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Vintage Ventures Part 2 - OZARKS: Nov. 2016

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If pigs could fly, this is what they would look like. We love junk-art and we found this guy deep in a hollow on the backroads of the Ozarks.

Part 2: Arkansas.


Gary, an old acquaintance, was one of those "colorful characters" that occasionally populate our lives. He wasn't someone I would regularly hang out with, but I appreciated and cracked up whenever Gary would make his sporadic appearances. So, long story short, Gary loved to river canoe. Before Wanda and I took up aviation, we were also river canoeing nuts. We would occasionally canoe with a group that included Gary. Gary, at 275 pounds, liked ca-nuding, but that's another story entirely. 


Once we bought our airplane, we lost track of our canoeing buddies. We did hear that Gary was making a yearly pilgrimage to the Buffalo River in Arkansas. Gary might have had a goofy side, but he was serious about canoeing and seriously knew canoeing. So, when it came time to plan a trip to the Ozarks, the Gary-endorsed Buffalo National River had to be on the itinerary. (Sadly, Gary passed away at the tender age of 50. His loss was as sorrowful as I feared.)


The Current National River in the Missouri Ozarks was a surprise find. I hadn't known of the Current River before planning for this trip. The Buffalo was known, and I had great expectations. We weren't disappointed. The Buffalo National River is a dazzling clean river flowing through a spectacular landscape.


After spending a few days at Buffalo Point National Campground, we dug in for a week at Tyler Bend National Campground, also on the Buffalo River. We were the only campers at this outstanding National Campground for several days. Technically, the campground's services close on November 15. After that, the campground is open and accessible until April, but the bathrooms and showers are shut down. Although we set up camp before the 15th, we did stay past the 15th. The rangers not only kept the showers open for us, but they also kept the shower house heated for us. We felt pretty darn special.


We didn't canoe the river right away. We hiked the myriad trails along the river, checked out the local towns, drove the steep hilly backroads, toured the Blanchard Springs Caverns, and even ventured into Little Rock.

Tyler Bend National Campground. For the most part, we were the only campers at this campground.

The trails in Buffalo National River area were many and sublime.

The Blanchard Springs Caverns, located just north of the QT (Quaint Town), Mountain View, featured these fantastic formations. This tour kick-started our love of caving. Since this tour, we have made it a point to seek out caves and caverns. We have hit the big ones, Carlsbad and Mammoth, but this one will always be special.


After the cavern tour, we enjoyed a walk around Mountain View. This QT was vibrant, pretty, and had great pubs.

One hike stood out. At the end of an arduous 3-mile hike, we came across this giant rock overhang called Indian Rock. We spent an hour just crawling over the rock formations.

Finally, on November 17, it was time to haul out the kayaks, set up our shuttle, and tackle the Buffalo River. The trick was finding a shuttle route we could tackle with our e-bikes. The steep hills didn't scare us. We discovered that our e-bikes made mincemeat out of the hills when we set up our shuttle for the Current River. It was the highways and gravel roads that we had to be careful with. Our narrow tires didn't like gravel, so we had to avoid those. The highways had to either have decent shoulders or very little traffic.


We found a perfect stretch that fit the bill. Again, we dropped off the kayaks at the put-in, drove the car to the take-out, and biked back to the kayaks. We folded our e-bikes and put them in the back of the kayaks - EZ-peezie. 


The Buffalo River had plenty of depth for our bicycle-peddled kayaks and plenty of zip to where we didn't need much propulsion anyway. The bluffs were incredible. The water was crystal-clear. The day was a balmy November 65º. Even the water was reasonably warmish.

Our shuttle road - hilly, curvy, paved, and no traffic. Perfect!

Absolutely gorgeous scenery. Yep, Gary nailed it.

Arkansas doesn't have many bike trails, and after our e-bike conversion for this trip, we wanted to bike. I could only find one bike trail in all of Arkansas: the Arkansas River Bike Trail in Little Rock, Arkansas. That sealed the deal - we were off to Little Rock.


The Bill Clinton Presidential Library is just a stone's throw from the bike trailhead. We stopped in to check it out. I had never been to a presidential library before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was far more interesting than I expected, but I am a Political Science major. 


The one thing that stuck with me was all the gifts, even small, inexpensive gifts, that Clinton received while in office but couldn't personally keep because of the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution. They were housed in this library for the public to enjoy.


The Arkansas River Trail is a 21-mile loop that goes up one side of the river and returns on the other side. Although some of the trail was urban, most was rural with wonderful river overlooks.

There is a penthouse apartment on the top floor of the Bill Clinton Presidential Library where the Clintons occasionally stay when visiting Little Rock.

