Agony of Defeat

Late afternoon on October 14th continued to bring me bad news from Route 66. At about 4:00PM, after getting Wheezy put back together, the service tech at Route 66 HD was getting ready to test it out. As he moved the bike, he heard a horrible clunk with every revolution of the rear wheel (even before the engine was started). Starting Wheezy is fine as long as the clutch is engaged. As soon as an attempt is made at putting the bike in gear and releasing the clutch it begins to emit horrible chattering, clicking, and grinding sounds. It has been deduced that the transmission is shot, most likely due to the drive shaft being bent. So as far as I can tell, here is the chain reaction of events that has ultimately disabled Wheezy:

1. October 5 - Vibrations start, most likely due to the engine motor mounts breaking off.
2. Engine settles against frame, offset 2-4 inches from where it should be
3. Secondary drive belt now cockeyed and pulling on the rear wheel at an angle rather than in a straight line
4. Uneven torque on rear wheel causes rear wheel bearings to fail
5. Uneven torque on the secondary's drive pulley bends the gradually bends drive shaft resulting in the destruction of transmission

So the long and the short of it is that Route 66 Harley Davidson in Tulsa now wants an additional$750-$1000 to replace the transmission. The general manager, Eric did offer to help me finish my ride back to Ohio by "allowing" me to trade in Wheezy on a new bike. He was willing to give me credit towards the purchase price based on what I'd already put in to it. At this point I explained to him my "situation" and what my ride to Oklahoma was about and that I wasn't going to put my family on the hook for a motorcycle payment that I wouldn't even be able to use into next spring.

At this point, with everything that has gone wrong with the motorcycle, I have lost confidence in it's ability to get me safely home. Even if they were able to fix it free of charge, I'd be dubious about riding it back to Ohio. It looked like I was down to my last option, which was rent a truck, load it up, and drive it home. My motorcycle journey was officially over. So I got online, reserved a 10 foot budget rent-a-truck one way from Tulsa to Columbus for Friday morning, and went on about my business.

Friday morning, Stephen took me to the Budget truck rental location and we picked up my truck. It was only a couple of miles from Route 66 HD. We arrived at the shop and they showed me everything they'd done to it and let me roll it myself so that I could feel the clunk that occurs during the revolution of the rear wheel. Here is a picture of the clip they replaced on the clutch (on the right), the middle pieces are what was left of the right rear wheel bearing, and the bolts on the right are the engine mounting bolts that had to be tapped out of the head.

They have a motorcycle lift available, so we rolled it onto the lift and then put it in the truck. Matt was kind enough to load it in the truck and secure it with the ratchet straps which I had brought on the trip with me. Now that I was loaded up, Stephen and I said our goodbyes because he had to get to the studio for work. I then hopped up into the cab, rolled over to the gas station for some coffee and provisions, and prepared myself for the fourteen hour drive home.

The drive home was long, but it seemed to pass quickly. I made two fuel/food stops and three bio breaks. Aside from that, the truck didn't stop moving from 10:30am central time on Friday until 2:45am eastern time Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous day and even though I was looking out from the window of a truck, the scenery was beautiful. The Ozark Mountains were especially picturesque. My only regret was that I didn't get to take back roads through the Ozarks on Wheezy. Interesting things to note about the drive home: my middle finger got sore from pressing the scan button on the radio so often, I was able to listen to the Yankees/Rangers game on WCBS 880 AM out of New York as long as I wasn't in a metropolitan area, there was a bad ass country music program on NPR around midnight which was all 1930's-1960's country artists, and Ohio is the most boring state to drive through.

The drive Columbus was on pure adrenaline. I just wanted to get home and get on with things. I was so happy to finally be in my driveway once I got there. It had been a really long day. Miranda and Indy were still awake and ready to greet me. It was really nice to see them.

