Life is an adventure, so live it to the fullest.
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Everyone will have to forgive me for there not being any pictures in this post. We are in Del Rio, TX camping at the Laughlin AFB Marina and have no internet here. It has been over a week since I made a post and I am far enough behind on our adventures. I will get another post up with pictures once we leave here and have internet again.
As you all know we road across Canada from Niagara Falls to Port Huron, MI. It was a good trip for the most part. We ran into a bit of a traffic jam due to construction. My left wrist just could not take it. I was just about in tears when Bert hollered at me. In the middle of the stop and go traffic we put both bikes in neutral. Bert jumped off his bike and John moved to the front seat. Then Bert go on mine as I moved to the back seat and we took off again. People looked at us like we were crazy, but we just laughed at them and went on.
Many times I have crossed into and out of Canada in a big truck. I know what a pain in the tail it can be. Many times it can hours just to get to customs and then they want to search your truck. When that happens, they leave everything a mess and you have to put your things back where they were. Being on a motorcycle this time I was in hope that we would not have to endure this. As we got closer to the Port Huron bridge and entry back into the United States, the traffic started backing up. Once we got to the crest of the bridge, Bert and I put our bikes in neutral and turned them off. It was a hot afternoon and the bikes, both Harley’s, were getting hot. We coasted down the other side till we reached the booth. One by one we went through and answered their questions. We got lucky, they didn’t inspect us.
We spent the night at my cousin Connie’s place just north of Detroit. I have not seen her in years so it was great to be staying there and be able to catch up. Connie is a school teacher and very proud of her students. Apparently she has some very remarkable kids in her class that have or are over-coming some tough odds.It was good to see that she loves her work so much!
The next day we rode from north of Detroit to Lexington, KY to my sister’s place. I don’t think I have seen her since she and Rodney got married in June 2008. We went out to dinner, talked about motorcycles and played a little Beatles Rock Band till after mid_night.(Yes, I have pictures!)
Thank you to both Connie and Mary for opening your houses to this crazy bunch of family we have. We had a GREAT time!
Since my nephew is going to be attending this prestigiousmilitary college in Vermont, (Norwich University) in the fall, my brother, Bert and John has a deal. They have to do push-ups every time we fuel. John has to do twice what Bert does with a minimum of 30. When they forget to do a set when we fuel, the make-up set will be done where ever they are when they remember it. that includes at the counter at Burger King!
Needless to say, we get some funny looks and some laughs out of it when this happens.
After everything that has gone on, we finally made it to Niagara Falls just as night was falling. We dropped Bert’s new bike off at the HD shop to get the first 1000 mile service, dumped our stuff in a hotel room and headed to the Falls. As you can see from the picture above, the view was breathtaking.
We knew we had to come back in the morning while we were waiting for the HD shop to call us to pick up Bert’s bike. (It was that morning that Bert & John did the push-ups in the BK!)
Of course, since we had problems in getting the folowing picture the night before, John and I just had to get it right that morning.
While walking around we saw the Cave of the Winds. That would take us below the falls….we just had to do it! They give you shoes and what they call a rain suit and say that you will get DAMP! Damp was not the word for it. We got soaked!
Of course, once we got to the hurricane deck, everyone but Dad had to get in the Falls.
Bert and John decided they were going to do a set of push-ups under the falls. As the got down to do them, there were gasps from the people standing around and then some cheers. One young man even jumped in and did push-ups with them.
So much for just getting damp!
All in all it was a great morning and we had a lot of fun! Now we had to ride the bikes back to the hotel room…and we were wet! It was cold, but we did start to dry out some. But the time we got to the hotel and then to the HD shop we were just about dry.
The trip across Canada was uneventful. Getting across the border was not hard to do. Just answer a few questions, show them our pass ports and off we went! When we got across the border, we grabbed the HD map and looked for a Harley shop. We found one in London. We stopped and got t-shirts and a picture. Course, being the jokers that we are, my brother decided to hog the shot.
We decided that we would get him on the next shot! I think we did a good job in blocking him out!
