Running on Fumes

The guys left Bourbonaise, IL and headed to Anamosa to the National Motorcycle Museum. Fingers were crossed that everything was up and in good shape for the day’s ride.

Riders are starting to run on fumes themselves. As I walked down the hallway, I heard Peter Arundel say to me, “too many hotels and too many room numbers, I can’t remember mine here!” I chuckled and agreed with him as I headed to mine. I walked down the hall and when I came to 328, I saw that I hadn’t even made sure it was shut earlier and headed in to hear the alarm clock going off. I stopped short…..we never set the alarm in our rooms, we just use our cellphones. I grabbed my room card out of my pocket and looked at the number.. …338! Oops! And I chuckled again as I remembered Peter’s remark.

That evening, we arrived at the finish line just as Class 3 bikes were starting to arrive. I hadn’t heard anything, so no news is good news on the Cannonball! Ziggy came in first followed by Jared, Doug and Kelly. They said that Justin’s bike had blown a dome nut and there was about 20 riders searching the sides of the roadway to help him try to find it. No luck, he was going to have to wait on the sweep truck. An officer stopped while they were searching and asked if he could help. Doug told him if he could get the DOH to mow the sides of the roadways that would be a big help for the guys that rode old motorcycles.

Then they realized that Clint’s power plus was already on the sweep, so dome nut crisis averted. He “borrowed” one of Clint’s when it arrived on the rolling NAPA store, (aka sweep truck) put it in before his repair time ran out and continued on his way. He was behind and went over his embedded “45 boys” limit and arrived in time on just fumes in his tank!!! Full miles today!

According to Bruce, when they come up on a rider, he gets out and lights a flare and tells the rider they have until the flare goes out to get their bike running or they get put on the sweep truck. He says you should see the panic in their eyes and the frantic pace they work.

Steve was about a half mile out when he got a flat tire. He limped it into a Casey’s Fuel Mini Mart and put air in, to no avail. When Doug, Jared and Ziggy found out where he was about 2 blocks away they took off to push him across the finish!!! Before they could get there, he came in on the flat! WhooHoo! Another perfect day for the Pride Runner!

Since they were done for the day, I sweet talked Bruce to haul Steve and Justin’s bike from the finish to the motel. (Although it did cost me a beer AND a picture of Steve and his bike on the sweep trailer.) DONE!!!

He just looks too darn happy!

The guys completed maintenance, replaced Justin’s dome nut, and Steve repaired his flat tire and his license plate that broke in half. Justin also took his gas tank off and tightened it up.