Robin: Hello, everybody. I'm Robin Dean. I'm Travis Burleson, and I'm Tim Clark And this is the Nitro Milk Start Writing Obsession podcast. The Tim Clark episode! Okay, okay. Yeah, you're going to see this man. All right. This is your show. You are the boss of this episode.

Tim: All right, so I got a lot of questions starting out, you know, when I tell people where I went, what I was doing. How would you decide to go there?

Travis: Where did you go?

Tim: I went to the Ouachita Mountains in northern Arkansas. Northwestern. Northwestern Arkansas, which is a little wrinkle of mountains just south of the Ozarks. And I... The biggest best answer is I looked at Google Maps and I found a wrinkly bit.

Robin: Is that what you're doing now is looking it up on Google Maps? I'm betting it's near Judah. No, not Judah.

Tim: Ouachita is spelled a little funny. It's O-U-I-C-H-T-A, I believe. Okay, I don't even know Judah's in Arkansas.

Travis: So that's like Oklahoma side like that.

Tim: Yep. Yep, and we did dip into Oklahoma really briefly.

Travis: Like kind of by like south of Fayetteville there.

Tim: Yep, we based at a park called Queen Wilhelmina State Park just outside of Mena, Arkansas. And it is this gorgeous campground and lodge on top of a ridgeline. Did you have a view everywhere? It was spectacular. Yeah, a view right from the campsite. It's like on top of the ridgeline, you've just got a line of like 30 campsites.

Robin: Yeah. Oh, wait, so you, I mean, this was, did you have the, this?

Tim: This was the first journey with the Teardrop Camper.

Robin: Tell everybody what I'm, yeah, pointing at.

Travis: This is between Texarkana and Fort Smith.

Tim: Yes.

Travis: Right on the Oklahoma border.

Tim: And what were you in? This is, so this is the TC Teardrops Teardrop Camper. It is a very minimal camper. It's basically a hard sided tent with a galley out the back. Single axle, two tires.

Travis: With stylish VWS dog dish lug covers. Yep.

Robin: And then you're towing the Africa Twin in the truck bed.

Tim: I've got the Africa Twin in the truck bed on the crazy winch rig because Sylvia can't load and unload.

Robin: There's a video of it. Yeah. We'll link to that. Right. And so then you, so you park this on the ridge and these campsites with just views everywhere. Already, I'm in. Keep going. All right.

Tim: And then what happened? So we got there pretty late at night. We, of course, stopped for dinner in Oh, what's the damn resort town? In the Ozarks.

Travis: Oh. Branson. Branson.

Tim: Branson, Missouri. And we, as we're driving and have Sylvia googling places to eat, she finds a barbecue joint and I say, hell yes. Let's do that. It ends up being inside a craft mall. Yeah, we circled the place two or three times trying to figure out where this place was. So hoping for a quick in and out, grab some barbecue and get back on the road. We end up going into this place and it's, you have to walk through like 150 feet of craft mall and the, there's a counter and like picnic style seating.

Travis: This is either going to be amazing or terrible.

Tim: Yeah. And a little stage in the corner. And there's a little, little rock band playing and it was epic good food. We got so much food because we had no idea the portions sizes.

Travis: I'll have the brisket and it's a whole brisket.

Tim: We ordered this brisket fries with a chimichurri sauce on it.

Travis: Oh, yeah. I love chimichurri.

Tim: And it was, you think you're going to get a little basket. No big deal. They came out with a baking tray full. There was a half pound of meat on these fries. It was insane. Good grief. Yeah. So I, we're like almost in a food coma trying to drive out of there. You know, we got our show. The band was playing while we were eating and we didn't roll into the lodge until 10 o'clock at night or better or later than that. So that was when the camper really pays off. You just pull in, get in and sleep, climb in and sleep.

Robin: It's so nice. You can leave that hitched up too and still be pretty comfortable. Yep. If you don't want to deal with it until morning, the bed's still there.

Travis: Don't have to set it up. Don't have to pop it up even. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Tim: So then we were like right there. We were already pretty happy with the purchase of the teardrop. Yeah, and so next morning I winch the Africa Twin out of the back of the truck and we go down the I had this, I had a bunch of routes planned out and mapped out ahead of time. We're going to be mixed sporty pavement and some jeep roads as well.

Robin: I'm already picturing the one photo that I've already seen which is just a hectic spaghetti roll of paved two-line painted line. Awesome. So yeah, go on.

Tim: That is the Ridgeline Road. It's probably Skyline Road or some shit. Talimena Scenic Byway is what it's called.

Robin: Get to that point on your own. This is your story.

Tim: Okay, so we're rolling this beautiful road heading towards Oklahoma. Just lovely views. It'd be so fun. You'd pop up over a ridgeline and you just see trees, a little stretch of road going left to right, followed by right to left, and then a little ribbon going up over the next ridge. And that's your road. And you're like I don't see how those are connected. And it's one. But we're gonna go find out. Yes. Yeah, so it was just, it was lovely. And we get into Oklahoma and gonna stop and get some gas. I actually think like front end felt a little funny and I wasn't sure where my tire pressures were. So I like kind of pulled over and just like looking at my front wheel. Oh, there's still air in it. So we're okay. And a guy in a Harley rolls by us and don't think anything of it. I think Sylvia said he looked over at us. He was worried about it, but I pulled in behind him. Yeah, and we stop at the next light. He's like, how are you guys doing? Beautiful day for a ride. Where are you guys from? What are you doing? And we just kind of like, yeah. It's great. You know, he's a total local guy and we end up both going to the same gas station to gas up.