There was a big back-up at the Port Huron bridge to get back into the U.S. Once we got to the top of the bridge, Bert and I shut our bikes off and let them coast down the to booth. When we got to the bottom, we got John to push us almost all the way up to the booth. He was sweating and looked tired, so I told him to back up and pose like we had made him run all the way across the bridge.
All in all, it was another great day! We made it to our cousin Connie’s place, had a great steak dinner and wonderful company.
While I was risking my life riding my Harley into NYC, Dad, Bert & John went to the Statue of Liberty. I wish I could say that everything went well for them, but it didn’t. Before I tell ya about that, here are a few pictures from their trip.
After having left Bert’s old Harley in NC, sending someone to get it and fix it, having it brought to us in NY, it started having the same problems on their ride to see Lady Liberty. They parked it in the North Bergen, NJ area and thought they would pick it up on the way back to the hotel at the end of the day. They had a great day at the Statue and then headed back north. When they got to where they had parked the bike….it was gone. Bert called the police to see if they had towed it in…nope they hadn’t. So he reported it stolen. The police came out and took a report. Told them they had to go down to the station. They were told that they had to talk to a detective. He took them back to the scene of the crime. He told them that the bike was probably already chopped and gone. They didn’t get back to the hotel till very later that night.
Ain’t that a heck of an end to such a great day?!
OK, call me crazy or as I prefer, adventurous, but I did something that many would probably cringeto do. I rode my Harley INTO New York City! Yes, you read that right. I rode my bike into NYC! Having been a truck driver for 18 years and having gone into the city in a big truck, I really thought that it would be easier for me on a bike then in a big truck. WORNG!!!! My brother and I had talked about me riding into the north side of the city and catching the subway down to the Sirius studios. I plotted sever routes including that one. I wanted to be prepared just in case I did miss something and had to go a different way. Well, I missed them ALL! I missed staying on I287 somehow and ended up on the Palisades Parkway. I was OK with that. It was one of the routes I had looked at. So I figured that I would just ride it down to the GW, cross into the city and catch 9A south. Well, that didn’t happen either. There were signs saying that cash toll had to exit. So I exited the parkway and looked for the signs for the GW Bridge. Some how I also missed that GW and ended up seeing signs for I95 south. I decided that I would grab that, go down to the next exit, do a flip and get back to the GW. Then I saw a sing for the Vince Lombardi service plaza. I pulled in there to take a look at the directions I had written out. A man sitting in a van asked me where I was trying to go. I explained and he said it would be easier for me to go through the Lincoln Tunnel. My dumb-ass decided to take the advice and cross into the city through the tunnel! What a mistake that was!
There was a big traffic jam getting to the toll both for the tunnel. Now I ride a Harley. All Harley’s are air cooled. All the stop and go traffic and sitting and idling for so long made my bike start to over heat! It started running funny. I made my way fro the far left lane to the far right lane in case it shut off on me, or I could find a place to pull off and let it cool! Let me tell ya, there is NO place to safely get out of the way and let a bike cool off. Since I was right at the beginning of the down hill to the toll booth, I shut if off and hope that I hate not over heated it so much that it would not start back up when I needed it to. The guy in the SUV behind me was laughing. He gave me a sympathetic look and laughed when I looked back at him. I just shook my head, shrugged my shoulders and continued to pushed my bike forward as the traffic moved. I pushed it forward and let it coast all the way to the tool booth. Luckily, it started!
I entered the tunnel and hoped that I could make it through without another back up. I knew it would not take much for it to over heat again. Yeah, you guessed it, the traffic slowed and then backed up about half way through. It didn’t take long and the bike was running funny again. I prayed that I could just get through the tunnel and find a place to let it cool off again. I knew I was going to be late getting to the show and I hate being late! I finally made it through the tunnel and started taking right hand exits til I found some place that I could safely park and let it cool off for a bit. I ended up on the corner of Dyer Ave and West 30th St, down by the post office.
