We slept in till 7:30 and after showers, went to breakfast in the motel restaurant. We were there for only a couple of minutes when a waitress came up to us. When she saw my Oregon Tool & Supply shirt she told us that she lived in Roseburg for 30 years. It turned out that we knew each other from her dad’s restaurant in Winston. Jack’s Green Tree Inn restaurant was famous for his ribs and super sauce. We used to eat there quite a bit back then. He sold out and then bought another place to be able to make his ribs. His daughter, Kerri, has been up here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for the past 10 years.
We were checking out the real time weather online and we are going to wait for another hour or so to try and miss a big rain cell that’s going south east. We asked Kerri to come outside for a picture with the bikes, and then we went to a gas station that was next door. As soon as I pulled up to the pump my light (ignition) switch started to smoke. The hot lead to it was shorting out on the metal end of the switch. I pulled it away right away and the wire was only melted a little bit. We finished fueling, and my bike would not start. I had no fire. I pulled out my circuit tester and found out that the switch was fried. I took the switch off the handlebars for the right turn signal that I got from Gary back in Gurnee, Illinois.
We were getting overheated as we were all dressed up and nowhere to go! A few minutes later, I had the switch wired in and I fired her up and we hit the road again. We finally left at 11:15 and waiting out the storm didn’t work so well. We might have missed the main part of the storm, but we got rained on for the first 50 miles or so, and then it was slowly turning out to be blue sky on the horizon. We stopped for fuel 90 miles later and took off some gear. Joni got a vanilla cuppa hot drink and shared it with me. We took off again and the weather was looking a whole lot better!
After about 50 miles more, all of a sudden my bike had a loss of power and a very bad noise coming out of it. It sounded like my exhaust pipe had fallen off. Unfortunately, it was not to be that simple. My rear head had blown out the head gasket. Big bummer. Joni saw me pull over and stopped down the freeway a bit. I stopped right at an exit. She called me and found out that it ain’t good! I ran on one cylinder to the end of the exit. Joni turned around, rode back off the freeway on the next on ramp, and joined me. I called AAA and asked for a tow truck to be sent for a motorcycle. I called Carol, back home, and asked her to look on her computer to see if there is a Harley shop or an aftermarket shop in Ellensburg. We were probably only 50 miles from there. She did not find anything there and she told me that there is a Harley shop in Wenatchee, and gave me the phone number.
I got a hold of Drew there in the parts dept. at Legend Harley Davidson of Wenatchee. I could not ask for someone to be more helpful than Drew was. He said that he had a head gasket and intake O rings. I gave him my visa number and he put them aside for me. We discussed what to do just in case we did not get there before they close at 5:00. He gave me his cell number and said to call him when we got to town and he would meet us. I then called back and got the phone number for Holiday Inn from Jake.
Holiday Inn had only 2 rooms left. Wow, good thing that I called for a reservation! (That was Joni’s idea)! A Royal City police guy drove up and asked if we were OK. I told him my bike was broken, but he wasn’t concerned about my bike, but he asked about Joni. She was laying down on her back and talking to Carol on the cell phone. He thought that something might be wrong with her and might have needed medical attention. We thanked him for stopping and said we were told that a tow truck should be here within the hour. He chuckled and said more like two hours.
Shortly after that a Jeep pulled up with a neat little bike trailer behind it. Derek from Vista Towing Services out of Moses Lake, was a very friendly guy and was here to the rescue. The trailer was unlike any other bike trailer that I had ever seen. He pulled a couple of hitch pins on each side and cranked a side mounted hand winch that lowered the whole platform down to the ground. I mean FLAT on the ground. I needed only to push my rat bike straight ahead, and Joni helped push too, as we had to go up a couple of inches to be in the channel iron. When the bike was secured in the wheel caulk and tied down Derek cranked the winch again and the whole platform went straight up and into place! We put the hitch pins in again and a few more tie straps, and we were off. He thought we were going to Ellensburg, but was pleased to find out that I wanted to go to Wenatchee, as it’s a nicer drive up the Columbia River.
Joni had a heck of a time with the wind, as it came at her from each side. I was in contact with Drew, from Legend’s Harley Davidson, as he was waiting for us at the Holiday Inn. We took a picture with Drew and I, and the new gaskets and thanked him very much for going out of his way to help me out. I gave Derek my Triple-A card to write up for him to get paid. I have AAA Plus, which gets us towed for up to 100 miles at no charge. I also gave my appreciation to him for being so friendly and good at what he does.
As soon as we got checked into the room, I went out back to start the process to remove the head. When I got it off, my mood quickly went sour. The head is shot. It was not just a blown head gasket, but the head had a chunk of aluminum blown out of it! It was like a lava flow from a volcano. The heat just kept burning the aluminum out like a torch had hit it. That is the rear head, that when Federal Express dropped my engine, it took the brunt of the damage. It dislodged it just enough for that to happen over time. Over a long period of time. I am thankful that it didn’t happen in DC, Maine or any other place far away from home.
We are only about 8-9 hours from home. I called Mark, who is staying at our house and taking care of Andrea, and asked him if he wanted an all expense paid road trip to beautiful Wenatchee, Washington. He said he would leave as soon as he could round up a trailer. He called me back to say that my enclosed trailer was being used by another friend, ‘cause I sure wouldn’t be needing it while we are gone, wrong! So he went to his dad, Fred, and borrowed his smaller enclosed trailer. Mark and his girl friend, Lori, are coming to my rescue as I write this. I told Joni that I’m very saddened to not be able to finish the ride. She looked at me and said, “At least one of us can”. I told her that I would much rather be the one that was unable to ride, because of a mechanical failure, than to have her health keep her from riding. So at this point in time, since I have no more spare shovelhead engines, I have to temporarily admit defeat, and call for a trailer to get me home the rest of the way.
I want to thank each and every one of the people that I rode with for the past 4+ weeks. Especially my beautiful wife, Joni, for waiting patiently (?) for me to solve each and every challenge as they were presented to me. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, “For me, this is the National Veterans Awareness CHALLENGE Ride”. It was, and is still, an AWSOME adventure to be able to ride from coast to coast, and visit with our real hero’s, the Veterans, past and present who help to make this a free country, so that we can ride when & where we desire to.
All I really need is for a motor that can hold up to my expectations. I will be back soon, as I want to get to Redwood Run #31 this next weekend, in Northern California. The rat bike and I have been to 29 out of 30 so far, and I want to make it 30 out of 31! A big Thank You to everyone who has contributed to this Web site, especially Ben Ivers, of IbWebn, who has worked for more hours on this site than I have been riding on this journey! And to his wife, Tracy, who makes the grammar and spelling corrections for me, and makes it look like I know how to write this stuff! And to everyone who has posted to the Ratbike Milo Sightings, which makes it even more personal for all involved. I hope that this adventure, both on the road and on the Web, has put smiles on the faces of the people that I have encountered along the way. I will be letting you know more of the Adventures of Ratbike Milo and the Rat Bike, as they unfold. Which will be real soon, so stay tuned. NEWS AT 11:00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
