12-11-11
Fargo to Picton
I had to go over to Fargo ND to return Bill’s motorcycle trailer that he loaned me to bring home the “Double Cheese Dog”. It is made from a rear axle and is just so simple and light. You keep the air in the tires a little low, which gives it enough spring to handle the bike well. When I got back to Fargo and met Bill I realized the trailer has NO license. Bill says that you do not need a license for a trailer in Wisconsin. I am sort of amazed I made it across North Dakota twice with the trailer and never got stopped, and actually Montana too..
This is a rest area in North Dakota that I have seen going by but never had stopped before. It is made to look like one of the old service stations and they have some of the real old gas pumps out front.
An interesting history lesson here.
When I got home I brought the Peanut Pup up to the doghouse and mounted the Jesse bags on it. The bags were missing the mounting hardware and I talked with the guy that is dealing Jesse bags. He said he didn’t have any of those old mounts but he would give Jesse a ring and see if he could come up with some for me. About two weeks later after I had given up hope, I received a package with the mounts and bolts. He didn’t send a bill for them either so that is pretty cool. I guess he has not made these bags for the R80G/S in years and are no longer available. It turns out that they are really well made and the Best of the three Jesse bags I have on my bikes. It got a little crowded in the doghouse with two bikes but sure was nice to have a house full. I think I could get three bikes I there but that would be really tight. Oh, one of the girls at the registration desk let me pick out the HOG plate…. Well almost a peanut hog eh?
I was thinking of heading down to New Zealand the end of December or first part of January. Last year I left day before Thanksgiving and came back Feb 27th. I remember it being –28F and snow up to my belt buckle. I was thinking of going a little later this year so it would be warmer when I got back. They are predicting it will be another nasty winter this year so why be miserable? After checking on prices on line I find that it costs another thousand dollars if I waited until after Shopmas season. Evidently everyone wants to go down after Christmas and that is when the Kiwi’s take off for six weeks or more too for their ‘Holiday’. So I picked out a good flight that was the cheapest on V Australia airlines and went through the whole routine of picking the seat and filling out the credit card info. When I clicked the Bye Now button a screen came up saying that that was no longer available. Sheesh!!! So I checked it again, same flights and times and now it was fifty bucks more. WTF? Well I figured that they knew now when I wanted to go and have my computer marked to charge me more. So, I rode into town and went to the library. It was $75 more there!! Jeez that really pissed me off so I went home and later that night I thought I would check again and Walla… the price had come down to the first offer. So I went ahead and bought it and here I am in theWellington airport and enjoying the sculptures.
I went to the Footprints Hostel where I stayed last year when the bike was stolen. I had a new shock that I carried down with me and had bought a new battery that I had shipped to the hostel. The owner of the hostel has been keeping my bike in his shed at one of his farms this past winter here. He gave me a ride out to the farm and helped me install the new battery and shock. The Kiwi dog just started right up and I took off. It sure surprised me though that the clutch was stuck and I had to do some fancy buck and rolls to get it broke free. After that it just runs sweet as it did when I left it. I had put the license on hold while I was gone and had to get it safety tested, what they call a warranty of function, or WOF before I could license it. After looking at the front tire I decided that I had better replace it before I tried to get it certified for WOF. I went down to the bike shop that I used last year and had them order a new tire for me. They wanted $170 for a Metzler tire this year, so I asked what else they had in my size. They had a Chinese one for $70 so I thought I would try it. Come to find out that they charged me $38 for changing the tire plus $11 for lift time. So I got a new front tire on for $120 and will have to see how this Chinese tire lasts. It only has to go three months. \
After I got the tire on I went ahead and got it WOF tested and it passed just fine. Then it was over to the license folks and for $138 I got it licensed for three months. The license if also my insurance on the bike. If anything happens to you it is paid for as well as any damage to others or property.
I then made a ride down to see Hamish and Di who I bought the bike from last year. Hamish was in a really serious motorcycle accident and has been having some real serious problems getting back on his feet. They moved out of town to a farm and I was really taken with the beauty of their surroundings. There are sheep as well as cows around and I met the farmer’s dogs who are also very nice. Jeez, it seems like everyone down here is nice. A good place to visit for sure.
I left Nelson and took the Queen Charlotte road over to Picton. It is an amazing little two-lane road that follows the shoreline. This area sure does get a lot of rain and things are a little too green for me, but I can tough it out for a while.
one of the little bays along the road.
Getting near Picton is this Log dock where they load out onto ships. The inventory is way down from last year but they still have a shit load of logs here.
This shows the log dock on the left and Picton on the bay at the right. It also shows how the ferry turns around and backs into the dock to unload the cars and trucks. This is the ferry that goes to and from Wellington and will be the one I take to get the bike across to the north island.
A sweet little bike eh? I sure like these simple aircooled bikes without all the fancy graphics, scoops and bling.
Out front of my room is this chess set and these Germans are having a good time. It is interesting that they have one of those Ipods and a little set of speakers so they can listen as they play. They are playing Lucy in the sky with diamonds and other old 60’s rock and roll songs. Wow, how cool is that, it even makes sense to these German kids 40 years later. One of the German guys asked me what we call the little ones and I told him we called them pawns. He said in German they called them ‘farmers’…. That is about the way it really is too, aint it?
I caught a cold, which is probably understandable when being packed in those airplanes for a whole day and a half. I am going to hang out here in Picton at the Sequoia Hostel while I heal up. The weather forecast says that it will be raining heavy for the next week and that is not good for me especially in my condition. There is good Internet connection here and nice folks to visit with. Oh, and yeah, it is summer time down here.
If I have to be sick I decided that I needed wellness food to get me back in shape, so I made a trip up to the store and bought the ingredients for a few whole wheat pizza’s. Ah, now I can get started on getting better. There is a really nice kitchen here and was so pleased to find a pizza pan. It would have been better to find a pizza stone but I sure can make do with this. Everyone isn’t a vegetarian here but seems like a lot of the young people are. It is always interesting to see what people from other parts of the world are cooking at eating.
