...and back to DC

Here's a little more about the last Texas trip, and the return to Alexandria, via Texarkana, Little Rock, Memphis, Wytheville, and Washington, DC. I didn't think too much about the route for this trip, except just to get there as fast as I could. I certainly didn't play on the way to or from. But a few spots along the path were interesting, and given a choice, I'll take a rest stop at a Harley dealer if that's an option, and Hooters always gets my vote for food.....Just sayin'.

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Here's a Confederate Cemetery that's right next to a Harley dealer, but I'll be damned if I can remember which one.....

[OK. I went back and looked it up. This is next to Thunder Creek Harley in Chattanooga, TN]

First choice for food...always. I had a bad moment at the Texarkana location, but the extreme brevity of orange shorts more than made up for the food I didn't get. Heck, I forgot I was hungry!

Where I went when the pressure got to be too much....I was at both places a lot.

Wandered around, got lost, and accidentally found this place.

Girls of Azle, #1. 

This is Aunt Annie, the reason for all the running back and forth, and she's totally worth it.

More Girls of Azle.....Joyce!

A food stop in Nashville, where a Harley shop is conveniently located right next door. Someone on Facebook accurately observed that this combination might be Heaven for me, speculating that I might never leave. They had a point.

The view most of the way from Knoxville to DC...More rain that Texas saw all year.

....and back home, almost exactly 48 hours after leaving Azle.

Got a lot done down there. The house is now mostly cleaned and repaired, awaiting painting, and is now my new home-away-from-home when in Texas. But to be honest, it was beginning to feel more like home the longer I stayed. I put a lot of work into that house over the past month or two. 

Legally, it's now protected from "the Man", and still in my Aunt's name. That was a big win, and kudos to the Good N.E.W.S. team for finding out how to do that. If you're in a jam with an elderly relative going into assisted living, and who owns a home, ask your attorney about a Ladybird Deed that might help protect that asset. Google the term for more info.

Thanks also to Terri for handling countless other details over the years, including giving me a kick in the ass, and getting my Aunt into a hospital when she needed it! 

Thanks also to Joyce for helping with the hospital stuff, and damn near everything else, including a difficult trip to an attorney office for some long-overdue business. Joyce is one terrific lady and has been at my aunt's side for years now.

And thanks to the efforts of both Terri and Joyce, Aunt Annie is now a resident of Azle Manor nursing home, where she'll get the 24-hour care she needs! Both ladies work for Good N.E.W.S, which is a non-profit group that assists elderly folks who want to remain living at home. What an incredible organization!!! And what great girls!

And after all that, I finally got home yesterday. First thing this morning, after some coffee, I opened up the garage, took out the Softail Custom, and took a nice long ride to nowhere. I felt the worries slip away, all the while thinking of the Girls from Azle. I miss them all, and one in particular. I might have to go back sometime soon. After all, I sorta have a second residence there now........

Cowboy

Back to Texas.....

I got an urgent message the other day that my Aunt Annie had taken a turn for the worse, and I had to high-tail it back to Texas last weekend. Not knowing all I'd be dealing with, and not wanting to drag a trailer behind me on another long ride, I left my motorcycles home, tucked away in the garage in Virginia.

Now that might have been a practical move, but I gotta tell ya: I'm going in circles down here dealing with all the stuff: there's the nursing home staff, attorneys, various other concerned parties, contractors, and one really pissed-off 99-year-old aunt. And yeah, I'm working remotely during the day, so I'm trying to run my department as well. If it weren't for the help of two terrific ladies who have taken care of my Aunt, I'd be up the creek. And yeah, one of the ladies is really a cutie, but I'd better leave that subject for another time, LOL, but I was definitely looking forward to seeing her again.

But before I complain too loudly about working while I'm here, let me quickly say that I've got a terrific boss who generously offered to let me work remotely while I take care of business. Not many bosses would do something like that, so Joe gets a couple Gold Stars from me and my Aunt Annie! Thanks Joe!!!!!

That said, the entire ordeal sorta sucks, and now I'll explain how that's motorcycle-related.........

See, at home, when the shit hits the fan, I can come home, jump on one of the bikes and just let those worries blow off in the wind. It's the best therapy I've even found, and it never lets me down. I take a long ride to nowhere and when I get back, I feel like a new person. The headaches are still there, but my perspective changes, and that's no exaggeration.

