Day One - July 7th
Hey everyone we are ALASKA bound!!! It was not without troubles but that's what makes for great stories! Thank you sooo much for all the great comments. For Tom's family we got your message and will be enjoying all the sites and sounds. For the boys from the Villa, looking forward to meeting some fellow brethren out here. For Trent, those are not crash bars they are engine guards :) For my folks....I am fine! For my bro- wish you were here. For my church family thank you for the prayers, we need it, it is big country. Troy and Dave - I am scouting for tootsie rolls and Helen send her greetings as well. For all my Takeda friends thanks for lifting me up and listen to me babble about this trip for the past year. Cheryl, thanks for helping with everything. Reisers, thanks for all the good food and cold beers.
Well here is how this went down, we were originally going to leave tomorrow and then we decided to go on Tuesday but that did not happen. In order to prep for a long trip I decided to change all my fluids in my bike and I am glad I did. For the motor savvy people, I had bad needle bearings on my lifter rollers. For the non motor people, I had metal shavings on my oil filter magnet and in my filter. Thanks to Toms dad Geno for sawing into my oil filter to investigate further. What Geno found was not good.
I took my bike to Warrens Service on Rollins and Fairfield and he performed the delicate surgery that allowed us to get on the road today about two in the afternoon. Thank You Warren!!
We landed in Eau Claire for the night and got wet a few times today. Had some steak at dinner at the Texas Roadhouse where Ashley served us well. Our bikes are parked at the Country Inn and Suites and Amber at the front offered us to park out of the rain on the small overhang, thanks. As we pulled into the lot of the hotel a gal about my ma's age, Annie, stopped us because the ever vigil Helen prompted yet another conversation. Annie told us, when she realized where we were going, that she is an elementary school teacher and her first teaching gig ever.......Alaska. Man the older we get the smaller the world gets.
So we are going to dry out and clean up the bikes from all the rain and situate our gear and headed for North Dakota. We should have some video tomorrow and a few more pics. We miss everyone- not really not yet.
Well here is how this went down, we were originally going to leave tomorrow and then we decided to go on Tuesday but that did not happen. In order to prep for a long trip I decided to change all my fluids in my bike and I am glad I did. For the motor savvy people, I had bad needle bearings on my lifter rollers. For the non motor people, I had metal shavings on my oil filter magnet and in my filter. Thanks to Toms dad Geno for sawing into my oil filter to investigate further. What Geno found was not good.
I took my bike to Warrens Service on Rollins and Fairfield and he performed the delicate surgery that allowed us to get on the road today about two in the afternoon. Thank You Warren!!
We landed in Eau Claire for the night and got wet a few times today. Had some steak at dinner at the Texas Roadhouse where Ashley served us well. Our bikes are parked at the Country Inn and Suites and Amber at the front offered us to park out of the rain on the small overhang, thanks. As we pulled into the lot of the hotel a gal about my ma's age, Annie, stopped us because the ever vigil Helen prompted yet another conversation. Annie told us, when she realized where we were going, that she is an elementary school teacher and her first teaching gig ever.......Alaska. Man the older we get the smaller the world gets.
So we are going to dry out and clean up the bikes from all the rain and situate our gear and headed for North Dakota. We should have some video tomorrow and a few more pics. We miss everyone- not really not yet.