Was it a Dream or a Nightmare

I had a motorcycle some times back and as they said on the Godfather I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. I sure missed that bike. For some times I have been looking for another. I would go on line and check the various auction houses such as Ebay looking for that elusive bike. Then I finally found what I was looking for. It was a 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. It had less than 11,000 miles on it. I put my bid on it and then left for the weekend. When I came home I found I had won the bid.

The only trouble was the bike was outside Miami, Florida and I was in Texas. I could have it shipped to me at a cost of about five hundred dollars or I could go get it and ride it back. Since I could fly at a discount rate because my son works for the airlines, I decided to do that. Now to convince my wife that I was really going down to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to pick up a bike and that was all, during spring break for all the colleges. She said she didn’t feel she had to worry as I looked enough like a grandfather nobody would be interested. She was probably right. By the way I didn’t even get any second looks much less any first looks.

Since I fly standby, you only get a seat if there is an open one. Also since you fly standby and you are not sure if you can get on a flight or not you don’t check your baggage. I lost a pocketknife one time, so I had mailed my knife and my leatherman tool to my son’s in-laws in Naples Florida. I decided I would drop by to see them for a few minutes pick up my stuff and be on my way. The flight I was scheduled on held 112 people and 122 had made reservations. It didn’t look real good. However, the day of the flight the weather in Houston wasn’t the best so a couple of connecting flights did not make it in. There were plenty of seats and I made the flight. Of all the luck, I got stuck sitting next to two real cute Hawaiian girls. They were headed for Miami to go on a cruise ship. All they wanted to talk about was cute guys they might meet on the ship. They had started out early that morning (Thursday) and here it was about 2:00 p.m. and they were almost half way around the world.

The plane landed on time and I departed. The guy I was buying the bike from told me to take the taxi to his place. It would cost about forty dollars. I had an uneasy feeling when the taxi driver headed south out of the airport and circled all the way around it. I watched the dollars tick away. I knew we had to go north. Finally, by the time we cleared the airport headed north the meter showed eighteen fifty. I think he was trying to pull a fast one on me. He passed up the road we were supposed to turn on and went about two or three miles before he turned around and headed back. I kept track of the meter and when it came time to settle up I subtracted that amount from the bill. He was not very happy, but it still cost me sixty-five bucks. That was a little more than the forty estimate I had been given.

I met up with Nick Raw and rode the bike. It ran real well so I bought it and also bought his helmet. I made it to the gas station before I headed out. It cost me $5.34 for 3.2 gallons of gas. That’s a lot less than the diesel truck cost to fill up. I found I-75 also called Alligator Alley. I set it on seventy and leaned back for the cruise to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where my son Matt is stationed. Since I was this close why not go by and see him.

At mile marker 58 the bike started spitting and sputtering. At marker 59 it stopped. I tried to start it and there was no power at all. Lucky thing about this happening where it did was in Florida they have call boxes. You pull the lever and inside are three buttons; fire, service, medical and cancel. I pushed service. There is a sign that says please be patient. I was, for the next two and a half-hours I was patient. I also pushed the button three times. Finally, a service truck showed up. The nice thing is it is run by the state. The service man that helped me was Carl (that’s all he would tell me). He gave me a charge and I was able to make it to the rest area five miles farther down the road. He told me if he called a tow truck they would charge me one hundred-fifty dollars plus four dollars per mile to come get me. The nearest town was forty miles away. So, doing the math that would be three hundred and ten dollars. I decided to try something else. I would catch a ride into town and the next day would rent a truck and go get it myself. Now trying to get a ride at night in these times was almost impossible. The security man (John) said if I didn’t get a ride by the time he got off at midnight he would take me to town. Needless to say I rode to town with him. He took me to a motel and dropped me off. That was nice guy number two since I was there. There would be many more. Thank God.

My son John had recently gotten married and his in-laws have a winter place in Naples and guess where I was spending the night. Right Naples. I figured if they would give me a ride back out to the bike and if they had a set of jumper cables, I could take the fuse out of the light and I could make it to a bike shop. I went to sleep with the problems of the world solved at 2:30 a.m.

