Wednesday, June 29

Got on the road a little earlier than planned. It didn't take long to lose that half hour. We stopped to gas up and the pumps wouldn't take our cards. Inside we couldn't understand what the guy was telling us, and he couldn't figure out how to reset the pump for us. He told us to go to different pumps. Birdie's still didn't work. Lost 15 minutes or more there. Untrained personnel is a no-no if you are in the service business. He couldn't reach anyone on the phone to help him, and there we stood, and other people were waiting to pay and pump, too.
We finally got on the road and enjoyed a nice leisurely ride to LethBridge. Birdie's GPS took us right to the shop, so I'm currently okay with it since I'd probably never found this shop on my own. Or through asking a lot of times for directions.
Brad, the mechanic at Lethbridge Harley Davidson, took a look at the red light issue on my bike. He found a number of issues ... partly because he'd seen the problem before on an '01 (which this one also is). There's a battery plate that is painted and the cable going through it sometimes uses the plate to charge and run the electrical. It gets corroded and then the electicity is actually going through the plate. In addition, the battery cable was pinched and broke through the sleeve, which didn't create a problem, there were spacers missing from both battery terminals and the threads were stripped on one bolt. So that altogether was causing strange readings and an engine light problem. Wow, I'm very impressed with Brad. It was well worth the stop.
While at the shop there was a reverse trike called a Campagna T-Rex. The gentleman who owned it was there and I chatted with him for quite a while. It was a space age-looking type of machine, very sleek and cool, and pearl white. He said it's fast. Would love to see it run. It's a two-seater, with a roll bar and seat belts, but it's classified as a reverse trike. It was fun talking to him about it. It was the second one he had purchased, and I understand they run about $75,000 (maybe that's Canadian).
Left Lethbridge and were looking for booze, Gibson's Rye Whiskey, 18-year. For a friend. Six stops later still had not located it and settled for the 12-year one.
Had an interesting ride, avoiding most of the rain and only getting sprinkled on for the most part. Some wind but even that wasn't anything real ugly.
We stopped at a scenic overlook. A van with some Japanese tourists stopped and started talking with us. One lady was real talkative and said Birdie and I were mother/daughter. We told her no, but she still figured we were. Too funny. They are following much of the same routes we are, going the same places, which was interesting. It was great fun talking to them and they took a photo for us. I may get some of them uploaded at some point.
The rivers are still very swollen. We crossed the Missouri several times, and while it's beautiful to see the rivers so full and lively, and the surrounding areas so green and lush, it's sad to know that people are losing livelihoods, and other things that add to their quality of life.
We visited the Great Falls shop, to get the required T-shirt. I called Jan and she said there was a big storm coming in, winds gusting to 60 mph, rain, lightning and hail. We decided to overnight in Helena and go into Belgrade on Friday. We'll maybe visit the capitol building and ride around the area spending a leisurely day.
Birdie and I had dinner at a Perkins, picked up a couple of items at K-Mart and then I wanted to drop a couple of dollars at a little poker and keno casino called Dotty's. I knew a lady named Dottie a while back, a lovely old lady I met through Chugach. She lived in Florida and I visited her once before she passed. So, it was in her memory that I wanted to go in. She was quite religious, so maybe she's turning over in her grave??? She'd know I did it with the best of intentions and laugh about how I am.

Finally back to the barn, to do a load of laundry.  Boring!!!