I've made 5 rides from Maine back to San Diego. There was a rider who held Moto parties in Abbot, Maine for a week during Labor Day week.

Well, let me tell you why I attend. Bob Zimmerman and his wife, Linda, belonged to a mortorcycle riding internet group of Honda V4 riders from all over the USA. They've put on a get-together for nearly 20 years during Labor Day week at their home at Abbot, Maine for riders mostly from within 500 miles, but there were riders from Canada, Calif, and even Europe occasionally that would show up.

Riders would begin arriving on Thursday and the last would leave the next Wednesday. 50+ folks would spend nearly a week camped in their yard with many sleeping in the loft of their 3+ car garage.

The garage would become a moto repair facility where tires could get changed as well as complete engines. Valve adjustments and carb cleaning were commonplace. There were self-taught V4 experts on hand to advise other riders the various 'how tos' of complicated procedures. Absolutely nothing moto was out of the scope of the knowledge present for that week. At least, there was always someone who thought that they knew how to do it.

Linda and a few voluteers provide meals for all those folks for nearly a week out of her small kitchen. A highlight was Lobster and Steak Saturday night dinner that Bob and his son, Jeff, cooked outside on the nightly bonfire.

Rides from Bob's house included rides to Acadia Natl park and even into Canada on occasion.

At the Canadiam Border

The SabMag riders even took over the hammer and Skillet toss at a local Labor Day Fair. Our riders took home a lot of ribbons for extreme distances...even our women showed well with ribbons in the lady classes.

A year ago to the day on Sept 22, 2019, Miss Linda died from a cancer overdose,... so the end came to a great lady and the end of a SabMag Labor Day tradition.

Those of us who had the pleasure of knowing Linda will miss her for the rest of our lives. RIP MS Linda.

Life at Bob Zimmermans Labor Day Week Zimbob washing a Honda PC800

So let me set this moto story up about the 2007 party at Bob and Linda Zimmerman's party in Maine. I'd flown into Boston and my good friend Jason picked me op at the Airport.

I'd internet, sight unseen, bought a '81 Honda 500cc Silver Wing motorcycle from someone in upperstate NY that I would ride back to San Diego. Jason pick it up for me. his time I'd spend a week at the ZimBob house.

Excerpt from my TR from back then:

Eat, eat, eat.........Was a great week at the Zim Ranch. I got a couple extra days there this year, because of a ticket scheduling error on my part, and that Jason was loaded for bear when he picked me up from BOS. Usually I'd spend a day or so At Jason's before we went to Maine.

Jason came rolling through the passenger pickup area with his diesel Ford F350 pulling his 20000lb capasity 4 wheel trailer with 4 bikes (one was the Silver Wing) and a doner engine for his '83 'ceptor. The Cutish traffic director almost dropped her skivies when she looked at that behemoth looking for a bit of curb space.

Anyway we arrived at the ZimRanch at 9:30 on Tuesday. Zim say "Maggots don't know how to spell Thursday." Ha, the truth is, 'maggots (loving term for Honda Sabre/Magna owners) are born pushing the limits. 🙂

We found a place in the loft and gathered up a nights worth of energy for the new day. I had to Sort out the Silver Wing and Jason had to get his NX250, CR500, and 750 Ceptor going during our time there.

I would have been embarrassed about the early arrival, but the 'Barry Read's were there and already setup for tenting. We all could take lessons from Barry. His tenting is a small step away from the Hilton.

The SW looked ok when I finally got a chance to look at it. Lots of little things could use attention, but the parts that were going to get me to California looked to be in pretty good shape.

The worst feature was leaking fork seals. One was so bad that oil was on top of the lower fork tube clamp. Aha.....no match for the 'seal whisperer' I fancied myself a fork seal cleaner rather than a Seal changer.

I tore the front wheel and fender off so that I could rotate the sliders on the sandpaper that I'd worked down into the seal and gave it a half dozen revolutions on both Seals. Voila, no more leaks there.

I'm finding that after the repair, if you bounce the forks a few times and then wipe oil residual off and repeat for several times you will have a good idea of whether or not the repair has been successful. So after i did that and went away for a while, I put some air in the forks to raise it a little. I thought that air might be a problem and accelerate any fork seal leak.

