Average couple of days

The last couple of days were real good riding weather. The temperatures were in the 50 to high sixties range and the sky's were clear and sunny.
I had been having trouble keeping a muffler on and finally decided to just go and get it welded. That meant taking the whole half of the system off and carting it into town. Looking around I found an old set of pipes from another old bike of the same model that fit perfectly. I ended up taking off the one broken pipe and replacing it with the old spare. Looked a little odd but sounded and ran great.
Strapping on the busted pipe was a chore. With out a sissy bar I really have nothing to tie anything to. Like some one once said. Where there is a will there is a way. I finally got everything snugged down and ready to go. Looked a little on the strange side but it was there.

Pulling out from the house I headed down to the gas station and topped off my tank. I even got a cup of coffee and amazed the girl working there as I pulled out with it clenched in my teeth. It's not hard to do. Get a lid and a straw and go.

The traffic was moderate and moving nicely so I made good time to where I turn off on the back roads to skirt the mountain. These back roads are normally a pretty fair ride and usually I make up a lot of time when I go this way. Today however was a little different. The County in all it's wisdom piles out gravel along the road for people to use when it's icy. This is a good thing if your trying to get up or down one of the hills when its slick. These last few days it looks like the big trucks that run through here have kicked the gravel into the road. That translates into a mess when your on a bike and greatly reduces your speed. This morning was like that after I got a couple of miles down. Gravel all over the road. Some of it was left over from the big ice storm but the most looked like it had just been thrown out. So much for making good time. After finally getting back to clear road I opened up and let the bike run. I wanted to see how hard I'd have to run to get back on schedule. I blew passed cars and laid into curves and still I was about five minutes behind all the way.

Once I got into town I actually made good time for a change, for a little while. I went from real light traffic to a long line of traffic that was just inching along. When I finally made it up to the cause, it was a wreck in the center turn lane. From what it looked like to me a pickup truck was driving down the center turn lane at a pretty good speed and a car, trying to get across and go the other direction, pulled out in front of it. Almost a head on. That's another of the challenges you face in this part of the world. People here drive down the turn lanes like they were built just for them.

After getting around the accident I again made good time for this time of the morning. I didn't have to be at work for a little while and my plan was to drop off the pipes at a muffler shop and maybe still have time for a quick breakfast somewhere. As it turned out each of the three shops i tried had an excuse or reason as to why they couldn't do my pipe. This was about my luck anymore. So I headed back toward work and just settled for a biscuit and bacon from a fast food joint. At work I piled everything on the ground by the bike and headed in. Later in talking to some of the people that worked there I was told that one of the maintenance men could fix my pipe. Now that's an idea. I tore off looking for the maintenance guys and explained my troubles to them. they agreed to look at the pipe after work. I told them where it was and went on back to my grind. later, when quitting time came I noticed that my pipe was gone. Deciding to go look in the maint. shop I left and headed off in that general direction. At the shop I couldn't find anyone or didn't see my pipes. I gave it about ten minutes and headed back to the bike and to head home. When i got back to where I had parked the pipe was leaning against the bike. No one was around and it looked like that we had missed each other while I was hunting for them. the pipe looked really good. The work looked like a real factory job. Now I was faced with another little problem. Since it was all fixed the pipe was one piece, twice as long as when I brought it in. How to tie it on to get to the house. Looking the situation over I decided that I could tie it to the side of the bike and maybe make it that way. Back to maintenance and borrowing some wire I had it tied on in a few minutes. Looked good. I took off and realized that this would be a ride. With the pipe tied down I was getting all kinds of different and new vibrations. New vibes automatically cause you to wonder if something has broken.
I made it out of town and as I got up to speed I was seriously thinking about stopping and throwing the pipe in a ditch and coming back for it in the car. Finally, I decided to reduce my speed and just tough it out. Took me about twice as long to get home but I made it. Tomorrow is Saturday and I plan to put it on in the morning. Today was turning out to be alright.
Well here it is Saturday morning and it's 32 degrees and there is snow all over everything. Looks like the pipe will have to wait.
Hope to catch ya on the road.