Travis: It was probably the gas station.

Tim: It was, yeah. It was the gas station in that town. So we end up chatting a little bit more and I kind of tell him where I'm planning on going. He's like, oh my goodness, that is fantastic. Let me show you around. And we just kind of say, yeah. So I followed this guy in a Harley through these pretty rough windy roads. And you know, of course, it's rural southern U.S. So it was like Indian Warloop Road or something like that. Now, Warloop Road is a different one in that area. I think this was Indian Trail or something like that. Fantastic little road. We wind around and he finally, we end up at some little memorial like area where it was like, it was an area where the three of the local Indian tribes would get together and have a governing council. You know, there's this big monument up on the hill where he's like, all right, I'm going to leave you here. I got some drinking to get to.

Travis: That's awesome. No, no, Captain Kangaroo haircut. No, Captain Kangaroo haircut. Oh, you know, crazy.

Robin: I don't even know if they've heard that story out there. I don't know if our listeners have heard the tale of the, the, oh, Africa Twin Riders are nice. I know a guy. Oh, you're weird. But that's a tale for another time.

Tim: This guy was just all smiles. He was so much fun. He was fantastic. And he was the funniest thing. It's like, oh, he's feet are down from the highway pegs. It's going to get nasty. Oh, yeah. Get ready for the twisties. And I'm, you know, I'm not there to prove anything. I got Sylvia on the back of the bike and yeah, we're just kind of, you know, I'm not crowding him. I could go faster through that for sure, but there's no reason.

Travis: Yeah. Enjoy the ride? Enjoy the scene?

Tim: I'm just having fun. That's awesome. Then I take Sylvia off into a jeep road. And he had warned us. He's like, you know, about eight miles in it gets pretty bad. It might sound like he might have been a dirt rider as well.

Travis: Yeah, or maybe a jeeper or something.

Tim: Yeah, I'm not sure. I think he was a jeep guy too. But yeah, he knew what he was talking about.

Travis: Yeah. Did you get through it? Did you turn back?

Tim: I got through it. I got through it. It was, it tested the limits of what Sylvia was ready to put up with.

Travis: Yeah, I got on the back of it, especially with not, like, being willing to, like, stand up on the passenger pegs and, like, really do that off-road.

Tim: She does some floating around back there. She is pretty active back there. That's a good sign. So it wears her out. Yeah, but it makes it real easy for me to navigate. You know, I hardly know she's back there.

Travis: So were you, like, single tracking or just, like, real rutted or just steep and rocky?

Tim: It was rocky and had some washout. Oh. And we're talking about washouts where the ruts were a foot deep when it got to the really nasty spot he was talking about. No, it was the kind of stuff where, like, if you did not have a built-up jeep, you were in trouble.

Travis: Yeah. So if you were just on, like, a stock Rubicon or whatever, you might.

Tim: Yep. So we get in there, you know, we're already eight miles in, and we hit the rough stuff. We go through for a couple miles, and it starts mellowing out, and I realize we've got a bailout coming up on the left-hand side. Or we can keep going on my intended route, which is another 30 or 40 miles of this stupid shit. That's a lot. I mean, that's a lot, you know?

Travis: Yeah, that's a lot too up. Like, if you're by yourself, it's a little.

Tim: Yeah, and I tend to tense up when I've got her on the back. I don't want to drop the bike with her on it.

Robin: You know, part of that's not your fault, though. So I've noticed that I'll tell myself every time, well, this time when Margaret rides, I'm going to loosen up and really go for it. But then the person behind you is clutching on. So they are gripping you, and plus we use this product called the Grip and Ride. Oh, yeah. Visit the site, and it'll tell you all about it. But so when she wants to maneuver, she's pressing. So then I've got, you know what I mean?

Tim: So I give you that. Sylvia is actually not holding on to me for this. No? We've got the top case behind her she can lean against, and the twin had some really solid hand grips for the passenger. So I'm not getting really any feedback from her. I just know she's back there, and you know, I don't want to hurt her. I would feel horrible.

Robin: Yeah, no, I get that.

Tim: But the twin is like so capable a bike that I always forget that I really can just ride it like a dirt bike.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: Just not as fast. You know, you put it, you follow the same line you would follow with a dirt bike.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: So it's like you got those skills, no big deal. You just do it. You know, keep your momentum. Don't try and do everything with your balance. You know, if you go slow enough that you're just balancing, you're gonna wear yourself out fast.

Travis: Yeah. Let the machine do the work. Yep. Just point, like look at the horizon, kind of point the wheel where you want to go, and it'll probably go over that thing.

Tim: Oh yeah, let it dance. It's gonna bounce. It's gonna sometimes kick you in the ass, but it'll go where you need it to go.

