Shovelhead Reunion 2021 Milwaukee, WI

Day 7:

The road home: Ann Arbor, MI to Lancaster, NY

The morning was bright and sunny in Ann Arbor. Hot and quite muggy. We thought there might be rain in our future, so we were planning to gear up first thing, just ‘cuz. But it was like a sauna when we went outside, and the first thing I did was peel off all of my not-so-waterproof shit so I could breathe. Marjorie hadn’t geared up yet, so she re-thought that whole strategy too. We had already gassed up the night before, so we were ready to hit the road.

Today we were only going to be riding about 100 or so miles together because I peeled off on I-90 toward Buffalo, while she remained on I-80 to head toward Jersey.

Right off the bat, my GPS took us past the highway we knew we were supposed to take, and after a quick conference, we decided to turn around and go back to it, since her GPS was saying to do so. It wasn’t until we hit the on ramp that we realized that my GPS was taking us around a bumper-to-bumper ‘destruction’ zone. After a few minutes of clutch, clutch, clutch, we headed for the shoulder and rolled past most of it in nothing flat. YES!

So finally past that, we were cruising. Until….. the universe was clearly not ready to let Marjorie and I off the hook so easily. About 20 miles south of Ann Arbor, my phone, which was mounted on my bars, and was running GPS for me, did this crazy jiggle dance, leapt in the air and swan dived across my bike from right to left, crashing, bouncing, and rolling in the middle of the highway. It happened so fast, I hadn’t a prayer of catching it. The entire cell phone pirouette was pretty spectacular; however, in that split second, I was tee-totally screwed.

I pulled to the shoulder, with Marjorie pulling in behind me – she had also witnessed the spectacular dance across the highway. I hopped off the bike – leaving it running because it actually was, for the moment, running perfectly, and I didn’t want to jinx it by turning it off – and walked back to where the phone, or the pieces of it were lying, smashed and sad in the middle of the highway. I collected the biggest pieces, and walked back to Marjorie.

I kind of felt like I wanted to cry, but I just hugged Marj, and she said, “so I guess I’ll lead.” We laughed and that was that! Now THAT’S a road buddy!

Off we went again – me staring at the broken mount where my phone has lived for almost 10,000 miles on that bike, and Marj doggedly leading us on. Our next gas stop was our last stop together. We took a break, she posted for me, so that at least some people would know I am out of commission for a couple days except for via my PC.

Back on 80/90 east, we rode together until I peeled off on 90 east. It was hot as blazes – even the air was hot – it felt like I was riding in a blast furnace. I made good time, and was hauling through Cleveland in no time at all. Still beautiful blue skies, fluffy white clouds and HOT sun… unnnnnnnntilllllll… about 30 miles east of Cleveland, I hit rain.

However, THIS rain I was grateful for. The air cooled, clouds came out of nowhere, there were a few bolts of lightning, and this lovely, gentle rain. I kept riding. No way was I going to try to fend off the water. It felt soothing after I had been sweatin’ like Nixon again today.

I did run through a heavier patch of rain, but by some miracle, the anti-fog wipe Marj had given me actually worked, and I could SEE! So I just kept rolling. Feeling the rain water soaking through my clothes, and knowing that it would keep me cool long after I rode out of the storm, which it did, indeed.

All this time, my bike was running pretty well. It pitched a small fit after the first gas stop, but smoothed out. It did that pretty much the rest of the ride. Long periods of happy bike punctuated with small fits. Far better than yesterday’s miserable bratty behavior.

I closed in on home, and decided that I had better go to Verizon to see about my phone before I even went to the house. Apparently I was intelligent enough to let them talk me into insuring that phone when I got it – I have NEVER insured a phone before, but you can bet your ass I will from now on! So I hope to have a replacement by tomorrow.

As per usual with the Atomic Shovel, she gets me home and then hangs her tongue out and dies. I struggled to get her started at the Verizon store, and she stalled about 5 times on the way home. I had to keep throttle going at stops, which was kind of interesting, trying to come to some sort of stop whilst keeping the revs high. But she got me home.

I had to move my car to pull her into the stable, and yet again she did not want to start. However, I whispered in her ear that I did not want to push her in, so she finally relented and started long enough for me to get her parked. I will deal with her and her attitude later.

I went to pick up Maizie, and now I am home, in the AC, doing as little as possible for the rest of the evening. Marjorie arrived safely at her home in New Jersey a few hours later. She had a much longer ride. She did 14 hours in the saddle, 582 miles. She hit road destruction, and I believe rain as well, but she, and her ’82 FXRS she calls Foxy Lady, got home together.

Just like the Utah trip, this one was full of crazy obstacles, and challenges, but being able to share all of it with Marjorie and Tara Lynch, meeting Vicki Roberts-Sanfelipo, Tony Pan, and Milwaukee Mike, seeing Chris Tribbey, Danielle Werner, Joann and Ron Enk and so many other people, just made my heart happy. I would never know any of these fabulous people if I had never thrown a leg over a bike and imagined I could ride it.