Ups and downs of $1500 bikes

This morning we started on a roll. Craig and I both got up early and enjoyed a good breakfast 🥞 and chatted with members of the Southerland family who was having a family reunion consisting of over 400 people! Very nice folks and amazing to see what a strong family bond they have as they cover the cost for those members who cannot afford to attend

We got the bike loaded and they stared right up and we were on the road by 8:45am! The weather was cool and we found some good roads as we wound our way through Mississippi. We stopped for gas and a snack and a gentlemen about our age walked up and asked if we were from Texas.

As we explained our crazy story he was amazed and was great to talk to, as he used to ride also. His name was Anthony and before he left he gave us a blessing and told us to ride safe. Wonderful man who even thanked us for taking the time to make friends with people as we were traveling.

We got back in the road after thirty minutes and rolled into Tennessee. We were up, we were moving, we’d been blessed, the day was good…..then the downs occurred.

As we rolled into Bolivar, TN Craig made a left turn and I heard him say, uh oh, as he coasted to a stop. Suddenly the big Honda had no throttle. We parked under the shade of a large tree, took off our helmets and our gear, and dig out our tools to attempt to diagnose the problem.

We took apart the throttle assembly to discover that both cables were broken. I immediately started calling motorcycle dealers, to which they all said the same thing, that no one stocks throttle cables for 34 year old motorcycles. Meanwhile as I’m doing this I received a phone call from my sister informing me that my grandfather had taken a bad fall and was intensive care, and broke a shoulder and his hand, and they couldn’t give him any pain meds as his blood pressure was so low. Family at home made it sound like he would not make it much longer. 😢. I felt hopeless talking to family back home feeling terrible for myself that I had taken this trip, it was all about me, yet I needed to be back home with family and now I was broken down.

Well Craig take every breakdown as a personal challenge and thank God he does. I wish I had a video of all the work he did to McGyver the throttle cable back together. We ended up buying some small brads fittings, a few screws, a battery powered dremel and then combined that with some plummers putty, super glue, and determination to completely engineer our own end to the throttle cable. Three hours later we got the bike running again!

While we were on the side of the road working on the bike we had an older couple stop by to see if they could help and another man, Bob Regon who offered to drive 40 minutes home and get his truck and trailer come back and pick us up. He left us his number if we needed anything at all. Another gentlemen, Greg came over and offered us the use of his tools and a room at his bead and breakfast if we needed to spend the night. Then finally there was Anthony who stopped and said that he was a motorcyclist too and he couldn’t pass by without offering to help. amazing people in the area who were all willing to give up their time and things to give two crazy strangers a hand. Craig and I truly couldn’t be more appreciative and humbled by the people who stopped by today.

Craig and I both commented on how blessed we were with what happened today. We broke down in the middle of a town, when we could have broken down on the middle of many of the backroads we had traveled in the middle of nowhere. We were under a large shade tree, we had a wide shoulder, and we both keep our sense of humor.

To add to the blessings I got a message that my grandfather had improved over the last few hours and looks to be out of danger!

Craig and I motored on tonight enjoy some awesome hilly, curvy roads which make motorcyclist smile as we wound through Tennessee. We ended up doing almost 400 miles today even with our breakdown. We stopped for gas at a place just south of Fort Campbell and met two veterans who had ridden their Harley’s all the way from New York, over 1100 miles, in one day. We stayed and chatted with them for twenty minutes and then wished them well as they roared off on some beautiful bikes.

So it was an up and down day but all the people we met and their attitudes of giving made it a great day. Well that and traveling with McGyver. Craig certainly earned the golden wrench award today!

Now we just hope to have no more mechanical issues with just under 600 miles left to go before we reach DETROIT.