Just to follow up on my last post....
I ended up having a very good weekend playing cards in Shakopee a few weeks ago.
They started a new 20-40 1/2 Hold-em and 1/2 Omaha 8 or better game which was exceptionally good. I ended up having one small loss and 2 nice wins and it all equaled out to a very profitable weekend.
I then returned home and worked my tail off up until the minute I left on my little trip to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. My trip was delayed for several days, just to give me additional time to get everything in order.
For those of you who don't know, I am riding my '91 Harley to Las Vegas from MN.
The first day, I got to Kansas City and stayed at my daughter's house. I ended up with a stomach bug of some sort and decided to stay there for an extra day....to recover. I was very glad that I did, as I was a very regular visitor to her bathroom facilities all day long.
So....I cruised out of KC on Tuesday morning and hit the Kansas turnpike. (This is a toll road) The turnpike, if you haven't used it has sporadic "service areas" where you'll find a Mc D's and a gas station. When you exit the turnpike, that's when you pay your toll, so I generally don't exit until I have to.
Cruisin' along the turnpike, I noticed that my speedometer was acting a little goofy. This was the first sign of trouble.... I pullled into a service area and filled up with gas. To my surprise, the bike just 'clicked' when I'd try to start it.
So....I call my bike mechanic...who just happens to be my older brother, David.... I explain to him what's going on, and he has me get my tools out.... pull the primary cover off and "smell" inside it. It did kind of smell like something had crawled into there and died. I relayed that to him and he diagnosed the problem from afar. The stator had gone out in the bike, which is a unit that charges the battery as you ride the bike. He told me if I could get a charge on the battery, I'd probably be good to go for awhile. I found a young air force guy traveling who was kind enough to let me throw jumper cables on the battery and let it charge for 15 minutes or so. I was back on the road....
I went as far as Wichita and stopped at a Walmart to buy a battery charger to charge the battery up again and made some calls while I was there. I located a HD dealership, talked to someone in the shop and they said if I could get there soon....they'd probably be able to fix it yet the same day.
That's exactly what happened and about 4 hours and $400 later, I was back on the road. It was evening and I went to Dodge City, KS and spent the night. I had talked to some guys at the dealership who had told me that there was a new casino there with a poker room, so I thought I'd maybe be able to make a few bucks...
However, once I found a piece of crap room for the bargain price of $80.00 (being sarcastic here) I was so pooped out from the day that I just ended up sleeping. Morning came and I got the heck out of Dodge. :)
I had a decent day of traveling that next day. It stayed relatively cool and wind-free until about 2:00 in the afternoon... Then it got super hot...and super windy... I was totally exhausted by the time I got to Santa Fe, NM. After the room I had the night before, I was thinking I would just camp. I did stop at one normal looking hotel and asked about rates. They had a "manager's special" of $90.00
I went to the KOA.....pitched my tent, and got a good nights sleep.
I've met some great folks along the way and the past 2 days were no exception. I'm havin' a ball.... You ride through (and stop to eat in) some of these little towns in Kansas, Oklahoma, and NM with the bike all weighted down with the luggage and every once in awhile you have a pretty girl wave at you.... It's all good....and it's a lot of fun....
So....I leave Santa Fe with kind of a strange feeling about the bike... I just sensed that something wasn't going to go my way on Thursday. Shortly after hitting the interstate, my speedometer stays on zero. I was nervous about shutting the bike down, but every time I did...it started back up, so I thought to myself... "Well, if this is the 'problem' that I had the strange feeling about, I can deal with that". I've gone 2 years without a speedometer working on the bike, so it wasn't a big deal to me at all.
But...unfortunately, that was the least of my problems that day.... :)
I started hearing a noise from the bike that was coming from the front end. I rode for awhile, as the bike seemed to ride OK and the noise stopped for awhile. When it started back up, the noise was louder and I knew I better pull over and see what I could see....
I pulled into a gas station about an hour away from Albuquerque and tried to diagnose the problem. The front fender was bolted down good.... No problem there. I checked that first, because I had problems once with that in the past. It occured to me that front wheel bearings might be going out and I called the mechanic to see what he thought....
