On the road again

With the bike all back together and running smoothly it was time to head off to try another go at some deep sea fishing!

I had ended up needing to replace the stator and pickup coil for the second time and while all the guts were ripped out I went ahead and put in my HID headlight kit that had been sitting on my shelf for over a year and installed another HID aux light on my fork with a new and improved mount.  Look for writeups on the lighting to show up here at some point.

As we’ve been this way many times before and theres not exactly a lot to see in eastern New Mexico and west Texas we weren’t planning on stopping and taking any pictures along the way.  When we saw this green alien chainsawed out of a cottonwood tree in Roswell, however, we couldn’t resist the opportunity for a cool photo op and whipped a U turn.    I guess Roswell is trying to get in on some of the chainsaw art action like Ruidoso up the mountain with all of it’s chainsaw bears.

Almost ran out of gas in Texas again… We saw a sign that listed the next town at 30 or so miles and decided to keep going and that next town did not have a gas station and wasn’t a town at all, it was the ruins of an old court house and a plaque on the side of the road.  Next real town was another 45 miles further, uh oh!   We cruised at 50mph to conserve fuel and just made it on fumes.

We were getting pretty low in altitude and the bike was running rough and backfiring through the carbs again so we took this stop to relax in the AC while letting the bike cool down and switch out carb jets.  While laying on my back trying to screw float bowl screws back in without burning my knuckles the 10th person walked over to see if I needed any help and then started asking about the bike and where we were headed.  He liked the bike and when I saw what he was driving I offered a trade, my color and everything.

Family reunion!    I hadn’t seen my cousins Christy and Cindy in years, while passing through the area the next day we had to meet up and introduce Cece to everyone.  Good to meet up and catch up some but we had a long ways to go and couldn’t stay long and I forgot to get a picture of everyone.  Thanks for the breakfast!

Oh yeah, we did see this huge texas sage bush in full bloom at a gas station, we’ve never seen anything like it before.  There were thick hedges of the stuff along peoples fences and driveways very pretty.  Cece’s Mom has a small puny bush of it but it never has many flowers and never as full as this.

 

Texas Trip 2012

Has it been a year already?

We are leaving to the gulf coast again for a week through Memorial day.  The plan is to go deep sea fishing and then meet up with some Texas online friends at another meet and greet at Koyote Ranch.   Last year we got blown out by rough sees and had to go bay fishing instead to salvage the day.

For a while it has seemed like this trip might not happen.   First the Yamaha was down with its charging woes and shorts in the rain, then the BMW with its excessively loud valve train noise that needs adjustment and mucked up tank that needs cleaning took that bike out of the equation also.  Problems with gear that hasn’t been used in a year, parts needed that won’t get here in time, Cece having knee issues that needs an orthopedic surgeon, an excessive amount of things at work coming up all at once..   Or in other words, the usual.

I really do not like doing major bike work right before leaving on a long trip without having time to test it out but the V Star has had much of her wiring guts ripped out and replaced and a brand new stator put in and every wiring connection and ground that I could find cleaned and liberally waterproofed with dielectric grease.  She is running good now and I’ve clocked 140 miles on it in the last few days since the open-heart surgery in my driveway and I’m feeling more confident that she’ll make it the 2000 or so miles next week without incident.

not a good way to start a bike trip

Now just have to find all our camping gear and touring equipment and hit the road!    I’m really bad about posting updates from the road but will try putting a pic on Facebook every day or two.     See ya soon!

Now where did I put all this stuff....?