The one and only bike trail in Arkansas in 2016, at least it was the only one I could find at the time.

The Arkansas River.

We had heard that the full moon in November 2016 was supposed to be remarkable. It was the closest it would be or something like that. So, I set up my Nikon D800 on a tripod and waited for the moon to appear on the night of the full moon. I took this photo with my longest 300mm lens and utilizing the open-bulb shutter. It turned out pretty darn well, for not knowing exactly what I was doing and not knowing exactly why this moon was so special. Sometimes "winging it" works best.

There is a third large gorgeous river in the Ozarks, The White River. We didn't have time to run it, but if we ever return, we will. The Bull Shoals-White River State Park, along the White River, was our final campground. Unlike the National Campgrounds, it was very expensive, but it did provide electricity. This was less important than it sounds. We had a portable suitcase-style solar panel hooked directly to the RV house batteries. With all the sun we received on this trip, our batteries remained well topped off.


Our final side-trip was to check out Mammoth Springs State Park, home of Arkansas' largest spring, bursting out at 9 million gallons per hour. The park included a restored 1886 St. Louis & San Francisco RR depot with recreated displays and a couple of RR cars. It was nice but pretty tiny. I never did find out what significance that particular RR had in this area.  

(Above and below) The White River.

The 10 acre lake formed by Mammoth Springs located in Mammoth Springs State Park

The restored St. Louis and San Francisco RR depot.

IMPRESSIONS: Let me first mention the country towns. Many towns hidden away in the hollows were in a depressed state. Whole downtowns were boarded up. The luckier towns would have economic activity on the outskirts of town along the highways feeding into or bypassing the town.


There were exceptions. Mountain View was a genuine QT. It was a beautiful artsy tourist town complete with antique shops, art galleries, fun little eateries and pubs, plenty of floral landscaping, and an Ozark Folk Center dedicated to preserving the heritage of the Ozark people.


Marshall was another lovely town. Although not as quaint as Mountain View, it had a modern vibrancy. And it had a decent laundromat.


The oddest thing we continued to experience throughout the Ozarks was the Mom 'N' Pop Mexican restaurants. In many towns, the very best restaurant, and sometimes the only one, was Mexican family-owned and operated restaurants with genuine sensational Mexican cuisine, giant margaritas the size of bathtubs, and fast, modern WiFi.  


This is the heart of the hardcore bible-belt. An evangelical church of some denomination, adorn with long colorful names, stood about every mile apart. These churches could be in a converted barn or a double-wide trailer, but more often than not, a church was the only well-maintained building, especially in the depressed little towns. Someday, I would like to attend a service to experience this chunk of Americana - an anthropological study.


The countryside scenery was amazing. The Ozark Mountains are small for mountains, but they are too big to be called hills. The weather in the Ozarks in late October and through most of November was a perfect way to extend our Fall season.


When it was finally time to return home in early December, we had to drain the water and high-tail it back to Wisconsin. We hit snow in northern Illinois. After a short midnight nap at a wayside, we drove straight through. The heater in our RV worked, but it only put out lukewarm air. It struggled to keep up if the outside temperature went below 20º.


You might have noticed that we were on this trip in November 2016, during the 2016 presidential election. Yes, we voted absentee before we left on our trip. Down in the bible-belt, we noticed the elaborate signage for Trump. This was different from the usual election signage that accompanies all elections. It was far more amplified and very one-sided. During the whole time we were in the Ozarks, we only saw one Clinton sign, which was in front of a house in a deep hollow village with an old lady sitting on the porch in a rocking chair, smiling with a sense of knowing defiance. 


EPILOGUE: So, did we ever have any more problems with the brakes? Kinda-sorta. About a year later, driving home from northern Wisconsin, I noticed one tire on my monitor was heating up. I stopped, and sure enough, that wheel's brakes were starting to smoke. Luckily, I was on a country road. I backed the rig up into a long gravel country driveway.


Here is where an old wive's tale kicked in. I had picked up somewhere that if you apply your brakes while backing up, it resets your calipers. I never believed it, but after backing up the rig into the driveway and letting the wheel cool down, I could drive it the rest of the way home without incident.


I consulted with my brother-in-law, Heinrich, about this intermittent brake problem. He told me his Mercedes RV does the same if his rig sits. His solution is to take his RV for a short drive every couple of weeks.


I started to do the same thing. However, I added some backing up to my "every-2-week-driving" regime. I never had another brake issue after that. Was it the biweekly drive? Was it the backing up? Was it both? Was it only coincidental, and the brakes were just about to lock up had we kept the RV longer? I'll never know. The success that we did have was only anecdotal evidence. I was happy that the guy who bought the RV was a mechanic.

Dave and Wanda

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