Robin: I'll vouch for the quickness on your part because, you know, we just rode a little rally recently. We were, you know, we were cutting up some twisties, some western Wisconsin dripless area twisties for a while there. We finally hit a road that Tim knew. And up until that point, we were just, we were all keeping a nice open distance. That was the first instance where I'm on an R1200RS and I was maintaining the same distance as usual. And then Tim, he was, he was pushing me at one point. I was like, okay, yep, he knows this road. And we were just gone. We just disappeared. You know, that was a hoot. That's fun.

Tim: That's that rough section of County M.

Robin: County M near, near Richland Center or North.

Tim: Yeah, it's on the, it's actually outside of Bosco Bell. Like from Bosco Bell to County T, they repaved it. So it's all buttery smooth. Yeah. But after T, it's still really nasty and rough. So that's one of my favorite sections of rough pavement.

Robin: And I have to hand it out to driplessridingadventures.com, driplessridingadventures.com. They really cataloged the routes really nicely there. So shout out to them. This is their Boaz slash Kaz route, Boaz Kaz, meaning whatever, but okay.

Tim: So yeah, my parents lived in Bosco Bell for a while. So that was, that was my, my route to visit them and back. So that's why I knew that road so well. So yeah, we, we had a great time out there. It's, you know, that day we ended up taking the bailout and cruising back to camp. The day after that was Easter, if I remember correctly, or we had the Easter brunch at the lodge. Just fantastic. It was so good. It was about as good as you can expect a hotel brunch to be, you know.

Travis: It was pretty good. I mean, lots of paving dishes, lots of food.

Tim: And this was all run by, all run by the park service as well. So I think it's one of the very, it's pretty rare that there are hotels run by the park service.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: It was, it was good. Yeah.

Travis: Like government cheese. Yeah.

Tim: Yeah. And then what? All right. So did another day out and around the Ozarks or the Ouachita range.

Travis: This one.

Tim: Two, two up. Two up, second day. Ended up only riding two up. Okay, great. That whole trip, I didn't do any off on my own.

Travis: Is that more like highway cruising or just more off-roading?

Tim: It's, it's after the, after that first day of really rough stuff, I needed to scale it back pretty, pretty far. So we did end up doing some extensive gravel roads after that, but at a lot slower pace and not anywhere near as rough and nasty. Well, we really did get into some fairly remote feeling places out there. So it was an area, the next place was Wolf Pen Gap. Wolf Pen Gap. Which was a very pretty little area. Yeah. Yeah. That's apparently a fairly big ETV recreation area. That whole state is. Yeah.

Travis: Well, yeah. So like lots of like tight, learning about their road, like crazy trails and stuff. And if you wanted to do that.

Tim: Yeah. So we didn't do that, but we, we followed a lot of the access roads. Yeah. Which were still, still nice.

Travis: Yeah. So pretty. Steep and pretty and.

Tim: And then we ended up going around Lake Ouachita and it was a fairly pretty drive on the way around the north side of that lake. We came across an accident that must've just happened and it looked like a driver, driver had been ejected from the vehicle and it was such a tight, narrow road and no shoulder. So I couldn't even pull over to check on them, but there were already people parked on either side addressing the situation. That's good. So we, we passed it and let it, let it go.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: Yeah. And we did a fire at the campsite that night and it was, it was interesting because on that ridgeline, it was so windy that the smoke was almost horizontal coming out of there.

Travis: Oh wow. It was, it was nice and steady. We could sit on the other side and.

Tim: Or just keep moving. Yeah. We, we could stay on one side of it and then it hadn't, didn't have to move at all. So that was nice. Envy. I would have been really worried if I had had a tent up or downwind from there because it was throwing a lot of cinders, but I didn't have to worry about it with a camper. Right. So that was fantastic.

Robin: It's the best.

Tim: Yeah.

Robin: Sidebar, I have a top of car storage thing. Do you want it? Sure. Okay. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it's like the one that's like shaped like, you know, it goes on top of a car.

Travis: The old Sears one with like the snail on it and then the straps onto the top.

Robin: You can put it on the top of this if you want to. I think I'm familiar with that. Yeah. It's yours if you want it. All right. It was given to me by Don Baron. Oh, nice. Now you have Don Baron's. Okay. It's yours. It's in my basement.

Tim: Yes. Okay. All right. Everything is in Travis's basement. I still have your air pump from the other weekend.

Travis: Oh, that was a nice one, Dan.

Tim: It's over by the bench vise on the end there.

Travis: Did your tire hold the rest of that thing?

Robin: It did. It did. Yeah. Was that from the trip you brought it?

Travis: No, from when we were riding.

Robin: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Travis: Michael and I went here in Muscadet.

Tim: Yep. Well, with that, and then what, Tim? And then what? Let's see. What did we do the day after that? The day after that, we went over to Hot Springs. How many days was this tour? This was a 10-day trip. That's a big trip. I like where this is going. Oh, Hot Springs? Yep. Go on. So we went over to Hot Springs. There's a botanical garden on the south side of the city called Garvin Gardens. And this place is huge. I think it was somewhere around 40 acres. Oh, wow. Of botanical garden. You know, all of it groomed, maintained. Yeah. Just beautiful area. And we got to test out Sylvia's new power wheelchair. Oh, nice. And that thing was just fantastic.

Travis: Do some wheelies.