I sat there a while, looked at my map and fired up Google Latitude on my phone. I knew where I needed to be, I just had to figure out what was the best way to get there and not over heat again. The Sirius studios are on the Corner of 49th and Avenue of the Americas. I had found a parking garage on 45th that I wanted to park my bike. I plotted the route on my phone and then looked around. I needed to get to 10th St and take a right. Because of where I had stopped, I was going to have to do one of 2 things, go around the block and deal with the traffic lights, or go the wrong way on 30th for half a block. Hummm….can you guess what I did? That’s right, I went the wrong way on 30th, hung a right and headed down 10th St.
As I was slowing at a stop light that had just turned green, a man started yelling, “Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” I don’t know if he was yelling that becasue I was on a bike, had loud pipes, or becaseu I have my American Flag and PGR flag flying from the saddlebags. I also had on my PGR vest that has “Support the Troops” all over it as well. He could have been yelling at that. I just threw my right arm out and shot him the bird. Yea, it don’t take long to get into the “city” mode and give them their crap back at em!
I continued up 10th St till I got to 46th and found the parking garage that I wanted to park in. I pulled in, got my ticket and walked 2 block to Ave of the Americas, hung a left and walked another 3 blocks to the McGraw Building where the Sirius studio for Freewheelin is. I got through the security, hopped on the elevator to the 36th floor and was finally there!
I was escorted into the Freewheelin studio, got hugs from Chris T and Meredith and settled in for the show. We had lots of old friends from Road Dogs on Hogs call in as well as many other drivers that wanted to say hi or talk about their road trips with their family. (That was the topic of the show today.) It was a great show and I really enjoyed being back in the studio with them. During one break, Chris and I talked about the best way for me to get out of the city without frying my bike. Thanks Chris T, it was great! After the show Meredith walked me down to see Jermey Tepper and I gave all 3 of them Road Dogs on Hogs patches.
I left the Sirius studios and started my walk back to 46th & 8th where I had parked my bike. I made a quck stop in the middle of Time Square to take a look around. There are LOTS of people milling around in a very small area there. I took a couple of pictures and headed on to my bike. When I got to the garage, I went to the cashier to pay for my parking. they charged me $34 for parking there 3 hours. Yes, you read that right. I was told it was $17 for one hour or $34 for all day…there was nothing for the in between length of time. I got on my bike and headed west to 9A, the Hudson PRKWY.
I had a straight shot with NO stop lights all the way to the GW Bridge! As soon as I came off the bridge I hopped on the Palisades PRKWY and headed north to US6 which brought me right back to the hotel. It was a nice ride back up here. I even stopped at one of the overlooks and had a bite of lunch. All in all it was a great day and now I can say that I have not only driven a big truck in NYC, I have now done the CRAZY thing of riding a motorcycle into NYC!
I do believe that Murphy is on his last leg now. After we left Bert’s bike in NC, we made it to Roanoke, VA. A friend of Dad’s owns a bike shop there. We got him to fix Dad’s bike and go pick up Bert’s. Then we made our way to CT. My nephew, John was to graduate high school on Saturday and it looked like we WERE going to make it in the night before. YEAH!! When we got there Bert bought a new Harley! The old one was to be part of John’s graduation present, along with this trip.
Saturday I rode down to the Groton Harley shop to get a t-shirt and a cover for Bert’s new bike. I was a great ride! I made it back just in time to grab a show at camp and get ready for John’s graduation. Yea, we all went on the bikes. As you can see from the picture below, he is as big a cut-up as his dad and aunt!
John had told us about a pig roast that was being done by one of his friend’s parents. He told us that they were “rednecks.” Of course, we all laughed. I told him that I didn’t know that there were rednecks this far north, but I guess they could be redneck for CT! We all teased him about it. (Yes, I know there are rednecks all over!) Sunday we went to the “CT redneck’s” house for the pig roast. It was good food and good people! But most of the day was spent repacking the bikes and trailers. Since it rained on us several times during the day we got as much packed as we could that was not wet.
Bert also had John take his new bike out for a ride…by himself! John has been riding dirt bikes for a while, but they are a lot smaller and lighter than this big Ultra Classic that Bert had just bought. He gave him the keys and told him to be back in an hour. As he rode off, Bert turned to me and said, “There goes my baby boy!”
