20150901

Riding thru the desert, I did a lot of praying. First thankfulness for the availability and the safety that we've always had, then naming off 100 things I was thankful for. I realized that I needed to do this trip on my own. Why I don't know yet but I can say that it made me appreciate Jen more. I didn't know if I could actually complete this ride. It was over 1900 miles total to get there including going to kings first, and I w a going to just see how things went the first day and that would let me know how I would fair. Kings was 275 miles, and I spent two days there. On Tuesday morning I rode out at 7 the air was crisp and cool, and made it to Bakersfield in no time. I grabbed a bite to eat and headed through Mohave into baker, that when the heat started to hit me. Baker to vegas had small reprisals but Vegas was just as bad if not worse. Getting gas in North vegas, the fuel cap hissed as I opened it, and after putting the fuel in, bubbles kept popping up, I realized that something down there was boiling. The heat was oppressive but I had to continue on. I made it past valley of fire which was my possible first stop, and got the idea of texting rod and cyndi to drop by and say hi. I wasn't planning on it as I was ahead of schedule, and would have been through cedar city early in the am the next morning. I misjudged my earliness though and didn't get there til 9. We talked til about 1am, and in the morning ate breakfast and I left by 1030. I hadn't worried about the bike at all as it seemed to be running well, a bit hot, but well. I got gas in Biggs and it started to sputter, the engine light came on, and I went back to town found a shady spot to let it cool. I struggled at this point because I wasn't sure what to do. I was more than half way through the trip and a lot went thru my mind. What if it was dead? What if the cooling fan under the seat was no longer working? When I had restarted it it didn't come on at the gas station. I figured if I could keep it moving it wouldn't overheat, so I changed plans from going to Saratoga to go straight to rawlins, where I could continue on to Casper and a Harley dealer if I needed. The back tire had worn a lot going thru vegas, it looked almost chewed up and melted. I thought that I'd have to replace it, the fan and maybe the oil. I made it to rawlins, on to casper, ate and let the bike cool, it didn't cool much but it started and ran on through little towns to gillette, whrre it once again sputtered and i had to pull off thw side of the freeqay and stop, restart it and head on to spearfish. I don't know why it was not cooling diwn, perhaps the cooling fan is not turning as fast as it should. I met up with Dennis and carole, we talked for awhile, in the morning we decided to take my bike to get an oil change. It took 5 hours at Dakota vtwin and $100. We rode into Sturgis and bought a few things, parked on the main drag, looked at the trailers as dennis' trailers suspension seemed lacking. His cancer has returned and the doctor gave him 2 years. He got rid of the Harley bought a gold wing and actually made money. I think he got a better deal with the honda, but I can tell he wishes it was a harley. Dennis has always been one of the most spiritual men I've known. Not high ranking in the church and semi active, and even inactive he still moves with the spirit. He and his pentecostal preacher friend give blessings to people, he was in the cancer center in the Jewish hospital getting his chemo treatments hooked up to the machines and gave an old Muslim woman a blessing. I found out that dennis and carole had split for awhile and got back together. He is sometimes impatient with her, but I know there is a reason that they are together. On the way up, pry texted to find out where I was staying, and said that he is coming up. I worry about him making the trip, probably like jen worries about me. He wants to make the trip in two days and take our time getting back. It's a hard ride in three days.