Tim: Oh, yeah. She definitely went up some hills that, like, I wouldn't want to push her up in a wheelchair.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: You know, and she never would have been able to walk that far. So it was, it worked out really good. No problems, only solutions. Yeah.

Travis: Is that it right there? Yeah, that's it right there. Okay.

Tim: Wow.

Travis: Pulled it up really tiny. That's cool.

Tim: So I normally have that in the back of the cab of the truck, you know, which is just an extended cab. It's not, you know, a two, not a full four-seater crew cab.

Travis: So it's... That is surprisingly small. Does it have, like, a removable battery or is it...

Tim: Yeah, yeah. It's kind of an old school lithium battery that requires a lot of time on the charger.

Robin: Okay.

Tim: That's proved to be a kind of a pain in the ass.

Robin: 80s RC car style. Yeah. Nice. Oh, yeah.

Tim: Do you have more than one? Nope. Nope. They're stupid expensive, too. That's not...

Robin: You know, the best... Redesigned, bad source.

Tim: Yeah, the best we've been able to find so far is, like, $800 for a battery. Oh.

Robin: It's ridiculous.

Tim: She's trucking on this on the tour, on your trip? Yep, yep. And then what? We stopped in downtown Hot Springs at a brewery that uses the Hot Springs water to brew their beer. Oh, that's genius. And had dinner there and it was good.

Travis: You get all that, like, nice, like, retiree bathe in the springs. Like, I'm assuming they're downstream from the springs, right?

Robin: Well, once you filter out the, like, the Bengay and all that stuff.

Tim: Yeah. Well, you know, they've got these, like, I think the Hot Springs themselves have long been, you know, contained within these, like, spa buildings. Oh, okay. So there, I think there were four or five really old original resort buildings still down there.

Robin: They're brewing their own beer.

Tim: Yeah, and so, like, the main strip of Hot Springs, of, like, the historic area, was pretty. As soon as you get out of there, it's kind of a wasteland. It gives you the feel that the rest of that town is not doing well.

Robin: Yeah, warm springs. Yeah, same thing. Warm Springs, Virginia, from the 777 tour, it's like, you get there, it's like, wow, that is a really nice inn. And that is a really nice restaurant. And then, like, across the street is, like, a Hot Springs thing. But other than that, that's all that's there. Yeah. And the nearest store is the store. And it's 10 miles away, 20 miles away.

Tim: Yeah, you know, the Inn Hot Springs, I believe, has got some serious commercial areas. But it seemed like when we got to the, went out to the north side of town, it just kind of, we went through the bad neighborhoods. Yeah. We went up next to an area called Mount Magazine, which is the highest point in Arkansas. I think it's actually one of, like, the highest points in the region. And the thing that sucks there is that we got rained out the whole two, two and a half days we were there. Oh, man.

Travis: They removed, like, the camper and everything.

Tim: Yep, yep, yep. We had the whole rig on the move. So, yeah, I got a chance to test out my tarping skills.

Robin: No leaks, right?

Tim: Oh, no leaks at all.

Robin: Okay.

Tim: No, I just wanted to have a little dry area around the camper.

Robin: Nice.

Tim: So, I had bought this crazy, like, 16 by 20 tarp. And I did not set it up so it shed water well.

Travis: It was, like, flat.

Tim: And it was, like, monsoon rains on us. It was crazy. We're up in the clouds.

Travis: The rain isn't falling. It's just, like, forming in the air.

Tim: Oh, it would pool up in the tarp. And it would dump, like, 20 gallons at a time. Just a sudden spoosh? Yeah. And it ended up ripping, like, six or seven of the grommets out of the tarp. And I'm constantly trying to figure out how to keep this thing, you know, where I can actually spend some time out of the camper. Because the camper's kind of tiny.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: So, I mean, it's the size of a queen bed. It's enough room to sit up and have a couple inches over your head. Yeah. But being confined for day after day is not the way to go.

Robin: A 10 by 10 will do it. 10 by 10 will do it. One reason for our garage is standing room. I mean, I was in there, like, yesterday's rain. I was in it the whole time working on electric.

Tim: Yeah, but you have walls on that as well.

Robin: We have walls. So, I ended up replacing the walls that come with with two 20 by 40, 10 by 20 tarps. So, you got 40 foot of tarp. That was enough. That was enough.

Tim: Yeah. Well, we did take a—we unhooked the truck and took the truck into town. All right. Let's go find a store.

Robin: Oh, yeah.

Tim: We went to a place called Paris, Arkansas. Take my lady to Paris.

Travis: There you go.

Tim: I took her to two Parises, I believe. I took her to Paris, Missouri.

Robin: To our listeners, I remember nothing short of five posts that repetitively said, he took me to Paris, or I took my lady to Paris, or we're in Paris on Facebook.

Tim: It was too funny. You know, we were bored. We were trying to keep ourselves entertained.

Travis: Ah, Paris, where the Walmarts are somewhat clean.

Tim: Oh, yeah. We found a little wine shop in downtown Paris. Picked up a lot of the local wines.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: I think Sylvia bought somewhere around eight or nine bottles. And they were so cheap. It was a little ridiculous. Was it good? Yeah. It was pretty good. I'm not a, I don't have a sophisticated palate for wines, but.

Travis: Oh, that's good.

Tim: Well, does she? I would say she might. I think she's definitely more than me.

