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Saturday, September 09, 2006

The Trip from Hell



So I am finally back from our annual Labor Day motorcycle trip to California, and I think for the first time I am glad it is over. The ride in and of itself wasn’t bad other than we rode I-80 almost the whole time; it was once we got to California that our luck turned south…

Thursday – We had a much later start than we usually get, but not really a big deal. Since we were running late we decided it would be best to high tail it to Reno via I-80 instead of our usual Highway 50 or 6 non stop to Fresno or Stockton. This way we would avoid riding in the dark over the Sierra Nevada’s. The jaunt across Nevada came without incidence and the weather was just right, not too hot, not too cold. The $25.00 room we found on Hotels.com was actually quite nice and large. I highly recommend the Sands Regency in Reno if you need a place to crash. Kit and I played Craps for about 6 hours at the $3 table and had a blast. For $20.00 I was up almost $360.00 at one point and should have walked away, but I was having too much fun. 20 bucks is cheap for the six hours of entertainment we had.

Friday – Man I’m sick. I have come down with some sort of flu. I feel light headed-dizzy, and I am sure that I am about to puke. We get up and go down and get in the hot tub for a bit, I keep hoping that whatever is wrong with me will pass. Off to breakfast and I hoped that getting some food and liquid in me would settle my stomach. I was wrong. Just the scent of the food made me sick and to the bathroom I go. It is amazing how much better one can feel after a nice pukefest. I come back to the table and have some orange juice and nibble some fruit and toast. It’s time to hit the road. We load the bikes up and just as I am about to put on my helmet I feel the urge again and lose all of the contents of my mostly empty stomach in the parking garage. We mosey our way out of Reno and head to North Tahoe. Within 20 minutes the dizziness is gone and only an upset stomach remains. The trip across North Tahoe was nice and twisty, fun stuff. As we descended into the valley someone turned on the heat. It was at or near 100 degrees. When we arrived at my brother-in-law Garth’s he was still putting his newly painted tank, fairing, and solo seat on his Shadow. His new seat needed a new hole to be drilled into his rear fairing and he wasn’t up to the task considering he had just spent $1,500+ on a custom paint job. Fairing on, tank on, seat on, chain lubed and adjusted we run to the gas station and then head out for some grub, I’m still not able to eat anything but a bowl of soup.

Saturday – Time to burn to Merced to find a hotel and then off to Mariposa for the county fair. We load the bikes up and I notice a small puddle of coolant under my bike, uh oh. Off we head and about 2 miles down the road at a stop light there is a nice stream of coolant running out of the belly of the bike. We find a auto parts store and I find that the leak is indeed the radiator. I was sure the radiator was leak free as I had pressure tested it before we left for the trip! Great, a new radiator is about $500.00 and I am sure that the Stockton Honda dealer isn’t going to have one in stock. I run into the parts store and buy some Bars stop leak and a bottle of premix coolant. I have never been able to get this stuff to work, but considering my other options I put it in. Within one stop light the leak has completely stopped! Sweet. We then make our way up to La Grange and a little biker bar where we always stop to have a prime rib sandwich. It is the best prime rib sandwich I have ever had. In the last two years the price has risen from a nice $6.00 to a hefty $14.00 but still worth ever savory penny and every mile of out of the way road. We make it to Merced and get ourselves a hotel room and unload the bikes. On the road again we head up to Kathy’s Valley and visit my wife’s grand parents grave to pay our respect. The road from Kathy’s Valley to Mariposa is nice and twisty. We make it to the county fair where I enjoy people watching, a funnel cake, and a huge corn dog. We were supposed to meet Geoff at the fair to get the keys to a 1965 Ford Ranchero that we were going to drive back to Salt Lake City from Porterville California. We never found Geoff. He had shaved his beard so Kit didn’t recognize him, and Kit has lost over 200 pounds so Geoff didn’t recognize him either. After the fair the night ride back to Merced always scares me, too many deer, and a ton of drunks coming out from the beer garden at the fair.