An hour goes by, but seals look good. Another hour goes by, and Norm of all people, called me over to show me oil on the fork that was leaking the worst. My heart sank. I didn't want the repair not to work, and have to fight fork seal leaks all the next three weeks on the way back to Ca.

So it seems that you can't trust anyone these day. That forker, Norm, had gotten some oil on his fingers and put it on that fork seal. Norm, not known for his practical joking, really got to me that time. I hope he considers us 'even' for the time I photographed his tip over in the sand before I helped him pick up his bike a couple years ago.............. I think he holds a grudge. LOL Picture is of the Zim garage during Labor Day Week.

Here the leadup:

I've been telling this story about riding an old Silver Wing motorcycle home to SD from Maine. I'd left Zimbobs party house in Maine and ridden west to Lake Champlain. I wanted to ride along the great Lakes for a while with this new to me bike.

Story of that 24 hrs of riding:

I rode up thru the island route north thru the middle of Lake Chaoplain to the Canadian Border, and took 11 across to Lake Ontario. Then I enjoyed the route along the lake, 104, down past Rochester.

The SW was running nicely, and I was on a roll. I'd try to get closer to Niagara Falls. Remember, Niagara Falls is a town. The actual waterfalls are American and Horseshoe Falls.

I'm driving on the route along the lake, but although the area was clean and old and a nice ride, there are very few views of the Lake. I was unhappy about that, but I looked forward to seeing the falls tomorrow.

I was buzzing along the freeway before Rochester, when I lost power....WTF. It just cut off....no idiot lights or nothing. I coasted as far as I could, but was still just a little short of an offramp that would get me off the hwy.

Hummm. I thought possibly a loose battery terminal. No, but the main fuse (of the Sabmag kind) was right there, and sure enough it had been replaced with a small piece of copper wire substituting for a real fuse, and it was blown.

I have wire with me somewhere to make a new fake fuse (I'd never do it the right way).....hummmm, for the life of me I can't remember where I've packed it. And I wonder what problem caused it to blow.

I remember that there are residual wire in the left hand fairing of the bike pocket for a long gone radio I think. Before I looked for the wire in my packing, I looked along the side of the road and came up with an aluminum Pop rivet. Tried that, but couldn't get it under the screws to substitute for a fuse somehow. The new plan was back to the side pocket for wire to make a new hodgepodge fuse.

As I'm rooting around in there, I see the extra set of keys that I threw in there had welded itself to some bare wires. Who knew those wire were still hot? 'Luck beats good' on finding the cause of the main fuse failure.

So I cut off a short piece of speaker wire and fashioned up a mainfuse out of about 20 wire strands. Hummm,.....there, that ought to be about 30amps worth of copper wire. Only one screw of the 2 really tightened up, so expected later trouble on that front.

But the good news was that the bike was again running and that I hadn't made that off ramp. Back out in traffic I flew. Speaking of which, the SW is a nice riding bike, stable and comfortably suspended, and at only 500cc, it cruises at 65mph easily and is a nice touring bike.

Touring, that is, like you want to look at things, not touring to see how many things you can go by without noticing. I was happy with the bike thus far.

......except for the seat. That forking seat is a torture device. It became uncomfortable in an hour, and miserable for the rest of the day. I will get an air donut later at Walmart. The seat can't get any worse.

So I'm finally riding out by the shore of Lake Ontario. Lots of houses along the lake shore, but also lots of riding within 50 to 100 yds of the shore zans houses. Way cool. I'd never been to the great lakes before.

I'd looked at the radar that Morning and it showed T-storms south of me but riding along north of there had me riding under clear skies, and being close to the water held the temps down in the 70s. Things were going pretty sweet. I was pleased.

Evening was approaching. I had been on the lookout for campgrounds, I didn't like that idea anyway, luckily there weren't any. Niagara Falls was still fifty miles away. The sun was setting very red and beautiful. I pulled over for a picture. Took several, as I walked around, then I noted the shore was not forty yards away. I looked at that big old tree near the shore, hummm, there are car tracks going over there behind that tree and out of site.

Bingo, we have a winner. A few moments later me and that tree were one. I still had an hour before total darkness. 10 minutes had my sleeping bag and Blue Burrito set up quite nicely.

