It's the usual 3's and pack the bike. I'm looking at my goto riding sweater, and I was wondering, that before I left, I washed and added some nice smelling fabric softener. Well its been 5 days, time for the smell test.
I'm really surprised that it still smells "spring fresh". No bad for the cheapo no name stuff from No Frills.
Finally a nice sunny day.
It's about 9am, and with Oklahoma City about an hour away, so it's a good time to leave, I'll miss rush hour. The drive down was uneventful, and a easy drive through Oklahoma city. The only thing that happened was my GPS shut down. No big thing, as I've been through here before, and I've got google maps as a backup. I'm off I-40 and head up I-44 towards St Louis. With the gas tank at a 1/4 and it being noon, I hit the highway rest stop with McD's for lunch. As always I fill up the gas tank first and then eat. I come out and give the bike a quick look over and notice this:
It's the top weld for the trailer hitch. The bottom one is fine. Now I have to find a local welder. The town of Stroud, OK is just up the street. So I head over. As I drive through town I don't see any welding shops. I drop into the local tool rental place and ask. They send me down to a local auto repair shop. I head inside and ask if anyone can do some welding. They kind of snicker. This is a "good old boys" shop. So either he's really good, or really bad. Lucky for me, he's really good. He cleaned it up and did some really good beading on the new weld. All for $20, I can't fault that.
Here's the bottom weld. It looks ok.
All taken apart for welding.
The new weld, I'm just glad it happened at noon on a weekday.
Just gotta paint her up and it's as good as new, nope, it's better than new.
All said and done, it took 2 hours, and was back on the road. For the first time this trip its hit 80°. So off comes the windbreaker/rainsuit, as does the sweater. That feels good.
I'm not done yet, as hour later the gear shifter let's go again, while I'm in traffic in Tulsa, OK. I'm stuck in second, but get off the interstate and into a parking lot with a Auto zone. I take it apart and find the pin worked itself loose. I didn't have loc tight when I put it together a couple of days ago.
So I'm off to Auto Zone, to buy some loc tight and some grease for the ball on the linkage. I'm getting good at this and it's back together quickly.
The rest of the ride was enjoyable and trouble free. My bed for the night is in Springfield, MO.
Now due to the numerous problems that I've had, I don't know if I'm going to get to Niagara on time, we shall see. So I was thinking of doing a side trip to Brandon, MO. Here are some of the shows they have playing there.
Well, now I know what an ex Brady is doing, as well as the rest of the Osmond's. The only thing of interest would be Mary Wells of the Supremes. I think I'll keep heading east.
Today's mileage. 400 miles - 643 km
Totals. 1558 miles - 2506 km
Miles to Niagara scooter rally
976 miles or 1570 km
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