Everything is hot

 Today the route was Virginia Beach to Greenville NC. We started at a park called Neptune Park - this was our official official start.

Mike was able to get his bike started but it just wasn’t sounding right. It also would pop and stop working. He knew he wouldn’t get far so he decided to not attempt it today. 

Larry and I started on our adventure. I told him not to freaking ditch me this time. It was a freaking hotter than what I would expect hell to be like (I’ll never know I’m an angel). It was 90 degrees but felt like 102. Mind you we are on roads- there isn’t much for shade. AND these bikes get HAWT. Larry and I knew we needed to get gas at the first gas station- so we stopped. We both over filled our tank but thankfully so. As we were there this guy kid - probably 9? Was talking to Larry and then I fired up my bike and he started looking at it and told me he liked it. I turned it off and told him to get on it and take a picture. He was so excited! His mom was grateful. 

I had my first experience of the yard sale. I had a long sleeve shirt that flew out of my bag. 🤷‍♀️ oh well shit happens. 

As I’m sure I’ve told you or you know or you can guess - these old bikes don’t hold a lot of gas. We filled our tanks up as I told you- but not really paying too close of attention to the route we didn’t realize how far away another one would be as we skipped some because we had filled up recently. Well Larry and I were sweating bullets (not only from the freaking heat) but because we both knew it was probably a matter of minutes before we run out. Larry had tapped into his reserve and I don’t have one. We had gone about 60 miles … no gas station recently. 67 oh I biggerish down… still no gas. 70 miles knowing you are pushing it but have no way to make gas just show up out of humid air. FINALLY!!!!!! 78 miles and there is this gas stations we pull up and we look in our tanks and they are almost out - I mean we cannot see any gas in there. Larry decided to check his oil and well… he had wayyyy to much. I think 4-6 is what they want and he had 10. It literally melted a hole in the bottom of the cup and got all over the ground - whoops! At least we were at a gas station. We were also in the town of Plymouth, only North Carolina. Obviously I found this great. 

I got us Gatorade and made us take electrolyte pills. We had been sweating the whole day. Onward we went. 

Unfortunately Larry did have a tip. As you can see we have these big boxes on our bikes - it makes getting on and off our bikes challenging. Larry was pulled over to look at this oil thing because it kept opening up and giving full oil - so way too much. So he was getting off his bike and his tipped his bike because his leg hit. We’ve all done it and we kick ourselves all the time. 

We made it back! We did lose each other toward the end in some traffic. 

Mom and Cindy like this picture because I was leading the guys 🤣

We showed our bikes then started working on them. I did some adjusting of my oil pump, checking oil in my primary and seeing the color of my spark plugs. With the guidance of Steve and Jared Rinker - they are so patient with me and all my questions- but I was proud for doing it on my own! Then when I was done I decided to lay down next to cruella and enjoy her beauty. 

Larry worked on his bike- that oil thing and keeping that shut. He did some greasing and straightened his fender. 

Mike decided to rent a Uhaul—- THANKS FOR BRINGING UP MY PTSD (it was an uhaul that broke my leg) to drive to wheels through time in Maggie valley to get help from Matt the owner on his bike. He is completely lost at what could be going on. We are stopping at Wheels through time on Sunday for lunch but obviously he wouldn’t have time during that. So off Mike went to get some help from the man himself. The rest of us stayed back and are getting some sleep before tomorrow. 

Prologue

 Today has been a busy hot day. The riders started at 0900 with “riding school”. There are 74 riders and of those there are like 41 new riders. That’s a lot of new blood so a lot of questions and answers-  which is good we want to be as safe as we can. Clearly - I know this from experience. The class got long but good information and reminders. We went around and introduced ourselves. 

At 11 we were let loose to work on our bikes. We had to leave the area around 1:05 to make it to the pier for our prologue. The son of the guy (Steve Rinker) who build my bike is along on the cannonball and so we obviously go to him for everything regarding my bike - if you don’t remember his name is Jared - I’m sure I’ll refer back to him so please friends keep up. 🤣🤣 I mean not to tell you my whole back story but we dated as well so we are friends and he is willing to help - so he says. My bike was popping so we thought it was sucking air. So Jared came to look at it after this class, drove around and made an adjustment to my throttle again. He also looked at my spark plugs - they were pretty dark so he leaned my bike out a bit. And then noticed some oil coming out of the primary. We saved that for another day. 

As Mike started up his bike he had put the cover over his primary chain and noticed it was hitting… so being that we were crunched for time he rushed to fix it. He made it to the pier. Larry’s says he doesn’t think his battery is charging.  

The pier was hot but there was a beautiful breeze. But we hydrated a lot had some slushies. 

As we left the pier we were doing good. We stopped for gas. Mike and I were sharing a pump- I hung it up and all of a sudden I am seeing gas on the ground. THE PUMP BROKE. 

As you may or may not be able to see the handle is disconnected from the tube. However, it was still leaking. So we zip tied it. We don’t only fix old motorcycles we “fix” broken gas pumps. 

As we were leaving this gas station the guys made it out before traffic and ditched me. So when they were on the side of the road I said “hausta lavista - sucks!!” And waves as I drove by smiling. 

They were stopped because mikes bike popped and stopped working. He got it back up but soon it happened again- so unfortunately he had to get on the sweeper truck. 

Larry and I made it to the check point. 

- As we were leaving the hosted spot Larry ditched me again!! Fucking rude! 🤣🤣 

By the time I got back to our trailer I was sweating my life away. There were sprinklers going and I undressed out of my jump suit and ran through the sprinklers. I had shorts and a tank on don’t worry - pervs. 

Cindy got me a really awesome beer too! 

