Earth Angels

What an interesting 24 hours.  First, my bike died while on the on the way to a campground last night. Luckily there was a gas station within bike pushing distance. It was closed for the night. So, I camped in a field next to the store. In the morning, I had to wait until the store opened, only to find that there wasn't anything in it that I could use to fix the bike. So, after trying several things, I got a gentleman who owned a store nearby to give the bike a jump. The bike started but before I could get loaded and ready to roll, it died.  The owner of the gas station offered to fill my tank for me and  when I asked the store owner to jump the bike again, he was agreeable. After he had done so, he shook my haand with $20 in it. ("The Universe loves to give me money.")

I rode the bike to Walmart and bought a small charger. I asked the manager of a Valvoline Oil Change station if I could use his outlet and was given permission. While I was taking the battery off the bike, a guy in an SUV offered to take the battery and charge it at his house and then bring it back. I hung out for 4 or 5 hours waiting for it to charge. When he brought it back, I put it on the bike and...nothing. So I took the battery inside and a sweet woman at customer service told me that the battery was under warranty and I could just go get another one. I did, made the exchange and went out to get it ready.

It was 9:20 by the time I had filled it with acid and the directions said to wait an hour before putting it on a charger. Then it would be about 10 hours before I could use it. I rented a couple movies and sat on a curb while the battery charged. About 2:30 or so, I walked a couple hundred yards to a White  Castle. I found out that they had an outside plug and that I could use it so I made the switch and sat in the restaurant until about 7am. I put the newly charged battery on the bike and it ran fine. I immediately went to a campground and pitched my tent and went to sleep.

A number of blessings happened while I was there, but I'm going to jump to the next day. I woke up to a gray and cloudy day. I checked the radar and saw that there was a major thunder storm barreling down on me. I quickly packed up, knowing I was racing the weather, and made it to a Denny's restaurant just as it began to rain. I half-covered the bike and made it inside just as the skies opened up. I made a balloon for a little girl and found out when I finished eating that the dad had bought my breakfast as he was leaving. Blessings!

I got back on the road and was doing great...for about 115 miles. Then the bike started acting up again. It was so bad that I could barely keep it going at 60 mph. At one point, when I would aactivate the ER flashers, the bike would die in time with the lights activating! I finally found a place to pull off the freeway in a little town called Barnesville. The bike totally did as I pulled into  a DQ parking lot. I was able to plug the battery in and I waited a while. Later, I saw a fellow playing some boys in the driveway of a farm across the street. This man turned out to be another Earth Angel. I went over to ask him if he had a certain tool I could borrow and he took on the bike issue as if it were his own.

Dave  has gone out of his way to be of service. He's let me camp on his property, he's taken me around to find another battery and when we finally did find one, told me that he was going to buy it for me. He called one of his friends, Jerry, who also turned out to be one of the Universe's agents. Jerry came over and has helped me figure out what to do with the battery situation and even surpirsed me by giving me a set of highway platforms, about $60 new. He's had several 'Wings and even let me take his '85 Interstate (a 'Wing almost exactly like mine) for a short ride. Now I know what the bike will feel like when it has full power and what it would sound like if it didn't have an exhaust leak.

Okay, other stuff will have to wait. It is almost 11 and that is when the new battery is due to arrive. I think I have the tools and knowledge to figure out if something other than the battery is the trouble, though if it turns out that it is more than the battery, I don't know what it would be or how to fix it. More later.