The Overhaul, Cave Creek, and Bartlett Lake.

So I just finished putting my wheels on the bike.
Over the course of a week, juggling school/work/sleep/eat/and waiting for the mail to arrive with my goods, and only able to make it into the shop with a 30 minute window to work on my things on any given day:  It took me over the course of a week, 3 days in and out of the shop, and then the work I did at my house and it all came down to about 6 hours of work, and this is what I accomplished:

*Truing front and rear rims.
*Rust busting off inner rims, (years of rain damage)
*Bearings front and rear replacement.  (The rear bearings took a half hour alone to get out. They were like welded in there.)
*New tires mounted and balanced.
*Assembly and disassembly.
*Belt adjusting.

I finished this all Saturday afternoon, and still made it to an evening BBQ, and Rolled out to a class party.  I wrote the first part of this really fast while I was drinking my coffee.  Now to finish the story.

Just a little rust.

Bed sheet awnings.

The next day:  

So I stayed at the house I partied at Saturday night,  but only on 4 hours of sleep before getting woken by kids playing beer pong at 10:30 am.  At that point, it was time to jump ship, so me and some guys went to the Waffle House.  Now, it's funny how whenever I go to a Waffle House, it's when I've gotten no sleep the night before, and I look like hell.  And yes, I brought that point up between my sips of coffee at the counter, and yes, the counter is the only place to sit at a diner.  Whilst dining on hashbrowns, biscuits, and eggs over easy, I told the guys I wanted to take a ride up to Horseshoe Reservoir after breakfast, and they were unanimously like, "we're in."

 There we were, the three of us, hung over as we were, headed up the two-lane roads through Cave Creek, AZ.  I love this place, cause it's rugged, and southwestern, small and fun.  We strolled around for a sec, but then it was back on the road and out through some gorgeous countryside, destination Horseshoe.  We climbed out of the desert floor into the high desert for a while, through some sparse neighborhoods.  I read somewhere that Danica Patrick lives out there somewhere.  Anyway, it was nice slow going, just enjoying the scenery, keeping a watchful eye out for the turn off.  And then there it was, up ahead about 400 ft, around a sweeping bend, and I could tell by the body language and lane position of tthe guy ahead of me that he didn't see it right away, so I had to lay on the horn to get his attention.  After a few long horn blasts, he woke up, and quickly made a sharp left onto the turn to Horseshoe Reservoir.

These old paved roads out here in the desert are the kind where they used lots of little gravel and glue, so after years of sun and travel damage, the top layer is broken and a sifty top layer of pebble asphalt.  It can be dangerous riding in the center of those lanes, so you have to keep an eye out and ride in the tire grooves to the left or right of the lane.   Other than that, and an occasional rock in the road, it was smooth going for about a mile, and then it turned abruptly into washed out road and sand, which provided some fun traversing practice.  Well, I'm one to take my bike anywhere my destination is, even if it's a shady/shifty sandy washed out road.  This one was.  I was relieved when the other guy on his much nicer Harley, was being a champ about it, and said he didn't care about the dirt.  So we kept riding and riding and riding.  I was much further ahead of him, and I knew we'd covered some hairy ground, so I waited up ahead for him and did a re-check of the distance to the reservoir.  It was at this point that we realized we still had some heavy miles ahead of us, and at least another hour or two of that kind of riding to go, and with the washboard getting worse, we both agreed to take the other route to Bartlett Lake instead.  I said I'd come back when I had more time to spend out there, rather than having to just turn around and head back.  The 3rd guy with us, he was in a big old truck, and he wasn't even liking the washboard, so it was unanimously given that we turned around and headed back out and on toward Bartlett Lake.

This was the easy part.

"she'll be comin round the mountain when she comes...."

 

After we left Bartlett Lake, we headed back to Cave Creek, to walk around the old town fun.  The bars in town were hopping with bikers and music, eats and drinks by the time we rolled back through.  You'll know where to find me.

Rear Tire

Front Tire

I love my new treads.

See you on the road!   In AZ.

I love this so much.

Tires, Bearings, Tubes.

