Day 6:

The ride home: Milwaukee, WI to Ann Arbor, MI

What. A. Day. The weather, yet again, was sketchy all the way across our intended path of travel today, from Milwaukee, to Muskegon on the ferry, to Toledo, which we landed short of. And the universe was seriously messing with us both today as well.

Boarding the ferry, Marjorie Kleiman was ahead of me, and this guy came out of nowhere and started micro-managing how she needed to park her bike. I was watching helplessly as the shit show unfolded. First he had her pull up diagonally to the bulkhead. Then he had her back up into this weird spot that made zero sense. The floor was slick with oil, probably from the previous bikes on the ferry. By some miracle, and with a lot of skill, she managed to get her bike situated and strapped down.

Meanwhile, another parking person got me located in the spot where Marjorie should have been. She was aggravated with the dude who was messing with Marjorie, and I told her how dangerous his stupidity was.

The rest of the ferry situation was fine. No pitching and rolling today, so we were very grateful for that.

Once we got on the road in Muskegon, we decided to take the interstate toward Toledo and see how far we could get. We were hauling pretty good and making time, even though my bike was bucking and stalling constantly. Stalled completely several times. All but one time I popped the clutch to get it going again.

We hit a heavy downpour with thunder and lightning, so we had to stop under an overpass for shelter. That was right after we discovered that Marjorie’s turn signals had stopped working. Not even surprised…

After the rain let up, we hauled ass, and made it as far as Ann Arbor, when the sky got heavy with some angry looking dementor clouds, so we pulled off for gas and decided to park it for the night. It was getting on to twilight, and we still hadn’t eaten much since breakfast. We found a hotel, and hauled ass again to beat the rain.

On the way, my bike went into a full stall. I was in 3rd, bumped to 2nd, popped the clutch, nope. Bumped to 1st, popped the clutch, and oh buddy, the Atomic friggin disaster got super squirrrely! Oops! But I hung with it and kept going. Currently, we are checked in, fed, and about ready to crash for the night.

Day 5:

Whirlwind day… Breakfast with Marjorie Kleiman and Tara Lynch and then off to Kenosha to visit with some of Tara’s friends who live in a dang firehouse! They have beautifully repurposed that building into an impressive home. Having done a lot of renovation, remodeling and restoration myself, I know how much work goes into a project like that, and how satisfying it is to complete it and share it with people.

They invited us on their ride to lunch, so we ended up at the Bunker Bar in Waterford, and then Vicki Roberts-Sanfelipo and Tony Pan Sanfilippo met up with us and rode from there to Milwaukee Micheal Johnston’s shop. Another super cool place I could spend hours just poking around. I love secret squirrel spots! Then Milwaukee Mike took us on the 3-hour tour of the city.

I can’t get over how similar Milwaukee is to Buffalo. So much beautiful architecture, rich history, and interesting neighborhoods. (But shittier roads than at home!) We stopped for dinner and then back to the hotel, with Mike graciously in the lead. Another super fun day.

The only bummer was that the Atomic Shovel is still running like shit. But so far I am managing it, which is all I can do. It is definitely more frustrating when I am riding with other people and it acts up. It bothers me less when I am solo, and it am the only one it affects. Regardless, tomorrow we are homeward bound!

Day 4

Today was super fun. We had breakfast with Danielle Werner and talked about the Route 66 ride we are planning for next year, then we went to the Harley museum and met up with JoAnn Enk and Ron Enk – talked them into doing the tour for the millionth time! Thank you!!!

Then we browsed the shovels that had gathered there for the ride to the park where the festivities continued. I chose not to ride today. They were calling for rain, yet again, and even though it ended up holding off, I simply am tired of riding in rain, being wet, and dealing with fogged up glasses.

They are calling for rain for the rest of forever, so we will likely be riding home in the shit. Anyway, the event was super cool. There was a group of people and shovels who came from Puerto Rico! Dang! That’s some serious travel….It was just a really fun day chilling with Tara Lynch and Marjorie Kleiman. After the shovel event, we went to the Iron Horse for a bite. None of us are night owls, so we are really living on the edge staying up past our bedtimes!

Somewhere, they were shooting off fireworks that we could just see above the buildings. I love fireworks, but I do not get to enjoy them often. The only photos I have from today are of a stained glass “water tower” on top of a building downtown. That is all…

Day 3

Action packed day! In the morning, I rode to House of Harley to pick up new rain gear, since my gear was 10 years old, and the seams were failing badly. After that, I went to Nick’s Anvil Inn to visit with Chris Tribbey. We had a great catch up visit, and then I headed back to the hotel for a late lunch.

