn's parking lot

Arkansas' Grand Canyon

Becca, Pam and Ken taking off

From there Mike and I decided to take the shortest route back to Eureka Springs, so we shot up route 7, which unfortunately had a lot of traffic because it also had some tight and steep curves.

Heading north on 7

The day was warming up slowly, the morning was cool and very pleasant. It wasn’t until about 1PM that I started to feel hot. Now heading on 412 to 65 to 62, at lower elevations, it was sweltering and the traffic was pretty dense too.

We arrived at our motel in Eureka Springs around 3:30PM and went to relax at the pool for an hour, then we geared up and headed in to the city – downtown Eureka Springs that is.

Mike taking a dip

Downtown Eureka Springs, AR

This afternoon I left the ST3 behind at the motel and went two-up with Mike. For one, there was a lot of traffic in town and with my antifreeze being low, I didn’t want to sit in traffic and have the engine get too hot. The second reason was the roads through town were beat up, narrow and very steep, and I don’t enjoy riding roads like that especially in slow traffic. I have not ridden two up with Mike ever, so this was going to be an experience for sure. The Tiger is really tall so getting on the back and getting off took some work, the ride wasn’t that bad after all and I’m glad I didn’t take my bike in to town.



This was taken by a ST.N that goes by the sceen name sdkoskeyx, great photo



The view of the road from the pillon's seat



Attention all Harleys, this one is for you

Eureka Springs is no doubt a motorcycle town. Yes, one can find many bikes on the Blue Ridge Parkway and riding around Deal’s Gap and the Dragon, but there is no one particular town that everyone stays at when they are done riding for the day.

To this day I have not ever seen a town that catered so much to motorcycles and in turn, was packed with them. Not only were there tons of motorcycles here, but a good portion of them, maybe even half, were sport bikes and sport-touring bikes.

Harding Spring

By 1850’s the word of the "Medicine Spring” was spreading and Eureka Springs popularity started growing as people traveled long distances seeking to cure many illnesses with the healing waters of the springs. The town started to grow. Later, those healing waters would be used to treat the Union and Confederate soldiers wounded in nearby battle. These springs are still here in town.

Crescent Spring

We rode a bunch of steep and narrow roads, this one went to the Crescent Hotel

The Crescent Hotel built in 1886

The seven story Christ of the Ozarks statue in the distance

Then we stopped at the two houses were Mike spent his childhood summers with grandma

Some shots of town from the back seat of the Tiger

Finally we parked it and took a walk

Candy store

After some walking we decided to eat dinner. The one store we went in to recommended The Mud Street Cafe. The place looked nice. I ordered a nice glass of Syrah and an avocado and cheese croissant. The sandwich was very tasty, there was also sunflower seeds and sprouts, but honestly for $8 I expected some fries or fruit, not just some stale potatoes chips.

Mud Street Cafe

My avocado and cheese croissant and Mike's fancy burger

Cheese, avocado and wine...yummm

It so happened that we had this big lunch earlier and we weren’t really that hungry, so it worked out just fine. Mike topped it off with some coconut crème pie that he said was pretty tasty, everything was made and baked on the premises from scratch, they said.

After dinner, we walked some more

Basin Spring

Twin Tigers

Then it was back to the motel. We had intentions on hanging out outside in the parking lot after we got out of our gear but by the time that happened we realized that we were tired and it was already 9PM and we had to get up pretty early tomorrow to head home, so we went to sleep.