We head directly south to get out of town and then turn west on AR-25 aka Heber Springs Rd. and oh my goodness what a fun road this is. Everything from steep twisting climbs to graceful high speed sweeping turns. Traffic is mostly light and we are very happy riders. It stays this way over to Heber Springs which is a touristy area located at a huge man-made lake named Greer's Ferry Lake. We could have bypassed around the town but Larry was leading and had deliberately routed us through town and that included yet more fun roads we would have otherwise missed. We continue on AR-25 until we get onto US-65 which is a wider straighter road but that doesn't have quite the "fun factor". US-65 has us headed into Conway AR, and it appears some weather. The skies have been getting heavier with clouds and just as we head into Conway it begins to rain. We duck into a gas station to gas up since we're close to needing it anyways and I elect to don my rain gear while Larry decides to hold off as yet. We continue navigating into and out of Conway and lo and behold the weather slowly and magically improves! We have about 12 miles before we get to Houston AR where we locate the post office and get our first waypoint for the day.
We're ready for a break now, but there is nothing in Houston so we head on to the next town - Perryville. We roll into town and start looking for a diner or coffee shop. We stumble across a place called Mustang Sally's which has a catchy name.
Unfortunately, it's closed, but then we spot another place just across the street - Mainstreet Daylight Donuts.
Sounds good so in we go. A nice lady greets us enthusiastically and serves up some AWESOME coffee and donuts. Oh and how about .75 a doughnut and .79 for a LARGE coffee? We chatted with the owner for a while and managed to poop off a half an hour before getting back on the road.
But here's where the real fun starts! We are now on AR-9, which runs down alongside the eastern edge of the Ouchita National Forest. Once again more fun that should be legal all the way down to where 9 ends at AR-5 just west of Benton AR where we miss a planned turn and have to swing back to find it. When we do, we are surprised by the street sign for "Narrows Rd" which points down what looks more to be a driveway than a road. Undaunted, we take this and it lives up to its name but continues the motorcycling nirvana for yet another 7 miles until we come out on US-70. This drops us down by the southeast corner of Hot Springs AR and another heavy tourist area - Lake Hamilton. Lots of boating, expensive condos and homes overlooking the lake.We're now on AR-7 which is well known as a great motorcycle road, though this southern end isn't nearly as nice as the section above Hot Springs. This does swing us down by yet another huge man made lake - DeGray Lake. Before long we are getting onto I-30 for about an 80 mile stretch of , well, interstate highway. :-( The good news is that the weather has held out and the temps haven't risen over 90 yet!
We roll into Texarcana and follow the GPS to where the post office is supposed to be and nothing... So I run a search and find another post office listed at 2.5 miles from where we are. Off we go with me in the lead and eventually (after some zig-zagging on neighborhood streets) we arrive at a pot office and get the required photos.
So now we ar ready to strike out towards our final destination of the day in Shreveport LA. As we head out of town we note an substantial uptick in the winds. We get routed on a semi-interstate bypass Hwy 549 and the winds are VERY strong - to the point of making a significant difference in our gas mileage for this stretch. I'm talking 34-38 MPG vs the 43-50 MPG we have been getting. Fortunately that leg is only about 25 miles ans then we're on AR-71 which is not elevated like the 549 was an this has plenty of trees lining the sides to stop the winds so out MPGs go back to normal. We ride the last 45 miles down into Shreveport and locate the post office there rather directly. It is only then, as we dismount and I go to set up my "rally flag" for the photo op that I realize that the flag is GONE. It had been tethered to the bike with shoelaces and the tucked under a pair of bungy cords on the pack directly behind me on the passenger seat. Somehow, it managed to come loose of the bungy cords and must have then been hanging out in the wind-stream and eventually broke free of the shoelace tethers. Don't know what can be done about this yet. It may mean that I am unable to submit sufficient documentation to certify the tours. Hopefully we'll be able to work out an alternative to that but I am already waiting for a response to my email inquiring about the issue. We get Larry's photo and head off to tonight's hotel located just a few miles from here.
Thus ends Day four. We rode 365 miles today.