I just ordered all these fantastic things.  My bike is in skeletal form on a lift, at the moment.  And I'm doing major front and rear overhaul maintenance.  She'll be ridin mean and clean after this.
Damn bearings can be expensive, if you go to a Harley shop.  And that's why we don't do these things to our pocket books.  If I had a Harley shop, I'd low ball all my prices, just to piss all those pretentiously ritzy Harley Dealerships off.  Oh, yes I would.  Cause I'm not a greedy bastard.

So they wanted 30$ for one bearing.  That's when I said, thanks but no thanks.  That's the price you pay for needing things on the spot.  Well, I'm willing to wait for a couple days or my mail to arrive.

Front Wheel Bearing kit (includes 2 bearings):  25$   (hail to the cheapf)

Rear Wheel Bearing Kit (includes 2 bearings): 25$   (again hail to the cheapf)

This time around I'm trying some vintage tires out:

Front tire: 80$

Rear tire: 85$

Rear tube: 16$

Way I figure it, I'm saving a lot of money doing all the maintenance myself, and a little shopping and I saved a grip of dough.  Let's see how they handle off-road, cause that's the first place I'm heading.

Nothing like affordability, to get you rollin again.

My new tires are sittin here waiting to go on, but first I need to give those old spokes a good truing.  So I'm getting my rear wheel on the stand tonight and settin her up nice and straight.  I'm betting I'll find a hop or a wobble, or both.  Crossing my fingers it's not that bad.

See ya round!

My last trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles, via Arizona's Carefree Highway.

Loaded up and heading for California.

This thing floated right over me.  It was neat.

This stretch of highway is clean, courtesy of the Doom family. 

(You're in good hands.)

She's a big beautiful desert.

I swear, I find more places in the desert that I wanna make home.  

The old horse posts are still standing.  How cool.

This hotel just screamed "vacancy!"

Salome, AZ.  "Where She Danced."  Who was she?  

And yes, they were having a town dance that night.

Too bad I was just rolling through.  But the quesadilla wasn't half bad.

"Passmore"  Hey, they said it, not me.  

Here comes the bride!

It was a Cowboy wed'n.

The night before I'd gotten these 3D glasses at the theater to watch my movie.  

So, naturally I wore them home.

Ahh, bees.  Found this lil sap stuck between my helmet shell and my ear foam.

There's still plenty of tread on that rear tire, 

but it was still a good reason to take it leisurely home.   

I just love it when my Taco Bell sauce has a message for me.

Well, now I already knew that.  

But what'd you expect from a town with just a church and a trailer park.  

Proper grammar?  I hope not.

My little buckaroo found another buckaroo.  

At least mine gets around.

Cowboy slacks, and wedding shoes.

Just lean'n back.

It's an off-roading day.   Along for the ride.

I swore these were human, until I found the cows head.

My thoughts 5 minutes ago to the present.

The only way you should fit anywhere, is whereby the natural occurrence of your natural being, however that may be, becomes itself.


Find yourself looking different, feeling different, being different.
Find yourself being the odd man out.
Find yourself alone in your opinions.
Find yourself where others can't find you.

Find yourself.


...and then one day, you will come across someone or a few people, who spent their lives finding themselves too, and your paths will cross, and you'll be like, this was the most comfortable I've ever felt in life around others.  Because those people will not be trying, and you won't be trying, it'll just be.  Like your puzzle piece finally found its spot on the puzzle next to the other "like" puzzle pieces, and you'll make a cute little picture.

...But then you'll take your puzzle piece, and you'll stay free and roam around because that's what you know best, and that's who you've become.  And maybe you'll do it with the other puzzle pieces, and the puzzle won't ever be completely completed, cause there are those few puzzle pieces that are out there having a good time, sharing stories, and making more stories, and having good times together, not being stuck to someone's big idea of a perfect picture, but out there creating your own reality as fluid or constant as you want it to be.  Thinking and feeling for yourself.  And actually living.

Hey, sometimes companionship is nice.  Like I would love to take someone with me on my motorcycle adventures, exploring and sharing as it happens.  Maybe it will be a hot mamacita, maybe it'll be a little puppy, or a turtle or some thing that is chill and keeps me company.  But I haven't discovered yet what that will be or when it will present itself to me.  So I'm not trying to rush it.

And till it does, I'll just be finding myself.