Blue Burrito style camping, picture from another trip

I was even able to pop down on the beach for a bit of a walk along Lake Ontario as the sun played it's miraculous light show far off to the west. I watched lot's of would be Captain Ahabs scurrying to the cover of their harbors as the racing outboard motors attested to.

When I got back I ate a chocolate bar for dinner, and having had two $1 hotdogs earlier when I fueled up, what more could I ask for. Now with the SW muffler cool enough, I blew up the air mattress with engine exhaust. I laid the tarp double thickness under me so that I'd have a good view of the night sky. That was a decision that I might have thought thru a little better.

At a last minute I covered up my tail lights and other reflecting bits with my coat and shirt for a bit more stealth. I wondered, It surely wasn't going to rain.........Naw.

I might have been asleep by the time it got totally dark as it had been a long day of riding. I woke up at about 10:30pm to a pretty good wind. I didn't like the sound of that. Wind can bring rain from afar.

My normal is to fold the burrito over the top of me with any wet sensitive materials in there with me as well. Not this time, though, When the first sprinkles landed on me at about 2am, I was all assholes and elbows with me trying to get the mattress and sleeping bag between the layers of the tarp in the dark....an to hell with anything else.

I must admit I did a pretty good Job, as the stuff under the tarp stayed dry. All other things were either soaked or had standing pools of water in or on them. There were times during the night when the noise of rain on my tarp was very loud. Sometime it is miss leading as to how hard it's raining, but I wasn't getting out of the sleeping bag to test it.

And the best part of my new gorilla camping procedure really paid off. My Gatorade urinal relief bottle damn near extends my time in my sleeping bag indefinitely. Very handy in rainy or cold conditions, don't you know.

And when it became light, it was obvious that the rain wasn't going to quit. By now it was only light rain, so I broke camp and packed away wet items. I'd spent nearly 12hrs sleeping and was greatly rested.

It was a new day of traveling westward. The Silver Wing has more tricks...

I left my BS story about stealth camping with the Silver Wing on the shores of Lake Ontario. It was raining lightly as I hit the road that morning. I have long unseen family in and around Columbus, Ohio.

I had made an arrangement to meet a nephew in law at a small town 30 miles out of town. He rode his 500cc Kawi out to meet me in the Danville area. We made the connection and he directed me to his and my niece's house.

We visited and decided to go out to an Irish pub for dinner and a brew. I was going to go sleep at my Cousin Terri's house later so I wouldn't be doing any drinking even though I deserved a few beers.

As we started to leave, I was going to move my bike close to the garage.....but oh, oh, the bike was dead as a doornail again. Oh well, it was decided that I'd stay the night with them on the couch, and wait for it, I could have those beers that I deserved. Yes indeed, the Lord does work his wonders in strange ways.

The night was fun as I got to meet the nephew for the first time, and Rani for maybe the third or fourth time in her adult life.

More visiting and problems

The morning came, everyone left for work. I'd assured them that I could work out my bike's 'dead' problem. It turned out that that main fuse had lost its connection from that one screw that I couldn't tighten from my repair the day before. A simple solution came to the rescue. One screw, for some reason, was longer than the other, and by simply exchanging 2 screws allowed me to tighten them both. Viola, I was good to go again.

I had been instructed to lock the doors as I left to go to my cousin's house 20 miles away. Which I did, where another kind of problem reared its ugly head.

Even before I picked the SW up 10 days ago, there was a story of it being tipped over off its sidestand. Being advised of that, it became obvious that summat was wrong with the sidestand as it leaned the bike over too far. I hadn't really figured out why yet. Well, today explained that 'yet'.

I got to Terri's house, husband Bob was at work. I attempted to put the bike on the sidestand and it broke off entirely. Half the hole in a tab that was welded to the frame broke off, I was left standing there at the curb holding the bike up.

On level ground, I wasn't strong enough to get the bike on the centerstand, partly because I couldn't get a good hold anywhere. I found a little bit of slope in the driveway and with backward momentum, I got it on the centerstand. Whew!

Ok, visiting commenced. It had been 30 years since I'd seen these guys. Later, Terri took me out to the garage and we found an 8" long piece of 2X6. We cut a V in one end that would fit under the footpeg that would do what the sidestand used to do. I wondered how that would work out for the next 2500 miles and if there would be ongoing stories from sidestand issues.

