Day 25 Sloan, Iowa to HOME ! ! ! ! ! 529 Miles

Today was another warm day.  I wasn’t sure we would be able to make it home due to the heat.  We talked about maybe getting a room in Kansas City depending on the temperature when we got there.  It all depends on how Lyle feels when we get to Kansas City.  I grew up in the jungles of Florida so I can ride in any temperature (high temperature, not low temperature :))

My bike was still acting up today.  It was missing really bad when I started it this morning and would barely get up to speed on the freeway.  As usual, it missed for a long time and then started running right.  This time it was missing for over 100 miles before it started running smoothly.  This could be a hard problem to fix when I get home.  It was missing a lot when we first got on the freeway and as we went down the road it would miss less and less until it totally stopped ALL missing after around 110 miles of running at freeway speeds.  After that and all the way to Kansas City, it ran like a new bike.  Weird!  The missing would become more and more intermittent, the further down the road you went.  But to still be missing slightly after 100 miles and then all of a sudden absolutely no missing what so ever. 

When we got to Kansas City we stopped in Grandview for lunch at the Wendy’s restaurant on Blue Ridge Blvd.  We were in there probably for an hour and when we came out I asked Lyle if he was ready to go on to Mountain Grove. He said he would be except his front tire was flat. 

I got out my small electric pump and we put some air in it to see if we could find the leak.  It appeared to be a bad valve stem.  As luck would have it, there was a tire shop directly next door to Wendy’s so we aired it up a little with my pump and then Lyle ran it over to the tire shop before it went flat again.  They confirmed it was the valve stem leaking and said they couldn’t fix motorcycle tires. 

But, they told us, there is a motorcycle shop just over the freeway on the other side.  We put as much air in the tire as we could and headed for the bike shop.  Evidently, the centrifugal force put on the valve stem while running at highway speeds, kept it in a position that kept air pressure in the tire.  Stopping for lunch took that pressure off the valve stem and then all the air leaked out.  As Barbara Streisand used to sing “How Lucky Can you Get”?  A tire shop next door when your tire goes flat. 

The shop was open and they could get Lyle’s bike in right away.  They quickly had the problem taken care of and handed Lyle the bill.  It was $60 just to replace the valve stem and balance the tire.  I think I’ll open a bike shop so I can get rich too.  What a rip off.  Put in a $5 part and charge $55 labor.  What a racket. 

Lyle said the heat wasn’t killing him yet so we decided to head on down the highway to Mountain Grove and home. 

Since we had been at lunch for an hour and then we sat around the bike shop for another hour, my bike decided it was cool enough to start missing again.  Even as hot as the weather was, just sitting for a while cooled the bike down enough to start missing slightly again. 

I shouldn’t say it “cooled down enough” because I don’t think the problem is “bike temperature” related.  I don’t actually have any idea what the problem is, but I don’t think it’s related to the temperature of the bike.  We’ll see. 

We made it to Mountain Grove without further incident and headed north towards our road, Girlstown Road. 

Imagine our surprise when we got to the end of the pavement on Girlstown Road only to find that the gravel road had been recently graded and new gravel dumped on it.  The gravel they dumped on it was about marble size or a little larger and it was as bad as anything we had seen in Alaska.  I’m thinking as we’re slowly making our way towards home, “here I go all the way to Alaska, ride around up there on bad gravel roads and return home to crash my bike on my own dirt road”. 

Because of the size and quantity of the gravel, my bike was skating around the road like crazy and I had to stay really focused on trying to stay upright the whole time.  They must have just done that today or the day before for it to be that bad.  It wouldn’t have been a problem at all in a car.  Unfortunately, Lyle and I are the only two motorcycle riders who live on the whole five miles of  the road. 

We made it home ok and Lyle said he wasn’t happy with our road now either.  But we did get through it.  After a day or two, the road won’t be bad for motorcycles at all.  The cars driving on it will make bare spots and push the gravel out so there will be tire tracks to follow when we’re on the bikes.  It’s just when they first do it, it is pretty hard on a bike. 

I’m going to do one more entry to the blog before I close it out.  Sort of a “lessons learned” and “what I would do different next time” kind of thing. 

I want to thank all of the readers who tracked us on our journey and I hope you enjoyed being with us through my blog. 

You can start signing up for next years trip to Tierra Del Fuego on the southern tip of South America.  Be sure and get your motorcycle ready and all tuned up as it will be a tough ride. 

Also, brush up on your espanol.  Si tu no habla espanol, es posible hay problemas (for all you spanish speaking individuals, pardona me for my spelling, etc.  :) )    I’m not sure I can do my blog in spanish ! !

Best wishes to all and ride safe. 

Harry