By that time Tara Lynch was close to arriving, so I waited for her to get in and we went back to House of Harley for the pre-pre-party. Some really nice shovels there. It was a little lightly attended because of the weather forecast, but the next party at Bad Moon Saloon was pretty lively. Meanwhile, Marjorie Kleiman survived 6-1/2 hours of riding in ridiculous rain, and arrived at the hotel. Between the two parties, the three of us went for dinner, and then to the Bad Moon Saloon.

Since they were forecasting more rain, Tara chauffeured us in the “janky van,” which we much appreciated.

Day 2:

Toledo, OH to Milwaukee, WI

Part 1:

The day began pretty much where we left off last night. The main focus was finding parts and a shop where Marjorie Kleiman could get her bike fixed. I tell ya, that woman handles shit. Completely unflapped by the entire situation, she is one tenacious, take care of business lady. She. Is. Awesome.

She had asked me yesterday if I could fix her GPS wiring because one of the wires broke loose on her. I was going to take care of it until we got sidetracked by finding a stator. So she asked me if I would fix it this morning before I headed out for Muskegon and the ferry to Milwaukee. While I took care of that, she was working the phone, determined to resolve the stator dilemma.

Since I wasn’t any help in terms of fixing the stator, Marj told me to go on ahead to Milwaukee. I know she had things handled, but I still felt bad leaving. But she shooed me out of the parking lot!

About an hour later, I saw a text come across from her that she found parts and a shop, so she was soon to be all good. Yes!

Part 2:

The ride to Muskegon was beautiful, and the Atomic Shovel ran perfectly… until my last gas stop. I was about 60 miles from the ferry, and needed gas. I was also riding into some dark skies. Just as I pulled into the gas station….downpour. Perfect timing tho. So I filled up, suited up and headed back out.

About 6 miles later, the bike threw a little hissy fit. Stalling again. I told her I could deal with her shit or the rain, but not both, and by some miracle, she straightened up.

I am still having problems with my eyewear fogging up on me when it rains. I have never, ever had that problem, but this season it is really bad. I put an “anti fog” blah whatever on my glasses, which lasted until the rain washed it off. Sumbitch.

At least there was a car in front of me, and I could follow the taillights when it got really bad. Gotta get that figured out tho.

Part 3:

The ferry… Oh. My. God. When I strapped my bike down, there was really only one way to do it, and I didn’t like it at all. In the front, one strap was touching the bottom of my windshield, and in the back, both straps were touching my turn signals. Nothing I could change to reroute them. So I simply walked away and prayed the entire two hours that my bike wouldn’t be ripped to shit.

The lake was super choppy, and the ferry pitched and rolled so bad they were handing out anti-nausea meds. It was bad. But I am the luckiest person on the planet. No damage. None. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and headed to my hotel. Time for a very hot shower.

Yay. More water…

Day 1:

Lancaster, NY to Maumee, OH

Part 1:

Starter button worked like a charm, bike ran perfectly for the first 20 miles. For the next 30 miles, it bucked and stalled so much, I seriously thought I was breaking a bronc. Then it smoothed out and became my perfect bike again. Later in the day, it stalled again, and died as I was turning a corner in 2nd gear. But my handy dandy starter button worked. That is a huge win.

The bike smoothed out again like nothing was ever wrong. The ride was beautiful. Cool morning, but sunny, and I really love riding two lanes in Ohio. This state has the prettiest small towns, and beautiful countryside in between, but you only see this aspect of the state if you get off the interstate.

Part 2:

I rolled in to the hotel and Marjorie Kleiman had already landed. Apparently her arrival was quite dramatic – smoke AND fire! So who’s the smoke show now?! At first she thought the regulator wires had arced and burned up the rubber boot that goes into the primary, so, upon advice she had been given, we went about repairing it at least well enough to keep her rolling.

I had to pick up some brakleen, sandpaper, to clean the pins, and was lucky enough to find pins if we needed to replace the originals… Which we did. I was carefully cleaning one of the pins with the sandpaper, and the wire was so fragile from being burnt, that it broke off in my hand. Sumbitch.

So with Marjorie’s permission, I snipped the wires back to where they were pliable and soldered on new pins. Except…. When we went to test the regulator, there was a nasty red glow coming from the stator. Sooooo at this point, it is safe to say the stator is toast.

Ugh. We have been trying all evening to locate a stator, with no luck as of yet.

Stay tuned for more exciting shovel adventures….

The preparation…..

Well I sent her out to the shop for a once-over after the 4750 mile trip to Utah and back. I described the bucking/stalling problems and also the intermittent hard shifting that I was experiencing. Turns out, the smoking gun was a ton of gunk in the carburetor. Possibly gas tank liner disintegrating, or a batch of bad gasoline. Nonetheless, he installed an inline fuel filter to prevent that from happening.

