On September 14th last year, I married an amazing woman who I have known since 1986. She's ridden on the seat behind me several times in the past. We went to a rally on my scooter from Louisville to St. Louis. That was a lot of fun. We took time to tour Anhauser Busch and rode across the Wabash river on a rickety old wooden bridge. Later we went to Gasoline Rally on the same bike. After months of riding two-up on that scooter and knowing how much she love it, I decided to ask her to marry me. It was my mistake that on the same day I was readying to propose, I decided it would also be a good day to change the oil on Lois, my 2008 Yamaha Majesty. When you put the oil filter back in backwards, all ends poorly. Yes, I destroyed the engine in my scoot.
I went through several bad months, really unfit to be around other humans. I really didn't have the money to replace the scoot that fall. I found an old vintage Suzuki GS850 on Craigslist and scraped the money together to buy it. It was a rattly old bike, but the main problem was that it had an out-of-state title that the guy I bought it from never bothered to transfer into his name. It was nearly impossible to find the real owner or get in touch with the guy I purchased from. After months of riding it around the block once a week, I sold it to some guys who didn't care about the title and were going to use it for a racing bike.
Shortly after, my taxes came in and I had a little cash to spend on a new used bike. I looked high and low. I was in the market for a Suzuki Burgman 650 or a Honda Silverwing scooter. Normally you can find one or two here and there on Craigslist or Cycletrader. I was having no luck in my price range. I decided, against a substantial amount of trepidation to widen my search to include shifters. I had ridden a scooter since 2007, and I have driven stick shift cars, so I figured it would be no big deal. I decided that I wanted a bike as close to a scooter as possible. My bike would be shaft-driven, not chain. It would have fuel injection. Lastly it needed not just skinny pegs, but floorboards. I also needed storage room. What I found to meet these criteria and still remain inside my budget was a 2008 Suzuki Boulevard.
The bike I found was in the Indianapolis area. It only had 2400 miles on it. My though process was "What can you mess up in only 2400 miles?" Well apparently you can burn out the clutch if you never take it in for initial service, spending maintenance money on a touring package instead of getting the clutch adjusted. On the way home the clutch failed. This added almost $500 to my purchase price for the clutch and initial service. The previous owner was an idiot. He also did not put the bags on correctly. One had gotten into the pipes and burned. Speaking of pipes, he also decided to increase the volume using a method which entailed drilling out the baffles in the stock muffler instead of upgrading to a new set of pipes.
I was desperate and determined to make this bike my own. After I graduated with my Associate degree in Information Technology, I took a week off. I did around 1800 miles in seven days. Most of it was in cold, nasty rain. I rode the first day to Tunica, Mississippi, avoiding most of the rain. I stayed at the Bally's casino. The room was nice and only $25 per night. I ate at the buffet and played a couple games of slots.
The next day the riding was good until the afternoon. I saw Leland Mississippi, birthplace of Kermit the frog, and ate Chicken Cracklins--a local culinary treat that I've not found (or wanted to find) anywhere else. I crossed the Mississippi and rode the the south east corner of Arkansas for a while. I ate lunch at J.J.'s Lakeside Cafe on US-65 in Lake Village just across from the welcome center. You could walk out onto the huge deck area of the center and get almost within splashing distance of the Mississippi River. I didn't stay too long though because that's when it got colder and started raining. About the time I could not take the chill any longer, I found a little town in Homer Louisiana. The only place I found on that strip of US-79 was a little place call the Hillside Motel. The Indian fellow running the place said he had only one room left, despite an empty lot. It was pouring down rain so I took it at $79. The only good thing about the place was the heat. My review is on google...
https://plus.google.com/114842555732848669953/about?gl=US&hl=en-US
In the morning, the weather was not much better. I've done the Iron Butt Saddle Sore ride which is 1000 miles in 24 hours, but the intention of this trip was to visit states I'd never been to, and to see things I'd never seen. My mood was not yet totally killed off by the weather, so I stayed on the back roads. I'd already seen parts of Louisiana and just a bit of Arkansas. I was close to Texas and wanted to cross that state off my list. I crossed into Texas on State Road 1, which turned into 77. The weather had been miserable, but started to lighten up. I found this great little diner named the Dixie Maid, which is very sadly closed now. My review is on google still.