Mid-Day update from Route 66

Woke up this morning and had a bowl of Apple Jacks. Stephen had taken Sophie and Felix to the bus stop before I woke up so I had yet to have a chance to meet the kids since they were already in bed by the time I got to Stephen and Nat's house. We got going and swung by Route 66 Harley Davidson and filled out a service order request. I let them know what was going on and told them to give me a call when they had an estimate. Meanwhile we made our way to Armstrong Recording, Stephen's studio. He had work to do and I wasn't going to be doing a whole lot of anything until I knew what was up with the bike.

Matt from Route 66 called me about an hour and a half later to give me the run down. It turns out that the clutch isn't bad, but a clamp had broken off of the clutch adjuster and that is why it couldn't engage anymore. Labor at Route 66 is $79.50/hour. Parts and labor, I was looking at about $160 for that. They also were going to replace the rear wheel bearings. $50 for parts and an hour for labor. At this point I was going to get out of there for about $300. STOKED! I called Laela to confirm and she said to go with it. Meanwhile Matt had called me back and told me that they'd have to remove the exhaust from the bike in order to do the work so it'd be about another hour of labor. That's totally understandable and I was fine with it. I called Laela to update her and we agreed that it was still cheaper than renting a truck (which is about $500 plus gas). I was still feeling pretty good about my fortunes at this point. Then Matt called again and the other shoe finally dropped. As they were working on the bike, they found that the front motor mounts had sheared off and that the engine had moved 2 inches in the frame. Matt said there was no way that anyone should be riding the bike in that condition because the engine could drop out onto the ground at any time. I guess we've found the source of the vibrations. They said it'd be two to four hours of additional labor because they'd have to tap out the bolts from the engin head before they could re-mount it. I'm now looking at an $800 bill and that's not even having the speedometer sensor replaced. He said that they could do the work today and after a consultation with Laela we decided that fixing it was the best course of action because even if I rented a truck I'd still have to get the bike fixed before I could ride it again. So with great trepidation, I called back and told them to take care of it.

More to come....

Tulsa...we have a problem

Wednesday started off great. I got a good night's sleep in the Dodge City, KS Super 8 Motel. It wasn't as stellar as the one I stayed at in Missouri, but still wasn't bad. I started the day off by going to the Dodge City Harley Davidson dealership to see if I could get new wheel bearings installed in Wheezy. I had noticed on my pre-ride check that the bearing race had worked it's way loose on my drive side rear wheel. I thought that this was probably the cause of the vibrations that I was experiencing, so a new pair of wheel bearings would solve the problem. (I'll expand on that issue tomorrow.) At any rate, they did not have the wheel bearings that I needed in stock, so I figured that I'd just bite the bullet and keep going. The parts guy directed me on how to get to the highway I needed to get out of town and I headed out.

It turns out that he was wrong and sent me on a 40 mile detour. I ended up having to adjust my route in order to compensate for the wrong directions. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When I adjusted my route, I ended up on US-160 in southern Kansas. The views on US-160 were absolutely amazing. The country side looked just like any painting of the old west that you've ever seen. It was absolutely worth the extra effort and since my friend in Tulsa wouldn't be off of work until 5:00 it worked out great.

I finally worked my way to a north-south highway and made my way across the Kansas state line and into Oklahoma. It was there that the main tank ran out and I had to switch to reserve again. I made it to a gas station about 30 miles later and fueled up. Another record between gas stops (and cutting it a little too close for comfort if you ask me). I was definitely crossing my fingers and toes in hopes for a fuel stop.

I got on my way again and about 40 miles later, my speedometer stopped working. I didn't think much of it at first, but then I heard some odd noises coming out of my engine, so I pulled over to give the bike an inspection and fluid check. I unloaded all of my gear and got out my service manual and oil and laid everything out next to the roadkill armadillo that was setting there in the high grass decomposing. There was nothing amiss as far as I could tell so again I decided to soldier on. As soon as I put it in 1st gear and let the clutch out I heard a really high pitched whine. the same thing occurred in 2nd and 3rd gear too, but as I moved into 4th and 5th things seemed to have worked themselves out.