Over the winter, I will pull the tanks and have the liner removed. I need to pull them anyway to replace the bushing in the seat’s t-bar. For now, the filter should buy me time.Fluid changes, primary gasket replaced, new clutch plates that will be more tolerant of primary fluid. After a pretty detailed conversation, it seems the issues may have been more like a death from 1,000 paper cuts, rather than one major problem.

Got the bike back today, and tomorrow I have a few fixes to do myself before I leave for the ShovelHead ReUnion on Wednesday. The windshield bead had loosened on the way home from Utah, and I held it in place with packing tape. On the ride home today, it was really gusty and the bead popped loose again, but worse… I had nowhere to stow it on the way home, so I held it between my teeth like a horse’s bit all the way home! Ya do what ya gotta do. Tomorrow that will get siliconed in place. I was avoiding that, but it appears inevitable.

My left saddlebag doesn’t seat snugly against the post on the bracket, so I have to put a spacer in there to keep it snugged up. That was part of the reason the fender bolt and left turn signal loosened up.

The last fix is the most important. I have to mount a secondary starter button so that I don’t have to bridge the solenoid under the battery to start the bike. I am still not sure why the starter button on the handlebar is not working, but I don’t have time to chase that down. My suspicion is that the button can’t handle the juice from the starter, and if that is the case, there is no point chasing it or trying to fix it. I have already replaced it once. I picked up a heavy duty momentary switch that should work reliably. I just have to wire it in. Much to do tomorrow, plus organizing and packing! Milwaukee bound!

And the next day: Very long day getting the Atomic Shovel and myself ready to scram tomorrow morning. I added a new, heavy duty, better-not-shit-the-bed-dammit, starter button today. It took me a while to sort out where to locate it, and I got some advice on how to wire it, and that I should fuse the circuit. I also used 12 gauge wire instead of the standard 14 gauge. It is a pain in the ass to solder, but the wiring will be sturdy enough to handle the current.

After I got the button installed, but before I replaced the frame cover, which is where I located it, I gobbed silicone on the terminal screws. Two reasons. One, in case something metal does find its way underneath the button, it won’t arc. Two, to prevent those screws from backing out due to vibration. That would be a real problem if the power wire were to shake loose, and it would not be easy to access quickly.

My next task was to silicone the windshield bead back on. I used these little metal clips I have to hold it in place while the silicone cured, and it looked for all the world like the bike had pin curls! Maybe it’s just me…

Finally, I put the saddlebags back on, and added washers to where the spring steel goes over the top posts inside the bags. These attachment points were all a little loose, so the bags moved around more than they should. I got them tightened up now, so they should be good to go, and not cause the fender bolts or turn signals to loosen up.

Once all the maintenance was done, I packed the saddlebags, then got my clothes and stuff packed. I head out tomorrow to meet Marjorie Kleiman in Toledo, and then we head to Milwaukee for the ShovelHead ReUnion. Hoping for decent weather….

Day 16

Dayton, OH to Lancaster, NY

HOME!!!!!!

Today I just really wanted to get home. My plan was to continue my back road, two lane adventure all the way back home. I love riding through Ohio. So many charming small towns, and beautiful countryside in between. And it promised to be a beautiful day, although there was some fog in the fields this morning, but not on the road.
However, after I started out on this path, I kept glancing at the GPS readout… 9 plus hours, arrival at 5:22 p.m. But that didn’t include time taken for stops, so it would be 6:30 or after before I get home. So I weighed a long, but really enjoyable ride against a much shorter (by three hours), but totally miserable ride on the interstate. Took me 40 miles to make up my mind, but the miserable interstate ride won.
I did NOT want to ride hard today. I did not want to get blown around by semis. And I did not want to ride with the throttle pegged all damn day. But I did like the idea of rolling into my driveway at 3 p.m., not 6:30 or 7.
So I stopped and changed my GPS settings, and ended up doing that ridiculous b o r i n g ride. The bike ran perfectly today except for one tiny protest early in the day. I also adjusted the idle up just a bit this morning to see if that would improve the stalling at stops. There were no stalls, but honestly, there were very few stops!
I AM HOME!
I parked the bike, grabbed my car and went to get miss Maizie from the kennel. I was so happy to see my little furbaby, and she was very happy to be released from the kennel. She will be even happier when my dad comes to visit us tonight. 💙💙💙
My neighbor cut my grass twice while I was away, and she left me the cutest welcome home drawing on my door! So sweet!
I am too tired at the moment to wax philosophical about this amazing trip, but I am sure I will at some point.
Thanks to everyone who followed my story, and who have sent prayers and kind words for my dad. Maizie and I will be in our natural habitat until I leave for the Shovel Reunion… Shhhhhh! Don’t tell her!
I almost forgot! 4,746 miles door to door!