When it became time to leave, I couldn't get the bike off the centerstand on that grade. I had to call my 65 year old cousin out of the house to help push me off up the driveway ramp. How embarrassing.

I finished off the day by riding to Dayton where I spent the night with a long time member of the SabMag community, Mike Siedel. Mike and I told lies till late in the night as we processed a couple sixpacks of a local loose mouth fluid.

I felt comfort thinking that I probably had worked out most of the Silver Wing's problem by now. It should be easy sailing from here on home to SD.

A Great Silver Wing Day

The Silver Wing was good today. It lulled me into complacency......

SabMaggots, as always are an amazing crew. Mike Seidel has provided this traveler a safe haven by the side of the road for a couple of days. I'll prolly always owe Mike a debt of gratitude.

A short 'Mike' story is that I put out an Internet call in 2004 that I'd blown (spun rod bearing) my Bike's motor in Ft Stockton, Tx. Mike fielded calls and eventually hooked me up with Linda in Albuquerque who could drive 400 miles down to get me and put me up for a week in Steve and her home while I found a van to go get my bike. I mean that is beyond the call of duty by SabMaggots on both ends.....but that's another story.

BTW, Mike sent me a picture of the new 2X6 sidestand that he'd taken.

I had to fight him to let me buy dinner last night. If he had resisted just a little harder, I would have let him win. LOL Mike is very generous. Thanks, Mike.

I'm sensing a little nip in the air. It's time for me to get out of Dodge when that happens, but I had enough time to spend 4 hours in the Dayton Air Museum before leaving. A very cool place. There have surely been a lot of outstanding folks that have led us to where we are today. The displays were huge and many had voiceovers about the event. I copped a couple of tears as I listened to some of the recordings at the displays. I got to say it again, "All men are not created equal", and my walk at the museum was a bit more proof of that, IMHO.

I eventually said my good-bys to Mike and pointed the old Silver Wing toward Ca. I think Mike would have liked to go with me. The open road always seems more alluring unless you are the one doing it. The reality of being alone on the road sets in pretty quickly after just a few miles.

but I'm not squawking........I was headed for the Mammoth Caves about 200 miles away., and my bike was humming along producing the road music that I love. It didn't look like rain, all was good.

I asked an old farmer couple about the weather when I was having dinner at a KFC. He reckoned it wouldn't rain.....and told me way more than I wanted to know about his heart surgery. Nice old guy, just wanted to talk to someone.......gave me his card for help if I needed summat.

My AAA maps don't list campgrounds unless they have paid AAA to put it there, so I was assuming that the Mammoth Cave Natl park would have a campground of the National kind. They did, $15, half price with gezzer card was $7.50, cool, kinda high but I can do that.

I slept good and got up in time to make the first tour down into the caves. It was worth the geezer (half price) $6 price, for sure. Took two hours and way too many steps, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

There are 367 miles of caves down there that they know about. More miles than the next two largest cave put together in the world. Now that's saying something.

It was noon by now and off to the Traces, Land between the Lakes National Forest. Saw some deer, and found camping for (half price) $4. I hadn't even gotten out of Ky today.

Had to go without dinner because I didn't think ahead. I could stand to do more of that. My belt would thank me.

The Silver Wing Shows me a new Trick

I left my paradise campsite at the Land of the Lakes. I had no idea about the trick that the Silver Wing would play on me.

Written at the time:

I was up in the morning. I would get near Siloam Ar today, but first I did a little detour up to Cairo Mo so I could cross both the Oh and Mississippi river within a couple miles of their joining together.

It wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. Ha It was more impressive from where this picture was taken. Note, the mud in the Mississippi River

That section of Mo and Northeastern Ar are flat and mucho farmlands, but once inside Ar by a 100 miles, I began to see the hill country. I dropped a bit south in the evening and picked up the Buffalo River . Nice roads now. I carved those roads to my hearts content.

As evening approach I dropped a few mile down a dirt road to the Buffalo River to settle for the night at another National park campground. One of these pics shows cliffs across the river from my campsite. $5 this time but now costs more.

Slept till 7am and got up to a heavy due, almost a drizzle. I packed up and out of there with a lot of really damp/wet gear.

I had 50 more miles of Ozark twisties to ride. I watched one deer jump across the road. I wanted to get there to see her some more, then came her pack that I hadn't counted on. Missed the little one by only 15 ft. Gotta remember, the pack will be along, so get slowed down when you see the first of them buggers.