Back on the bike, I made it another 60 miles to a small town with a gas station. As I slowed down into the town, the bike really started making some noise and was difficult to shift. I pulled the clutch in at a stop sign and it didn't engage all of the way and tried to keep the bike moving. It was chattering quite a bit too. By this point I was starting to get really worried that something bad was going on. There was nothing that I could do though but keep going on. Again, as soon as the bike was in 5th things smoothed out and were alright. It was at this point that I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to need to be in 5th all of the way to Tulsa. I readjusted my route to take me to Interstate 35 so that there would be a minimal amount of shifting. I made it about another 50 miles or so before I needed to get off on US-64 and I just knew that things were about to get hairy.

I managed to get off of I-35 and onto US-64 while maintaining 5th gear (through two complete stops I might add). So I made my way another 30 or 40 miles to Morrison, OK where I was stopped twice by traffic lights and then once by a train. This would prove to be the beginning of the end. I got the bike going but it was super sketchy and the clutch lever seemed to be getting really soft. I passed two gas stations and then started up a hill. As I was feathering the clutch to get momentum, I pulled it in and it didn't come back out. My initial thought: "This is BAD." The second gas station I had passed was about 1/3 of a mile back and was fortunately downhill. So I crossed the street pushing Wheezy, mounted back up and walked it back to the gas station.

I got to the gas station and started assessing my options. I called Stephen in Tulsa and let him know what was going on and he started looking for a pickup truck he could borrow. In the meantime, I called Laela to let her know what was going down. So here's how I saw my options: I could A) Tow the bike to Stephen's, rent a U-Haul and drive home B) Tow it to a Harley dealership and have them asses the damage. I was very grateful that I finally had 3G coverage from AT&T so I was able to research where the Harley dealership was, got their phone number and called their service department. They told me that if I could get the bike there by 8:30PM they could get it written up for service. It was about 6:00 at this point so I knew I wasn't going to make it before they closed. The service manager told me I could just drop the bike off in the lot and come fill out the paperwork in the morning. So, now I had my destination decided. I thought that I remembered the roadside assistance that was provided by my Progressive motorcycle insurance so I set out to see how much having them arrange a tow would be. It turns out that they'll tow to the nearest service facility free of charge. That was the first piece of good news that I received. The downside was that it would take an hour and a half for the truck to get there. About an hour after the service call was placed, Cowboy Towing showed up. The driver; Jason, loaded Wheezy onto the bed and we were off to Tulsa.

We arrived at Route 66 Harley Davidson in Tulsa, OK at 9:00PM. Jason unloaded the bike and dropped my gear and me off. I thanked him for his help and then arranged my gear, called Stephen and he was on his way to pick me up. We made it back to his house and Nat graciously fed me a fantastic bowl of red beans and rice that I washed down with a Negro Modello. Stephen, Nat, and I had a great visit and turned in at about 12:30. I was mentally and physically exhausted. and slept very well.

On the road again

Due to the Reds early exit from the NLDS on Sunday night, I flew back to Colorado on Monday. I got back to Denver at about 5:00PM. For dinner, Dick and Jan took me to Pasta Jay's in Boulder. Uncle Dick had informed me that it was one of my grandfather's favorite restaurants in Colorado, so I was eager to try it. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and a caesar salad, washed down with a Fat Tire beer. It had been a long day since we hadn't gotten back to Columbus from the Reds game until 2:00AM Monday morning. I was pretty tuckered out so after dinner we went back to Dick and Jan's and I proceeded to pack my bags for my impending departure on Tuesday morning.

I woke up on Tuesday had a bagel for breakfast and got Wheezy packed up. It was raining pretty hard so it was time for the inevitable; the rain gear. When I left Columbus on the trip, I knew at some point I would encounter inclement weather so I came prepared. I donned my normal riding pants and jacket and then augmented the ensemble with a rain jacket, FrogTog pants, waterproof covers for my boots and my gloves. There wasn't a whole lot else that I could do to cover up so I set off for Kansas. It rained pretty steadily for about 150 miles. I really wanted to get away from the rain as fast as I could, so I postponed my ordinary 100 mile gas stop and decided to keep going until I had to use the reserve on my gas tank. It just so happened that when I hit the reserve, the rain let up. So I made my way to the next gas station and filled up. I wasn't confident that I had completely escaped the precipitation so I decided to keep the rain gear on until the next stop just to be sure. By the time I'd banged out the next 100 miles the sun had actually broken through the clouds.

