Changing of the Colors Rally in Arkansas

[voyagerrider]

The Changing of the Colors Rally takes place the 3rd weekend in October each year. The location is near Mena, Arkansas at the Christian Motorcyclist Association Campground called Iron Mountain on 71 just south of Mena.
We went to dinner ride with a on-line group called Two Wheeled Texans at the West End Grill in Cleburne Thursday night and left from there heading for Arkansas. The meet & greet was well attended and the restaurant was great. No pie, but they did have cobbler. We left the grill about 9:00 PM and headed north on 67 to I-20 the rode east as far Terrell where we stopped for the night. Kathy to just wanted get on the other side of Dallas so we didn’t have deal with it in the AM.
We left Terrell the next morning heading north on 34 to Quinlan where we turned east on 276 to Emory. At Emory we turned north on 19 and all the way to Paris where we then got on 271. We crossed the Red River into Oklahoma and then into Hugo, OK. There we rode east on 70 crossing over into Arkansas and into De Queen. We turned north there and rode on to Iron Mountain for the rally. I am sorry we did not take any pics along our ride on Friday, but I didn’t see anything that was especially picture worthy.
We got our tent setup at the campground and went around visiting with lots of people. If you have never been to a motorcycle rally before they can classed as more like family reunion than anything else. We meet some folks that I knew from a Voyager board that I am on from South Dakota. They were planning on leaving on Friday, but decided to hang around an extra day just to meet us. Kathy and I were very flattered and they were super folks telling us that if come to SD we could stay with them They had ridden down to the Dragon, but got there after we did. Here’s a pic of them on their bike at Dragon from killboy.
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=0CVY00FO020424&po=424
We went to great concert that night there on the Mountain put on by John Starnes a gospel singer.
http://www.johnstarnes.com/biography.html
Sitting around the campfire afterward was awesome.
On Saturday I took these pics of some of the campground.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3275.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3276.jpg
The moon, not a UFO.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3277.jpg
More of the campground
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3279.jpg
We meet this interesting fellow from South Africa. He and his wife had ridden their BMW R1150GS from there to up to England where they put it on a boat and brought it to the USA to come to the Colors Rally.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3280.jpg
They are in CMA in South Africa. Their plan is to ride down through Mexico, Central America, and into South America to the southern tip of Argentia. FYI, CMA is international with chapter in Europe, Africa, and lots of other places around the world. This year at Colors we folks from Zambia as well as some other Africa countries that I can’t pronounce much less spell.
Some of the bikes
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3281.jpg
More bikes
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3283.jpg
The building on the left is 40000 sq ft pavilion that CMA built strictly with donations. Where services are held and meals are served. In fact CMA totally owns all the land the campground is on. I don’t know how many acres, but it is huge. CMA doesn’t borrow money at all for any project, but pays cash from donations.
Vendors Row
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3282.jpg
That evening at the service they had rally race between some of the young people and the evangelists. They had 2 person teams that had to put a pair of 5x sized mens underwear at the same time back to back and race down and back up at the stage. It was really funny, here’s a couple of pics.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3288.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3289.jpg
On Sunday Kathy and I rolled from the campground about 8 AM and rode over the Talimena Scenic Byway up the mountain to the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge & SP
We stopped at a couple of overlooks on the way up.
Here is a couple of pics
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3290.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3294.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3296.jpg
The Lodge
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3297.jpg
The view from the Lodge
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3298.jpg
The train
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3301.jpg
Inside
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3300.jpg
Note the sign by the bears
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3299.jpg
We rode on Talimena all the way back into Oklahoma staying on OK 1 going through Talihina. We turn south on OK 2 through Clayton. At Moyers, OK we stopped at this place for fuel and some excellent sandwiches.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3305.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/martywj/Colors%202008/100_3304.jpg
We continued on south on 2 to OK 3 going west near Antlers. We stayed on 3 to just past Farris where we turned south on a county road that went through Crystal and Boehler and took us to US70. I don’t even know the name or number but it was a great ride. From 70 we got on 70e going south to Yuba, OK. Where we got on 78 to cross the river back into Texas. We rode to Bonham getting onto 56 going west through Sherman to 289 going south to Celina(pie run place). We turn west on 380 to Denton then I-35 south to Beautiful Burleson.
All total for the weekend we rode 680 miles. With 340 of it yesterday. Great ride with great weather and a great rally.
Marty

[les1234]

A good rally! We(me and fiancee) were there too.Nice pics......way better than mine, some setting was messed up in my camera, all mine were too bright.:( I posted a couple in another thread already.

I decided to trailer the bike this time:eek::eek::eek:, My Fiancee just arrived from Philippines, and needs a bit more time to adjust to the climate(and acquire more cold weather riding gear) before we do any long rides here.1444
At our campsite
1445
We rode on the Talimena Trail on friday. Here's the BIG train at the lodge
1446
The train is no match for a small philipina lady!
1447
On the ride from the campground to the bike games.
1448
She would have done better at this game, with a different driver! I watched the guy you mentioned from South Africa ride in this game and I was really impressed how S-L-O-W he could ride that BMW!

[oldrocker]

Hi, my name is Jerry and I am CMA also. I too was at the Colors Rally first time at Iron Mountain and it was awesome. I plan on being back next year. Would like to swap chapter stories if you're intrested. You are my first post, I saw your wifes backpatch in a picture of your bikes and had to write.
God Bless
Rocker