Good friends = good times!

So I went out Friday evening and tried to start the Sabre. I wanted to make sure the battery was charged and if it wasn't that I would have time to charge it up before leaving Saturday morning.

Hit the key and it turned and turned and sloowwlllyyyy started exhibiting less energy. Okay, I half-expected it as it has been nearly a month since I last run it.

I pulled the battery and put it on charge then poked around in the garage for a while. Since it wasn't totally dead to start with, it didn't take long for the charger to indicate it had a full charge. I shut the charger off and figured on installing it in the bike in the morning prior to departure.

I had been up late that night talking on the phone. First to my Mom, whom I hadn't spoke with in way too long, then to a good friend which I also hadn't spoke with for a while. When the alarm went off, I grunted at it and rolled back over. I got up about a half hour later and started getting ready to go out the door.

I got the battery installed, loaded up the side bags with some homebrews I was delivering, wheeled the bike out of the bike shed, and hit start only to hear a weak battery. DAMMIT! either my battery is that dead or the battery charger is indicating it has full charge when it could use a bit more.

Ah well, I rolled it back into the shed and pulled the KLR out and put the beer in the KLR bags instead. The KLR started right up, but it had been run a couple weeks ago and has no clock to put a drain on the battery.

I geared up and swung my leg over. A quick stop to fill up for gas and I would soon be on my way. Or so I thought.

I had to unzip my suit to get into my pocket to get the CC out. When I went to zip it back up, it grabbed a piece of fabric and got stuck. I went inside and borrowed a pair of pliers and futzed with it for about 20 minutes before finally freeing the zipper. Zipped up, mounted up and hit the slab.

The ride over was rather uneventful. It was raining, but not hard and not causing visibility nor traction problems -- just a steady, nagging rain. I arrived at Mo's with no issues and MaryAnn informed me that everyone was already down in the mancave hard at work.

I went down to join the fun and slowly made my rounds to say hello to everyone. There were 6 bikes being worked on and another that had been "fixed" the previous day. Linda was getting fork seals done on her big Magna; Mo was getting a light installed on his VFR; Big John was doing a few different tasks on his 'Wing; Ron and Jill were also doing a fork seal job on their big Sabre; CMac was getting a long-time oil leak fixed on his baby Sabre; and Rich was installing a carbon-fiber exhaust and fixing a fork bolt on his SV650.

I bounced around and hung out and pretended to help as was needed. Of course, with me manning a wrench, not really sure that can be construed as help.  ; )  

The day passed by rather quickly and all the bikes got done what was needed with varying problems that arose, but none weren't conquered except for Rick's cafe'd Yamaha -- which turned out to be a part that may or may not be available to find.

Once Christopher's bike was done, he was planning to take it home. I asked if I could come along, so I could say hello to his wife and then pick up some beer  (for me). He had no problem with that.

He told me when he was getting ready and I went upstairs to gear up and hop on the bike. As I was zipping the suit up, once again, I found I had zipper problems. Somehow the zipper jumped a track or something and there is now a gap between the two that would extend all the way up as soon as I would move.

SUNUVA ....... oh! I ... was ... MAD! I just got this to replace another suit (I have had for years) that had a zipper problem. I cannot believe this! Yes I got it used, but damn! It was close to dinner and Christopher would be pressed for time to make it back if he had to wait on me, so I told him to go ahead.

I played with it for about 20 minutes getting more frustrated by the minute. I needed to get it fixed as my hall pass was only for the day. Heh, I didn't know I brought something to be fixed. I just came to visit.

I had to be home that night, because Melissa had to teach Sunday School class in the morning. The rain was supposed to continue on through the night and the temps would be in the 40-ish range. I did NOT want to ride home with an open suit.

My playing with this zipper seemed to provide entertainment for folks that were wandering around the mancave, as I fielded the "what are you doing?" question more than once. Linda and Chris were nice enough to offer help, but everyone else quickly ran away.

Dan tried to once, but Chris cornered him into trying to help. Ron also being the curious gentleman he is, came over to offer assistance, but only Chris and Linda were persistent enough to stay and continue to help after the initial attempt failed to net any positive results. Thanks, ladies, I appreciate your efforts and patience.

It was soon dinnertime and the food was fantastic. Mo had been smoking 4 huge pork roasts all day long. MaryAnn and helpers had setup some green beans, and something called panty mac (a heart-debilitating, but amazing mac-n-cheese). It was all awesome and I filled my belly. I was told to get seconds by our wonderful hosts but was too stuffed.

