Today was a great motorcycle riding and scenery day. The first part of the trip was 160 miles of some of the greatest motorcycle riding so far. Scenic Route 7 is exactly what its name implies. Up and down the Ozark mountains, with twists and turns, a 7% downhill grade and hairpin turns as slow as 15 mph. Topped off with some breathtaking scenic overlooks, and we couldn't ask for a better day.
     Near the end of Scenic Route 7 was a stop at Mystic Cavern and the Crystal Dome Cavern . Mystic Cavern was the oldest, and was well established since the 1800's, As with most really old show caves, there was considerable damage to the formations from abuse. They once made moonshine in the cave, and there was even a dance floor at one time, and they held dances inside the cave. The cave is now returned to it's more natural state and was still fun to walk through. Crystal Dome Cavern is more recently found in the 1960's and consequently has very little damage and looks more natural. It's smaller, and is really just a big single room with a 110 foot tall domed ceiling - hence the name. Jody and I both love to visit show caves, and expect to see several more in our travels. Jody was also able to pick up a couple of new rocks to become jewelry projects when we return.
     When we left Mystic Cavern, the sky was turning ominous, and faint thunder could be heard in the distance. So we donned our trusty rainsuits, again. It wasn't bad though, just a few minutes of off and on sprinkles as we made our way the remaining 50 or so miles to Eureka Springs .
     Eureka Springs is a very unique town. We really haven't figured it all out yet, but there are a LOT of B&B's, Lodges, Cabins, and even Treehouses, so there must be some reason why people come here. The center of the historic area downtown is full of quant little shops and there are a lot of stone steps up to some walking paths that we also tried. We even saw a deer standing under someone's porch, looking at us. And some very nice lady we were talking to, pointed out a pair of albino squirrels.
     There's also a very large emphasis on Weddings and Bikers. There are a bunch of wedding chapels, honeymoon suites, jacuzzi tubs, and general romantic getaways. There are also many wonderful places to ride motorcycles throughout the mountains. There are riding maps everywhere, and everywhere advertises as "biker friendly". There are biker resorts advertising covered and locked motorcycle parking, and I even saw a resort that advertised as "motorcycles only". It must work, because I couldn't find an available treehouse rental, so we settled on a rock cottage, complete with fireplace and jacuzzi tub.
      Oh, yes. The Rowdy Beaver? It's the name of a local restaurant. It's known for its steaks, so, of course we had the pulled pork and it was delicious. The restaurant also had a little gift store where they sold all the possible bad beaver joke t-shirts you could imagine. We passed up this time. Tomorrow we further explore Eureka Springs.

215.2 miles today
1453.1 miles total

5.000 gallons today
36.021 gallons total