Monday morning, Bert and I wrote out the route for the roads that we would be taking that day. Some how Bert had formatted the GPS and it wasn’t working. Dad was totally lost without it! We finished packing the tents and chairs, loaded up and headed north.
The ride across MA was beautiful. We hit a couple of roads that were back to back curves and then hit a hair-pin curve. I watched John as he maneuvered this on that big bike. He went a little wide, but stayed between the lines. I think he did a great job! We rode on up to VT.
We weren’t in VY for very long but it was a very pretty ride. As we crossed back in to NY near Troy, Dad and Bert thought they could find a Best Buy and get a new GPS. There was a Harley shop on our way in and we stopped to take a look around. The people there were very nice and helpful. They gave Bert directions to the Best Buy and we were off. Some how either the directions we got were wrong, or Bert did follow them right, but we didn’t find the Best Buy. We pulled into the parking lot of a mall and he called them. They did not have the motorcycle model he wanted so we rode on. We got close to Cooperstown and stopped for the night.
Tuesday we spent half the day at the Baseball Hall of Fame and looking around Cooperstown. Wouldn’t ya know it, Murphy had to give us a dieing kick! It started raining as we were getting ready to leave. We put on our rain gear and headed south. It rained on us the rest of the day. By the time we got to where we were going to stop, my wrists were killing me. The cold from the night before, but rain and being tense just took it’s toll on me. I was very happy when Dad and Bert said we were going to get a room rather than try to set up a camp in the rain. A hot bath to soak my wrists was just what I needed.
Today should, but may not be better. Today I am going to ride down to NYC, to where the Sirius studios are, to be on “Freewheelin’.” Driving a big truck in the city is enough to turn your hair grey and I am ahve mixed emotions about it. Bert doesn’t think my wrists will hold up and I am not sure. they are still a little sore from yesterday. I have planed a couple of route down with one of them involving me parking my bike and catching the subway. I will see how my wrists are doing and how the traffic is when I get down there and decide on what I am going to do then. It could be a very adventurous ride
After spending the day wiring and re-wiring all 3 bikes and trailers and deciding to leave the flatbed, Bert tried to start his bike to make sure he had not run the battery down. It started up just fine, but the idle kept getting higher and higher. Bert was pissed! He had spent around $2000 on this bike to fix this problem and get it looked over so it would be ready for this trip.
We were all hot and frustrated. Bert said to hell with it, he was going to fly to CT to see Johnny graduate and then just go back to Israel. Dad told him to take his bike and I offered him my bike. This trip started out as his graduation present to his son. I was heartbroken to not be going on the trip, but it was the right thing to do. Dad and Bert started getting the trailers matched to Dad’s bike and my bike. I walked off and wallowed in my self-pity for a bit. I didn’t want to cry in front of Bert. I didn’t want him to feel bad about taking my bike.
When I get myself under control I went back to see if there was anything I could do. Dad and Bert suggested that we all go. Four people on two bikes… it would be crowded, but we could do it. At first, I was resistant! If I couldn’t take my own bike, why go?! But as I thought about it I realized that I was being hard headed and I really didn’t want to miss this trip. When we went to bed that night, the 3 of us were going to finish wiring things up and get head north the next morning on the 2 bikes.
When we got up the next morning, we got my bike wired for the trailer. Bert started his bike and it still was idling high. He thought about it and decided that he would ride it any way. The thought was that if it would make it to CT, he could get it fixed there. We loaded the bikes, hooked to the trailers and headed north.
We rode out from the cabin with a great hope in our hearts that all the bad luck was behind us now and set our sights on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The ride was beautiful and exciting. In some places the sharp 25mph curves would make me nervous, but with each one I felt better and better. Not only was I getting over the fear caused from my accident, but it just seemed that everything was finally going to start going right. I think we all felt that way.
Because Bert’s bike was idling so high, he had to maintain a certain speed. Because I had laid my bike down just a month ago in a gravel filled curve, I was not comfortable with running his speed. So from time to time he would get far ahead of us and stop to wait for us to catch up. But finally we made it to the highest point on the Blue Ridge parkway and got a picture.
We hit some construction on our little detour down to South Carolina. Bert shut off his bike every time it looked like we were going to be stopped for any length of time. We made it to the NC/SC line, took our pictures, and rode back up to US64.