Sunday – We wake up in the morning and part ways with Garth, he headed north back to Stockton and Kit and I head south on the 99 towards Porterville (East of Bakersfield). Just as we get into Fresno Kit pulls off the freeway and slowly makes it up and exit and parks on the side of the exit. This isn’t good, we weren’t due for a gas stop for another hour. He says that just before the last exit his radio stopped playing and then the bike just shut off. No lights, nothing. So we turn the key on and there is only about 8 volts showing. This is either a dead short, or his charging system went south, again. He has gone through four stators on his 1998 Harley Electra Glide Classic! We figure that maybe the battery is toast and wouldn’t hurt from a charge to at least get us off the side of the road. I put his battery in my bags and head on up the road looking for a parts store. I first come across a Pep Boys. We don’t do motorcycle batteries here, and we don’t have one that big either, but there is a Harley dealer less than a block away. I head to the Harley dealer, and as one would expect they are closed on the Sunday before Labor Day and Labor Day. Great, this means not parts or service until at least Tuesday. I then find a Cycle Gear shop. My hopes went up 10% as a dedicated motorcycle shop is going to have a battery and be able to put a charge on the battery I have. They tell me that they would want the battery overnight to charge and test it even after I explained I didn’t need a full charge, just enough to get him off the freeway. No replacement battery either, but he did know of a guy that has a shop and that he is open on Sunday’s. I give the guy a call and he said he could look at it and tell us in 5 minutes if it is the stator or something else. I get his address and directions and head off looking for someone that will put the battery on a charger for 30 minutes. Another block away I find a Checker Auto parts store. He indicates to me that his machine isn’t designed for motorcycle batteries, but that he would run it for 20 minutes and see what it did. 20 minutes later I had a 40% charge. That should be enough to get him to the shop. I run back to the freeway and we get Kit back on the road and to the shop where Raymond was waiting. Sure enough within 5 minutes he indicated that the stator was bad and unfortunately it wasn’t the one he had in stock. He tried a few numbers and nothing was going to be open until Tuesday. Off to the airport to get a rental car we go. Raymond was nice enough to drive Kit and I followed on the bike. Rental Kia in hand Kit and I continue our voyage towards Porterville. Geoff’s double-wide is probably one of the most secluded places I could imagine. It was hard to find and was literally in the middle of an orange grove. Nobody was there, but the door was unlocked and the Ranchero was positioned under an engine hoist. We tried to call Geoff again with no luck, it was getting dark so we headed into town to find something to eat. We literally stumbled into a Chinese restaurant and my expectations weren’t too high, after all we are in a small town with more Hispanic’s than whites. The place was packed. It was 10:00 on a Sunday night and there was hardly a seat in the place. Odd. When we saw the menu we were amazed. They had combo meals between $6-8 and they were huge. We decided to share a combo (Kit has had a gastric bypass) and it was some of the best Chinese food I have ever had, and more food than the two of us could put down. We may have to make a run to Porterville in the future just to hit the Asian Star.

Monday – We awake and make a call to Geoff, and this time we actually get a hold of him. He is about an hour away and has the keys and parts we need to get the Ranchero back on the road. The part we needed to replace required that we remove the engine and drill out a bolt and replace the broken Z-bar for the clutch. By the time Geoff arrives we have the engine out of the car. I should add that we removed the engine in an hour and a half using only a couple of combination wrenches from Kit’s Harley tool kit, and the adjustable wrench that I had brought. We get the part and tools we needed to finish the job. The bolt drilled out and backed out easy enough we replaced the pilot and through out bearings. The left motor mount was broken and was likely the cause of the Z-bar failure. We head into town to buy oil, filters, coolant, hoses, and a motor mount. We find about half of the parts we need but not the one we needed the most – the motor mount. Without the motor mount we would likely break the part again the first time we hit a bump. We decide to drill and bolt the motor mount halves together. This will work just fine, but will cause the engine vibrations to transfer to the frame. The engine fights us a little going back in, but once the bell housing is bolted to the block things go back together quickly. By 4:00 we have a running engine and it sounds pretty good. By 5:00 I have all the headlights, turn signals, and brake lights working and we drive it to the gas station to fill her up. The Ranchero is pretty fun to drive. The little 289 has some pep and the 4 speed top loader shifts like a dream. When we go to fill the tank up the gas just pours out the bottom. The fuel tank fill hose has split. We head back to Geoff’s and then back into town to get a new filler hose and some dinner. In the dark we replace filler hose and a U-joint. After all our fun we go for a swim in the pool next door that belongs to Geoff’s mother.