Wheezy ran great and the new tires handled the rain slicked roads like it was attached with velcro. I'm very happy with my tire choice. I managed to snap a couple of border pictures while on the ride too. I of course got the Kansas sign, but I also doubled back and got the Colorado sign that I missed on my late night ride last Wednesday.

I had set my sites on Dodge City, KS as my stopping point for the day. It is over half-way to my next destination of Tulsa, OK. I had such a good experience at the Super 8 hotel I stayed at last Tuesday so I decided to try them again. I didn't have as much luck at this Super 8, but it's a decent room and I got here early enough that I could go out and grab a bite to eat and unwind before hitting the sack. Speaking of hitting the sack, I need to get up early tomorrow to get a move on so that's what I'm going to do right now. Until tomorrow...

On the sixth day....he rested

So, yesterday was day six of the tour. I didn't have anything planned so I just took the day to relax. My aunt and uncle had prior commitments, so I took the opportunity to spend the day lounging about the house and walking around the neighborhood. Even the views from the neighborhood are stunning and I snapped a few photographs for posterity.

Uncle Dick made arrangements for the "Super Shuttle" to pick me up at 3:45 and deliver me to Denver International Airport. I had plenty of time to kill so I took a leisurely stroll around the airport and had some lunch. I eventually found a secluded seat somewhat near my gate so I thought I'd sit down and get caught up with some thing on my laptop. It was not meant to be due to the fact that the Denver airport's Wi-Fi sucks. So I decided to bury my head in my book. I was blissfully reading away when my seclusion was invaded by a family of five (three of which were really loud and not down with their Happy Meals). I couldn't decide whether to be annoyed that they picked the one secluded spot or feel bad for them because their children weren't travelling well. There was probably a little bit of both.

Anyway, my flight finally boarded at at 6:45 and we were out of the gate on time at 7:10. They really cram you into the plane on Frontier Airlines but it wasn't bad for me because A) I had a window seat and B) I was able to continue reading. I"d say the most annoying thing about the flight was the LCD screens on the back of the chairs. I kept turning mine off and the flight attendants kept turning it back on about every 1/2 hour.

We landed at Dayton International Airport at 11:40 and I was reunited with Laela and Miranda a few minutes later. We drove home in about an hour and 20 minutes, almost got T-Boned by a drunk at Bethel Rd (he was literally 2 inches away from plowing into us), and was in bed by 1:30. It is so nice to be home in the middle of the trip to see the girls.

The Reds and Phillies play in Cincinnati on 10/10/10 at 8:07 (wtf kind of start time is that?) and we'll be there to cheer them on. Until then, I'll have a nice visit with my girls.

Site Seeing & Visiting

Not much motorcycle on Friday. It was a day for some sight seeing and visiting friends. I woke up after a GREAT night's sleep. It was the first really restful night that I'd had on the journey since the Super 8 hotel on Tuesday night. The guest bed at uncle Dick's is really comfortable and I'm someplace where I feel that I can relax and let my guard down a little. Travelling alone is great but I feel like I'm always "on alert." Here in Lafayette I'm with family, my bike is in a garage and there aren't a bunch of strangers staying in the same building with me.

Uncle Dick and I got a jump on things early today. We had breakfast of bagels and coffee and then were out the door at 8:30. He first took me to see the Red Rocks Amphitheater. That has to be without a doubt the most gorgeous outdoor musical venue ever. We walked around for a bit and took some pictures. Then we went into the visitors center which is essentially a little museum dedicated to the venue. It outlines the history, how it was constructed, the geological features, and how it came to be. There are also plaques which enumerate every artist who has played there since it's opening. It's interesting to see the ebb and flow of the number of acts and the vast variety of artists that have been there. After visiting Red Rocks, we went across the road to see the dinosaur tracks that are preserved in the side of the mountain. Unfortunately the road was closed to vehicles and it was a steep enough climb that I did not feel up to walking it. They had an exhibit in the museum which had molds of the tracks and I figured that was a reasonable facsimile so I'd save my energy for what was to come.