Robin: I see. And I'm, okay. So this is off topic, but I like, so I had like a, you know, I had a weak budget crisis where the, you know, I was like, I want to get some wine. Well, I was like, all right. So I go to like, I'm thinking about my wallet. I look at the bottom shelf. I'm like, that is a Cabernet. Those are easy. That Cabernet is less than $4. I'm buying five of that. And I did. And I brought one to Travis's party. And I think Sylvia had some and she was like, that's actually not bad. I was like, Oh, Oh yeah.

Tim: Yeah. That's the funny thing is like sometimes a cheap wine can be surprisingly good.

Robin: Like, well, that bottle looks terrible, but it's cheap. And I'm going to find out. Oh, that's not, that's okay. All right. Back to you. Oh, and then what happened?

Tim: All right. Yeah, I of course bought a six pack of some Ozark local beers. Oh yeah. Which were pretty good. I don't even remember what it was now, but yeah. And then, uh, so after getting rained out there, we moved on to the next. We were actually moving north into the Ozarks themselves for the last stop, which was. I'm totally spacing on the name. Jasper. Swear I've been to these places. Jasper is the name of the town. I can't remember if we were still in.

Robin: You're in some good, right?

Tim: Arkansas. I think we're in Missouri at that point. There's one. There's a lot of national parks there. We were up against the Buffalo River National Forest. And you know, it is all areas where like you can't go wrong. Anywhere you point yourself on the motorcycle.

Robin: The landscape says, you know, the landscape just, this is what it's going to, it's going to be good.

Tim: Yeah.

Robin: Enjoy. Yep. And I guess you could kind of tell me if I'm wrong. I guess you could sort of like specify, I want switchbacks or I want constant sweepers and curves. But.

Tim: And you know, I tend to be more on the switchback level. You're switchbacks.

Travis: So if you were like up over like the Ozarks, then it's probably Jasper, Arkansas.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Because Jasper, Missouri is like further north and kind of more like on the.

Robin: It's towards, that's more towards Daniel.

Travis: It's like almost more towards like, no, it's like more like towards like Kansas. Okay. North Springfield.

Tim: That's west. So yeah, it'd be Jasper, Arkansas then. So yeah, the, we wanted to camp at one of these places along the Buffalo River National Forest. But all of them said no RVs.

Travis: Okay.

Tim: And I'm still not at the point where I'm confident enough, you know, this is not like, I'm not like pulling in a gear rig, you know.

Robin: Right, no.

Tim: This thing is the size of a trailer. So. Yeah, I mean the size of a big tent. It is a size of a large wooden tent. Right. You should be able to get away with that. So I should have. I should have pushed it and tried it and just, because a lot of them are self-registered type places.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Travis: I mean is it, are they state run or?

Tim: I believe they were.

Travis: I'm sure you can probably call like a DNR or whatever and figure it out or.

Robin: Yeah. Worst case scenario, there's going to be like a local store or a gas station you can just park in for the night.

Tim: Yeah, we ended up finding a, an RV campground. With a charger. It wasn't bad. It was like.

Travis: But it's like hokey and not.

Tim: It was 27 a night or something like that. It wasn't much of anything. That's intended for. But you were right on top of each other. Didn't can.

Travis: Didn't can.

Tim: No big deal. Nice thing is like there were a couple guys on adventure bikes camped just down the way. Yeah. And I had happened to be in possession of a six pack of beer in a dry county. I went and introduced myself and brought some beers over to and chatted up some strangers. So it was pretty cool.

Travis: Who were they on?

Tim: A Triumph Tiger Explorer and a KTM Super Adventure. Oh, wow. Big bikes. Yeah. Yep. Big bikes. And they were out of somewhere outside of LA if I remember correctly. And they'd been on the, on the road for three weeks already. That's a big trip. So the retirees or. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.

Travis: Were they just on the bikes or were they hauling the bikes in a rig?

Tim: Just the bikes.

Travis: Oh, okay.

Tim: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And they, they were funny. They had like the same tent, you know, two of the same tent, probably had like the same camp chairs.

Travis: Yeah. The REI credit card was getting, getting used.

Tim: That's what it looked like.

Travis: But they were nice though.

Tim: They were, they were super nice. And they, they invited us to go ride with them the next day. And I'm like, I don't, I don't know when Sylvia is going to be up. I don't know what the schedule is. I'm not, we're already enough into the, long enough into the trip. We really only had one day riding left. Yeah.

Travis: It's like we're not in a hurry to like do anything. If we see you, we'll see you.

Robin: Did you know that going into a tour, if you know that going into any kind of a tour that, you know what? Even if we didn't ride a single mile, that's acceptable. We're going to go see some things and travel. That is a way to be.

Tim: Yeah. And it's something I have to like, if I take Sylvia on the trip, that is what it is.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: This is so much different. You know, I've been on a lot of ones where it's like, you're with the guys and the agreement is you are on your bike, key in the ignition, helmet on at 9am. Yeah. You are ready to go. There's no bullshit. If you are not on the bike at nine, we are going. Yes. And you got to keep up or catch up.

Robin: No riders left behind. Somebody messed this up. No comma. Riders left behind! Exclamation point.

