6-22-11

wet cool spring

It has been a really wet and cool/cold spring. I have been wearing long johns and a wool shirt most of it. Well, today it was nice tee shirt weather.

A new laundry opened up in the old Subway store. I went in the day before the grand opening and they were still wiring things up, but welcomed me in anyway.

I put my clothes in that one on the right…,., number 13 and added soap and money. After five minutes of watching it tumble my clothes with NO water I finally rounded up the owner and he got a crew of four to find out what the problem was that there was no water. After more money, the clothes were finally getting wet but NO bubbles, as in no soap that I had added. Another big conference and I had to add soap again as it was started again. This time there were bubbles and I got them out, to find that the collar was still dirty… humm, ring around the collar. They guys said I needed to put Dawn dish washing soap on those neck spots. Never did that before but next time?

Then over to the dryers and put in my money and nothing happened. Wait a while but still no action. Another conference and find out that I need to change the dryer from number 13 to number 14 with more money. Ok this time it goes around and they get dry. NEVER go into a new Laundry on Friday the 13^th and use washer number 13 or dryer number 13. After about three hours I got out of there with my laundry done. Ring around the collar too…..

attached to the laundry is the dog washing setup. The dog was real nice and didn’t seem to care. I think that $10 to wash a dog is a little over the top, but they do get a blow dry. It was cheaper to do my laundry but it took longer.

Did I mention RAIN??? Jeez, it just poured off the roof and made lakes everywhere. More rain in a month then in a normal year I hear. Grass and weeds are having a great time and I am on my third mowing job.

I brought the Texas Catahoula Dog in for a valve adjustment and the Nevada dog was pleased to have company. That black one has been on guard duty all winter and was a little lonesome I guess. It sure is nice to get up in the morning and sit at my table and admire two nice friendly dogs in the cabin. I picked up a couple of nice rugs from the College dumpster for working on my bikes. It was the end of semester and they load up the dumpsters with lots of stuff they don’t want to take home. 

The rain sure made the Tongue River fill up. There was some flooding and part of my old farm flooded, but not the house. I like being up on the hill more and more.

I went over and camped with my truck and Pod in Bob’s shop yard. Bob had installed 1000cc jugs and heads on two of my R80G/S bikes. I needed to give them a few hundred miles to seat them in before Bob gave them their final torque and balanced the carbs.

I call it “Laying on of hands”. Bob sets the carbs by ear and this bike, The Fat Dog, is one of the smoothest engines you can imagine. It does have a tiny bit of vibration now, where before, when it was a 800cc, I couldn’t even feel the engine running. I think I can still balance a quarter on the gas cap at 65mph. It is that smooth.

Dan showed up on his primo R80G/S that Bob got running for him. Dan’s friend that died, willed him the bike.

Dan  showed up just at the right time as Bob and I were going over to his vets place near Absaroke to get special cat food.

It was a little cool but what a beautiful day and the views of the Beartooth were amazing.

Bob, cleaning his R60/2 that he took on a ride with me the next day. It started out with the antique motorcycle club group but ended up just Bob and I riding by ourselves on the frontage roads over to Big Timber. We were hoping to find Sam home but he was gone for the weekend.

The Crazy Mountains.

I had to come back over the next week to pick up the White Dog that Bob had built an engine for. I had bought the bike last year as well as an engine but things being at they go sometimes for me, it needed a LOT of work. Here is Bob just coming in from a warm up trip so he could set the carbs for me before I took it home.

I got it home and installed the high fender which makes a lot of sense in this gumbo mud area as well as the almost new aluminum panniers that came with it. It sure turned out to be a nice bike. It is now a R80GS, that was not sold in this country, but they sold a ton of them over in Europe. I had originally thought I would just sell the bike, but after riding it and putting on a license, I am now not so sure. Maybe ship it off to a foreign country and ride there with it, or loan it out, or…????

Micah and Keith rode down to Red Lodge and I rode over and met them. We spent the night there and in the morning went to Bob’s where he was getting things set up for his Summer Solstice Party. I had a chance to give Keith a ride in a WW2 BMW sidecar rig that Bob has been working on all winter. He has been having trouble with some of the electrical parts that he has been getting from Germany. The coils work for a while but soon give out and leave him stranded. He let me take the bike down to the end of the road and back. Wow, what a cool sidecar rig. It weighs a ton, well maybe half a ton and rides rough as can be. The really neat thing is that it is two wheel drive with differential which makes it almost impossible to stop. But if it does get stopped, you can lock the differential and power through. It also has a reverse gear. It is older than I am  and better shape? No way…just looks better.

There was a good turnout as usual and the weather was perfect for a morning ride.

good food and good folks.

there is always one in every crowd.  Dr. Bob and Harley John.

I really like it this year when Bob had one of the bikes he is working on, left on the hoist as a work in progress.

It rained a little over night but the road was good getting out and the light drizzle stopped by the time I got to Billings and I had dry roads all the way home. Now summer can start…