As the day went on, we started to realize that Bert’s bike might not make it to Putnam, CT. We had to jump it off twice. Once in the middle of a town at a stop light. (That was lots of fun!) While stopped, Dad put on his 4-ways and heard something pop. Now he had no turn signals on his bike or the trailer. We got Bert’s bike running and changed plans. Surly there was a Honda shop in Ashville, NC. We would ride US64 over to Ashville, grab a room for the night, find a Honda shop the next morning, get Dad’s bike fixed and carry on.
We jumped on US64 and hammered down, me in the lead, Dad’s second and Bert bringing up the rear. Bert was the only one that didn’t have a trailer and wasn’t having lighting problems. We were scooting along when all of the sudden I saw Bert make a right turn behind us. I knew what had happened… his bike had died again. Dad and I went down the road a bit. We found a place to turn around and Dad went back while I waited. When they didn’t show up in a few minuets, I rode back as well. They had tried to jump the bike off again and it just wouldn’t start. Bert was pissed and was cleaning the bike out. There was nothing we could do right then, so we might as well go on to Ashville, get a room and start again the next day. I found a place to turn around again, Bert hopped on the back of Dad’s bike and we set off to find a hotel room.
I thought that some of ya’ll might find this interesting. I have Google Latitude on my phone. It ia a very cool app! For those that would like to follow along on the trip in real time, you can come to my blog and find it in the left side bar.
I do believe that Murphy has set up shop in one of our pockets! Would someone PLEASE get him out and shoot him! Grab a cup of what ever ya like to sip on, sit back and get comfortable, because recounting the last few days is going to take a bit and you are not going to want to miss it.
Saturday morning we finished that last little bit of packing and hit the road, 3 bikes pulling 3 trailers. We rode over in to Alabama, picked up a skinny road, (two lane road), and went down to the Alabama/Florida line. We crossed into Florida just far enough to say that we entered the state and took a picture.
We then made our way back to the big road, (interstate highway), and hammered down to Georgia. Our plan was to make it to Blue Ridge, GA to my Aunt & Uncle’s cabin. We would spend the night, get up the next morning and ride on up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. But Murphy had to stick his nose into the mix and it just didn’t happen that way.
I had added a handle bar mounted speaker system to my bike so I would have some tunes for the ride without having to put earphones in my ears. It came with a usb charger for my iPod. With all that wired into the bike, the new break modulator and now pulling a trailer that has lights…I started popping fuses. I popped 2 before we decided that eveything I had on there needed a bigger fuse. Once we put a 20amp fuse in place of the 15amp, I have not had any more problems with blowing them. But that was not the only problem going on.
Bert bought a new shinny trailer and it has 4 wires where all our bikes have 5. We got tail lights and break lights working, but no matter what we did, we could not get turn signals. The trailer Bert was pulling had tail lights, one break light and the right turn signal. The trailer I was pulling had tail lights, break lights and left turn signal. We figured that we could re-wire everything when we got to GA for the night. We had spent all day the day before trying to get them working and couldn’t.
The tempretures got up to around 97 going down the road and by the time we got to Blue Ridge we were happy to see it! We decided that if we could get everything re-wired in the morning and get out of there by noon, we would be ok.
Yeap! you guessed it, Murphy struck again! We spent all day there working on trailers and bikes. Bert fried my break modulator and we had smoke curling up from it for a few minuets! We took it off the bike and started again with a different trailer. Nothing was working. Dad & Bert bought lights, drilled holes on the new trailer, mounted them and ran the wires to make them the turn siglals. Whoo! Hoo! We had one trailer wired to two bikes, Dad and Bert’s bikes. My poor bike was left sitting for a while.
Bert decided that they would go ahead and totally re-wire the flatbed trailer I was pulling. He cut out all the old wires, ran the news one and wired the pig-tail……nothing! Not one single light worked no matter how he wired the pig tail or what bike it was hooked to. So the decision was made to leave it.