And down here, there ain't no motorcycle....no outlet for the stress. I'm thinking I'll treat myself to a rental this weekend.....take a long ride........to nowhere. With a stop at Hooters, of course. And after that, a much needed siesta!

Cowboy

It's Back! My Softail Custom is Back!

 Right out of the shop at Patriot Harley Davidson

Back near the end of May, some idiot, paying attention to everything EXCEPT what was in front of him, rear-ended me at a traffic light! As it turned out, I was OK, but there was $3,500 worth of damage to my 105th Anniversary Softail Custom, and I bitched about the event in an article back in June. (click here to read).

Most of the replacement parts parts didn't take long to get, and installation didn't involve that much labor, but getting the painted tin out of Harley Davidson was an entirely different story. It took damn near 2 1/2 months to get the fenders! Patriot Harley Davidson finally put 'er back together for me, delivering it just after I got back from Southern Comfort 2011!

Getting the bike back was a really nice surprise when I got back, and George and Jeff at Patriot get TWO GOLD STARS for helping me through the entire process, making sure my bike was fixed properly. GEICO also stepped up the plate, approving all suggested repairs....No bitching and quibbling at all. Thanks to everyone.

Very first stop, but you knew that, right?

As soon as I got it home, up on the lift it went so I could replace the front rotor and pads, which I'd ordered last May.

Back at home with it's siblings and up on the lift for brake work.

The front rotor got warped somehow, and it happened not too long after I bought the bike. One day I started noticing a "pulsing" when I hit the front brake, and it just got more and more annoying as time went on. So I picked up a chrome replacement on eBay for about a hundred bucks, some new rotor mounting bolts, and new brake pads. 

I read somewhere that you should always use new bolts when replacing the rotors, and for reasons not entirely clear. It could be because new bolts have locking goop in the threads, which is gone when you remove them. I reckon just using Loctite on the old bolts would do the job, but for 10 bucks, I replaced the bolts with new ones, deciding to cut corners on money someplace else besides my brakes! Cheaper beer? Cheap women? (Is there such a thing?)

And I used Loctite anyway, along with the compound in the new bolt threads. Double-locked! Now some Yahoo will write me a note, telling me one of the thread-locking compounds cancels out the other, creates acid, and eats the damn bolts away! I'll let ya know. Or not......

it's a quick and easy job to replace the rotor and install new pads

Done deal....

And right about here, I got to thinking, which (as all my friends know) can be dangerous. I was thinking that I just installed a very smooth, chrome rotor which had unknown friction characteristics, and maybe....just maybe...the fucking bike wouldn't stop! Now that might seem stupid....it was...but I still rode up to that first red light S L O W L Y, making damn sure the brakes worked. And then I gradually got used to the idea that a chrome rotor worked just fine, LOL.

Time passes........

So I've had the FXSTC back about a week now, and the Joker has been tucked away in the back of the garage while I've ridden the Softail. I gotta tell you....I've been on the Joker all summer (I'm damn glad I bought that second bike!), and certainly got used to a rough-riding, ornery old scoot....no complaints about it at all. But the two bikes couldn't be more different!

Getting back on the FXSTC is almost like riding on air. I don't have to tense up at every little crack in the asphalt, knowing I'm about to get hammered! And even with my loud pipes, the Softail is damn near quiet in comparison to the Joker. And you don't have to run it at 3,000+ RPMs to keep it from rattling itself to death! In short, My Softail Custom is a well-mannered, easy-riding bike, reminding me how I managed to ride all those miles last year.

So this chapter is closed. One idiot's stupidity turned into getting lots of sparkly new hardware, so it wasn't all bad, and of course, I wasn't hurt. I had the second bike so no riding got missed either. All things considered, I guess it turned out OK, though I sure hope there ain't no next time. And I hope the idiot gets a super-high rate increase when his insurance comes up for renewal. If nothing else, that might make him pay some fucking attention to motorcycles.

And that's about it. It's been so long since I had the Softail Custom, I feel like I've got a new bike! Heck, it even LOOKS new. Since it's been on the shelf all summer, it escaped a lot of summer miles, so I'll let it rest up for a long run next Summer. Sturgis? Now THAT's an idea.......

Cowboy

PS The Softail has a back seat and passenger foot pegs, so maybe I can start dating again? Just sayin'.