Dead in the Water

*Part Two

“The Lord lifts up the humble… and takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy” ~ Psalm 147

It is upon me. The question eats at me, asking what have I learned from this experience. Tha’ts where I wander to in the recesses of my mind and I’m left to debate the validity of that answer. I feel like this trip has stolen some of my thunder in its utter failure. It has officially broken me.

I cannot speak to my level of sadness as it varies. As there are times that I can laugh about it and others when I want to crawl into a hole and be alone. Though I am getting over the bulk of it and seeing the peculiarity of the situation. While I can’t ascertain as to why this happened (nor can the guys at the shop) I know that for some reason I’m here and for some reason I’m not as stressed by it as I would think. In particular not as stressed as I’d have been a year ago. Maybe that’s the point of all this. For now though I’m still attempting to process and absorb. As my brother told me, “if it were easy, everyone would do it.”

Day Eight

Day eight. Hmmmm… where to begin. So the bike is dead. Dead dead. This is the sight that began my day. The bike rolling on a mysterious trailer into La Crosse, WI to a shop that will hopefully save me.

Lets just get it all out in the open. As I traveled through the highways and byways of Wisconsin the engine cut out and lost power, eventually leading to a terrible knocking, all over the stretch of a mile. This leads the shop to believe that a rod has been thrown or a broken piston but either way we’re looking at a cost of repair nearly equalling that of the bike itself. So what do we do. How do we proceed?

IMPASS

Easy answer. We don’t the trip is dead. I notified all of my wonderfully accommodating friends in the great west of the United States that I would not be visiting this summer.

Though this has not been a complete loss. Amongst my griping my roommate quickly pointed out that our friend Ben lived in La Crosse. After a phone conversation he agreed to take me in and house me for the evening and help figure out getting me around and whatever can be done. Again, a direct blessing from above. Not in a facetious way, but directly. I had no idea I’d end up here, I had no idea he lived here. I can’t put it anymore bluntly. He and his wife have been more than accommodating and amazing.

Ben and Little Leo

So throughout the day we discussed the steps to proceed. We priced out a repair, looked for a replacement engine and all to no avail. So the next option is how do we get me home. What to do with the busted bike? All the logistics. Well the answers aren’t simple and they’re a plethora of options.

1. Fix the bike at a crazy cost and time, having to come back for it later

2. Ship the bike home and deal with it later

3. Sell the bike as is

4. Trade the bike in on something used and keep it moving

5. Buy something else and keep the old one adding in a previous option

Needless to say, we’ve gone around the block. But in the end, option #4 seemed to be the best up front bet as I could almost break even. This means something simple though. The trip funds go into a new purchase, still killing the west as much as people tell me to continue.

So let the hesitantly bad timed bike hunting begin!

Test Ride #1 – 2004 Honda VTX 1800

In the meantime we’ve also began the process of seeing if my insurance can step in to help total the bike out under one of my various policy addendum. So more on that to come.

The blessings don’t stop there though. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some of my hosts friends from the neighborhood. They are truly kind and generous people that have helped make this more of an adventure than a punishment. Our nights have been filled with beers, laughter and camaraderie. Not to mention a new bow. Things may get straight Thunderdome in here.

Thank you Steve – This could absolutely be trouble.

*As a side note, you’ll notice the lack of food posts. Again, my funds are beiing reallocated so they may be less forthcoming than before. This saddens me the most maybe. Plus I’m feeling a little less adventurous these recent days.