Tim: Yeah. And I've been on those and you know, it's a little stressful.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: But you cover more ground.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: And if there's one person who's like, that's the leader and that's the way the shit's going to be, then you end up having fun anyway.

Robin: Yeah. It's a cold water splash in the face. Like, hey, wake up and know that you're having a good time. Oh, that's right. I do like doing this. Right. I just wasn't ready to be awake yet. And you forced it. And now I'm awake. Let's go ride. But this is not bad. This is not bad.

Travis: This is vacation time.

Tim: Oh, yeah. This is wake up, make the coffee. Yeah. Like, you want some eggs? Let's get some eggs. Oh, yeah. Let's use that. Let's throw the barbecue that we, you know, leftovers in the eggs. From four days ago.

Robin: And it was epic. That was a high five if you didn't hear it, folks. That's how you do barbecue in the morning. Oh, it was good.

Travis: From that first day when they gave us 40 pounds of barbecue fries and we're still eating it 10 days later.

Tim: No, no. That was actually like, stopping at barbecue joints is a pretty regular thing on the trip to the South.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: So, yeah, I usually have some leftover barbecue in the cooler that's fresh.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: And generally speaking, like, our goal is not to do a lot of camping when we're out or cooking while we're camping.

Robin: That's all right.

Tim: So, we got some minimum stuff in there. We've got a bunch of the freeze dried stuff now.

Travis: But it was nice with the, again, with the teardrops that you have the kind of galley in the back. You're not just relegated to fire pit cooking.

Tim: Yes.

Robin: Yeah. Let's take a quick intermission and talk about that. So, front to back. A quick breeze by outline of this teardrop. Yeah. So, you got in the front, you've got a diamond plate storage. Is that tools? And what do you got in there?

Tim: Well, for the trip that we did, that was all riding gear. Okay, nice. So, that's where you kept your... So, this is a six foot wide box, you know, with enough room for all of my riding gear, all of Sylvia's riding gear.

Travis: Nice.

Tim: It's included. Okay. Boots, the whole shebang.

Robin: So, everything that's going to be on you on the bike. And then let's call that time as a pace setter. And then you've got cabinetry at the front of where you climb in for the bed. What do you got up in the front?

Tim: So, when you're laying down in the bed, your feet are at the front of the trailer.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: And above your feet are cabinets. And that is your, that's where we're keeping toiletries, clothing, and in Sylvia's case, meds. Yeah. So, for people who are unfamiliar with Sylvia's got some chromatic illnesses and requires a assortment of medications.

Robin: Sylvia's been a regular part of this podcast just by due mention. So, you know, you speak when you want to and, you know.

Tim: So, yeah. So, then you've got your queen bed space. You got a door and a window and little eyebrow vents over the windows.

Robin: And now you have bike rack panels up top that I'm going to give you a container for, for excess whatever. Yep. Hopefully, that won't cause too much like fishtail drift. Shouldn't be a problem. Nice. Well, not with that truck. You got a good truck for it.

Tim: Yep.

Robin: And then, okay, anything before the rear? Nope. The pillows and then the back of it is your sort of like external kitchenette.

Tim: That's right. Yeah. We can go ahead and stand up and walk over and take a look here. Do it. All right. So, it does not have the air shocks to hold you lifted.

Travis: I do. Yes. Yeah. Oh, these are weird. It's like, it's a spring. It's just a spring that like bends and then is rigid when it's up. Yep. That's neat. Oh, yeah. So, it's just kind of like a little, little pantry space. A little slide out. You can put a camp stove on or whatever. Yep.

Robin: And so, did I get this right to do this now? Are we about halfway into the tour?

Tim: Yeah.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Oh, we're more than halfway. Nice. So, here's one of the interesting little bits. This is your outrigger table.

Robin: Okay. It has a pop-off part. So, it's got a little brace. Pulling the back bumper area. Pop-off part and then, oh, that's okay. So, it's just leverage. It's got a leg. That's perfect.

Tim: Yeah. So, that's normally where I'm, no. So, it's got this outrigger table.

Robin: Nice.

Tim: This is where I'm normally throwing the camp stove on. So, it's fairly rigid. Oh, yeah.

Travis: Come around the brace there.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah. And then, remove some of this out of the way. The battery is back in behind there.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: You pull out cutting board.

Robin: Yep.

Tim: With storage underneath. Pull out utensil tray. Everything's hidden. Big cooler.

Travis: Yeah, we got the Yeti cooler. Yeah.

Tim: It went on sale. It's like Dr. Who started it. I never would have bought it if it hadn't gone on like 25% off on sale. And even then, it was a little hard to justify.

Robin: I've got, I've got this.

Tim: I was on your recommendation on the pocket bellow.

Robin: Did it work out?

Tim: I haven't actually tried it yet.

Robin: You haven't needed it, right?

Travis: I've had to like Tinder start a fire. Right. Yeah. Do you just push this and they bend? They kind of pop off.

Robin: Oh, you touch them and they pop down and then it flex out.

Travis: Okay.

Tim: Yep. That's, that's it. I've got a receiver on the back. You can throw a hitch mount bike rack on there if you need to.

Travis: They're going to like tandem haul another trailer.

Robin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got 14 trailers, daisy chained.

Tim: I think that'd get out of hand for sure.

Robin: Okay, so.