https://plus.google.com/108349719528899610481/about?gl=US&hl=en-US&ved=0CHIQzwk&sa=X&ei=LYxFU-TVNaaDwwGNhIDwCw
On the way out of town headed North toward Arkansas, I found a shop run by a Native America, selling primitive trinkets. I got little presents for my family, and a hot cup of coffee. I saw some of the Ouachita National Forest which was cool, having read Blue Highways. I saw some of both Oklahoma and Arkansas. I took advice from locals that told me Hwy 71 was nice. The weather was good at times, but still cool. The temperature didn't bother me unless I was wet. I got over into Oklahoma near Fort Smith and knew that I had to keep going North into Kansas. The weather again was bad so I made some time on the interstate. Everybody told me that Kansas was pretty unremarkable. I decided I had to at least touch into Nebraska, so I plotted the GPS to the closest little town which turned out to be Rulo which is historically remarkable for being a campsite of Lewis and Clark. They had some crazy bridge construction going on when I was there. I saw the making of the new bridge but I got to ride over the old bridge. The town was a mud pit and very small, but really cool.
Besides Kentucky and Tennessee, I had so far on my trip visited Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. I had a one more state I wanted to see that I had not already been to. I cut through Missouri towards Iowa. I wanted to visit Antique Archeology in Le Claire. I was getting a little road-weary at this point, so I hopped some interstate slab. Le Claire was an odd little town. I was a little perturbed about Antique Archeology. I did not expect anyone from the show American Pickers to be there, but when I saw a gal looking like one of the co-stars of the show, I was irritated when she turned around and I found it was just some worker they hired and made to dress like the chick from the show. All the items from American Pickers had NSF (not for sale) tags on them. They had one leather Bell Helmets track bag but I knew I'd not be able to get it on my bike. I picked up some show swag and hit the road.
I was in my final leg of the trip. I was pretty worn out. I'd already went over my intended time out. I planned on five to six days and I was just barely into Illinois. I could do it in one day if I hit the road hard and weather was good. Those things didn't happen. I got just past Chicago into Indiana and although the bike didn't run out of gas, I sure did. I paid for one more night of lodging and hunkered down for another rainy night. The next day I made it home.
One odd note. I experienced a decent degree of varying temperatures during my trip. At the beginning, the oil light came on several times. Each time I checked the oil and it was fine. Finally, after a call to the shop, I discovered that the light was also the temperature light. My 850cc water cooled bike was overheating a bit. Especially at interstate speeds when it was warm. A lot of the time I didn't see it come on because it was cold and rainy. On the very last day when it was warmer my temp light kept coming on--so much that I though it might cause damage to the bike.
I stopped at a rest stop. That's when it hit me. I had bought a tool bag right before the trip and mounted it on the forks. This was blocking the wind to the radiator! After I removed the bag and strapped it to the seat behind me, there were no more temperature lights. On my trip I saw the hills of Oauchita, an oil rig in Texas, swamps in Louisiana, the Mississippi river, and many little rural towns. I ate some strange foods (crawfish, chicken cracklins), experienced good and bad weather, and talked with interesting people everywhere. I rode, gambled, froze, sweltered, walked, slept, and on some occasions drank (when down for the night). I had gear that worked really well, and some that didn't. My rain pants were so bad at one point I went into a truck stop across from my hotel and bought a roll of duct tape (to tape the inside) and a big jar of Vaseline (to coat the outside and my gloves). I can't imagine what they wondered I was going to do with that. I was bone tired every night and enthusiastic every morning. I had cold fingers and toes, and leg cramps. I saw beautiful sunrises and breathtaking sunsets.
It was a good ride. Pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/109808883991400303808/MCTripSpring2012
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