Labor Day Ride - the Finale

View of the main drag in Eureka Springs, AR

Its like a little Swiss village in the Ozarks

There are plenty of little pubs to eat & drink in

The Basin Spring Park is a popular hang out for musicians, artists & hippies


The street is lined with little shops.
There are usually lots of bikes in town

We found a little shopping bizarre

Embarrassingly enough, I took no pictures this trip in Eureka Springs & neither did anyone else. These are from our last trip to ES, the Labor Day ride in 2005. Nothing changes much in the town. It looks almost the exact same as it did when I first started going there regularly in 1988. Shops go in & out; restaurants & pubs changes names; the rest stays the same.

We got to Eureka Springs on Sunday in the middle of the afternoon. We parked & walked the main part of town for a while. I had been looking for a winter's hat all trip long. Almost bought one at Turner's Bend, but couldn't figure out how to get it back without mashing it. I didn't really find one in ES either.

A couple of funny things happened right off the bat. We ran into my sister's friend Liz & her family. We chatted for a while & then started discussing places to eat. The last couple of times my sister had come over on Sunday, Bubba's, our favorite BBQ joint, had been closed. Liz suggested a place called The Rowdy Beaver. Clearly a double entendre - Beaver Lake is nearby. We thought that was funny & decided we might eat there.

We stopped for fuel & I bought a 6-pack. My parents were shocked - blue laws in Arkansas forbid the sale of alcohol on Sunday, except in restaurants & private clubs. The guy at the counter didn't even look twice at me. I argued that obviously the legislature has made an exception for tourist areas, like Eureka Springs. Either that or the town or Madison County has passed counter legislation okaying its sale on Sundays.

As we neared Bubba's, it appeared to be open. We couldn't find good parking for the four bikes, so we had to move on. As the photos indicate, we are in the mountains & parking is a premium. We moved on & ate at The Rowdy Beaver. Food was good, beer was cold, service was poor. 2 out of 3 ain't bad I guess.

We finally got settled into our rooms around 9:00 PM. I beat my sister at Rummy & we went to bed.

We arose early & Dad & I found the continental breakfast in the lobby. It was pretty weak, so I had a banana & coffee. My mom is not a morning person, so we were a little slow getting it all together. Plus, she travels heavy & has a lot of gear to get together in the morning. My sister, brother-in-law & I were hanging out by the bikes chatting with a Harley rider & his wife when we heard a loud crashing noise. I looked over & saw a VW bug hurtled down the hillside & hitting a tree at the bottom. We all ran over through the underbrush to see if the driver was okay. The car was empty, thank God.

It was nice little Baja model - high fenders, mud tires, no lid on the engine compartment, steel roll cage to protect the engine, bright yellow. We looked up the ridge & saw a man about 60 looking visibly shaken & a couple of other people trying to help. Soon a police officer showed up & we went on our business of getting our gear ready. We speculated what had happened. He could have had to stop short to prevent a rear-ender, had the brakes look & bail out before it rolled down the hill. That wasn't likely because it looked like he came perpendicular to traffic & down the hill. The most likely scenario had some combination of being in a parking lot across the street & somehow the car got away from the driver & he bailed out before riding down the hill.

As we checked out of the hotel, the lady at the desk said the driver had been in a parking lot across the street & was trying to roll start the bug. For those that don't know, VW's of the 1960's & 1970's vintage had notoriously poor electrical systems with a generator, not an alternator like cars have now. The battery went dead frequently. You then had to roll start - put the car in neutral (they are all manual transmissions), push it to get it moving, hop in & close the door, put the clutch in, shift into 2nd gear, drop the clutch & engine compression will cause the motor to start. The generator will then recharge the battery. Having driven a 1966 & 1967 bug in addition to my sister's 1971 Super Beetle, I've done this a few times myself.

Clearly, the car got away from the driver, he bailed out & it crashed down the hill. We suspected that he could have driven it out of the under brush; VW's are tough & damn near impossible to destruct. But, a tow truck arrived & the car was pulled out of the brush & back up the hill.

The ride back to Fayetteville was nice, but short. If you hoof it, you can make Fayetteville in 45 minutes. My friends in high school & I have done it. We took about 2 hours & a less direct route. I then went to the used book store for a while, lunched at my favorite spot Tim's Pizza on the square & we headed to Dallas.

Dad & I rode historic Highway 71 through the mountains. After spending the weekend in Newton & Madison Counties, it seemed tame. Plus, the last 40 miles is across Interstate 40 to Salisaw, OK where we meet my mom in the truck. As we trailered the bikes, I decided next year we should take a western route through OK that will drop us in Salisaw & avoid the boring & occassionally dicey interstate riding.