Tim: Okay. And then what happened? So yeah, so we're up against our last day of riding. It was a late start because Sylvia wasn't feeling fantastic. I think we did about 150 miles on that day. Twisty roads.

Robin: It's still a good mileage.

Tim: Yeah, it was good.

Travis: One like on good roads, on fun, smooth roads.

Tim: Mm-hmm. Yep. So yeah, that was, goodness. I would, if I could remember, I'd give you the numbers of the roads. I'd look at them. The names of them.

Travis: Look at the map or write up an article about it.

Tim: Yeah. But it was. Sam, write an article. It was beautiful. I know, it doesn't happen all that often, ever. Not quite yet.

Robin: I am thinking about setting up a special Tim Clark section of the site because he's just, you know, you're part of our podcast and you're part of the website in so many ways. I want to set up a gallery section that is just Tim Clark's.

Travis: Photography.

Robin: Yeah, and link to the stuff where they can buy his work.

Travis: Yeah, or at least, and then Tim could put routes up there. They have no articles about the routes.

Tim: Yeah, because I do, I really do enjoy putting together routes. Yeah. So it's, and one of those things is, you know, with Sylvia, I'm learning the pacing. Like I, on my own, it's no big deal to throw together a 300, 400 mile day.

Robin: Yeah, I even ended it at like 250 and then you're kicking out some real ADV miles.

Tim: Yeah. So I really need, when I've got Sylvia with me, like plan on 50 miles out, 50 miles back. Yeah. You know, and call that a day.

Robin: As a check, right? Yeah. Like maybe more, but let's come home first.

Tim: Right, yeah. It's like, let's get back. Let's have some food. Let's sit back and rest. And maybe I can go out for an hour somewhere else, you know, and leave you at camp to read and relax. No, but I would do these ones where it was like, I really only like mapped out half the, like the way out. Thinking I'd just kind of improvise on the way back. So I'd realized that I was mapping out 150 miles of hard roads.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Which, you know, 150 miles of tough roads can take you quite a lot.

Robin: That's 350 miles of my preferred street riding. Yeah. That's big miles.

Tim: I mean, it can beat you up pretty bad. Yeah. So yeah, I need to scale it down a little bit.

Travis: You can't do like the Tim Clark solo trip up. Yeah, I'm just going to ride for 20 hours and sleep in a gas station parking lot on the ground for four and then get back up.

Robin: This pavement's much more comfortable than the last gas station. Only done that a lot. I'd give it five stars.

Tim: Yeah. Like, this goes awesome. Like, you go and talk to those guys for five minutes and they'll be totally cool with you sleeping there and not bug you at all.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Like, excuse me, sir. I need to take this garbage out.

Robin: I'll just go around. I'll go around to here. I'm going to rest this by your head there. Sorry. We're not sure what's in that small bag.

Tim: When you're not quite sure if the cops are going to roust you from the parks or not.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Do you make friends with the gas station attendant that are running the midnight shift?

Robin: Yeah. Yeah. I've got to set up my tent behind that dumpster. But you're not going to do that with Sylvia.

Tim: No.

Robin: No. And it's not like I'm a tour anyhow.

Tim: This is managing her comfort. You know, we're bringing her back to the camper each night.

Robin: And I mean, actually, there's got to be a certain mastery to that when you're just sort of calculating small spurt routes.

Tim: Yeah. So I'm going to spend some more time figuring that out. And you know, we're changing up the mix on the bikes. So figuring out what the rhythm is for the next set up. Let's talk about that for a quick second.

Robin: So I'm trying to catch us up on podcast episodes because I feel like I owe our listeners. We all, the three of us, the three of us who equally operate this podcast together as a three-man team, we owe an episode per month for this year. We're going to do 12 episodes 2019 and we're behind. So I'm currently producing three episodes in a day, sort of. No, two. We're going to do a fundraiser with Margaridine and myself. We're doing this episode with Tim. And we just recorded the 777 before this. The next one I want to do is probably going to be called Sell, Sell, Sell. All three of us are, and I say that as a liar, are trying to sell a bike. Tim already managed to sell his. So we're going to back up on it. Tim sold the Africa Twin. Why don't you tell everybody what you bought here? All right.

Tim: I bought a 2019 Husqvarna Svartbilen 401.

Robin: 401. And is that an accurate number?

Tim: It is not. It is a 373cc.

Robin: Why 401? I mean, I love the bike.

Tim: I don't know.

Travis: I don't know why.

Tim: There's no justification for it.

Travis: Because they're just like Honda and that's what Honda does.

Tim: It's the same. I mean, the MT650. It's the same motor as the ATM Duke 390.

Travis: Which isn't 390cc.

Tim: It's a 373.

Robin: Right.

Tim: Yes.

Robin: It's a fun bike. I've ridden the Duke 390. This bike is the upgrade from that visually. So it's a facelift and a technological upgrade on the same motor, which I personally have had a lot of fun with myself on range exercise.

Tim: Yeah. And you've seen that it's also a bit of an ergonomic modification as well.

Robin: This one's more rigid.

