Hello Hackers,
Am I the only one counting down the days to our rally in Mena, AR? I have been busy getting the word out as much as I can. And, folks are asking questions. Hopefully, we will have a great turnout this year. Everyone ride free!
Greetings,
You are not alone on the countdown till Mena. I am looking forward to another sidecaring adventure myself. I have never been through this area of Arkansas. I think I better work on how you say some of the place names in the area......I wonder if they have an accent in Arkansas. Guess we shall see.
Ride Safe and Be Well,
Chuy 
Greetings Fellow Sidecarists,
I asked the host of where I am staying about any good spots to eat and interesting things to do in the area. This is what they sent me on places to eat in Mena, and a couple interesting routes to explore. I hope this is not against any rules here, just trying to pass on some local information for everyone, from a local resident of the Mena area.
Dotsy's recommendations:
I always like to recommend the locally owned businesses:
Breakfast- Skyline Cafe
Lunch- Artisans (soup,sandwiches)
Coffee- The Ouachitas
All of those are on Main Street.
Drive in- Cruizzers
TexMex- Chiquitas
Pizza- Pizza Pro (buffet)
Steak- Chopping Block
We also have 2 bigger Mexican restaurants, an Italian restaurant, and Chinese buffet.
There’s also a restaurant inside the hotel up on Rich Mountain. It’s a curvy 20 ish minute drive up there to Queen Wilhelmina State Park. Lots of pretty pull off sites along the way up!
The Talimena Drive would be fun on your rigs. Just keep going over the mountain as far as you want. It goes into Oklahoma.
Another pretty drive would be to Shady and over that mountain to Shady Lake. That is hwy 375 East. There’s some curves and pretty creeks along the way.
Now I am really ready to explore Mena, and support those locally owned businesses........
Hope to see you all there!
Ride Safe and Be Well,
Chuy
Ride free and safe everyone. Maybe, we will meet somewhere out on the road one day.
Save me a spot next to you david
Rally update. The rally is over now and everyone had an awesome time! The only detractor was the rain but that didn't slow everyone down and many took off to ride the local highways. Today (Saturday) we had the Sidecar games but it was pouring down rain and all the local grounds are saturated. So we had the games inside the hyooooge central pavilion building on the CMA grounds (just like they did here 4 years ago!).
I walked around and took many pics of the various rigs and their riders and monkeys (and dogs). Plus some videos of the games. I use an Android phone so all my pics go into Google Photos. Say what you want about Google apps but the one good thing is they are universally accessible by almost any device or operating system. I hope this works for you. All my pics I have collected into an album I will share below.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MVH7bxhyNdtX7Yqz7
Also, Thane announced that next year's rally will be back in Hotchkiss CO hosted once again by Dana Williams (where we were 3 years ago).
Jerry
I fly (and ride) to free my mind from the tyranny of petty things. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Excellent pictures, Jerry. Thank you for sharing these.
Two Million Mile Rider
Exploring the World in Comfort
Also, Thane announced that next year's rally will be back in Hotchkiss CO hosted once again by Dana Williams (where we were 3 years ago).
I'm going to make a caveat to that statement: Dana will help make sure that all the big rocks get put in place and it becomes OUR jobs to make the details work. Thus, it becomes the USCA Rally, not any one person's rally (which it was always supposed to be in the first place!)
Illegitemi non carborundum est!
Thanks Jerry! Great photos!