We next went to the LoDo (Lower Downtown) section of Denver. There, we got tickets to take a tour of Coors Field, home of the National League's Colorado Rockies. Coors Field was constructed in 1995 and is the fourth oldest ballpark in the National League. I found that statistic amazing. I didn't realize that many ball parks had been constructed within the last decade, but after I thought about it, it made sense. One of the interesting features of the park is the row of purple seats that are in the upper deck. All of the other seats in the ballpark are green except for one row. The purple row is (within inches) one mile above sea level. I thought that was a really cool way for them to depict that. Another stat that I found interesting is that no ball has ever been hit out of the ballpark in fair territory during a regulation game. (Two balls have been fouled out of the park) For as much complaining as everyone does about how the ball carries at Coors Field I found it amazing that there hasn't been one that has left the yard. The Coors Field tour starts on the fourth level and works it's way down to the field level and finally ends up on the field. You are allowed to walk around on the warning track and in the dugouts, but not on the actual grass. This is pretty standard for all tours of major league ballparks. We took some photos and then we went back to uncle Dick's house for some lunch.

After lunch I laid down and took a quick catnap before I headed to Ft. Collins to meet my friend Bill for dinner. Ft. Collins is about an hour from Lafayette and I had planned on leaving at 3:30 allowing myself some time for wiggle room if I got lost. I overslept a little and didn't actually get on the road until 4:00, had to gear up and get gas thusly didn't get to FoCo until 5:45. Bill is recording Rise Against's new album at the Blasting Room studio and they had taken a break at around 5:00. When I got there Bill and I debated for a few minutes about the type of food we'd eat and ended up choosing Chinese. We went to a restaurant called Tiger Lily which is a few blocks away from the studio. Bill's family swung by the restaurant for a little bit. It was a pleasant visit with Stacie, Maddie, and Miles. Miles recently took up skateboarding and was regaling me with his feats on the stuntwood. Stacie had taken some videos of him at the Ft. Collins skate park and he was eager to share them with me. The kids had some teenage shenanigan type commitments to attend to so they left after a short while. Zach, Brandon, Tim, and Joe joined Bill and me to break bread. We had a good meal and a nice visit (other than the appetizer mix up that was full of shrimp and some kind of wacky sausage because they were supposed to be vegetarian). Zach and I are acquainted from his days in Hagfish and Armstrong. He and his brother Doni had stayed at our house a few times when they were on tour and it was nice to be able to catch up with him. It was a pleasure to meet Brandon, Tim, and Joe as well. They're a terrific group of guys and fun to hang out with.

After eating we went back to the studio and Bill gave me the tour, showed me the two studios and the mixing room. He also showed me how the different instruments were mixed. It's a fascinating and complex art form and Bill is fantastic at it. After hanging out at the studio for a bit I followed Bill back to his house and we hung out there for a while. We'd both had long days so we called it a night around midnight.

My ride back to Lafayette was uneventful except for missing the turn to Uncle Dick's house and going about 10 miles out of my way. I had gotten a little cocky about my navigational steeze and not turned on my GPS. The problem was thatI hadn't seen the area at night before so I rode right past the intersection I needed.

Rocky Mountain High

On Thursday October 7th, I woke from my restless night's sleep at the Butte Motel in Wray, CO. I was happy to be up early. I got my things packed and was on the road before 8:30. I thought I had seen a McDonald's in town the night before and was going to stop there for breakfast. Well, that McD must've been a night-time mirage because when I went back to where I thought it was, it wasn't there. I decided that rather than try and find someplace else that I'd just go on and soldier ahead until I needed fuel again.

