CMA Changing of the Colors Rally in AR October

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This turned out rather lengthy but the only way I could tell it, You would have just had to been there to understand why this CMA ride is a fond memory.....

Back in 1980 we made this CMA Changing of the Colors meeting, At that time the headquarters was a small one room building on the side of the road...Services were held in the High School auditorium at Hatfield, which I understand is still being used.....Below is the story of the most memorable ride we ever made......

What made this ride so memorable even to this day was what happened to my wife, my self,and this friend of ours, Paul.....We decided on a Tuesday night, at our club meeting to make this ride....So I took a day of vacation on Friday, Paul worked for himself and we decided to meet Thursday after work, in Liberty, Texas, where Paul lived and have dinner then ride on into Mena, Hatfield.....We loaded our camping gear, Paul pulled his new pop-up camper, with the extra zip on room.....After dinner at this locally famous restaurant, great food....We load up and head out to Cleveland, Texas, get over to Hwy 59 North....About 10 minutes out of Liberty, the skies clouded over really really bad, lighting and thunder ahead...We pulled off at a service station to don our rain gear and head out again....Does the words "Like a cow wetting on a flat rock" mean any thing to you?????

Now back then Hwy 59 North was just a two lane black top road in most places, that went through ever drink water town in Texas..In other words, every speed trap this side of the Mason Dixon line...:shock:.....The rain stopped just North of Lufkin Texas, and we made a stop to dry out get some hot coffee and a bite to eat....It had taken us over 3 1/2 hours just to get there, that's how hard it was raining...Visibility was less than 50 ft at times. lots of big trucks and we just took our time.....On the road again after a late lunch....Then the trouble started...As we rode towards Texarkana, Texas , where we were going to spend the night.... The rain had stopped but what we began to hit was patchy ground fog?????By the time we reached Marshall Texas we couldn't hardly see each other riding at about 20 mph ...:shock:....To put this ride in perspective from Liberty, Texas to Texarkana, Texas, now is 272 miles...5 hours, we figured that we would get to Texarkana at about midnight grab some sleep get up early Friday morning and go on it to Mena.....We decided by the time we got into Marshall at 2:30AM , we would find a place to eat, we had stopped a couple of times for potty breaks and coffee...We ate thinking that with the little bit of a breeze blowing that this fog might lift ..No such luck.....Found a motel room with two beds, Paul didn't tell us he snored like a mac chain saw..:shock:..Long night....:cheeky1:....

At 6:30 Am we got our wake up call, Paul slipped on his pants crawled to the door, opened it and said "either someone stole out bikes, or dude that fog got thicker"...Crawled back to his bed and went back to sleep....At 9AM it had gotten to where it was burning off enough to see and after two cups of really sorry coffee and two hard donuts we were on the road again......Paul said that he used to drive big rigs in Arkansas, and he knew of this great mom pop restaurant in DeQueen to have lunch....So in DeQueen we had this terrific lunch topped off with fresh home made pecan pie....We were stuffed....

Outside the restaurant the skies were clear, took off our helmets, put on my ball cap. turned off my headlights, yes the 78 Suzuki head lights could be cut off, if you cut this tab off behind the head light switch.....We haven't gotten three blocks to out turn off to Mena, when I looked back and there on my bumper was a big old police car with his lights on.....:shock:..I pulled over Paul keep right on going????? Club rules said if a member got pulled over the pack would stop and one person walk back to make sure that this member was going to be able to continue on.....Paul keep going !!!!! I was so mad !!!!!!..That officer got out walked up and said "By your tags I see you are from Texas"..DUH....... "But here in Arkansas we have a state law that says headlights are to be on and helmets worn"...Then he asked if we were on our way to the CMA ride, told him yup, he said "I'll see you there"..said he was member of CMA...Let us go free......

Couple miles up the road at one of those roadside rock shops sat Paul, I got off about ready to choke him, then he explained that his last trip through Arkansas, he had gotten this huge ticket for grossly over weight, the trooper took his drivers licenses and as soon as he got back to Texas he filled for a lost drivers license, and if they checked his record here he would be in really deep stuff....We rode on in to this camp ground between Hatfield and Mena.....

Seems we arrived to the warmest day that they had in two days, the night before it had only been in the low 20's high during the day was only 38 degrees...... ...It was 55 degrees then....:cheeky1:.....Got to the camping grounds, set up home for three days.......We zipped on the extra room, set up a table and cooking gear, etc in it....Put our pup tent up and made a service then went to this brand new steak house near Mena Ark.....Paul was new to CMA, and when our waitress asked us if we knew what we wanted, Paul started to say something, but this cute little girl asked if we were with this CMA group, Then before Paul could order she said ...."You know I have always had this preconceived idea about motorcycle riders, but I want y'all to know y'all some of the nicest people I have ever met"...Paul's face turned this really deep red and he finally stuttered out "Make my Steak rare to the rare side please" ....We ordered then when that girl walked away I asked Paul..."Why did your face turn so red???" He looked at us then looked around to see if any one else could hear him and replied .."I was going to tell her to knock off his horns,wipe his nose, wipe his fanny, and bring him to me".....My wife had the whole restaurant laughing because she couldn't stop laughing......

That evening after we got back to the camp grounds, my wife was miserable because the temperatures had been dropping while we were in eating..Paul said "Y'all use the camper and I'll just sleep in y'all's tent"....We lit Paul's small cook stove got that camper warm and went to sleep..About 3 in the morning Paul is calling my name..."Its too cold to sleep out here man" we moved the camping gear Paul slept in the zip on room....Next two days it stayed nice but that night it got down again in the low 20's...Unseasonably cold we were told.....

Before we left that CMA ride, we rode up to Queen Wilhelmina's Castle...Some really nice twisties up there and down....Then we rode over to Pine Ridge Arkansas, the town that changed its name because of an old radio show Lum & Abner.....This town built a replica of the "Jot 'em Down Store" and attached a museum of with memorabilia from that radio show and movies.....That brought back memories of an old radio station show that my folks never missed.....Setting around a wood burning stove in the winter, and watching my parents laugh.....

Yup that CMA ride in 1980 will stick with me for as long as I live....Paul???? I guess he still won't use his old phrase to order steaks any more.....:cheeky1::cheeky1::cheeky1: ..... Extremely long but I hope you enjoyed it and if you do get a chance to make your own memories of a CMA "Changing of the Colors Rally"....

Claude....