After getting a great nights sleep in Fort Collins, I met my buddy, Rod for breakfast at Denny's. We enjoyed a very nice visit talking about poker, family &kids, God, & other things... I enjoy visiting with Rod as we seem to have a lot in common and have also experienced some similar challenges in life. We met in either Reno or Las Vegas (at the poker table) about 15 years ago I suppose...and since then, our wives have had the opportunity to meet & visit also....
I suppose we ate and visited for about an hour. He left to go play poker from there and I left for the 2nd leg of my journey home. I was hoping to put a bunch of miles on again on Thursday, with my sights set on Rapid City, SD (or somewhere near there) as a stopping place.
I had mentioned, on Wednesday night, to my brother Dave (the bike mechanic) that I was starting to hear a noise coming from the bike. We decided that it probably was the roller and/or cam and would have to be looked at when I got home. He did bring up the idea of checking into it while I was on the road, if I could find a place, but I wasn't real concerned about it, because the last time I had this same problem on the bike, it rode fine for quite awhile before I had to get it fixed.
I got quite a few miles in before I had to stop for gas. It was a good start to the day, however the noise on my bike, upon leaving town, was getting a little louder and more noticeable...
I pulled out of Torrington, WY after putting on my leathers and helmet, due to an ominous dark cloud in the direction that I was going to be heading.
About 2 miles out of town, it started to rain, so I was glad I had prepared for it. I stayed dry for the most part and it wasn't too cold, so it was pretty easy to put up with. I rode through the rain for about 1/2 hour or so and by that time the clouds had moved to the East of where I was it.
The noise on my bike was getting noticeably louder and it was beginning to concern me a bit. I was pretty much in the middle of nowhere between Torrington and Newcastle, WY. There is a little town called "Lusk" which I knew was coming up....and I decided I better stop there to assess the bike. Upon arriving, I made a call to my wife, Christine...to let her know where I was, visit, etc...and to Dave...(the mechanic) to discuss bike issues. We pretty much decided there weren't any/many options and the only sensible one was to get as far as I could on the bike. Rapid City, SD would be the closest place where I could have somebody look at it. I told him I'd call him later to let him know where I was at & how things were going.
I no more got off the phone with David and I felt a headache coming on. It came on very fast and very hard... It turned out to be an exceptionally bad headache, and I laid out on a sidewalk, in the shade, with my coat as a pillow, on the North side of a gas station where I'd stopped. Not unlike when I have had bad headaches before, I ended up falling asleep as soon as the pain got to a tolerable level. (which seemed like forever that day) I knew I had laid there for awhile...when I woke up.
I looked at my phone to see how long ago I had talked to my brother. Turned out I had laid there for a little over 3 hours. The day seemed like it was pretty much shot... (It was about 5:00 PM by the time I woke up) and I hadn't hardly gotten any miles on. I was exhausted from the headache but was determined to at least get to Newcastle, WY yet that evening.
Well, I went less than 1 mile and my bike was making noise...and it was a-grindin'... and in an instant, I had no power, in any gear. I coasted to the side of the road and ended up pulling onto a side street in Lusk. I was near a city park and thought I would probably end up throwin' my tent up and sleeping there that night and work on my other problems in the morning. I did walk to the park (as there was a little kids baseball game going on) and asked a couple of people if they knew anyone in town that worked on bikes.
No one did, so I started walking back to my bike (1/2 block away) to reassess that situation. About that time, I noticed a guy unloading a dirt bike off the back of his pickup...in his backyard. I walked over and asked him if there was anyone who could/would work on bikes in town and he thought there might be one guy... (a friend of his) who could take a look at it, but it turned out his friend wasn't comfortable tearing into a Harley.
I was still in major recovery mode from my headache. I asked Rich if I could push the bike over to his front yard. I just felt that it would be safer there than anywhere else. I asked Rich if there was any motels in town. There was one and Rich would eventually drive me to it with most of the stuff off of the bike. I really appreciated this guy's help that day... He went above & beyond what anyone could've expected, trying to find someone to look at the bike...and eventually hauling me to the motel. I ended up leaving Rich with some "going out to eat money" for him, his pregnant wife, and 2 children when I eventually did get out of Lusk. I had a hard time getting him to accept the $$, but I wasn't about to give in. I SO appreciated his help on Thursday. In the exhausted state I was in that day, I can't even imagine having to walk to that motel, carrying as much of my items that I could.
Upon getting my stuff in the motel room, and securing that room for the next 2 nights, I collapsed on bed, to shut my eyes, even if it was only for a little while. I then made a call to Dave, to let him know that I was only about 4 blocks from where I originally called him from...and my bike was about a mile in the other direction, and it was unrideable.
David must be simply awesome at networking, because he knows about a million people....and about that many people seem to also know him.... He got on his blackberry...and I'll be darned if he didn't come up with a young local IA guy, who was going to be leaving for Rapid City that very night, (like at 2:00 AM) to deliver a motorcycle that he'd sold to the HD dealership there. Riley was his name...(and turns out his dad & I were in the same grade in high school) and he agreed to go the extra 150 miles or so to Lusk and come and get me the next day.
It was probably about 11 or 12:00 by the time I got to sleep that night....but I slept good! I don't know if I've ever had my energy so depleted....due to the headache....and then the misfortune with the motorcycle. I also knew someone was going to be coming to pick me up, to make what would hopefully be, the last leg home, at some point on Friday.
This story's getting a little longer than I anticipated, so I'm going to stretch it out over one more blog post. In the next day or two, I'll tell you about the rest of the trip home....and what I've been up to since getting here.
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