That brought me to Ft. Morgan, CO where I stopped at a 7-11 for coffee, a donut, morning phone calls and fuel. It was also about 100 miles of riding with the bent shifter peg. It seems pretty manageable so I'm going to leave well enough alone until I get back home. I'm afraid that if I try to pry it back where it should be that I'll break it off of the shifter linkage and then have no shifting peg.

When I went to leave Ft. Morgan I got a little turned around and ended up riding in circles for about 20 minutes before I sniffed out the right direction to go. Anyway, the morning's 200 miles seemed to fly by. Once I got about 20 miles away, I let the AT&T Navigator app on my phone guide me in the rest of the day to Uncle Dick's house. I even hopped on the Interstate for a short bit (Speed Limit is 75 MPH w00t!)

I arrived at my uncle's place at about 1:30 mountain time. He had lunch already laid out for me, which was great because that donut wasn't doing it anymore. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, got cleaned up, and situated and we were off to the mountains. It's amazing how close they are to his house. A quick drive through Boulder and we started our ascent. There were lot's of mountain bikers and motorcyclists on the way up the mountain. It REALLY twisty and I'll bet would be great fun on a bike.

We arrived at the Pawnee Pass Trail and went for a short hike by Long Lake. I thought that the elevation change affecting people was a bunch of BS and hadn't planned on it effecting me, but as we started walking the trail, I was definitely a little light headed and had to stop no fewer than four times to catch my breath. I really wanted to keep walking the trail, but I'm trying to use my head these days and didn't want Uncle Dick to have to carry me back to the car.

Once back at the car we started back down the mountain and drove through Gold Hill which recently gained national attention as it was ravaged by a forest fire. It was a sad to see all of the burned trees and I can only imagine what those who lost their homes are going through. It was also very interesting to see trees that were totally untouched by the fire.

Once we were the rest of the way down the mountain we were back in Boulder and took a stroll through the Pearl Street shopping district. There were lots of fantastic shops and restaurants. We ended up meeting Aunt Jan for dinner at a place called Rio Grande. They are famous for their margaritas which was right up my alley. We had chips and guacamole for and appetizer and I ate flautas de pollo for dinner with rice and beans.

With my belly sufficiently full we went back home where I promptly made my airline reservations for Saturday and went to bed by 9:00.

I would ride 500 miles

The Super 8 motel I stayed at on Tuesday night absolutely ruled. It was just what I needed after a hard day. The manager Pricilla was very nice and accomadating. She even allowed me to utilize the hot tub after it's "official" hours were over. I got up Wednesday morning, packed the bike and was on the road by 8:15. I got to thinking about camping during the first portion of the ride and quickly came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't going to happen. I decided that if I were to run across a post office, that I'd mail my camping gear home. Lo and behold, about 30 minutes later there was a post office located in the small town of Burlington Juncion, MO. I stopped in and after 20 minutes I had my sleeping bag, mat, and tent on their way back to Columbus. One of the reasons that I decided to do this was to that I could more easily remove the seat from the bike in order to check my oil. As I found out the day 2, if I wanted to remove the seat it was easily a 1/2 hour ordeal. Also, after a long day the last thing that I wanted to do was have to set up camp.

Back on the road, Missouri greeted me with a beautiful morning. Not a cloud in the sky and a brisk 42. degrees, it wouldn't be long before it was almost 80. The roads were twisty and rolling and made for great scenery. It was exactly what I had envisioned a bike trip to be.

Before long I was at the Missouri/Nebraska border. As soon as I crossed it I lost my cell phone signal. I would not regain it for 250 miles. My phone really feels like my lifeline. I made extensive use of it on day 2 for mapping and communication. To not have it available to me felt really isolating. I also didn't want Laela to worry about me because I'd been calling or texting her every time I stopped for gas. I was even looking for pay phones in small towns to be able to call her. Fortunately for me she wasn't concerned about the lack of communication. US-136 in Nebraska is really desolate and I easily went 1/2 hour at a time without seeing another vehicle. It was nice to have the road to myself. What wasn't nice were the sections (albeit short) that were actually gravel. Nothing like gravel and no phone signal to make you feel a little nervous.