Before I started this trip, I had imagine that I'd do some TAT riding. The TAT (Trans American Trail) is a mostly dirt road across the USA. I spent days with Google Earth making a route along dirt roads and trails. I started near Siloam Springs Ar and mapped a route to Lake City Co. I had coordinates of all the intersection where I'd need to make a turn.

A little ways out of Siloam Springs Ar, I would start my trail route. Once I found my starting point it took me about a half hour to get lost. Seems as though the coordination of the arrow on Google earth and its GPS coordinates aren't within a hundred yards of where my GPS says I am.

Anyway, I knew within a couple hours that that idea was a failure, and the SW didn't like those roads anyway. That idea turned out to be a huge bust, so the SW would be taking the bigger roads on to Ca.

That's when the bastids inside my GPS tried to get me on a toll road. I was already in the toll road lane when I noticed it. Too late to switch lanes. About a half mile up the road was a U-turn for cops. They wouldn't mind if I used it, I thought. I figured I'd ask for forgiveness later if I was collared for it.

Now I didn't mention it, but last evening I noticed a little burned valve puffing noise from my left cylinder. Hummm, I thought.........I wondered if this little bike was going to get me all the way home, I did. I made a plan. My plan was to ignore it till it got worse.

Well, as I made that u-turn it got worse, a lot worse. It turned out to be a loose spark plug that just blew out of the head. The Sparkplug wire kept it from flying away from the bike.

The good news is that the head is where you can get to it. After inspection, I screwed the plug back in and tightened it with my 4" pliers that I carry at all times along with my 4" adjustable wrench. Note how the head is handy and the SW fairing doesn't come back that far.

Not my bike

I didn't know how good the threads were, but I went on. It was really running good again now, but I was worried about that plug staying in. Plugs that get loose in Al heads tend to rattle in their threads until the thread are completely gone. That was my fear.

I got back on a free road and soon came to Tahlequah Ok. That is an Indian word for we have enough Chiefs present to have a vote.

It was 2:30pm and I saw a $30 dollar Wifi connection with an attached room so I decided to stop for a body cleanup session and a bit of trip reporting. My room was the end one behind that sign in the grass.

I'd also decided to try some local BBQ. The motel clerk said go to 'Runt's BBQ', With a name like that it had to be good. And it was.

I sat at a booth next to a high school kid who was working there but also doing his homework. He couldn't stay off his Cell phone from text messages. Finally, I saw a break in the phone use so I asked to borrow it from him to call home. Nice kid.

I was about a block from the motel when that plug blew out again. The SW got me back to the room on 1 cyl, but it wasn't going to get me to Ca like that. LOL

After the engine cooled, I could see that it looks like the threads were gone. I realize that there are all sorts of inserts that could be tapped into the head to restore the sparkplug threads.

Rounding up the right tools would take a while, even days........so I mulled the problem over for a couple hours.

I once lost a sparkplug in a VW head during an offroad race. Threads were gone. A youngster/spectator was helping me at a random pit along the race course. After seeing that the plug wouldn't stay in he put the plug in the hole and drove a small screw driver in alongside of the plug to force its threads to bite into the other side of the plug wall. Ruined the head, but I finished the race that way.

So I'm thinking that I can wrap the plug with tinfoil and screw it in the hole. A fellow down the hall was cooking something on a small traveler's grill and had some tinfoil. Voila, the spark plug is now in there and feels good. I was surprised that it took 15lb of torque (guessing) and felt solid. There could be more on this issue for sure. Hummmm....Could that possibly get me back to California....I wondered?

A shocker in Oklahoma

I rolled into Guymon Ok tonight out on the panhandle.  500+ miles today with nary a peep out of that recalcitrant spark plug.  It must have been some very good tinfoil that I'd used.

    I had been in and out of thunderstorms all day long.  I never did get actually wet.  Eventually, I got up near the Kansas border and fought a bad side wind for about 150 miles....then the wind went away and the sun came out and it got hot.  

  Somewhere near the middle of the day, I let my fuel get a little low. I passed thru a couple of town that were only little dots on the map. They had no gas, and I got extra nervous.  I would have hated to have to tell you all that I ran out of gas where I should have known better.....but then the next little town, Medford, had gas.