Tuesday – If things go well today we will get the car loaded and be in Salt Lake tonight. We load my motorcycle into the back of the Ranchero and tie it down. Off we head hoping that our luck will continue. We make it about 20 miles and Kit pulls over, the Ranchero is overheating. We cool it down. Fill it back up with coolant and continue on our way. Another 20 miles or so down the road it boils over again. Great. We pull into a gas station to cool it down and fill up. Once we are done the car won’t start. The battery was questionable, but we had hoped to make it Fresno to replace it and the tires. I head on down the road to find a parts store. 30 minutes later I return with a new battery. As we put the battery in I suggest that we pull the thermostat out in hopes that it is either stuck or that at the least will help it go longer before it over heats. We return to Auto Zone and return the battery for the core, and buy a thermostat gasket and radiator cap. When we walk out we have a flat tire! Well in our rush to get out of town we forgot to grab the jack and star wrench. Luckily the jack and wrench from the Kia rental work good enough for us to put the spare on the car. Removing the thermostat helped but didn’t fix the overheating problem. We make it to Fresno, return the rental and find a Pep Boys where we get 4 new tires put on and find out where a good radiator shop is located. Kit’s bike still isn’t ready. We tried to find a water pump, but nobody had one in stock. It’s late and we are tired so we find a hotel and spend the night.

Wednesday – I was hoping to be getting up to go to work today. Instead I am in Fresno driving a car that overheats. We head down to the radiator shop and ask about rodding the radiator out. He said they could do it, but it would take all day. We didn’t have all day. Can you find us a replacement? After looking in the catalog he couldn’t find anything that would fit. Sensing our desperation the guy that does the radiator rodding says that if we can have the radiator to him in the next 30 minutes he can have it cleaned up in a couple of hours. We quickly pull the radiator and drop it off and head off for breakfast. At breakfast I witnessed my first mugging as a black kid mugged a kid and took his pedal bike. Nice part of town we are in. We return from breakfast and the radiator is done. He tells us it was at least 70% blocked and was likely the reason we were over heating. We tip him 20 bucks and put the radiator back in the car. We call Raymond and he tells us that we can pick up the Harley it is ready to go. We pick up Kit’s bike and hit the road. We don’t make it 2 miles and Kit pulls over. Bike just died, but it starts right back up. This happens twice more before we are out of Fresno. So we get off the freeway and head to the Harley dealer. The service tech said it wasn’t uncommon for the circuit breakers to go bad after a stator lets go and that we should replace it. Kit also wasn’t happy with the adjustment on his clutch. So for the next hour we replace the circuit breaker and adjust his clutch. Back on the road and it is HOT. It was one thing to do it on a motorcycle where at least the wind from moving cools you off. But sitting in a car in 100 degree heat with the car heat on high to help keep it from overheating is another. I’m sweating like a pig. The car is running hot, but not hot enough to boil over like it had been. But for some reason my iPod won’t work. Maybe it is too hot in the car to operate an iPod. We make it to Sacramento and onto I-80 finally we are putting in some miles. Just outside of Sacramento we hit bumper to bumper traffic and the car begins to overheat. Before I can get across traffic and off the interstate the car boils over. We let it cool down and when we pull the radiator cap it breaks in half. Kit gets on his bike in search of a replacement as I sit and sweat. About an hour later Kit shows up and we get back on the road. We make it one exit and it overheats again. We decide to give up on the car and find somewhere to leave it and unload my motorcycle. Once on the bike I cooled off quickly, and at the top of Donner Pass it was cold enough that I needed my leather jacket. We pulled into Reno about 11:00 at night and decided to stay the night.

Thursday – We asked for a wake up call at 6:00, but never got a call and so we didn’t make it out of town until almost 10:00. The trip from Reno to Salt Lake City takes about 6.5 to 7 hours. It was uneventful other than we nearly ran out of gas trying to make it to Wells to avoid the extra gas stop. Kit and I parted ways in Tooele and I made it home about 5:00.

Kit got home and headed back out with a trailer on Friday to go get the car. Today is Saturday and he is about 4 hours away with the car in tow. This is the second time I have gone to California to fix a car to drive back to Salt Lake, and the second time the car didn’t make it back. I think this will be the last time I do that and from now on I will ship or trailer the vehicle back. Then again maybe my luck will be better.
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