Other than that, the day was unremarkable. After my final gas stop in McCook, NE I decided to start looking for lodging. The sun was going down and I had no fewer than three locals warn me about deer. It would be another 93 miles before I found lodging at the Butte Motel in Wray, Colorado. The dark ride was slow and I didn't go over 50MPH unless I was fortunate enough to be behind another vehicle. Obviously I had my brights on and was HYPER alert for any fauna that might be lurking on the roadside.

I finally got my room, pulled up to my parking spot (they're numbered for each room). I hopped off my bike, but oops. I was so happy to be getting to a room that I forgot to engage the kickstand. I dropped the bike onto it's left side. I quickly removed the luggage and got it stood back up. After schlepping my gear into the room, I went back to the bike to head up to 7-11 to grab something to eat. It was then that I notice that my shifter peg is now bent all to hell. It's still rideable but the peg is noticabley "limp."

All in all, Wednesday was fantastic and I cleared 501 miles. I just woke up on this fine Thursday morning and am about to get back at it. I better upload this before someone figures out that I'm poaching their wireless (I hope it's not a honeypot).

Day 2

The Best Western in Rantoul, IL was adequate boarding for the night; however, my mind was racing a mile a minute and I only ended up sleeping for about four hours (total sleep time, not consecutive hours). I ended up getting out of bed at about 6:00 and after getting dressed went over to the "Red Wheel" Pancake and Steak house across the street. I had the 2x2x2 at 2 eggs (over easy), 2 pieces of french toast, and 2 sausage links. I had a feeling it'd be a busy day so I wanted to eat a hearty first meal. I finished quickly but for some reason I didn't get on the road until 9:15. I guess I just took my sweet ass time.

It started off easily enough. A brisk, beautiful, bright sunny morning. The perfect day to go riding. About 60 miles in something went wrong. I'm not sure what it is/was, but the bike started vibrating more than usual. Wheezy ordinarily vibrates quite a bit at idle, but once under load smooths out quite nicely. I was humming along at about 65mph, the pavement changed and then things started shaking. The engine didn't sound any different and was just as responsive, it just shook quite a bit. Lots of people complain about HD engines vibrating their fillings out and dropping parts all over the place, but this is the first time I had ever experienced something like that. I decided to pull over in Havana, IL just to be on the safe side, check the oil, and make sure that there wasn't something visibly wrong. This is the part where I tell you that I REALLY miss the oil level site glass that all of my Japanese bikes have. To check Wheezy's oil you have to look at the dipstick. Easy enough, right? Not so much when the oil tank is located under the seat and the seat has 50lbs of gear strapped down on top of it. The long and the short of it is that the oil level was fine, but it took a while to unload, then check, then reload the gear. The gear needed to be reseated anyway because it had shifted during the short distance traveled. Anyway, after an hour and a half of messing with things I was back on the road. The bike was still vibrating but it was just an issue of comfort, not an issue of performance to I decided to soldier on.

I started to suspect that maybe a wheel weight fell of throwing the wheels out of balance. To test this theory I got the bike up to a reasonable speed, pulled in the clutch, and killed the engine. If the problem was with the wheels, it would still present itself if the engine was shut off. Shutting off the engine stopped the vibration, so I ruled out the wheels as culprits. So, I don't know what is causing it but it's something I'm going to live with. Actually after my last gas stop tonight, it didn't seem so bad but I think I'm just getting used to it.

Needles to say losing another hour and a half at the beginning of the day was going to ruin my mileage goal for the day. This revelation bummed me out for a while because I was dwelling on it, but then I thought to myself "Self, this trip is about the ride not the destination. So roll with it."

Being focused on my setback made me miss a couple of great photo opportunities. There is a river to cross going between Illinois and Iowa's "udder." On the river is a dam for power generation and the gates were open. It was a spectacular site but I missed out on the photo opp being preoccupied by losing time. I also missed photographing the Iowa state line sign. In my defense, it is on the bridge and there are only 2 lanes so it's not like you can pull over and snap a pic. I think I was only in Iowa for 10 miles or so.