It’s 0445 in the morning and I am excited about this trip. I can’t tell you how many time I hear people that ride motorcycles talk about how they would love to take off for a month or two, live off their bike and ride all over the country. Well, I am going to do just that…starting today. A few months ago my brother, Bert, said he was going to be coming home from Israel and wanted to criss-cross the country on his bike. One of his sons, Johnny, is graduating from high school in Connecticut and this would be his graduation present. Bert planned giving the Ultra Classic that he has now to Johnny and buying another bike. With him going to be in Israel for a few more years, I thought that was crazy. The bike would only be ridden once a year when he came home on vacation. My Dad, Albert, said he was going to go with them and how great it would be if I could go as well. OH I agreed, but both of us were worried about whether my wrists could hold up to a 10,000 to 12,000 mile, 45 day trip.
For those that don’t know, November 19, 2008 I fell off the top of my loaded flatbed and shattered both of my wrists. That fall ended a 20 year truck driving career. I had pins and external fixators in both arms for 10 weeks. It took me 6 1/2 months to be able to get back on my bike and that was after I added a clutch assist. For months I would walk out to my bike and see if I could pull the clutch lever. I figured when I could pull it back and hold it a few seconds, then I could try to get back to riding it. Five months after the fall I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be ab;e to ride my bike again, did some research and found the clutch assist. By Memorial Day weekend of 2009, I had it on the bike and rode to Gulfport for the All Harley Gulfport Blowout Rally. It was painful but I was happy to be back on my bike. (The old saying where there’s a will, there’s way is one of my favorites.)
In August 2009, I rode to Sturgis, SD for the big bike rally there with my trucker/biker group that I co-founded, Road Dogs on Hogs. By the time I made it to Nebraska and met the main part of the group, I was popping pain pills like they we candy an in tears by nightfall from the pain in my wrists. I put my bike on one of the guys trailer for part of the last day into Sturgis and rode behind other people almost all week there. When the rally ended I only made it about 300 miles out of Sturgis when I decided that I was in to much pain and taking to many pain pills to be safe. I called my Dad and he hooked to a trailer and came to get me. It broke my heart to put my bike on a trailer and realize that I could not do what I had done just a year before.
When Dad talked about Bert’s plans for this trip and everything that he was doing, I really wanted to go. He asked me if I really thought I could do those kind to miles in that many days. I told him I could. “My wrist have healed a lot since last year. I will be fine,” I said. In the back of my mind I really wasn’t sure. Then I got to thinking. Johnny would be getting his motorcycle endorsement in May, and this would be his first big trip. I wonder if Bert would be open to the idea of him, Johnny and me teaming up to keep the two Harley’s going. It would save him from having to buy another bike, give my wrists a break and not put so much pressure on Johnny who is a new rider. Dad talked to him about it and he liked the idea.
So here we are, a couple of months later and will be leaving out on this once in a life time motorcycle trip in a couple hours. It has not been easy getting here. I am going to college at the University on Southern Mississippi and my boyfriend lives 500 miles away in Dover, AR. I had to finish the semester, get to Arkansas to see Danny, the boyfriend, get the bike looked over, got a cat sitter, help Dad get Bert’s bike and all the trailers ready for the long trip and be ready to roll by today. This has not been an easy task. Bert’s bike would not stay running and we took it to the shop. After finals, I rode mine to Dover, AR and put it in the shop there to have a 50, 000 mile service done. One thing after another happened and things were found on my bike that needed to be fixed before this kind of a trip was made on the bike. I got it out of the shop and in less than 24 hours later, laid it down. Luckily, the shop I had it in are great people and they had me back on the rode with a new custom paint job and a bunch of bling in a week and a half.
Dad had picked up Bert’s bike while I was gone. We decided to take it fro a ride and it had problems, the idle was to high. I called the shop it had been in and he told me some thing to look for. I could not find anything wrong with just a look over, but we decided that we would take it back to him on Thursday. I washed and polished my bike and thought I would do the same on Bert’s bike. It has been sitting for a year and really looked like crap. When I went to pull it out of the garage, it wouldn’t stay running. Dad and I loaded in on the trailer and took it to the shop. That was this last Tuesday, we got it back on Thursday and it seems to be running great now.
