Overall, this was a wonderful trip and very nice to spend three days with good friends. Also, this is my first "winter drive" and I have to say that Honda Gold Wing is the king of the bikes in such weather.
North Arkansas is much further in the autumn, so next year we have to do this at least 3 weeks prior to see the full colors of fall. Also, we learnt that April would be a good time to visit Arkansas to see all of the beauty of spring.
We have now driven sixtyfive miles and we are well of on our way to Dallas Texas
This was therefore a four state trip and tomorrow we will continue our trip to west over Talimena State Park and continue our trip to Oklahoma and then finally down to south towards Dallas. Our estimated arrival to Dallas is 03.00 PM.
We have driven 325 miles today, 767 miles together so 140 miles less than yesterday. The road from Hot Springs to Mena was beautiful and we could see the sun setting down in the horizon. Darkness came real quick and now at 5.52 PM it is completely dark and the temperature is around 46 Fahrenheit.
The rooms in the hotel are nice and convinient and will stay here another time as well.
Our crew consists of thee Honda Goldwing users and one Yamaha driver and each bike is well protected of cold wind. Mine even has heated grips which are needed when I get up 5.10 AM to be at Flowermount Starbucks where we have agreed to meet. I expect us to accumulate at least 1200 miles during the three days.
Stay tuned for more...
As always, the wake-up in the morning was cruel.... 4.30 AM. The flight from Helsinki to Zurich is operated by Finnair with seats so small that you can hardly breath. The change to American Airlines flight 37 was very close, in fact most of the passangers had already boarded when I reached the gate. As before, Zurich airport is propably one of the best airports in Europe.... Friendly service and well organized. The flight to Dallas was uneventful.... However, I was surprised how tense the flight attendants were.... Specifically one lady that showed with her face that she really hates her job.... That was unfortunate.... Maybe she had a bad day as we all have every now and then.
I am on my way back to Helsinki so I can catch my flight to Dallas very early in the morning. The layover in Copenhagen is only 2 hours, so I get to Helsinki around 7 in the evening.
I was very surprised how very German Wroclaw looked like and found out later that it had been a German town before the second world war. The center of Wroclaw has lots of shops, restaurants, and very much like any European city. I definetely need to see this again during summer season!
I am on my way back to Helsinki so I can catch my flight to Dallas very early in the morning. The layover in Copenhagen is only 2 hours, so I get to Helsinki around 7 in the evening.
I have to say that Sofitel Wroclaw is one of the best hotels I have stayed in a while. Very new, good service and extremely well located. I stayed two nights in this hotel and no regrets. The only thing to complain is that Orbitz messed up the payment to the hotel and they asked me to repay it... Not my style and my wife fixed it by calling Orbitz.... so everything is OK
The weather in Helsinki has been very cold when you compare it to the regular season. We haver had snow storm, very cold nights.... down to 18 minus Celsius and this is cold!
This afternoon I am on my way to Wroclaw Poland for one day and what makes this interesting is that I have never been in Poland before. There was no direct flight from Helsinki, so I am flying via Copenhagen using Blue 1. This is the only way to get there. The codeshare flight is flown by Cimber air, which I have never heard of.
