BigPoppa---are ya'll okay?

[kdog]

It's 9:00pm...I just got home from Mena,,,Extensive damage from Mena to my house...Many trees, electiric lines in road. When it first hit me I was going 80 mph trying to out run...Lightning first---then a downburst of at least 90 mph hit me and almost threw me into the fence along the hwy. I slammed it to a halt and turned around and headed back two miles to a closed town. I watched the business across the street from me basically desenagrate before my eyes. I put my helmet back on and found a low place. After 45 minutes it let a little so I jetted. Rode the 60 or so miles home at 35 mph..In every turn on the top of a hill, there would be trees and sh1t all over the road..What a trip.

[Big Poppa]

Me and windjammer just made it in its a little past 11 now. We got stuck in Mena. Shortly after you left me and woot said our goodbyes after watching the clouds rolling in over the mountain I decided it was time to get the hell out of there. We'll we didn't make it, pulled into the gas station with the wendys built on to it and was about to pump gas when all of a sudden that 90 mph wind you was talking about started riping through sandblasting rain and other crap all over me so I tell the wife to go inside and that we'll eat then gas up when we're through NOT....while ordering grub the power goes off so we sit there for quite some time then finally go to Wal-Mart(they have back up generator) buy some rain gear and wait for the power to come back on so we could gas up and scadoodle on outta dodge. Stopped by Woot's motel before we left and his family finally made it in ok. Where we ridin to next gonna be hard to top this adventure. We had a great ride today nontheless. Later, Dave

[wildabouthorses]

Glad you guys are okay! Did you get to do the Tali-mena drive? It was so dark here around 3pm I had to turn on lights and then that wind hit us here. Tejas got caught in that storm when it hit downtown Tulsa a few minutes later and blew out windows. He was downtown on the bike and 90-105 mile an hours wind hit with cold rain. He said the cars on the expressway gave him a hard time about going 40 miles an hour in the wind and rain. Made some stops of course, got off the expressway soon as he could and went cross country to get home. Talk about one soaked guy and bike. I had been calling frantically to his office and his cell and wasn't getting an answer when I found out about broken windows via tv. He finally did call me when he stopped halfway home so I wouldn't worry about him...tg cause I was frantic thinking he was hurt!

[kdog]

Spent all day yeserday cleaning up tree limbs and debris at home..Yep that my friends was a serious storm...Well....what don't kill ya only makes ya stronger...hee-hee...Yeah, everytime I would see people coming up on me on the hiway, I'd just pull over and let em go, they had four wheels, I had two and I was hitting standing water two inches deep off and on..One thing for sure....leather jacket and chaps are NOT rain gear....It was great meeting Woot and we did in fact have a great ride to Mena...(Note to self: if you are going to Mena and want a beer, bring it with you)......k-dog

[Woot!]

Big Thanks going out to Kdog and Big Poppa, it was fun and memorable. Just got back, total of 1750 miles. I'll post more observations on Monday on the regular board. Some quick comments:

Kdog is a man who REALLY likes his beer. I expected him to shout "I know there's beer in this county, so bring it out, or someone's gonna get hurt!!"

BP weathers a tremendous wind storm and gets soaked, yet still has a smile on his face, yukkin' it up with my brother and pogoing on his little Suzuki Intruder. His wife is a real trooper also.

You AR guys definitely got some good scenery. Wish I could spend some time canoeing those rivers.

Woot!

[kdog]

Great meetin' and riding with you...I wish you were goin too Colorado...Ummmmmmmmmm....Beeeeeeeeerrrrrr! Thing is, It's a good thing I didn't get any in Mena...I needed all my wits to bring it home that night....The REO Speedwagon song "ridin the storm out" was my theme song of the evenin! Well---hope to see ya out there again soon! K-dog