Adventures By Guy

Last night I was fooled by a bait and switch by Priceline. I typed in the dates I wanted and up came the prices. I punched to pay and then saw that the date wasn’t that night’s but aug 25th. So finally I was able to get refunded around midnight. Then practiced Swahili for a bit. Up by 0620 and packed and on the road by 0825… it could have been 20 minutes sooner but we messed around and got all three SENA units communicating so now we could talk. Makes the ride easier to know the guy in back made the light or if someone is needing to stop for gas or other reasons.
This morning was mostly cloudy and windy along with 56°F! Quite cool so long sleeve t-shirt, fleece sweater and heated jacket liner plugged in and heating. Cold weather gloves. Wind grew stronger all day. Had to be close to 15 mph and gusting higher.
I was warm, it wasn’t raining or 100° and we all agreed this was preferable to any of those. Just not much to tell when you hop on the road and the GPS tells you to turn left in 300 miles!
Yesterday I saw an eagle up close as it came off the top of the telephone pole it had been sitting on. Today saw some more white pelicans. Saw a large snow goose but it had black on it or a young one floating next to it.
North Western Minnesota was mostly birch and pine trees with wetlands scattered everywhere. Reminded me of Maine. Going into North Dakota I expected the landscape to begin to dry out but it didn’t. A lot of row crops all the way across but there were areas just west of Minot where it was large rolling hills and I was beginning to see the wide and far away horizon that is the West. For a bit it looked like Nebraska Sand Hill cattle country. I kept seeing wheat. In Illinois they are harvesting wheat but this far north there’s had a ways to go yet. I also saw a crop I have no idea what it was. It has a yellow flower and I was guessing mustard. Yellow fields for miles at a time. I also saw a lavender colored crop too. As we were passing through Rugby, ND we saw a sign stating that this was the geographical center point of North America! I had to stop there as we are on our way to the most northern point you can reach by road! Now I really want to wander down to Key West… the most southern point in the USA. Already been there but to hit all three in the same trip!! Other than that it was all about watching the scenery change a bit and stop for gas, stretch, then keep going with the ever present wind. The temperature finally got out of the 50’s but if you think 60 or 65 is warm on a bike doing 70 mph think again. It wasn’t until around 2 pm when it got to 72 that I shed a layer. I had shut the heat off earlier though. Another humorous thing happened. I was passing through a gas station to the restrooms and the very nice lady behind the counter started talking and immediately I knew she was a North Dakota transplant. If you have ever heard a Michigan Upper Peninsula accent and way of talking you can’t miss it. Ok, maybe she was from Upper Minnesota. Yah, hey der.
Mike (Cycledude) had been asking me if my bike made a sucking sound when I opened the gas cap. No, sounds like you have a plugged vent. When we got to the hotel he wanted to lift the tank and check out the vent line. I knew a few shortcuts as I had been working on my bike since February and new what to do and what to watch out for as I had learned from my mistakes. He had all the tools but one and I had that tool on my bike. I got down on the ground and guided the vent lines out of the holding bracket as he lifted the unbolted tank. Sure enough his vent line was plugged with dried dirt and it felt about an inch long as the vent line was hard. I reamed it out then disconnected it from the tank and blew through it. Plenty of flow but it tasted like gas. Mike was nice enough to console me by quiping… at least it’s unleaded! Then we put everything back together and Mike asked me to blow backwards from the bottom. Ok, and air rushed out of the tank vent up top. Mike said dinner was on him.
That is about it for today. Always interesting to hear or see people’s thoughts and actions when we are working on the bike or we are just loading up in the morning. I took a short video of the yellow fields and will try to upload it.