I woke up at 8:00 a.m. and made some calls. It was Friday, day two. I found a bike shop that didn’t have an alternator, but they could get one. My son’s mother-in-law (Joann Seymour) would be happy to come get me and help. When she arrived with a friend Marty Farley she had my package I had mailed to them with my knife and Leatherman. In two and a half-hours we were at the bike, had it jumped off and were headed for the bike shop. Floyd Cunningham in Naples told me he could get the part overnighted and would start on it Monday morning and would have me out by afternoon. I told him to go ahead.

Jim Seymour, John’s father-in-law had stayed at the condo with Pat Farley. She and her husband had come in to help Joann out, because Jim had a heart valve replace 10 days before. I told Joann she could drop me off at a nearby motel and I would hang out until Monday. She told me it wasn’t going to happen. She said if I didn’t mind sleeping on a fold out couch I could stay with them. What could I say.

Saturday I got to go to a real St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This was in South Naples. The parade took one hour to pass by. They had everything in the parade. Since there were so many “snowbirds” down there they had clubs from all parts of the north. They even had a 1951 Police Car from Massachusetts. Miss America was there and I was not impressed. We have a lot of women here that are much more beautiful than she is. I tried to pay for my own meals when we went out, but they would not let that happen. I went to St. Leo’s Catholic Church with them Sunday. I did install a ceiling fan and phone plug for them while I was there. It was nice at their place. They had a condo on a golf course. I even went swimming while I was there.

Finally Monday morning I called the shop and they told me the bike would be ready by noon. Joann took me down. I gave them a hardy thanks and headed north up I-75.

I pulled into a rest area due to a rain squall and was lucky I found a maintenance shed with a covered area. I pulled under it and waited out the storm. After the rain I headed out and found the next problem with the bike. If any water sprayed on the engine two of the cylinders would cut out. I would run on two cylinders until the other two dried out them I would be ok again. I figured the problem was due to a crack in a coil or something like that. It took about 30 minutes of running to get all four cylinders going again. This problem came up several times on the trip.

I made it to just north of Savannah, Georgia that first day. Then headed for Ft. Bragg Tuesday morning. I met up with Matthew about 1:00 p.m. We visited that day and Wednesday morning he had to report in at 6:30 a.m. for gas mask drills. After those he was coming home to go to bed as he had to work that night. So I got up when he did and I headed out. It was a short visit, but At least I got to see him.

I want to tell you that ignorance is alive and well and it showed its ugly head in South Carolina. South of Florence, South Carolina, I hit another shower. The bike cut out on me and I was running on the shoulder at about 30 miles per hour trying to get the two cylinders to dry out. They had just started to spit and sputter like they were trying to start and I look in my rear view mirror. There was a South Carolina Highway Patrol. He pulled me over. If he could have waited just a mile more I know the bike would have been running ok then. He told me I could not drive on the shoulder as it was the emergency lane. I explained my problem. He told me it was only for emergencies. The last exit was about 5 miles back and the bike messed up after I passed it. There had not been another exit since then. There was no frontage roads. I kinda figured it was an emergency. He then added you can’t drive on the freeway under forty. I told him I couldn’t do forty and that is why I was not on the freeway. He then repeated you can’t drive here (the shoulder) because it is the emergency lane. I told him I almost had it running. He said “you almost had it running.” I said “yeah until I had to stop because you pulled me over.” Finally he left. After a bout fifteen or twenty minutes it started and every thing was good again. That is for about 50 miles.