Bert flew in from Israel yesterday and the 3 of us got the new trailer he bought to pull behind his bike re-wired. We did the last minuet checks and started packing. I think, after we get the last minuet packing and arranging done, we will be ready to roll. I will be blogging as much as I can from the road and taking pictures. We will have cameras and a cam-corder with us. So check back often to see how the trip is going and to share in the ride!
I have been told many times that there are two categories of motorcycle riders, those that have laid it down, and those that haven’t yet! Well, I am now a member of those that have. On May19th I was in Arkansas visiting Danny, my boyfriend. I was on my way from Russellville back to his house on a skinny back road. I have run this road several time when I have been up there and it has some very nice curves to hang in to on the bike. But luckily on this day I was taking it easy. I had just gotten my Harley out of the shop and had a new triple tree and it was steering a bit different than what I was use to. So I was having to get use to it again. I was only n 3rd gear when I started into the curve. Good thing, because the county had laid tar and covered it with gravel. As soon as I hit the loose gravel the back of the bike started getting squirrely on me. I tried to get it under control, but nothing I did worked. I steered it toward the grass should on the other side of the road in hopes that I could keep it up that way. The back tire kept trying to go on down into the ditch. I steered it into the ditch thinking that if I guided it there I might have a chance of keeping it up. No such luck! There had been a lot of rain in the area and the ground was soft. I went down and slid about 75 feet on the right side of the bike.
After I crawled from under the bike, I checked myself to anything broken or bleeding and called the shop. Shelby’s Custom Cycles is where I had a 50,000 mile service done and the new triple tree put on. I knew they would help me get it out of the ditch and look it over. Robert answered the phone. I told him what had happened and where I was. He jumped in his car and came right down. He looked the bike over and said that he could ride it out of the ditch. I told him go right ahead because I was not going to do it. My right knee and hip were already hurting and I was still shaking a little. We called the Sheriff and they arrived a few minuets later. A couple of guys had stopped to check on me before Robert got there and they mentioned that there was no warning sign coming from that direction. So I walk back to check it out. There was a sing, but this is what it looked like…..
The officer that showed up was very pissed when he saw the sign and called the county judge. I don’t know what he said to the judge, but he he told me that the judge said he would be out that afternoon to take a look at things. After the usual questions and answers the officer left and Robert hopped on the bike and rode it to the shop. Once there, and calmed down, I could see the damage a little better.
I called my insurance company, State Farm. They said they would have someone get int touch with me. Shelby said to not worry about it, he would have my bike back to me “better than it was” by time I was to head home. It took till the following Monday to get an adjuster out to the shop. They started tearing the bike down before she left and had everything that needed to be painted down to Russellville to the pain shop that afternoon. Shelby explained that I had a PGR mission on the following Monday and he wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss it. They brought paint chips by Danny’s house that evening so I could pick the colors. They told me to just relax, the bike would be fine, I would get home in time for the mission and my big 6 week bike trip with my Dad, brother and nephew.
Friday morning Shelby called me about noon and told me that they got the paint back that morning and would have the bike ready for me around 1600. At 1600 he called again and said it would be another hour. At 1645 his wife showed up to pick me up. I was excited. State Farm had totaled my bike and I had bought it back. Shelby asked me how much he had to work with on the pain and other thing that the bike needed and for “bling.” I told him and he said that I could not see the bike till it was ready to pick up. He said he wasn’t to surprise me with the paint job and everything else.
The bike was sitting out front when we pulled up. If not for the fact that I had picked the colors and know the stickers on my windshield, I would not have known it was my Harley. I was very pleased with how it looked. Shelby had chromed out the motor, put the brake mod in my back break lights and the paint looked great!
To say that I was surprised and pleased with how it came out is a BIG understatement! Shelby, Robert and the paint shop did a great job is a very short time. I was treated like family the whole time. Let me tell ya’ll this, I will take my bike back there any time that I need something done that I can’t do myself.
If you find yourself up in northwest Arkansas on hwy 7 north of Russellville, go about 10 miles north of Dover and stop in and say hi to Shelby and Robert. Tell them Cindy sent ya!
