Sunday, May 27, 2012

Ready to Hit the Road

Well, I'm pretty much ready to go.  Yesterday I went on a good ride, over to Greensboro to the BMW dealership open house, where I had a good lunch and got a free "Carolina BMW"

 tee shirt.  Nice shirt, white with black letters; a nice surprise.  Bought nothing, although they had good deals on some stuff.

When I got home, I looked at the mileage since the last oil change (almost 5,000 miles), and decided to change the oil and filter because I didn't want to go 8,000 miles between oil changes.  So, the oil and filter were exchanged for new oil and filter and the motor is very happy.  It smiles when it runs now!  I think the bike is ready, although I might change the primary sparplugs today since sometimes one cylinder is firing intermittently at idle.  Plugs have 44,000 on them, and the recommended changing interval is 24,000.  So, I might get the energy up to changing the primary plugs.  The secondary plugs require the fairings to be removed, and I don't want to do that much work today.  Will change those when I get home.

I'm washing clothes today, getting them ready for the trip.  Not packing a whole lot; only 8 days on the road.  Four changes of tee shirts, socks and undies.  A couple pair of convertible pants.  A couple of long sleeved shirts.  The plan will be to wash once along the way; either use a laundromat or do it in the sink.  Prefer a laundromat because sink washing never gets all the stink out of them.  And miscellaneous things like shoes, electronics, cooler, etc.  I'll be moderately loaded; not too much, but hopefully enough stuff.  But I can't finish packing until all I need is washed.  So, it will probably be Monday morning when the stuff goes into the bags.

I ordered tickets to the race about a week ago.  I figured there was plenty of time to make the order and to have them sent to me.  However, I figured wrong!  Yesterday was the last day of mail delivery before leaving home, and the tickets are not here yet, so we'll have to deal with tickets now.  Damn!  I called the track to see how it could be handled, and the lady there told me that I would need to go to the Customer Service desk, explain what happened, and buy new tickets.  When I get home, I can send them the unused tickets, and they are supposed to refund my money.  I hope it works out to be that easy, but somehow I believe it will end up being a hassle.  I'm not concerned about being able to get it; the tracks are never sold out, but we wanted to save a few dollars by buying them before getting to the track.  Oh well, the best plans of men and mice...

Remembering earlier last week that my helmet liner had gotten that accumulated-sweat smell that nauseates me, I took the liner out of my Schuberth C3 helmet and washed it.  Three times!  Rinsed it twice, and it smells slightly like soap.  So much better than sweat, so I think I can ride without nausea.  And, remembering that my riding boots have had no polish for probably 5,000 to 6,000 miles, I have now polished them.  They were looking a bit ratty, so the black polish has them looking a bit better.  They're still mostly watertight, but the Gore-Tex lining has some holes to allow water to intrude.  They are comfortable, though.

So, with a couple of last-minute exceptions, I'm ready to hit the road.  I won't post on Monday; just riding to Gary's house.  But there should be something to post on Tuesday night.

Stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful Memorial Day picture.
    I'm looking forward to reading about your Road America Race motorcycle adventure.
    BTW I WAS hoping to see another picture of those two wild motorcyclists in the picture posted in your first blog entry. Actually that's the reason I'm back visiting your blog today. Maybe you could post a small pic of them taken at Disney World? You know, while I wait for your motorcycle adventure to begin.

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  2. I hope you are thinking about a souvenir for ME while you are on this vacation. I REALLY liked the Green Alien you got me in Roswell :D

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