Once again, he diagnosed the problem from afar and I limped the bike along the side of the interstate 10 miles down the road to the nearest town. The front wheel was making an awful noise going down the interstate & to put it bluntly.... I wasn't comfortable... I was uncomfortable enough that I was wearing my helmet and holdin' onto the handle bars pretty tight... :)
I find an O'Reilly's auto parts store. They tell me they don't have what I need.
While I'm there, I meet "Reggie". I don't really know how to describe Reggie... He's driving a '67 Chevy pickup I think, with plywood in the place of a topper. The back windshield is totally shattered and the front windshield isn't much better. The guy's got a beer belly that looked like it would constantly be getting in the way of everything. He's unshaven, wearing his pajama bottoms and a t-shirt that doesn't cover that beer belly. I don't know if this would be the definition of a redneck...but I think it might be...
Reggie is kind enough to offer me a ride to his house and help me fix the bike. "We can throw the bike in the back of the pickup". (as I'm rollin' my eyes) I tell him I haven't even been able to get the parts I need...but thanks for the offer. He pulls out a napkin from his truck and writes him name down and a phone number. (Looking back, I don't know if it was his name or an alias) lol
David (the bike mechanic) tells me via the phone that the bearings are not unique and they probably have them, but I just have to find a parts number. I go to a travel center where they let me use their wi-fi and try to get the part number I need. I get a HD part number and a JP Cycles part number. (neither of what do me any good) David calls later with the part number I need. He had called a local bike shop and they got him the numbers I needed.
I go back to O'Reilly's and they do in fact have the parts I need so I think I'm in luck.
I hee-hawed a little bit deciding if I wanted to try and limp the bike to Albuquerque and find a bike shop....or if I should call "Reggie" and take him up on his offer to help me out with this.
The bike had been making such an awful racket that I wasn't comfortable driving it any further than I absolutely had to..... So.....
I made the mistake of calling "Reggie".... That's what my next blog post will be about....and it will be written before the day (or night) is over....
Can you all imagine how Jeffrey Dahmer's victims must've felt before they met their end? I'm thinkin' that they kinda felt the same way I was feeling when I was at this guy's place.... Check this blog post out later today.... :)
I ended up having a very good weekend playing cards in Shakopee a few weeks ago.
They started a new 20-40 1/2 Hold-em and 1/2 Omaha 8 or better game which was exceptionally good. I ended up having one small loss and 2 nice wins and it all equaled out to a very profitable weekend.
I then returned home and worked my tail off up until the minute I left on my little trip to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. My trip was delayed for several days, just to give me additional time to get everything in order.
For those of you who don't know, I am riding my '91 Harley to Las Vegas from MN.
The first day, I got to Kansas City and stayed at my daughter's house. I ended up with a stomach bug of some sort and decided to stay there for an extra day....to recover. I was very glad that I did, as I was a very regular visitor to her bathroom facilities all day long.
So....I cruised out of KC on Tuesday morning and hit the Kansas turnpike. (This is a toll road) The turnpike, if you haven't used it has sporadic "service areas" where you'll find a Mc D's and a gas station. When you exit the turnpike, that's when you pay your toll, so I generally don't exit until I have to.
Cruisin' along the turnpike, I noticed that my speedometer was acting a little goofy. This was the first sign of trouble.... I pullled into a service area and filled up with gas. To my surprise, the bike just 'clicked' when I'd try to start it.
So....I call my bike mechanic...who just happens to be my older brother, David.... I explain to him what's going on, and he has me get my tools out.... pull the primary cover off and "smell" inside it. It did kind of smell like something had crawled into there and died. I relayed that to him and he diagnosed the problem from afar. The stator had gone out in the bike, which is a unit that charges the battery as you ride the bike. He told me if I could get a charge on the battery, I'd probably be good to go for awhile. I found a young air force guy traveling who was kind enough to let me throw jumper cables on the battery and let it charge for 15 minutes or so. I was back on the road....
I went as far as Wichita and stopped at a Walmart to buy a battery charger to charge the battery up again and made some calls while I was there. I located a HD dealership, talked to someone in the shop and they said if I could get there soon....they'd probably be able to fix it yet the same day.
