catching up

Things have been non-stop here at our little "home on the range". Saturday we rode the bike over to Plainfield to try and get some service work done at the Harley dealer. Can you believe it's already time for the 5,000 mile service work?
The dealership does not make any appointments for Friday or Saturday but leaves the whole day open for first come first served ride up appointments. We showed up 10 minutes after they had opened and found out we would be bike #11 in line. They figured it would be afternoon before it would be done. Rats! We decided against being without wheels for that long and will just get the service done another time.
We called Rob and Jany Runion and they joined up for a day of riding. We picked them up and rode North to Monticello Indiana where we walked the boardwalk of the Indiana Beach amusement park. They do not charge to get into the park but to ride the rides you have to purchase an arm band. We decided to just watch all the other dare devils on the rides :-).
Peru Indiana was our next stop where we had a nice supper at The Siding Restaurant. Stephanie Mockler was racing her mini-sprint car at the Peru Raceway and we wanted to go and root her on.
Stephanie is the daughter of fellow motorcycle rider and good friend Linda Mockler. To meet Stephanie away from the track you would never guess she was a race car driver. She has the look of a cheerleader until she gets behind the wheel of that race car then she turns into a tiger. It's obvious she doesn't like following anyone, that girl wants to be in front!
The races were exciting and Stephanie was a hard charger but luck wasn't hers tonight. She got hit from behind and spun out virtually eliminating her from contention. She finished in 8th place, out of the money :-(.
We made it home shortly after midnight and went straight to bed.

Sunday we slept in a little later than normal and really had a hard time getting fired up to do anything.
I had made arrangements with my son in law Ryan to help me do some maintenance on the Freightliner. Ryan works at the local Co-Op field office and they have a large work shop where we can pull the truck inside and use their tools if we need them.
I met Ryan at the shop and while he changed the oil I worked on the motorcycle ramp. Last time I used the ramp I noticed a problem with the winch. There is a large plastic wheel that the winch cable wraps around. The wheel acts as a guide and is supposed to turn when the cable is moving over it and it was not turning anymore. The bolt that holds the wheel on was bent so I took it all apart and installed a bigger, heavier bolt which should not bend.
I also recharged the air conditioning system with Freon. I have to add a couple of cans about every other year to keep things cool. I guess there is a slow leak somewhere but right now it's easier to just recharge it instead of paying someone a bunch of $$ to try and find the leak and then fix it.
We are getting the truck ready for our next trip.
What?? Another trip you ask?
Yep, this time we are loading up the entire traveling circus and hitting the road for South Dakota. I wish I could say we were starting to travel for good but I cant. We are taking a 2 week vacation, doing some sight seeing and lots of riding but alas, we still have these pesky jobs that we'll have to report back to :-(.
We still have this week end to prepare and all of next week to work. We plan on leaving as soon as we can on Friday afternoon/evening. We'll drive until we get tired and find a campground for the night. Saturday will be the big travel day and are shooting to be in Eastern South Dakota before stopping. That will leave us with a leisurely drive Sunday giving us plenty of time to get everything set up and the bike unloaded before it gets late.
We are both looking forward to getting away from our jobs for awhile. I think we are both ready to take a permanent break from them but we still have some bills to get rid of.
I keep telling myself it will happen soon but there is a guy in my head yelling "now, now. I want it now!!"
Patience has never been my strong suit :-). I'll keep you posted.