Tim: And so it's a little taller, which, you know, being a big guy, it's like I could spend a lot of money and effort making a Duke 390 fit for me, which I was planning to do. I was pretty geeked on that bike. I think everybody was asking me about a small displacement bike. I'm like, you should get a Duke. Get the Duke. I think I told you about that for Laurel as well. So then I discovered these and it's like, this is a little bit bigger. This fits me better. So this is what I'm getting.

Robin: What really matters though, Tim, is that don't worry. You haven't gotten out of it. If we do an episode about Sell, Sell, Sell, you have to try to resell your Africa Twin to the general public. Tell everything there is to tell about that bike and why they should buy it.

Tim: Yeah. This would be the second bike that I've done some rather ridiculous things to sell the bike.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: That you won't get from your average Craigslist buy. So we'll go over that in the next.

Robin: Yeah. So the tour, where are we at?

Tim: That is pretty much the tour. We drove back. We took two days to drive back. You know, took our time. We actually did a little sightseeing. Drove through the Daniel Boone. Is it Daniel Boone National? No, it's the Mark Twain National Forest.

Robin: Yeah, yeah. We talked about that.

Tim: Mark Twain is a beautiful area.

Robin: I don't think I've ever been.

Tim: Oh, if you get an opportunity, it is lovely.

Robin: I'm more looking forward to, I would like to go on a tour with the three of us. I'm looking forward to doing something like that. Maybe that'll be next year. Maybe it'll be the end of this year. We're going to go for a little ride together as a trio. Well, I was going to say, okay. So if you nail it down to the beginning, the middle, and the end, name your three not yet mentioned favorite moments that are personal to you and your travels with Sylvia between the two of you. The beginning, the middle, the end.

Travis: All right.

Robin: Remember, we have a silence remover. I have an automated silence remover. You can take your time.

Tim: So the beginning was the dogwoods. The dogwood trees were flowering while we were down there. And you would see just these big splashes of white flowers. And sometimes you couldn't quite tell what you were seeing. You almost thought you were seeing a building because there were so many. And you'd realize it was just a grove of dogwoods. Oh, wow. Those, and we would be in some little creek valley following this little babbling brook. And you'd come across these beautiful areas filled with these dogwoods.

Robin: I was just about to figure out a way that I could ruin that and be like, yeah, I'm a dog person too. I like dogs. What about the middle?

Tim: I think the middle was when we were in Paris. They had a lot of murals. There was a town that had a lot of public art.

Robin: Wow.

Tim: So I went around and I took a lot of photos of the murals.

Robin: Are you gonna give me a gallery? We'll post a gallery of your trip. Sure. Strictly your trip. I'll set you up with a thing. Yeah. All right. What about the end?

Tim: The end, when we were driving north, a lot of the Mississippi was flooded. And we had been trying to follow some of the Great River Road coming up on the west side of the river. So had some fun seeing some of these areas that I'd ridden through in the past where you couldn't get anywhere near it. And you would see things like the train tracks being the only thing sticking above the water. Yeah. And you'd watch the trains go across those rails. Yeah. And you couldn't believe that they still had the rail line open.

Robin: The train is just like that off of 19 right now. When you cross the bridge over whatever river that is, I don't know if that's the Wisconsin River. Yeah. And then you look over to your far right. Yeah. That's crazy.

Tim: It looks weird. It doesn't look like they should do it.

Travis: And they still run them. So you'd think it'd be undermined or something.

Tim: Yeah. You'd think that there'd be something, you know, water wouldn't make the ground too soft to support the weight.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: I guess not.

Robin: Well, Tim, it sounded like it was a great journey and experience and time with your lovely lady who is a regular mention in this. Special lady friend.

Tim: Yeah. And we're cooking up the fall trip now. We've already got some dates nailed down. We're going to Northeast.

Robin: Okay.

Tim: We actually bought tickets to the band playing a show at the Madison Square Garden.

Robin: The band?

Tim: No, it's a band called Wolfpack.

Robin: Oh yeah, Wolfpack is awesome. I think you can play me some of those.

Tim: Yep.

Robin: Okay. And I've heard of them.

Tim: We're going to go see them in Madison Square Garden.

Robin: All right. Nice. Perfect.

Tim: So I'm going to visit my sister in Philadelphia. Sylvia has friends in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont, I think.

Travis: They're just going to sit off the teardrop, just park it on the street in Brooklyn somewhere.

Tim: We're going to leave it at my sister's outside of Philly, and then take the train into New York. Ah, okay. Spend two nights in New York and then go back to Philly and retrieve it and continue up north.

Robin: And with that, let's just keep it classy. Rock out with your cock out, Tim.

Travis: This episode of the Riot Sessions Podcast was- Unofficially sponsored by a left-hand brewing company, Nitro Milk Stout.

Tim: And what was the whiskey? Octonotion.

Travis: Yeah, I forgot you say it. It's Octonotion.

Robin: Optimus Prime.

Travis: Octonotion.

Robin: And Hy-Vee Cupcakes. Also by V-Pillen.

Travis: Svart Pillen.

Robin: Svart Pillen. And an Africa twin headed somewhere towards California.

Tim: It's in Virginia.

Robin: In Virginia. That stated, for TheRiotingObsession.com, I'm Robin Dean. I'm Travis Burleson. And I'm Tim Clark. Safe travels, everyone. Woo-hoo.

Travis: Yeah, hold on.

Robin: Stop it.