Day 39: Tues., July 21: St. Johnsbury to Burlington VT

Hmmm, not a very long trip today, you say? Sooo right -- as Robbie Burns once said, "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglae." (or something like that) and go 'aglae' they bloody well did.

Arose this morning, got ready to go, went out to pack the bike and do my (now) usual walk-around and my back brand, spankin' new, less-than-a-week-old tire is flatter than semi-truck road kill ARGGGHHHHH How could this happen???

One of the chambermaids very handily had one of those little electric compressors so I was able to pump up the tire and then headed off to the tire store I'd seen down the street. No dice there - they "don't do motorcycles" -- the guy obviously couldn'ta given a $hit about my plight - he didn't even have any suggestions about who or where I might get help.

I remembered I'd seen a Yamaha shop down the road, so off I went, PRAYING the tire didn't go flat and annoying the hell out of all the drivers, cuz I rode REAL slow, just in case. Anyhoo, made it to Yammy and the service guy took a look and didn't think they could help -- but he was on the phone trying to find me another tire, when the motorcycle sales manager got down on his hands and knees and took a look all over the tire -- he couldn't find any marks or punctures; he got the Windex bottle out and sprayed around the rim and found the leakage area. Then called the service guy back and they pulled the wheel and tire and (eventually) found a pinhole in the tube. Which they figure happened when it was installed -- apparently, it is very easy to 'pinch' the tube when installing it -- more GRRRR.

So, I'm now riding around on a brand new tire with patched tube, which don't make me real happy. I'd like to get a new tube installed asap, so will have to watch out for another HD place, I guess. I'd like to give someone at Red Rock HD in Charlottetown an earful, I tell yah!

Anyway, after all the to-ing, fro-ing and general frickin' about, I didn't actually get underway today until about 12:30; got to Burlington about 2:45, had a bite to eat, intending to head much farther north, when the heavens opened up and I thought, "Eff this -- I've had enough stress for one day," and booked into the nearest Best Western for the night. I'll try again tomorrow LOL

I seem to remember, back in the day when I was taking flying lessons, that my instructor's favourite saying was, "Time to spare? Go by air!", meaning the blinkin' machines break down alla time -- sounds like motorcycles are on a par with that, I tell yah!

Anyway, I'm eternally grateful to the great guys at All Power Yamaha in St. Johnsbury, VT who really went above and beyond to find and fix my problem.