Silverbear and his trusty sidekick Aaniimoosh The Wonder Dog are alive and well, living in Minnesota!
Tags did arrive Friday morning and by 10:30 or so we left muggy Maryland on our new to us Jeep Cherokee's first trip west and north. I checked mileage at the first tank and was getting between 20 and 21 mpg which I thought was especially good since much of the mountainous route was through small towns with stop and go driving. It is better than I expected. We arrived in Carrothers, Ohio early in the evening about 45 minutes after Camlifter had gone home from the track. We talked by cell phones and I learned where I could park and camp for the night. It was muggy in Ohio, too, and I could not picture trying to sleep inside the Cherokee on top of a layer of boxes and such, so figured I'd just lay a tarp on the ground, lay out the air mattress and sleeping bag and sleep under the stars. There were no stars, however, as it was heavily overcast. As soon as I laid down mosquitoes arrived for the feast. I was the special of the day. No bug dope, of course. I found a smaller, light weight tarp in the truck and laid that out on top of me like a tent without poles. A little warm under there, but no mosquitoes drilling for blood, so managed to drift off. It cooled down a bit as evening became night and sleep was good. I awakened to rain pattering against my face and eventually got used to the sound and sensation and again fell asleep. I awakened to furious rain, thunder booming and lightning all around me. I thought about running to the truck, reflected upon how I was injured badly by lightning fifteen years ago and after some consideration decided that if it was my time to 'go home' then so bit it. I've lived a long and full life and the nice thing about lighting is it sure is quick. So I went back to sleep. I awakened to furious wind along with the rain, thunder and lightning and discovered the tarp was gone, the sleeping bag was wet and it seemed like a good idea to return to the truck where I slept sitting in the front seat for a time before scootching up onto the boxes in back, at least lying down. With a sore back, front, sides and everything else I awakened at the crap of dawn. I've slept better.
In the night an RV had come by and parked closer to the race track. I learned in the morning it was Thud and his partners in crime from Michigan. Nice fellows who shared breakfast sandwiches with me and the Moosherator. She discovered black squirrels on the property so was in fierce huntress mode, wandering off some as Thud & crew prepared their amazing electric bikes for a day of racing. On one bike was a shifting device and on the other was a large lexan driven plate with teeth cut into the lexan for the drive chain. It put me in mind of the old whizzer belt drive setups with the large diameter driven pulley. Very cool and a kind of new world of wires and amps and things poorly understood by me and even less by Moosh. Camlifter arrived and was equally interested in the electric race bikes. We wandered over to a garage area where Camliter (John) and his brother in law Kyle had brought some of their stable of motored bikes the prior evening. There was a very cool shorty with 20" wheels with 3" wide tires that Kyle was riding around, some very cool cruisers including the one with wheel skirts and home made three speed shifter which was featured in the build off this past winter.I was admiring his builds when I heard a little "beep beep" horn sound behind me. Cam had rolled out the restored Schwinn step through and said, "here's your bike, Silverbear". Wow. He fired it up and I rode it around, eventually on the clay race track which was now dried out enough for bikes. It was fun riding and other bikes joined in just kind of feeling out the track, goosing the throttle, a bunch of weathered looking 12 year olds having fun on their motorbicycles. Camlifter was lapping me pretty regularly, but I was racing on a dirt track, am definitely old and can now say with pride that I'm an old dirt track racer. Yep, I been around that ole track many a time, bud.
The skies darkened and rain fell as one by one the bikes left the track for shelter. Then it rained hard and I could see that Camlifter was disappointed in what appeared to be a rain out. It rained quite heavily, enough that the track would have to dry out again. Somebody checked the weather report and it did not look good, so people packed up their bikes to go home, including me. Kyle helped me pad the roof of the jeep and then we wrapped the bike in a large tarp and tied it down securely. Nest year we'd all be back and next time I'll be riding a fast bike! Watch out you guys!
On the road again Moosh and I arrived in Michigan by late afternoon. It was still raining and continued on even more heavily as evening became night. I pulled over a few times for catnaps sitting up and dozing in the front seat. We crossed the Mackinac Bridge into the upper Peninsula of Michigan around 1:00 A.M. and drove on through fog and rain. At first light we passed through Iron Mountain and into the northernmost part of Wisconsin. With light I could see paper birch trees and knew I was approaching home. Rain stopped by the time we reached Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota. Another hundred miles inland and north was Eagles Nest Lake and home. The Cherokee turned out to be a great truck, very comfortable cruising, felt safe and secure on the highway even in all that rain, smooth running and I did not add oil in that whole trip of at least 1300, perhaps 1400 miles. I lost the piece of paper I wrote the odometer reading on at the beginning of the trip. Doesn't matter as what does matter is that we are home. A red fox was sitting in front of my trailer as I shut off the motor. Grass and weeds were tall, the sun was shining and my old trailer never looked so welcoming. The fox, Moosh (growling) and I considered each other for a minute or so and then it slipped off into the forest, a welcoming committee of one. Within five minutes my brother and his wife arrived from Iowa, which was weird since we made no attempt to coordinate even the day of arrival. A bit later I took my first chilly dip in the lake with a bar of soap, according to my neighbor 58 degrees. Then a motorbike ride of a couple miles, hello to neighbors and finally attended a long meeting of the Flat Earth Society (FES, a secret organization of nappers and deep sleep advocates of world wide proportion. As we say, "Flat is where its at" and "Flatness is next to Godliness"). Home in my own bed. Thank you good people. I arrived on Sunday. Last night is one month since the night of the fire. Without you I would have no truck and would still be in Maryland. I'm deeply grateful.
SB