So today's mileage total was 339.2. Not bad all things considered. That's straight from Rantoul, IL to Bethany, MO. I guess I'll have to tackle Nebraska tomorrow.

Invigorating

Monday started out normally. I woke up, made some coffee, got Miranda and Laela out the door for school and then things were a little different.

I started by laminating a few maps and then finished up packing "Wheezy." My good friend Fred Gablick came by on his BMW R1150 and we got things together and got on the road at 11:00am. It was about three hours after I wanted to start but given the things that I needed to get accomplished, it all worked out for the best.

It was cloudy and overcast when we started, but that was a good omen because it allowed me to wear my glasses for the majority of the day rather than having to wear my sunglasses. It was a little chilly, but my gear kept me plenty warm. We hopped on 161 and headed west. We spent the next couple of hours winding through Ohio and eventually made our way into Indiana and made our first fuel stop at 110 miles. Wheezy isn't a big fan of going much over 100 miles before he needs to dip into his reserve. Fuel stops are also a great chance for a cup of coffee and to stretch your legs for a bit. We got moving again and made our way towards Indianapolis. Our route was to take us up over the Indianapolis outer belt but I missed our turn and we ended up going towards downtown. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that we were going the wrong way and by the time I figured it out it was getting to be about 4:00. Fred had to join a conference call for work at 4:00 so after another quick fuel stop, we parted ways.

I headed back the way I came and corrected my mistake. All told it was about a 35 mile detour. It also briefly had me on the Interstate and made me REALLY glad that I chose non-interstates to travel on. It's so much more peaceful on the "Blue Highways." Western Indiana and eastern Illinois are paved with beautiful rolling highways and were often lined with trees. That was especially nice in the late afternoon as the sun started to set. I only had to wear my sunglasses for about an hour today. I made it across the Indiana/Illinois border and decided that it was time to look for a hotel. The problem with taking "the roads less traveled" is that it is longer between areas that are populated enough to need hotels. I had to ride about an hour after dark fell which I didn't want to do, but my late start today kind of necessitated it. I finally rode in to a Best Western in Rantoul, IL and parked for the night. I unloaded all of my gear, rode over to the gas station on the corner and prepped for tomorrow.

The bike held up great and was really comfortable. Special thanks to Fred for all of the gear that he loaned me for the trip and for coming with me as far as Indianapolis. Also thanks to Nick Garcia at Iron Pony for reminding me about some items that I hadn't thought of checking before I left (most importantly my tires).

I titled this entry as "Invigorating" because that's exactly how I feel. My energy level jumped as soon as I set off and hasn't let up yet. I'm actually too wound up to sleep right now; hence, my late blogging. I'm looking forward to putting more miles behind me tomorrow and can only hope that it goes as well as today did.

Link to the photo album on Facebook: http://bit.ly/9ngPAV

Journey

October 3, 2010 - I should be setting off on the journey of a lifetime tomorrow. I'm taking my motorcycle for a solo two week trip around the central United States. It's been a couple of weeks of preparation, but I think that I'm ready. I've had a bunch of people lend me gear and mechanically, I've gone over my bike and I believe everything is in order. I just got finished with an outer belt tour of Columbus an hour ago in the rain and dark with all of my gear packed on to make sure things are ready to go. I'm glad I did it because it showed me some weaknesses in my waterproofing.

My first destination is to visit my uncle in Lafayette, CO. It's about 1200 miles from my house. My plan is to ride 400 miles a day, so I'm hoping to make it on Wednesday but that's not set in stone. That's the beauty of the trip, I can do what I want when I want to.

A friend of mine said to me last week that a motorcycle trip isn't about how much you bring with you, but about how much you leave behind. I have really taken that to heart and it has really become my mantra.

I'm really looking forward to having some time to myself to reflect and just not have a plan.

Here's a couple of links to checklists at the American Motorcycle Association's website that I used to help me prepare:

http://www.amadirectlink.com/roadride/riderresc/TouringList.asp

http://www.amadirectlink.com/roadride/Riderresc/33secrets.asp

See you on the open road. Ride on.