We met at our favorite breakfast spot, Flapjacks in Lebanon. Rudee and I shared a small breakfast as usual and we all jumped into my company car and headed out. I have to pay around $80 every paycheck for use of the company car. I rarely use it for personal travel in the summer because we are on the bike a lot. We use it more in the winter months and it's a nice benefit of the job.
The chrome shop has all kinds of "stuff" to dress up big trucks and you can spend a lot of money. I bought new hub caps and some chrome rings to outline the gauges on the dash. Niles spent a little more than me so I didn't feel too bad. He tried to get me to trade him bills but "no thanks, Niles!" :-).
They rode back home with us and the girls took off to the mall or wherever it is women go to when the guys have a project to work on.
I moved the semi into the empty spot beside us and started my winch project. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the winch was not a hard replacement at all. We had the old one off and the new one on in about 30 minutes. We did a quick test and all seemed well so I pulled the bike over and we loaded it up onto the truck. The new winch works well with one exception. They loaded the spool up with wire cable to the point that when we get the bike up on the truck and it is pulling it the last foot or so into position the cable starts to bind on the spool. I'm not sure why they did this but I wont need 1/2 the cable on the thing. We decided to try some re-engineering and put a pulley on to give it more pulling power. A quick trip to the hardware for supplies and a couple of turns with the wrenches and we tried again.
The pulley gave us some more pulling power but we still had the too much cable issue. I called Mike Kadinger who has about every tool imaginable and lives here in Crawfordsville. He was out of town but said he would call me Sunday when he got home and we could take care of shortening the cable in short order.
The good news is we are back in business with the bike ramp and should have all the issues resolved before our holiday campout next week end.
I decided to put the new chrome on the truck since I was in a "workin" mood. This is where things went south in a hurry. No matter how I lined up the baby moon hubcaps on the rear wheels they just wouldn't go on! I even got the rubber mallet out and did some "persuading" on them to no avail :-( I was not a happy camper. I decided to move to the front wheels and do those. Well guess what? The ones I bought for the front wouldn't work on my truck! Things were not working out. Remember the gauge bezels I bought? I pulled these out and realized I had only bought 6 and needed 8! Durn durn durn!! I decided it was time to put the tools away and go to lunch :-).
I treated Niles to lunch at Uncle Smiley's to thank him for his help. We had a nice lunch and when we got back to the 5er we watched the 2nd half of the Colts game on TV. They ended up losing to a late 4th quarter touchdown but it is "only" pre-season right?
The girls made it back from their shopping trip and Rudee had only a small bag with some make up. She is not a real "shop-a-holic" but does enjoy a shopping trip now and then.
We drove Deb and Niles back to Lebanon and dropped them back at their car. They had to get home to "rescue" Tucker their black Lab. He had been in all day and was probably sitting waiting on them with his legs crossed!
Leaving Lebanon we talked to Steve and Trish Suter on the cell phone. They have their 5th wheel parked in a seasonal lot in Thorntown about 8 miles from Lebanon. They were heading there when we talked and invited us over. We sat and visited under their awning for a while and since it was time for supper the four of us headed to Stookey's in Thorntown to eat. This has been a longtime favorite restaurant of ours. They have really good steaks and catfish. The place is family owned and are in their second generation. I decided to go "light" tonight and had a grilled chicken salad and Rudee had a ham steak dinner. She ended up bringing over 1/2 of her dinner home since we didn't share. I see a big pot of ham and beans in my future!
Back at Suter's 5er Steve built a fire and we talked, laughed, drank a glass of wine and roasted some marshmallows. The yawns finally took over and we called it a night and headed home. It was a nice topper to a good day. Here is a picture of Steve and Trish from a recent bike ride.
The weather has taken a turn this week end. We have had the portable heater on both mornings to take the chill off. I read on the Montana Owners Forum that one of the members was in Wisconsin and the lows were expected to be in the low 30's there. Yikes, where did the summer go! The highs today are supposed to be in the high 60's so doubt if we will do any motorcycling but who knows. The only thing we have planned so far is to finish up the winch. I'll keep you posted.
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