Breaking Down

On these winding roads, I found myself squeezing Joe a little harder than usual as he takes the turns a little faster than I’m used to. A few hours of this and several corn fields later, smoke began to billow from the front of the bike. Joe pulled over and checked the bike out, and we decided to drive it again once the bike cooled until we hit a town where we might be able to take it to a mechanic’s shop. The next town we hit was a small, almost empty town except for a building with the sign “Food and Spirits.”

Joe took the bike around the corner and parked it in the shade, and we went inside for a beer while we let the bike cool down. Joe asked Carl, the man who ran the store with his wife, if there were any mechanics in town, and for the rest of Joe being enthralled with the episode of M*A*S*H playing on the television,

us splitting both of their specials, and our continual fill-ups of our water bottle as we tried to find the leak by pouring water into the radiator; Carl and his wife kept trying to get a hold of Katie, a mechanic who they believed was still out on a fishing trip. Eventually we decided that the bike should make it to the next town over where there was a Honda shop. So with a huge Miracle Whip jug full of water we headed 7 miles east to Monroe. It was getting late so the bike stayed cool all the way there (thank god b/c I did not want a repeat of the day it took us 5 hours or so to drive from Canton to Akron).

We found an awesome hotel for real cheap and spent the night there. The next morning we hung out in their little garden and tried to skype Joe's mom, but we didn't have an outlet and we were too far from the server.

Then Joe dropped me off at a park with the fairing front of the motorcycle (he wanted to take it off himself to save money).

And Rosie, I dunno if you read this (I might not have sent it to you… sorry if that’s the case), but out of all the tools we had room to bring, Joe packed both the interchangeable screwdriver and extend-able magnetic grabbing tool that we got at your place for Christmas. Not to be too precise, but I do believe that Brittany actually got the screwdriver, and I got the car scraper, but she totally traded me and I think it’s worked out really well.

Anyways, when Joe got back he said that we might have to special order a new radiator since our bike is so old, and so we decided to just buy some stop leak at Auto Zone, and see how far that takes us. So we stashed the fairing in some bushes and drove to Auto Zone where I found the coolest little creek, and I told Joe that we should totally came there that night.

He agreed, and so we went to a Chinese American Buffet to kill time until dark. We plugged in the laptop, and for the next 3 hours we sat, ate, and played Myst IV.

Driving in the dark without the fairing means we don’t have a front headlight or front turn signals, so I used our flashlight to signal other cars that we were there and not to hit us. Auto Zone was only a 2 min. drive, so it wasn’t so bad. Then we parked at the Super 8 across the street, and unloaded our camping stuff, and walked down the street like we were going to visit Wallgreens. Then we made a B line for Auto Zone where we found a cop in the parking lot! Son of a Bitch! It was obviously a speed trap, but that still meant that we couldn’t sleep there, so we kept walking and went into the Burger King. We bought a water, and discussed options. We decided that the best thing would be to walk the 20 min. back to the park and camp there. So, 20 min. we got to the park, and there were people in the fire place/ picnic area. This really put me out because I really had to pee, and I had planned on using the park’s bathrooms. Joe wanted me to go and make friends, and I may have had I known who they were, but they could have been anything from a few teenagers smoking to some staff of the park. Either way, I didn’t want them to be able to tell the cops that someone else was also in the park. So I had to go in the woods as Joe went in search of the perfect hiding place… he found one above the “Do not dig” gas line sign just off a bike trail.

It worked out really well though, one of the best free ones I could think of. The next morning I went to use the bathrooms and discovered that we were just outside of the jet that was donated to the park,

and just a couple hundred yards from the amphitheater where we later discovered, as I sat with our stuff while Joe walked back to the bike, that there was a wedding there that day. Needless to say, I got some dirty looks from people in formals and tuxedos as I sat on the park road with all my camping stuff and scruffy hair.

When Joe got back we put the faring back on for almost 2 hours

And all I have to say about this pic is "Get off the road!" -Froto

But after that, we were finally off. But before we completely left, I wanted to get a pic of the wedding, and so we took the bike back up the drive, and that was when we really got some dirty looks.

So I didn't get a closeup shot.