As we cooled off we waited for Mikes bike. 

Now to fixing problems. They started by working on Larry’s bike. They fixed the voltage regulator polarity. It is successfully charging!  

Mike is working on his carburetor which is good. So now he took off his tank to see what might be the issue. TBD. 

The girls were asked to find a boot. Don’t worry these young eyes found it in the chain. That’s why they keep me around - to take pictures, handle/trouble shoot electronics, and use my good eyes to find the pieces they drop. 

The ladies helped Larry with his odometer which meant we had to measure his wheel. Larry used my special leopard tape 🤣 he’s keeping it on too. 

Cindy and mom were figuring out Larry’s odometer for him - it’s complicated. 🤣

Well I have caught up for now - will write more when I know more. 

Tomorrow we head to Greenville NC. 

Ope I forgot

 As many of you know,  I can be ruthless. I’m a little sassy and slightly sarcastic. … okay maybe extremely sassy and always sarcastic. When I find people that vibe with that - we become bffs. 

Well the Unruh’s are my new bffs. I had met them on the 2021 Cannonball but mind you… I was on some pain pills so names and faces all blended together. Not to mention I was still in a lot of pain. So we ended up parking next to them (which was perfect due to our need of their brilliance ((please don’t tell Grant I gave him such praise))). They are Harley guys and obviously I’m driving an Indian so of course there is banter with that. They were away from their trailer so I took advantage of that and took the following picture. Mike luckily had Grants phone number so naturally I sent it to him to from my number so he’d have to guess who it was from. Clearly being obvious because my bike was in it. 

I told him I was just trying to class up his trailer. To which he responded “ Lol I swear if the trailer breaks down I’ll know why now. It’s been tainted!” And friendships like this is why the Cannonball is so special. The shenanigans have continued of course.

I sometimes go a little too far. I made Randy sad by saying Lonestar beer sucks. He told me he wasn’t going to talk to me anymore. I think by the end of the night he did - phewfta. I did apologize. He also saw me take my pants off. For those of you who may be thinking I’m not classy- you are right but also-  I had shorts on under. 

We have a riders course this morning and the prologue. 

Dumb and dumber

 Today was inspection day! It is so freaking hot here it’s disgusting. 

We started the day with registration. We aren’t the best at being prepared. We needed insurance, registration and our license. I’m not sure why Minnesota is so weird, but we’ve gotten extremely used to the fact of throwing or not carrying our “registration” which I believe is just that little slip that comes with your tabs. (We have also had this problem when pulled over in Colorado). So of course we didn’t bring that. But obviously we have our tabs up to date. So we were freaking out a little bit- but ultimately it’s our risk. 

We were just doing little adjustments on the bikes. Had some things to do, like put route charts on and speedometers, etc. we took mikes gas tank off to clean it out. As we were wrapping up to go to inspection I had to keep reminding the guys that they we couldn’t go because they were on a break from 1230-130. I honestly believe I told them multiple times. 

Because we have some people that are not the best at remembering where they placed this, and they tend to lose things, Mom and I took the veno to the hardware store to get more keys made for the trailer. Now most of us have a key so if a few are lost… others have theirs. We did it dumb and dumber style as you can imagine I was driving and mom was behind me on a little moped going down the road. To beat that on the way back from the store mom was holding a box with a fan in it. The police pulled out right behind us. Considering how things had been going we wondered if we would get pulled over for something stupid . Luckily we did not. 

As we were now headed to inspection, things popped up. My bike was leaking a lot of oil that made us nervous. A quick call to a Rinker made us more comfortable. And then mikes bike was acting up. It would start up beautifully and then a short time later start struggling. 

I of course got warm waiting for the guys. As I thought we were going but then motorcycle issues kept happening (it’s like these motorcycles are old or something). I started taking off my pants. 

I did walk around like this for a little bit. Honestly I think only Team Butts saw me- so that was probably good. But I’m way more comfortable without pants. 🤣🤣

We all made it through inspection and had our motorcycles on display for awhile. 

Tony had never been to the ocean so we took him there last night. And obviously today. Considering you can see it on our balcony. 

We made it back from inspection… mike had to walk his a few times. But ultimately the Unruh’s saved the day and were able to help fix his bike. It ended up his carburetor just needed some tuning. She’s puuuuurring pretty. I believe Larry’s bike is running real good- he took it out a few times and didn’t have to do much mechanically. 

Mike bike. Woof. I drove it to inspection and my throttle was just kind of staying open. And reving REAL loud, even and ideal. One of the other riders and Larry helped me fix it. It does still seem to be sucking some air so we will work on that in the morning. 

Alright- I’m tired. Maybe cranky. But my age was guessed as 27 today so I’m feeling fabulous. 

Team Butts is still kicking ass and won’t back down! (Is that lame to say? Yes. But I didn’t really know what else to say) Stay hydrated!! 

Paying tribute

 It’s 4 pm in Virginia Beach and the girls have made it! We’ve gone to lunch, went to the post office, walked the beach and now enjoying some drinks by the beach. The guys are still driving here. Sucks to be them- our trip was easy! They don’t seem to be getting closer to us very quickly. So we are enjoying some down time before all the shenanigans begin. 

The start of the drive Mike, Larry and Tony stopped in Wisconsin to see the man, the myth the legend: Dick Clarkowski! Without his expertise Team Butts would not be as educated as they are in antique motorcycles. 

Mike and Larry have only called about 3 times each since we’ve arrived to see what we are doing… we have no bikes and our bags are with them. Or they are just bored of each others company? Not sure. But it’s funny. 

So for now, the ladies have made it to Virginia Beach and the guys are running on Butts time.

Dick’s name is even on the motorcycle!