After much anticipation, preparation, and aggravation I rolled out of Phoenix with my pal, headed for parts and folks known. A beautiful if warm day's ride took us up I-17 to I-40, and east into New Mexico, coming to rest at last in Tucumcari. From there we would cut NE thru Texas and Oklahoma, into Kansas and over to Clint's place outside of Topeka. Not before dinner and some sleep, though. Had some good chow at a little crossroads place called The Rockin' Ys - thanks folks for letting us in so close to closing! - and settled in.
Up early, over to a truck stop for some coffee, and on we went into a gorgeous, cool country-road kinda morning.
16 miles out of Tucumcari, the bike quit. The motor stopped firing. I still had electricity, but it was like I'd hit the kill switch. What the f...?
At first I thought my electronic ignition had failed, but, following a suggestion from one of the bros, I went a little deeper - and found that the cam was no longer turning. So much for a roadside fix. 644 miles on the trip meter out of an easy 3560 miles total, finished on the morning of Day Two. I put most of the loose pieces back on, made a call for a tow truck to get me back to Tucumcari, and morosely pondered my position. Accept the things I cannot change, accept the things I cannot change... And then Solid found somethin' for me:
...A Warm Fuzzy!
Seems that a teddy bear
got lost by the side of Highway 54, waiting for Kv to have his bike break in order to be rescued. Hard to stay depressed with all the little things that pop up on the road, so to speak.Got Her Darkness trailered back to Tucumcari. Solid and I ate breakfast, we arranged my rescue from the Evil Clutches of Tucumcari, and he rode on up to Denver to see his family.
I spent the rest of the day alternately hangin' at the hotel and walking around T-Town. Lemme tell ya, Tucumcari ain't exactly the liveliest joint on Sunday. By the time I figured out that I was hungry and wanted dinner, everything in walking distance was closed. Damn! At least I got treated to a little thunderstorm that
evening. Cool air, nice sunset. I reminded myself that there are worse things in life than a broken motorcycle - and I've been there. As with any situation that goes this upside-down, it takes me a little while to reconcile myself to it.About 1:30 in the morning of the 4th, Auz rolled in to the rescue. We got the bike on the trailer and hit the rack for a few hours. Up with the birdies, checked everything, and on the road home we went.
With a couple of stops on the way - for some proper 4th of July goodies, and some rocks by Sandia Peak, we managed to get home soon enough for me to get the bike squared away and head over to my In-laws for some tasty BBQ, card playin' and whiz-bang stuff to round it all off.It turned out to be a Road Trip, all right. Just not the one I thought I was gonna take...
Boy howdy, when people say, "Maybe you just weren't supposed to go..." I just wanna... mmmph.