I bought two 1 dollar hotdogs and sat out front on the dead pecker bench.  There was a local oldster sitting there.  He told me all about the oil and gas business in the area for an hr or so.  For instance, those oil donkeys that aren't bobbing up and down, they've already pumped their little oil pool dry, and they are waiting for more oil to fill that pool again (things like that).   

So later around quitting time I'm soft for some reason, and I'm looking for a motel that is cheap, naturally.  I get off the main drag and see one without wireless.  I chose the buck over amenities.

This is a small down-n-out motel where workers live and book by the week when on the road.  I'm not happy that I can't read my email but what the hell, it's only one night.  I imagine I'll be at LD's home in Westcliffe Colorado tomorrow where Wifi will flow freely.  I can wait.

I find the office.(the white house on the right, also where the late 50s-year-old clerkess lives) and I asked if there is a room.  My heart sinks a little when I hear the 'no' word...., but then she says, "If you want to rent an extra room in my house, here, then the price is 40 bucks".  The $30 dollars last night spoiled me, and almost blew this deal.  Somehow a higher power told me to, "Splurge, take the deal, you won't be sorry", so I did.  

So the lady shows me to the room.  It's been a long day, and I'm tired, as I adapt to my surrounding, then I hear her ask from her portion of the house,  "Do you want a cold Bud"?  Do I???  "You bet your sweet bippy I do", I couldn't answer quickly enough.

I think this can't get any better as I settle down in the front room drinking my beer, when she tops her last offer, "I'm cooking a steak do you want one?" So we had a steak dinner and beers together, while I thanked that higher power under my breath.

.........and BTW, can it get any better? I see a laptop with a highspeed wireless hook up.  She told me to go ahead and use it if, I wanted to.  It was better than my laptop so I looked at my email while I enjoyed having my second beer. 

  I was waiting to wake up from this dream, shortly, I went to bed wondering what could possibly top all this 'from out of nowhere' dumb luck that connected me to this nice lady. A 20 dollar bill found it's way under the pillow on my bed.

Escape from Oklahoma

You guys left me in Guymon, Ok. I think you know that I got away from the motel Lady with my virtue. Actually, I sat in her front room till 10am listening to a bit of her life story. She's had a hell of a ride to this point in her life and is still handling way more than her share. My hat is off to her.

Guymon is midway east/west of the Ok panhandle. The land is flat and being farmed……ho boy, is it being farmed. I thought we had lots of ag in Ca, but I think these boys have us Ca city slicker fellows topped. The only thing that broke the landscape was oil pumping rigs. But even so I was enjoying myself.

Maze, who knew that they grow so much of that anywhere. Well, they do in western Ok.

At one point out there on 2 lane asphalt there was one of many dying farm relics that was returning to dust. it was particularly interesting. You know the kind, sun bleach wood, doors gone and no glass left in the windows, and it had about a foot of swayback in the main roof beam.

I hadn't passed anyone going the other way for quite a while. I thought that I'd stop in the middle of the street and snap a couple pictures. It wasn't worth shutting the bike off and taking a walk around. No I'll just stay straddled with the bike running, grab my point and shoot out of my shirt pocket and click some photos off and be on my way.

Well, that what I thought. What really happened as I sighting in for my first pic was, the handlebars fell sideways and the bike rolled about 6" following the front wheel. That was just enough to throw me off balance and I could only try to stop it with the hand without the camera which wasn't enough. Pretty damn quick me and the bike were laying on the ground with me wondering WTF just happened.

My frist instinct was to look and see if anyone saw me. Well, of course, not, then I was thinking about how to get that bike up on its wheels. I hadn't seen anyone out there for at least a half hr. But 'luck beats good', I look west and about 2 miles out there was a black dot coming my way.

I waited the 3 minutes. He wasn't traveling very fast. A 15 year old pickup with a dark haired 180 lb lad pulled up. He said howdy and wanted to know how to help. There was no snarky talk about how the hell did this happen.

About a minute later and the bike was upright, and the young man was on about his business. It's guys like that that give me faith in the crop of youngsters that are coming along.

I'd been riding the short route out the panhandle toward Trinidad Co. I had seen enough of the flat stuff and knew that the landscape would soon change.