Then Chris had to come around with that decadent dessert of hers. I typically don't do sweets with beer, but we were talking about that earlier, so I *had* to have a square of it. I felt bad though, telling MaryAnn I was stuffed, but then proceeding to eat a dessert bar.

I am at a quandry now as it's getting late, I did not get a good sleep the night before, and knowing I have a cool, wet ride in front of me. In addition to that, due to rock slides, the interstate headed westbound was closed in two areas that would force me to go through deer country in the dark. I am NOT a fan of that seeing as I have hit one in the daylight.

I called the wife and asked her if she could get Isaac to come by and sit at the house until she got home from church. She says she can make the arrangements. This allows me to stay put for the night and head home Sunday during daylight and warmer temperatures -- and hopefully drier weather.

Still, I tried to get the suit zipper fixed and did make it so there was no gap between the zippers but am unsure if it is going to hold as a tooth has now been ripped out in the effort to get it fixed as that material managed to get caught in the zipper a FEW times.

Well, once the zippers were together I put the suit down to join in the "fireside" lies with everyone else. We had no fire, but sitting on Mo's (newly) roofed deck and listening to the rain dance on the tin roof was as entertaining as listening to embers pop. Of course, the stories take the center stage, but there was background noise, albeit a different variety than what is typical of a maggot gathering.

The night passed quickly as many laughs were had, stories told, and toasts made to fallen maggots. The lateness of the hour had us all scuttling off to our beds.

Sunday morning, and MaryAnn is busy upstairs fixing breakfast for everyone. No moss on her heels! she keeps on rolling along.

More lies are told and slowly people begin packing up and heading out in different directions. I held off to leave as I was a short two hours (the short way) from home -- but considering the weather it would likely be closer to a 4 hour ride. I threw together a backroads route and Christopher had agreed to lead me to US 178. He and I were the last to vacate the Draper household.

It was a beautiful day -- it was nearly 65* and the sun was shining brightly against a backdrop of cloudless, blue skies. I made the right decision to stay the night and travel home on Sunday. Besides, I got to hang out with fellow maggots a bit longer!

Now was the moment of truth. I slipped my suit on and as soon as I did the zippers opened up. Damn, damn, damn! I bummed some duct tape from Mo, taped myself together, then we took off.

My little KLR struggled to keep up with CMac's VW GTi. We hit a few fun roads at a spirited pace before reaching 178, which is an absolute blast! One of those was SC-238 that is full of "roller-coaster whoops". You know -- those hills that when you time the throttle right you can feel your stomach come up into your throat -- good times!

Then we hit 178 and it was "go" time. Again, my KLR couldn't keep pace with him. That little single cylinder 650 was screaming but just not producing much of anything. Of course, that's not what it's designed for, and as it turns out all I was doing was wasting gas. I would soon find out to what extent..

I had 150? miles on this tank upon leaving Mo's. I knew I had enough to make it to Brevard, NC. I just knew it! Or not!

Apparently, that spirited pace killed my gas mileage. With 150 miles slab time and 30 miles play time, the gas ran out about 3 miles outside of Brevard with 180 logged on the trip meter. I switched over to reserve and hit the first gas station I found. A quick calculation showed that I had gotten a whopping 37 mpg. Yikes! that KLR should do better than that!

Anyway, a quick fill up, a drink, and a candy bar had the wheels rolling again. I maintained a rather sedate pace the rest of the way home going up US 276 and planning to connect with NC-209 then US 25/70 on home since I-40 was closed.

I had forgotten that 276 does not connect (directly) with 209 but that I had to take US 19/23 to meetup with 209. As I soon was reminded, 276 dead-ends onto I-40. Crap! well, when I get forced off, I will improvise.

I never had to exit. The workers had done enough to have one lane open at the rockslide on the TN side and the NC workers had cleared it enough that both lanes of traffic were open.

Since the clouds were setting in and I was ready to get home, I just stayed on 40. I arrived home in time to give Megan a hug before she headed off to church bells practice (and then off to the dorm for the week). Nice!

Thanks Mo and MaryAnn for being such wonderful hosts and opening up your home to such a diverse bunch of hooligans. It is so great to see old friends/"family" again and yet again, make new ones. EVERY ... SINGLE ... SME I have attended I have met someone new.