That's exactly what happened and about 4 hours and $400 later, I was back on the road. It was evening and I went to Dodge City, KS and spent the night. I had talked to some guys at the dealership who had told me that there was a new casino there with a poker room, so I thought I'd maybe be able to make a few bucks...
However, once I found a piece of crap room for the bargain price of $80.00 (being sarcastic here) I was so pooped out from the day that I just ended up sleeping. Morning came and I got the heck out of Dodge. :)
I had a decent day of traveling that next day. It stayed relatively cool and wind-free until about 2:00 in the afternoon... Then it got super hot...and super windy... I was totally exhausted by the time I got to Santa Fe, NM. After the room I had the night before, I was thinking I would just camp. I did stop at one normal looking hotel and asked about rates. They had a "manager's special" of $90.00
I went to the KOA.....pitched my tent, and got a good nights sleep.
I've met some great folks along the way and the past 2 days were no exception. I'm havin' a ball.... You ride through (and stop to eat in) some of these little towns in Kansas, Oklahoma, and NM with the bike all weighted down with the luggage and every once in awhile you have a pretty girl wave at you.... It's all good....and it's a lot of fun....
So....I leave Santa Fe with kind of a strange feeling about the bike... I just sensed that something wasn't going to go my way on Thursday. Shortly after hitting the interstate, my speedometer stays on zero. I was nervous about shutting the bike down, but every time I did...it started back up, so I thought to myself... "Well, if this is the 'problem' that I had the strange feeling about, I can deal with that". I've gone 2 years without a speedometer working on the bike, so it wasn't a big deal to me at all.
But...unfortunately, that was the least of my problems that day.... :)
I started hearing a noise from the bike that was coming from the front end. I rode for awhile, as the bike seemed to ride OK and the noise stopped for awhile. When it started back up, the noise was louder and I knew I better pull over and see what I could see....
I pulled into a gas station about an hour away from Albuquerque and tried to diagnose the problem. The front fender was bolted down good.... No problem there. I checked that first, because I had problems once with that in the past. It occured to me that front wheel bearings might be going out and I called the mechanic to see what he thought....
Once again, he diagnosed the problem from afar and I limped the bike along the side of the interstate 10 miles down the road to the nearest town. The front wheel was making an awful noise going down the interstate & to put it bluntly.... I wasn't comfortable... I was uncomfortable enough that I was wearing my helmet and holdin' onto the handle bars pretty tight... :)
I find an O'Reilly's auto parts store. They tell me they don't have what I need.
While I'm there, I meet "Reggie". I don't really know how to describe Reggie... He's driving a '67 Chevy pickup I think, with plywood in the place of a topper. The back windshield is totally shattered and the front windshield isn't much better. The guy's got a beer belly that looked like it would constantly be getting in the way of everything. He's unshaven, wearing his pajama bottoms and a t-shirt that doesn't cover that beer belly. I don't know if this would be the definition of a redneck...but I think it might be...
Reggie is kind enough to offer me a ride to his house and help me fix the bike. "We can throw the bike in the back of the pickup". (as I'm rollin' my eyes) I tell him I haven't even been able to get the parts I need...but thanks for the offer. He pulls out a napkin from his truck and writes him name down and a phone number. (Looking back, I don't know if it was his name or an alias) lol
David (the bike mechanic) tells me via the phone that the bearings are not unique and they probably have them, but I just have to find a parts number. I go to a travel center where they let me use their wi-fi and try to get the part number I need. I get a HD part number and a JP Cycles part number. (neither of what do me any good) David calls later with the part number I need. He had called a local bike shop and they got him the numbers I needed.
I go back to O'Reilly's and they do in fact have the parts I need so I think I'm in luck.
I hee-hawed a little bit deciding if I wanted to try and limp the bike to Albuquerque and find a bike shop....or if I should call "Reggie" and take him up on his offer to help me out with this.
The bike had been making such an awful racket that I wasn't comfortable driving it any further than I absolutely had to..... So.....
I made the mistake of calling "Reggie".... That's what my next blog post will be about....and it will be written before the day (or night) is over....
Can you all imagine how Jeffrey Dahmer's victims must've felt before they met their end? I'm thinkin' that they kinda felt the same way I was feeling when I was at this guy's place.... Check this blog post out later today.... :)
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