Behind

I’m a little behind. Ok, today is Thursday. 

I forgot one thing from Tuesday. We’re on a country road and Jaron slams on his brakes. I swerve and also slam on my brakes and fishtail a little with ABS kicking in. A dog is running in the street. Jaron has already had a run-in with a dog in our neighborhood. Anyway, we’re both sitting there waiting for the dog to get out of the street, and I’m thinking, I hope the owners saw this. 

Yesterday, on Wednesday, we hit up Skyline Drive. It was foggy and then cleared up and we had a glorious time for about 20 minutes. We kept going and took a lunch break at Big Meadow, the halfway point. It was foggy AF so we decided to take the next off-ramp to Luray. In all, we spent 4 hours on Skyline including breaks and did 3/4 of it — about 75 miles. 

We were bummed out about the fog. It was raining, so we were less enthusiastic about camping and decided to head to Daddy’s in WV and see how far we got. I texted this plan to Daddy. We were going thru WV and hit more fog and I said fuck it, next motel we see, we’re stopping. We saw a sign for a motel so we exited and didn’t see the motel. We stopped at a gas station to inquire and were told that that motel sucked and that another one (an Inn) was more recommended. I had 4 text messages from Daddy saying do not attempt the mountains in the dark and rain, stop now, etc. I called him back to let him know we were stopping. We head in the direction of the Inn and see a Sheetz gas station. Jaron has been hearing about their hot dogs, so that’s what we had for dinner. We go to the Inn and see a Christian Tours bus there and we’re like, shit. Probably no room at the Inn. We go in and they are indeed sold out, but could open up an out-of-order room for us for a discount. Sounds like a plan. 

The room was fine. The ceiling was a little squeaky, which was why it was out of order, but I managed to sleep for 10 hours so they get 5 stars from me! 

Thursday morning we hit up Sheetz for breakfast and continue to Daddy’s. It’s a beautiful day and the riding was excellent. My dad lives at the dead end of a gravel road. This road has been a major complication in motorcycle trips. I’ve done it on the Green Machine (a large cruiser, not ideal) in the dark, even. So I’m not super excited about the gravel road. It’s about a mile long and it’s going alright. I’m going down a hill and am focusing on what I’m doing. Then as I head up the next hill, I look up and see Jaron fishtailing and then he’s laying across the road. HE’S FINE. That was not fun to watch, though. He gets up and assures me that he’s fine. I can’t get off of my bike because it’s on a steep hill on a gravel road and I am having a hard enough time staying upright as it is. He moves his motorcycle from laying across the road and I go past so that I can get Daddy to help. Daddy & I come back on the gator and Jaron has successfully picked his bike up. He noticed that his shifter was bent. I was like, well, all you have to do is kick it down once to go the rest of the way. He gets it pointed the right direction and we go the rest of the way to the farm. 

Jaron says that he can’t ride home like that and that he actually had to use his hand to shift in to first gear. Julie starts calling BMW dealerships and nobody has the part in stock. One dealership has the part for a different variation of Jaron’s model, made out of steel instead of aluminum. So I make plans to go get it tomorrow. 

We eat dinner and then while scoping out the route, Julie realizes that the dealership is 3 hours away instead of 2. 6 hours of riding is definitely a long day, and I do not want to do the gravel road in the dark, so I start unpacking and preparing for an early morning. Jaron & Daddy talk about ways to rig the shifter. Since it’s not usable, there’s nothing lost in them trying to bend it back. 

They bend it back and it breaks. It was obviously going to break. They glued it and came up with the idea of using angle iron to reinforce it. But of aaalllll the odds and ends in Daddy’s 3 garages, they can’t find any angle iron. So they clamped a piece of steel and start blowtorching it and Daddy bent it. (With his bare hands) Next they drilled holes in the aluminum and steel. Here is the end product. 

So! No trip to Ohio tomorrow for Julie to pick up a shifter. 👍

Jaron says he’s only mildly sore and feels validated for getting the good gear that made his tumble not a big deal.