Tuesday, November 1, 2011

OK, so here's the lowdown

Last night in the National Redwood Park I stopped to.snag a picture of an Elk. Hopper off the bike and when I went to ghetto back on it wouldn't start. Pushed the bike to a Ranger station about a mile up the road and at this point it was getting dark which mad for a fabulous Halloween experience. Nothing like creeping around someones house on the 31! Isn't this how horror movies start?

Luckily after a little poking around I found a guy while told me the campsite was just up the road and I could leave my bike here if I wanted and camp out. Yea right! I love that bike too much to leave her so I eventually found a spot at the visitor center and a pay phone! Which I was more than happy to welcome into my sights! No cell service and no one around. I suppose you could it an adventure moment :-)

So I started making a phone call or two and ended up.chatting my parents who made some calls on my behalf. Of course I don't think they got any sleep but I'm grateful my dad made a few calls for me. Eventually I ended up calling for a two truck. After waiting in the most erie fog like meadow next to this visitor station for about 5 hours a two finally arrive. All in all I have to say I was quite mellow about the situation. It could have been way worse I supose but let's not go there today :-)

So when the two truck arrived I welcomed by a very nice guy named Mike. He was super nice and I'm so lucky to get a guy who knew what it was like to be stuck somewhere. We loaded up the bike onto the flat bed which was a small equivilent to an amusement park ride. First he lowered the bed and then angled it to the ground. We pushed the bike up and I hopped on while he raised it and slide the bed forward again. A mini adrenaline rush for sure. Sitting on a steep incline then feeling the bike and I leave the ground was a weird feeling even if it was only 5 feet up! We strapped the bike down, locked down my gear and it was off for a 158 mile trip to the nearest BMW dealer in Meddled, Oregon. We chatted about life and here is a guy that has 5 kids, two of then foster kids, and works 60 hour weeks to make it all happen. Happy as could be doing what he does and was as chipper as a guy could be driving 4 hours on small back roads in the middle of night to get me to help. After we dropped off the bike at the BMW dealer around 3 in the morning he took me to a Motel 6 where I think I.slept about 3 hours. I awoke to phone call from Craig, the BMW dealers owner. I had left a note on the bike to give me a call in the morning and what happened. He sent a guy to pick me up and when I arrived I was asked for the key, pointed towards the coffee maker and told to just hang out for a bit. They took over and after a few updates the bike was ready by noon. I ended up chatting with this guy Allen for awhile and we swapped stories of adventure traveling while he waited for his bike to get a new tire and chain. Turns out there was some wiring that was performed by the previous owner (or repair shop) that had rotted because it was done incorrectly. So they replaced the wires, the fuel pump regulator switch which bad also corroded because of the poor wiring job and the battery. All under warranty!  So no expense to me! Yea! And to boot the flatbead ride there was paid for my BMW too! BMW Roadside assistance to the rescue!

Allen and I just had lunch and he took off for home and I'm just hanging tight for a few checking out some options for tonight.

What a night!

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