I headed for the northwest corner of Ok to a town called Kantor. As I approached I could see some signs of short hills and cliffs. I was thrilled to be leaving the Great Plains, and get to country with some different personality.

Kantor was an almost dead town, and I stopped at the general store to see if I could get some air from the hose out front. Unsurprisingy the store owner said the compressor hasn't worked in years. I wanted the air for my front forks and rear shock as I was about 10 miles away from 20 miles of dirt road that lay ahead. Seems I would have to go without the air. I had a tire comp onboard if I really needed it.

Branson, Co

This dirt road was supposed to be twenty miles as the crow flies but became 50 when I changed course out there, and it took me through Branson Co. No real matter as the road was pretty good. I did spend an extra hour out there taking the dirt route, though. Oh, and I saw about a dozen antelope in that part of Ok.

A cowboy in a pickup truck assured me that the ride thru there would be worth it, and the road was usually in pretty good shape. I liked hearing that. It wasn't long, and the rocky hills were becoming higher and the arroyos were getting deeper. Color was appearing in every direction. My enthusiasm for what was to come was growing.

A funny thing. 'You know about the deer and the antelope play,' well I've seen deer jump fences gracefully and easily, but I've never seen antelope jump a fence. Well, I saw one handle a barbwire fence that day. He just lowered his horns, stuck them thru and walked thru leaving the barbed wire behind him. Pretty smart. Later I learned they often go under fences. They can but they rarely jump them.

I was figuring to get to LD Walker's house, near Westcliffe Co, in the mid afternoon, but had only made it to Trinidad Co by 3:30pm or so. I had another 100 miles to go before I could rest.

Remember this whole ride was SabMag motorcycle related. I'd met LD thru the Sabmag forum. We emailed about bike problems as he had A Honda V4. I'd even talked to LD on the phone. He talked in a slow Texas hayseed drawl. We got along well which is why I got an invite to spend a night or 2 at his and his wife's place.

A couple of Indian boys in a gas station in Trinidad told me of a good motorcycle road to ride on my way north. I almost took the road, but it would have added at least an hour to my ride. I had to remember that LD's house was at 9200 ft, and getting in there after dark would be cold and deer dangerous.

So being late, I took to I-25 for 55 miles, and then got off on 165 to start the short 20 mile drive up the mountain. The map just used a straight line up the hill, but it turned out to be more like 50 miles of twisties to get there. Anyway I pulled in to LD's after 6 more miles of dirt roads at around 6pm.

I was just in time for some of LD's spaghetti. I could see I was in the hands of another pair of excellent hosts, including his wife, Anne.

I'm sure LD won't be happy with me bragging on his house up here, but I can't help myself. He sold out down in Fort Worth Tx, and came up here and put in 1800 sq ft of Modular home.

Some modular homes are built like Fort Knox. This is one of those. The road up to his place is a steep single lane dirt road/driveway the last 1/8 mile. They Trailered that house in 2 pieces up that hill. It looked inposible to me as the worst part was a 15 to 20 percent grade. They brought the house in two 15X60 modules that they set them with a crane on top of his garage that he built into the bank of the hill his lot is on.

They've been finishing the house for the last 4 years. LD even has a dumb waiter in the garage built out of a garage door opener mechanism. The house is so well insulated that he doesn't turn any heat on till around November. Anyway, enough about the house, and LD's cunning about building things. After all this is a moto list not 'House and Gardens'.

I spent a couple days with LD learning that he's about as smart as anyone that I've ever run across.

LD and I rode around in his Suburban today. The first Suburban coughed up its fuel pump this morning. Number two Suburban made a circuit thru Canyon City, to Texas Creek on I-50, then back down route 69 back to home.

Oh, oh, oh, the best part was, five 4 and 5 point bucks came ambling thru the yard this morning. I ran around with my cheap ass camera trying to get a good picture. Got some pics but not one worthy of the situation. Some guys hunt for years and never see one buck with that many points. Pretty cool.

So LD is going to take me 4 wheeling tomorrow up to Hermit lake in the Sangre De Cristo Mtn Range, and I reckon I'll be getting along down the road come the day after. http://www.coloradomountainfishing.com/hermit.html

I see on the weather map that there will be some weather to deal with along the way toward San Diego……but at least the 100 degree weather has dropped considerably.