Hours of Daylight – 14:29

While Annette is off at a meeting in Philadelphia i opted to do a an overnight camping trip from the motorcycle. My plan was to go on Thursday and return on Friday, but when i rolled the bike off the stand the rear tire pancaked. Crap! I tried to think when i last rode. I came back from the Portland trip… but i couldn’t think of a time since i ridden.

I put the bike back on the stand and spun the rear tire. Yeah, there it was, a nail, stuck in one of the thick parts of the Metzler Tourance. The nail head was pretty worn, it had been in there for more than a couple turns of the wheel. Crap crap crap! Well, the tires had 8757 miles on them. A quick google search suggested that 10,000 is about the best you can expect, so i guess it’s better to find a nail now, in my driveway at almost 9000 miles, than to find a nail in a brand new tire at some remote campground. Irish Luck, my mother would say. I called the only BMW shop in Boise. They could take me Friday morning. So much for my Thursday camping plans.

I didn’t relish the idea of riding to the shop knowing there was a nail in my tire, so i went in search of one of those "tire plugger" kits i’d seen in a couple of motorcycle magazines. Surprisingly enough i found one at a local japanese motorcycle/atv/lawnmower place. Ok, i have to ask this: would you actually buy a motorcycle from a place that also sold lawnmowers? Anyway, i paid for my little "stop ‘n go tire plugger kit" and hurried home to give it a whirl.

I yanked out the nail (bent all to hell, but shiney and new looking), and proceeded to follow the little laminated step-by-step plugger instructions. Suffice to say it took a little work, but within ten minutes the plug was in and the little air-man compressor was working to pressurize the tire. I ran it up to 42 psi and then worked around the house for a couple of hours. About two hours later i checked the pressure, it was still exactly 42 psi. Nice!

The next morning i checked the tire pressure again: 40 psi. Hmmm, i decided the drop was due largely to the ambient temperature. I’d filled the tire yesterday during the heat of the day (about 95) and in the morning the tire temp must have been closer to 65. That might account for the pressure difference. I rode to the shop… got a ride home from a buddy, then proceeded to work all day on rocking the side yard.

Despite the fact the shop promised to call when done i ended up calling them at 4pm. Of course the bike was done. Got the same buddy to give me a ride down to the shop, signed away a ton of money, then rode home. While waiting for my ride to show i’d pre-packed everything i’d need for the overnight trip i was determined to take (but felt i’d forgotten something). I loaded the bike in record time, gave up on retrieving one of the cats, and headed up Route 21 for an overnighter. The new tires were great. The bike felt entirely different, more nimble and lively. It felt like the day i’d ridden it off the sales lot in Minnesota.

It took a couple extra trips to settle on a campsite. I knew Friday night would be a problem as most of the campsites fill up. Sure enough all the sites up at Edna Creek were taken as were all the sites at Whoop ’em Up. I sprinted back through some really excellent twisties to Bad Bear and grabbed the last of two walk-in sites. The new tires made the two runs through the twisties the highlight of the trip.

After getting everything set up i settled down to do some reading and decided it was time to open the wine i’d carted along. Crap! That’s what i’d forgotten: Corkscrew! Damn! Amateur! Bush-league! Stupid mistake.

What to do, what to do, what to do? It was then i remembered the Stop ‘n Go tire plugger. A hah! I ran to the bike and retrieved the little pouch. I cut the foil off the bottle, poked a small hole in the cork using the "probe" and then threaded the hole-in-the-tire-enlarger thingy into the cork about an inch and a half. I carefully braced the bottle and began to pull on the end of the tool. Slowly… ever so slowly the cork began to move. After a few seconds of carefull pulling – POP! The cork came free! It was the second highlight of the trip. I unthreaded the cork, reassembled the tire plugger tools in the little pouch, walked to the bike and replaced the pouch on the bottome of the left side saddle bag. Although i didn’t jump around i felt just like Tom Hanks in "Castaway" after he makes fire. I should write to the Stop ‘N Go company.

So, it’s now noon the next day. I’ve been home for hours. Mora was waiting by the front door for me. She ran to her food and crunched for quite a while. She’s now asleep upstairs. I suppose this is the new pattern of her life. More rock work. Clean up a bit. Annette’s home from Philly tonight. Our 7th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. Copper. We shall see.

Oh, regarding the title of today’s post. On the ride back "down the hill" the odometer rolled up to 8888 miles at exactly 8:08 AM. On the BMW display the clock is right above the odometer, so when i glanced down all i saw was 8’s. What are the odds? 8888 at 8:08? Is there a lottery number in there i should play?