I think it's time to move on...
I think it's time to move on...
With the repairs complete we took the bike out for a little test ride today around town and into Stewart. All seems to be fine so we're going to be leaving tomorrow morning.
Speaking of repairs, I could have never done this so fast and so easily without help. I want to thank the numerous folks who directly contacted Jim Figielski at Beemer Boneyard about my part. (After I brain farted and came to the mistaken conclusion that New Jersey was six hours ahead of Hyder) Jim, who went above and beyond getting the final drive in the mail first thing Saturday morning. Paul Glaves, who gave me invaluable advice and loaned me his special tool before leaving Hyder. Gary, the owner of the Sealaska Inn in Hyder, was a most gracious host. Without his support I'd probably still be trying to get the old part off the bike. Caroline Stewart of Boundary Gallery & Gifts, who makes the most wonderful variety of tasty fudge, offered a friendly face and a PO Box to use to ship the parts. Of course my sweetheart, Tamara, who maintained such a rock solid good attitude throughout this entire affair that I couldn't but help say, "Whatever." to everyone's queries of "What are yo going to do if..."
Garth, of course, takes the top prize. He was with us when the trouble first appeared in Vanderhoof. Even though he had places to be and people to see, he went on a shopping trip for us to get seal sweller and gear oil. He stuck with us all the way as I babied the bike into Stewart. He even went as far as taking Tamara onboard his bike at one point to help reduce the load on my obviously failing bearing.
Thank you to everyone who helped in one way or another.
I've always been affected with a bit of Wanderlust. As a kid I would deal with it by walking all over the mountains around my dad's house. Later in life I would, on a moment's notice, jump in or on whatever vehicle was running at the time and just go. I call it "Minute Hand Navigation". Get to an intersection and turn whatever direction the minute hand is pointing. My first trouble with my Wanderlust happened my first tour in Hawaii. I dealt with it then by renting "unlimited mileage" cars and putting 800 or so miles on them over the weekend. When I got to Guam I was in trouble. With nowhere to really go I turned my energies to SCUBA diving and getting my pilot's license. When I returned to Hawaii for the second time I had enough things going on that they kept my Wanderlust at a slow boil.
When we left on this ride around the country I figured by this point in the trip I'd be ready to pack it in... Filled to the brim with "travel" and ready to settle down. Nothing could be further from the truth. This past week in Stewart/Hyder has really got my Wanderlust going. While we were here, effectively unable to leave, there wasn't a problem. Now that the bike is fixed and returned to flight status I am ready to get back on the road.
Now that this trip is almost over, I already miss it. All we've got left is a Blitzkrieg back to Butte and we're done. We're going to try to redeem ourselves from our failed BB15 earlier this month and get back to Butte within 36 hours of leaving here. We'll be busy for a few days taking delivery of our household goods, sorting out what we figure we'll need for the summer in Wyoming, and putting everything else in storage. I will try to keep going with the Travelogue while we are there but I don't know how exciting I can make checking in campers and shooing the bears out of the campground sound in writing.
-Are We There Yet?