About 10 miles before Augusta, Georgia I hit another shower. I was running along holding about three thousand RPMs and I started up a hill. There was just not enough power to make it up. I pushed it up and then as I got under an overpass the bottom fell out and it really did rain. I waited about two hours for the shower to pass. I then went out and tried to start the bike. Wouldn’t make it. I pushed it down a hill trying to get it to start by popping the clutch. Do you know what you have when you get at the bottom of a hill? You got to go up the other side. The only problem the other side was much steeper and much longer. I would push the bike about a hundred steps and rest then go again. This went on fourteen times. I figured it was between one half and three quarters of a mile. I then tried to start it by pushing it down the hill. Thank God it started. I found a bike shop in Augusta and he tried to fix the problem and charged me only $13.98 for all the work he did. His name was Richard Provance of Street and Trails Motorsports. Another in a long list of nice people. While we were working on the bike, I was watching the weather on TV. There was a bad storm coming from Atlanta to Augusta. I figured I had better head south. I left the shop and hit a shower and it did me in again. I was still in town and no way to get a good run to keep it running. I stopped at a strip mall and there was a Chinese restaurant. I figured it was time to eat and it could dry out while I did. After I finished I pushed it on the parking lot and got it running. I headed south. I stopped for a little break and the bike turned over on the weak asphalt on the small country road. A young couple turned around when they saw me lifting the bike up. They thought I had taken a spill. I told them why I was headed south. They said they had been watching the weather a few minutes ago and the bad stuff had split and some was headed south. He said the area was under a tornado and hail watch until 11:00 p.m. I made a change and headed due west to try to dodge it.

I could see lightening on both sides of me. So I kept heading in between. I made it to Dublin, Georgia and asked if they had been watching the weather and what direction was it headed. I had planned to head for a town named Cordele, but a truck driver told me to go north a couple of miles to Allentown and head west to Americus then south to Albany. He said that way had the best roads and was shortest. I looked at the map and I didn’t think it looked shorter to me, but he was a truck driver and should know the roads. I headed out that way. I got about 20 miles and lightening was all around me except in back. So, I headed back to Dublin and headed straight for Cordele. The roads couldn’t have been any better than this one. I refueled at Cordele and headed south to Albany. About five miles out lightening was headed my way from every direction including the way I came from. I turned around and headed back. I pulled into a Comfort Inn. The manager on duty was Iraqi. He was as nice to me as anyone could be. He let me pull my bike under the overhang to keep it dry. He also gave me a pretty low rate.

The next morning I headed for Blakley, Georgia. It was a beautiful day with most of the showers behind me. I passed through Warwick, Georgia. They had a big sign up proclaiming they were the “Home of the Grits Festival.” If you have to be known for something I guess GRITS are as good as any. I made it to Dothan, Alabama and headed west. Dothan is on Hwy. 84 so I figured I would just drive to Teague all the way on 84. I was making good time. It was four lane and 70 mile speed limit. Well, it was until you hit the turn off to Fort Rucker. Then it dropped down to two lane and a 55 mile per hour speed limit. One small town after another. And then there was some construction and the speed limit dropped to 45. After the construction area was past I figured it would go back up. Guess again. Finally after 4 hours driving since hitting the Alabama line I arrived at Andalusa. I filled up and figured I was almost out of ‘BAMA. I looked at a map and it showed I was in the middle of the state. I said, “My gosh how long does it take to cross the state.” The woman running the store said, “Well, Honey if you stay on 84 you will be in this glorious state another 5 hours.” She advised me to hit I-65 (about 30 miles west on 84). She said to drop down to I-10 and in 3 ½ hours I would be in Biloxi, Mississippi. I did just that. It took me almost an hour to make the 30 miles to I-65, but then I kicked it back and let her roll. I made it across Alabama, then I made it across Mississippi. I took the bypass around New Orleans or as they say down there “N’Orleans”. I stopped at Walker, Louisiana. I saw a sign for a LANDRY’S Seafood. I was wanting some Ettoufee and I had seen Landry’s around for years so I figured I could get some good cajun food there. Was I ever wrong. The meal started with a salad, no problem as I love salad. Then they brought me a plate that had some green beans and carrots on it. I also had two ice cream scoops of rice and about a half cup of crawfish ettoufee. I guess the atmosphere is what cost so much as it wasn’t the food. I finally made it to Sulfur, La. For the night.

The last morning on the road I got up and it was a little chilly so I put on my Carhart insulated bib overalls, my leather coat and gloves. I figured I could take them off as it warmed up. Well, I’m telling you it never warmed up and I never removed the outer clothes.

I rolled the bike straight in to Teague, not stopping for anything except gas. I made it in about 3:00 p.m. With what I had been through this last week and more It could have been classified as a nightmare, but I made it safely and until by backside gets feeling back in it I probably won’t travel that far in that short a time. 2325 miles is a long way.I wound up being a ride of a lifetime and real dream