Day 22, and we have landed in Peoria IL, at the Baymont Hotel. Another dump of a location, but about the only thing available with 3 rooms. Apparently there is a girls soft ball or volley ball tournament going on in the area, taking up all the good rooms! Our room door had black duct tape holding the dead bolt recessed, and had to hit the door with your shoulder to enter. And to close the door when you left, you had to use the key card to unlock the door before closing, turn the handle to release the latch, and then slam the door shut. 5 stars here, baby.
My morning started at 7:30 am for our scheduled departure time of 8am. Last night I thought the dealer opened at 9am. However that was the dealer I was talking to in Lincoln NE, not the one in Omaha NE, that is now the closer dealer and also on the route towards east and home. Nope, Defiance HD in Omaha doesn’t open until 10am. So we will be early, it’s worked our for us in the past.
Brother Rick & I arrived in Omaha, a few miles from Defiance HD, about 9:15am, so we stopped at the local diner for a breakfast for Rick, I had already eaten the complimentary corn flakes in the hotel lobby. But the place advertised the best pies’ in the world. Now how could I just let this opportunity slip by. I ordered the apple pie ala mode as a little snack. The first slice of warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream had a nice long black hair on top. I sent that piece back. Soon after the replacement pie arrived, and I’d say best in the world is a stretch, probably not even the best on the street.
Anywho, Ski Doo led Monkey and Hedgie out on the road at I’m not sure what time because I wasn’t there, and nobody really volunteered much information to me. I only know they had a lightly overcast day of riding with comfortable temperatures that went from 65-75 degrees, and apparently they had smooth sailing. I know they put in one of the longest days yet, I think it was around 420 miles and they got in around 5:30pm local time.
Rick & I arrived at the HD Dealer right about 10am, and they were opening the doors and moving bikes outside for display. I was first in line at the Service write up counter, and the young man got my Panamerica right in for diagnostics.
I used the down time to finish this stupid blog in the showroom with the free wifi. Then I did some real work on my laptop, then I made phone calls to people I haven’t talked to in 3 weeks. That killed about an hour and a ½. I hadn’t heard from the service department, do it couldn’t hurt to inquire, right?
I was told the diagnostics came up low voltage on the battery, and many error codes had been thrown out. They were in the process of charging and testing the battery and that had about 45 more minutes to go.
So I gave them until 1pm before I inquired again. I killed this hour buying my tshirt shot glass and a sticker for everybody. I also spent the time telling myself I was riding out of this dealer on 2 wheels, and I was going to catch up with the boys if they get me out of here by 3pm.
At 1pm, time for my pestering inquiry as to what is the current status. The battery is good, and the technician is now the phone with Harley Tech Support to help proceed Great, I can still ride on 2 wheels today, I keep telling myself.
I sat with Rick in the service lobby, with a tv in the corner playing 50 year old reruns of Gunsmoke. Really, it’s 2022, can’t we get into the current century of rerun tv! Maybe some Two & ½ men or something.
Anyway around 1:30 I was getting hungry, so Rick drove me around town in circles with the truck and trailer, trying to find a place we could pull into for some takeout. Just when we located a Burger King, my phone rings with a local number from Omaha. The service writer tells me that Harley Support wants them to take the starter off, run a volt test on that, and work backwards from there. And there are a lot of parts to take off to get to the starter.
I interrupt him and tell him to get it ready to load, I’m not staying the night in Omaha, especially with still not a guarantee that the bike will be fixed after all this. I’ll take it to Ray’Cs HD in Lapeer MI for this. So we skipped the Burger King, hightailed it back to the dealer, loaded and strapped the bike down, and off to Peoria IL to catch up with the others. It was around 2:30 pm. My ride on 2 wheels is over. The rest of my trip is looking thru the windshield of this Ford Super Duty 250, from the passenger seat.
Apparently Hedgie had a few problems with his Panamerica on his ride as well. While cruising down a busy state highway, at speed, his bike went into “limp”mode, and dramatically slowed to 25 mph. Not fun when there is a loaded down concrete truck rolling behind you, and blaring the horn as your bike has no concern that it is putting you into peril. I hear this limp mode was activated twice during his travels yesterday. Not a fun situation to be in.
Rick & I hot lapped the truck & trailer into Peoria, about 420 miles out. We got into town around 8:40pm and had to pick Monkey, Ski Doo and Hedge up at the restaurant they had just finished dinner at, because the Uber driver that dropped them off, was going off shift after that drop off, and their Uber app didn’t show any other drivers available for the return trip to the hotel.
After we parked the truck and trailer out front of the hotel, we proceeded to tailgate with the iced down cooler, until that was drained by about 11pm. One by one we meandered off to our respective rooms.
Tomorrow, Wednesday July 27, 2022, our destination is Plymouth Indiana. This is the nearest town to where Hedge and Ski Doo live, that has a Holiday Inn Express. Their ride will be complete at the end of the day. We are planning on having dinner and celebratory drinks at the Wings Etc in Plymouth tonight, if anybody would like to join us.
Monkey & my plan is that my wife, Julie, is going to leave Flint and drive my truck and motorcycle trailer to the Holiday Inn in Plymouth, and join us for dinner and drinks, and I will load my bike and gear in my own trailer to get my crap home. I will be the support vehicle for Monkey on his final leg of the ride tomorrow, Wednesday July 28, 2022, to get home. Not that he will need the support, the KTM’s have performed flawlessly on this trip, and I fully expect that to continue.
We shall see,
Bye for now,
Stick