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Day 15

St. Louis, MO to Dayton, OH

Today was a day… It was a LOT of day. Out of the gate, my clutch plates wanted to stick. Sumbitch. This again? And I thought we were past this… But before I sat down on the nasty concrete of the parking deck to unstick the little bastards, I tried a trick Bill Daneke showed me. I started the bike up again, and before I dropped it into gear, I raised the revs. BINGO! All fixed. And off I went.
Another day of rain gear since I was going to be riding in and out of it all day.

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Today I had a mid-point stop in Spencer, IN, where I met Missi DeBord Shoemaker and her pal for lunch. And I got to meet THE Magnus! Love that boy! We had a great lunch and chatted about everything, and parted ways. That was definitely the highlight of my day, because it went sideways quickly after that!

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Now, the first part of the day, the bike ran great, aside from the cranky-ass clutch this morning. After lunch, the bike ran like shit. So apparently the theory that Atomic had altitude attitude is now blown to bits. The theory that the gas caps aren’t venting, also debunked. That bike bucked and stalled worse than it has any other day.
The last probably 70 miles it got increasingly worse, to the point where if I had to stop, I had to get stopped quick and get on the throttle just a bit to keep it from stalling. It stalled many times under power – popping the clutch didn’t work but once, and when it wasn’t stalling, it was bucking like a bronc.
All in all, by the time I got to my hotel, in was not speaking to little miss Atomic Shitfit at all.
Rarely do I get pissed off at the bike, because, why… but today she really got me. I thought for sure those problems were due to altitude, but it is clear there is something else going on. And it is SO random. One day, fine. Next day, not fine. Air temp, irrelevant. Altitude, irrelevant. General weather conditions, irrelevant.
On top of it, the bike is shifting like crap, then it will be fine, then it shifts like crap. She is one moody, angry soul. I think I need to sage her.
However, tomorrow is another day, and I will be home and snuggled down with miss Maizie. If she is not also angry…
Funny thing about leaving… You never know what you might come home to. I did get some grave news tonight when I got off the road. I always call my dad and check in, and tonight when I called he had had some tests run today. He has either stage 3 or 4 lung cancer. He has to go in next week for a couple more tests so they can determine what stage it is in, and where it has metastasized.
All of a sudden, I was no longer pissed off about the bike.
Perspective.
That’s why we travel and experience new things, right? Sometimes news from home has the same effect.

Day 14

Joplin, MO to St. Louis, MO

I was thinking today was an 8+ hour day – they have all blurred together – but when I checked last night, it was just at 7 hours and about 340 miles. I did stop myself from thinking, oh, this will be an easy day, because well… Things.
I checked radar and there was yet another bunch of rain in my flight path, so accepting the inevitable, I geared up this morning before I left. I figured either A) if I gear up, it won’t rain a drop (preferable) or B) I at least won’t have to stop midflight to do so. So I rode in my black and orange ooompa loompa outfit. Very fashion forward.
About 65 miles from St. Louis, I did finally hit the rain and rode in and out of it the rest of the way. However, it was just a normal summer rain. Like a watering can in the garden. No violent winds, no lightning, no blinding downpours. Just a nice, steady rain for a change! It was almost pleasant…
The bike was so well behaved today, I barely recognized her. Not a single protest. Not once. It took me a while before I really trusted her, but eventually I was leaning into curves and finally relaxing and completely enjoying the ride. When she is bucking and stalling, I don’t trust her in curves. If I am in a hard lean in a curve and she bucks, I am going down. So a lot of the days, riding has been more stressful because of that. But today was wonderful! Missouri is beautiful – rolling hills and beautiful roads with just enough curves to make them fun, but not tedious.
Apparently today was another wildlife day. I saw several box turtles crossing the road in front of me. Very cute little guys. And over the span of this trip I have seen maybe 3-4 cranes. Super cool.
But today was rescue day. I was stopped at an intersection in Cuba, MO. Something caught my attention on the road just in front of me. It was a little black kitten lying in the road. I think it had hurt its back leg maybe, but it was reaching out with both front paws, and had its head and neck stretched up mewing. Poor little thing. It was terrified.
I looked around and there was a restaurant to my right, with a patio, and a guy was standing there. I called out to him, and he came and picked up the little kitten and took it inside. I can only hope that it will be ok. Poor sweet thing. I am glad it was me who was first in line at that light. A car may not have even seen it.
All in all, it was a good day. Easy ride, no snakes, and a kitten rescue. Calling it a win.
Dayton tomorrow!

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