Ed Houston we have a problem... Is there a patron saint of motorcycles? I pray there is. A few days ago the old girl started making a scritchy scratchy sound somewhere in the front . As the day wore on it got louder and louder, so by the time we stopped yesterday it was downright frightening. Didnt get much sleep last night trying to figure it out. All I could come up with was a dry tach cable or something unspeakable. This morning I unhooked the tach cable, dumped se 50 weight into the cable housing, which at 50 degrees was the consistency of honey and prayed for a healing. Say Hallelujah ! The noise went away and the old girl ticks on. From there on most of the day went terribly wrong First what weve seen in Washington state consists of 2 colors brown and brown. Though the elevation changes drastically . Everything remains..... Brown. And windy which can make a really bad combination , especially if you go 100 miles in the wrong direction. More on that later. If you havent ridden a motorcycle before let me explain the intricacies of riding in the wind. First you can save much wear on the tires by riding on the sidewall as in leaning into a crosswind as we did throughout most of S Dakota. When passing a truck or large R V in the opposite direction there is a gust of wind that pops you smack in the face and sets you upright in the seat then a lull where you feel like you may fall forward into the instrument panel. Then pop another gust that sets you upright again. Ok I may exaggerate slightly but the basic premise is true. Then theres being passed by a semi or coming up behind one. The turbulence fromthe trailer bats you around like an Omar Visquel bobble head until you back off or pass . Then there is passing a semi on the lee side . As you begin to pass theres a reassuring calm, until you come past the front of the truck where the wind smacks you on the right and shoves you to the left at which point you counter steer and find yourself staring at a large Volvo emblem in your rear view mirror . Today we had those winds So lets talk about the 100 mile mistake or should I say 200 mile.. Youve heard the Bob Segar song roll me away I could go east I could go west... Well we went west when we should have gone east, 100 miles through the most god awful country brown( see above ) windy ( see above) only to realize we had to backtrack 100 miles brown (see above) windy ( see above) but as soon as we crossed the Oregon border it all became worthwhile. The beauty and majesty of the Columbia river valley made it all worth it. See pics although they cannot begin to do it justice. Anyways we are as happy as clams.... We just passed the 3000 mile mark Tomorrow California ! See you down the road Ps Jill keeps asking where are the buffalo and eagles ... We are told are there are hairy buffalo in California
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 15:25:16 +0000
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