Ouachita National Forest and Robber's Cave State Park DS Ride

It was a great ride this weekend. I don't have a ton of photos but here are a few. The highlights of the ride were seeing a bear! That was amazing! Right off of Talahina Skyway about 30 feet off the road, the bear was just trotting along. I have never seen one in the wild and it was a great experience. I had a long debate as to whether or not I should stop and get a photo and decided that I did not care to be a potential meal on wheels.

As usual I got into some rough stuff a bit over my head. Unlike normal , I prevailed unscathed, or so I thought. When we went to load up the DRZ I found that some parts had vibrated off, nothing I can't replace though.

The water over the road was pretty deep. It was one of the deepest crossings of the day and by far the widest.









This was a quick family picture my wife snapped of my brother, parents, and myself.

 Camp life from a hammock perspective :D

This lake was my lunch spot on day two. It rained most of day 1 and so I have almost no pictures because it was simply too wet and my camera is not waterproof.

This was a "dead end" I did not mind in the least! It was beautiful!

The roads were in good shape some of the time! I didn't get pictures of the
ones that were washed out and rutted. I was a little too busy to get the photos.

Just a bridge I crossed early in the day 

The dam at Robber's Cave State Park

 This is the parking area at Robber's Cave.

 You could get gas and gamble at the same place just off of the skyway. I did neither but I did try out their other facilities and grab a quick snack.

Everything was a little wet but it was two great days of riding. I found some wonderful roads and some not so wonderful roads that were still a good time. I also found that the drz seat really is as awful as people say when you ride it for two full days. I think that next time the only thing I would do differently is perhaps camp right on the the skyway at Talahina State park or one of the others that were closer to the national forest or wolf pen. 

New AC Unit is broken down...

My wife and I just replaced our AC unit in August. It was brand new and professionally installed. She flipped it on for the first time yesterday and it is now down for the count again. The fan on the unit is out. The compressor runs but evidently the fan is out. The really crappy thing is that this is EXACTLY what killed our last unit. Now, thanks to this hi jinx we may have to cancel our plans this week and deal with this instead. I really thought that after putting in a whole new unit, that we would not have to deal with the air conditioner anymore while we were in this house. We are only planning on staying in this house for another year or two so I really hate to throw any money at the house unless I absolutely have to. The upside to the whole thing is that the unit is still under warranty and so HOPEFULLY no money will have to change hands. I am skeptical though.

No Flint Hills Stampede for me

It seems like every year something comes up and 2012 is going to be the same. I have to be at the International Food Technology Show in Las Vegas for work when the Flint Hills Stampede is going on. I even had my registration form filled out before I realized that I was not going to be able to attend. Some year though....