Details, details, details

Zig and I rolled out just before 10am on Thursday morning. Traffic wasn't too bad, the clouds were minimal and our spirits were high. That was soon to change...

We got about halfway down the Pike when suddenly we saw signs for road work ahead. Okay... Then the signs started saying there was a 2 hour backup. Ouch. As it turns out, we were stuck for only (only?) an hour. Bike stopped, feet down. Bleah.

After we got moving again, we were just about at the NY border and went through the tolls. I clutched down, passed through (Fast Lane) and went to shift back up...except, the clutch lever went right to the handle. No Clutch! And an 18-wheel rig coming up hard on my tail. Zoinks! Managed to turn quickly into the entrance to the parking area (toll booth employees?), and the bike lugged to a stall.

WTF? Busted clutch cable and we're not even out of the state yet? Oy. Well, let's get the tools out and start taking the old one off. Hey...the cable isn't broken...so it's gotta be something inside the trans. Not good. Called the closest HD dealership (40 miles away) and advised that we were going to try and gimp the bike there and they said ok, they'd be waiting. Hmmm...how to get moving? If I start in Neutral and drop into first gear, it'll stall. Zig tells me to start it in first, the bike will kick forward enough until it finally catches and I should be good to do. Hey, look at that...I'm moving! (It was an ugly, ugly start, but it was still a start!).

Power shifted up to high gear and rolled out the miles. Managed to get through a few more toll booths, too. Took the turn off the highway and onto the street the dealership was on. Oh lovely. A main drag, complete with lots of traffic lights. I am unable to stop, people!! Luckily, all the lights were green for us!! Oh wait..the last one was red. So I got stuck doing tiny circles, turning out of traffic into a VERY small sidewalk area, looping around back into traffic, sliding by on the right side of the cars that were waiting, passing Zig, turning into the sidewalk area again, back into traffic, around and around. I'm doing all of this at a dizzying 4 mph, too. ("Look kids, Big Ben...Parliament".) I think I made about 6 circles before the light finally went green and we were on our way.

Got to the dealership (Spitzie’s, in Albany) and they rolled us right in. After advising them that another dealership had had the primary off, just the day before, they said they had a real good idea what the problem was. Sure enough, it was the nut on the tranny mainshaft. They even brought us into the service bay area and showed us the problem. The tech simply rolled the nut back onto the shaft, up tight against the backing plate, took a wrench and gave it a twist. That was it. That was all that was needed. That was all that the tech back at Paramount had needed to do. F’ing retard.

Back onto the road, we started making up for lost time. We crossed into Canada without incident and pressed hard for Brantford (the town we were staying in that night). The daylight was fading quickly and we could see a storm in the distance ahead of us. The lightning was limited to the clouds for a while, but then we started seeing strikes, and that was when we knew it was closing in. However, we knew that we were breaking off onto a different highway soon, one that would steer us to the left – and hopefully away from the storm. If only we could get to the turnoff before the storm did.

We lost the race. When the wind suddenly picked up, almost leaning us into 45 degree angles, we knew it was time to pull over and hit the rain gear. No sooner had we donned it than the skies opened up on us. We pulled back out and continued on, and eventually the storm started to abate a bit. Apparently we’d made it through to the other side of it. Oh look, here’s our turn-off. But it was more than just a turn-off, it was a grand, sweeping bend – which took us back into the storm again, briefly. Hitting the same storm, twice? What are the odds? Oh well, we only caught the edge of it, it seems to be letting up a bit.

We settled into the new highway…just in time to find the rear edge of the storm again. And our speed must have matched the storm’s, because we rode with that stupid thing the whole way to our destination. Three passes through the same storm. Not a good plan, I recommend against it.

We found the hotel, cleaned up and headed across the street to Moose Wanooski’s, the aforementioned bar. Great beer, a funny bartender, and a few hours to unwind from the day. That was Day 1.

Day 2 had us back on the road and back into the USA in good time. We met up with Paul and Mark in Michigan and they took us to a great eatery (Jumbo’s Burger Bar). Beer & burgers and then back onto the road for a tour of some of the roads in the area.

Mark had to break off towards the end, and the remaining three of us blasted off to Paul’s house to get cleaned up again, then pack and head off for the canoeing weekend.

We made decent time getting there, but we were still playing with the last vestiges of daylight as we scrambled to set our tents up. Everyone got set/settled and the party kicked into high gear.

The Michigan Crew! Guido & Star, Joerg & Becky, Diek & Maria, and a new couple (for us); Trace & Bev. That was just on our side of the road. On the other side were the rest of the party animals. I only remember a fraction of their names…Craig & Jill, Mark, T-Bone, Paula…uhm..yeah, I think that’s all I can remember. But they had quite a setup going. They had a real bar; all wood and done up with lights and a working disco ball. A disco ball! In the middle of the woods. Too funny. Because we’d gotten there late in the day, most of the good booze was gone, but there were a few bottles of rotgut kind of stuff available. At one point, one of the women said we all had to do a shot together, so we grabbed a bottle of no-name whiskey. Zig said he didn’t like whiskey, so he couldn’t do a very big shot of it. Ok, the lady pours him about half a finger’s width and he says “Oh, I can drink more than that!” (Bad move - she filled his shot glass to the rim.) The fun and frivolity continued long into the night.

The next morning we packed coolers with food and beer and hopped onto a bus which rode us up the river a fair way. We disembarked, grabbed canoes and kayaks and hit the water. What a day! Nothing but sunshine, a nice breeze, and a decent current which allowed for just kicking back and floating if we wanted to.

We spent about 6 hours on the river, ending up right back at the camping area. We got the campfires going again, set to cooking, and did a repeat of Friday night’s enjoyment.

This morning we packed up camp, headed to breakfast with the crew and now we’re back at Paul and Bettina’s house. Bike’s oil has been changed, showers have been taken, and our gracious hosts let us wash our laundry here, too. We’re now kicking around the table, discussing driving routes that Zig and I can take when we head out tomorrow morning. I think the rest of today will be spent doing some riding and then finding a nice place to chow down for dinner.

Not much else to report - the connection strength is low/slow, so I'll have to wait to post pics until later. First stage of the vaca is complete, now on to Sturgis!

Ride Hard, Take Chances