A couple of interesting developments this week. Son Donald's company was bought by a much larger outfit. At last report, he knew neither what that meant for his own position with the company, nor what effect it could have on his summer schedule with regard to the Chaco trip. Perhaps he'll know more soon. We started planning this one before he got involved, but he and Lacey have surely become a part of my continuing daydreams about our trail across the Southwest.
A couple of items arrived by mail, but have "birthday" written all over them, I can't write anything until April 15th. It looks like it will be tire time before we leave. Being a Softail Heritage, I've always thought it should have whitewalls. Looks like by buying them online and having someone here install them I can save $100 or so. Not everyone knows that motorcycles take a different tire on the front than on the rear. I'm looking at a Metzeler MT90B - 16 ($154) for the front and a 150/80 HB16 ($190) for the rear. The Harley folks want $140 to mount them. Other folks will undoubtedly be less.
One last item worth mentioning is that a major piece of my summer work came together this week. I've contracted to do several thousand dollars worth of display work. I'll have full time after commencement on May 12 through the 29th when I begin a class that will meet from 8:00 am. until 10:00 am. MTWand Th. For fivc weeks, it will be 10:30am. or so before I get out to the unairconditioned warehouse. It's usually pushing 100F by then but, in these times, we are most grateful for the work. These are displays I designed and fabricated some years back. In some cases, 30 years.
We've been using the Air Hawk seat cushions whenever we leave town. We agree that they will ease the ride this summer. On the last trip up into Canada, we went with a couple of pieces of sheep fleece which worked quite well.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
March 2012 - The Bestmade Plans
Jody and I live in Texas. It's a great place to spend the school year. . .but a good place to leave in the summer. In 2009 we struck out west for Taos, turned north and kept going 300 miles above the Canadian border to the Columbia Ice Fields. We turned around and headed down through family country in North Dakota, on down to the Sturgis rally, and home for a total of 6500 miles. Last summer we used the same kit to camp through seventeen European countries in a Renault Wind. That 2011 trip is covered in parispqgreece.blogspot.blog.
This trip proposes to take only only the second half of the summer to ride the scooter from here, Wichita Falls, TX, up to Minneapolis to visit family, then up to Fargo, ND, west to Bismarck and Beach, ND. to see more family. Then up across Montana to Great Falls to see our old friend Eunice Neely, then up across the 'Going to the Sun' highway through Glacier and up into BC. New country will be seen on the way west to Vancouver, onto the ferries and down to Port Angeles, WA. and then on down the coast to Tillamook, OR. to see my younger sis and her family. Then south to Crater Lake and into the California redwoods where we should pick up son, Donald and his girl, Lacey. We'll ride together down 101 to S.F. staying a couple of days and then start east to Yosemite. Donald plans to return Lacey to S.F. and a plane back to their home in Austin, TX. He'll catch up with us and go on to Zion, the North Rim, Monument Valley, Chaco Canyon, Taos, and home. It looks like about 6,000 miles
Our equipment is all in pretty good shape from last summer's workout. Of the 72 nights we were in Europe, we camped with our outfit 71 nights. The '07 Harley Heritage Softail has about 27,000 miles on it and shows no appreciable wear. I was looking tonight at tires. It will be time for a new set before the trip. We're getting Jody a new helmet - just like my HJC, with the tip-up faceshield so she can adjust her glasses, and take a drink on the road. We'd used a pair of Scala headsets, in fact gave Donald and Lacey a pair like ours. Both sets failed after the warranty period. The Scala people have no interest in repairs beyond that point, so we've both switched to Sena SMH10B units. I gave Jody an Air-Hawk cushion for Christmas and got one for myself as well. Our tushes should be comfy the whole way! I cut a new footprint for our Mutha-Hubba tent upon our return this summer, but haven't field-tested the wole rig just yet.
This trip proposes to take only only the second half of the summer to ride the scooter from here, Wichita Falls, TX, up to Minneapolis to visit family, then up to Fargo, ND, west to Bismarck and Beach, ND. to see more family. Then up across Montana to Great Falls to see our old friend Eunice Neely, then up across the 'Going to the Sun' highway through Glacier and up into BC. New country will be seen on the way west to Vancouver, onto the ferries and down to Port Angeles, WA. and then on down the coast to Tillamook, OR. to see my younger sis and her family. Then south to Crater Lake and into the California redwoods where we should pick up son, Donald and his girl, Lacey. We'll ride together down 101 to S.F. staying a couple of days and then start east to Yosemite. Donald plans to return Lacey to S.F. and a plane back to their home in Austin, TX. He'll catch up with us and go on to Zion, the North Rim, Monument Valley, Chaco Canyon, Taos, and home. It looks like about 6,000 miles
Our equipment is all in pretty good shape from last summer's workout. Of the 72 nights we were in Europe, we camped with our outfit 71 nights. The '07 Harley Heritage Softail has about 27,000 miles on it and shows no appreciable wear. I was looking tonight at tires. It will be time for a new set before the trip. We're getting Jody a new helmet - just like my HJC, with the tip-up faceshield so she can adjust her glasses, and take a drink on the road. We'd used a pair of Scala headsets, in fact gave Donald and Lacey a pair like ours. Both sets failed after the warranty period. The Scala people have no interest in repairs beyond that point, so we've both switched to Sena SMH10B units. I gave Jody an Air-Hawk cushion for Christmas and got one for myself as well. Our tushes should be comfy the whole way! I cut a new footprint for our Mutha-Hubba tent upon our return this summer, but haven't field-tested the wole rig just yet.
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