A Little About Us

A Little About Us
INTRODUCTION: First, allow me to introduce the members of this group...I'm Mike riding my 2003 Heritage Softail Springer...my wife Juju is on her 2015 Freewheeler...and Ed and Nancy are on their 2009 Heritage Softail. For the purposes of this trip we are referring to ourselves as H.A.R.P. HARP is a made-up name and it simply stands for Hogs And Retired People...and all that means is that we are members of HOG (Harley Owners Group) and we are...you guessed it...retired! The name came about when seven of us made a trip out west, but just the four of us this time. I've done blogs before, and this one will be for the same reason...to refresh our memories in our "Golden Years" (they say the memory is the second thing to go...and I can't remember what the first thing was). What is different this time is the blog is being shared by THUNDER ROADS PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE...Truly, an honor. This journey will be a round trip from, and to our home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plan is to travel to the Atlantic coast at Ocean City, Maryland for the "Official" start on U.S. Route 50. We will follow U.S. 50 west for over 3,000 miles to its terminus in Sacramento, California. From Sacramento, we will head a bit further west to the Pacific Ocean before we begin to travel south. California Highway 1 and U.S. Route 101, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway, will be the route for about 500 miles to Santa Monica. At the world famous Santa Monica Pier, we hop on Route 66...The "Mother Road". Travelling about 2,500 miles to the north east, we'll arrive at the end of 66 in Chicago, Illinois. The "Official" end of our journey. From Chicago, it's just another 450 miles and we're back in Pittsburgh. We've made very few lodging reservations, thus eliminating the pressure of trying to get somewhere by some deadline. The whole purpose of this ride to see this country and whatever piques our interest along the way...and we will be looking for that giant ball of yarn! So we invite you to ride along with us. We hope you will find it both entertaining and informative. Please feel free to leave your comments and share this with anyone you feel would have an interest.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Day 3 - July 16th 2015

Days without an incident:  0

Today was just one of those days.  Ed noticed a clicking sound coming from his bike.  It sounded to me like a wheel bearing, so we decided to ride to B & B Harley in Nutter Fort, about fifteen miles from our hotel.

Upon arrival, the owner took a look and determined that it was the main engine bearing...then proceeded to tell us that it would take about 10 days to get the part and repair.  At that point, the decision was made to ride the 30 miles north to Triple S in Morgantown for a second opinion and to get us closer to home if the need arose.

The folks there were more than accommodating and got on it quickly.  They diagnosed the problem as a wheel bearing and took it in to do the repair.  A couple of hours later, the bearing was fixed, but the problem wasn't.  Now came the task of opening up the motor to find the cause.

After lunch, a couple more hours in the dealership lounge, and about a hundred games of table-top shuffleboard, we decided to get a room for the night.  If it gets fixed tomorrow, we'll be back on the road.  If not, we'll head back to Pittsburgh, and when it is fixed, we will continue.

In spite of it all, we are having a great time.  Tonight we had some drinks, lounged in the pool, went to dinner and had some laughs.  More evidence that life is what you make of it...and we are making the most of it!

1 comment:

  1. Hope all goes well tomorrow!! Really enjoying the blog!!

    ReplyDelete