![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-17-at-10.09.38-AM.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Is there anything a man don’t stand to lose
\nWhen the devil wants to take it all away
\nCherish well your thoughts, keep a tight grip on your booze
\n‘Cause thinking and drinking are all I have today<\/p>\n
– chorus from the Grateful Dead\u2019s Mexicali Blues<\/p>\n
The road had thought differently about the bikers\u2019 plans in the past. From time to time the byways had become a bitchy cognitive dissident. Several times it had snuck up on them and filched their status quo mojo. It nearly killed<\/p>\n
them when hail pounded their backs like shotgun blasts. It didn\u2019t give a shit about what lay behind them and what the riders hoped might lie ahead. It forced them again and again to confront what lies within.<\/p>\n
They had had a full measure of motorcycle troubles during this voyage. Unlike anytime during the past ten years of riding, mechanical troubles seemed attracted to their bikes like vultures are to a zebra\u2019s carcass. Yes, they had had<\/p>\n
trouble so thick that you could add bell peppers and jalapenos and bottle it as salsa.<\/p>\n
Steve, Augustus and Marlow should have known something was up when they saw large numbers of turkey vultures riding the thermal air currents as they exited the back gate of NAS Pensacola the previous afternoon. The vultures<\/p>\n
had returned in droves to launch an all-out struggle with their road trip goals. Whose undistressed motorcycle was the target?<\/p>\n
Soon after departing Tallahassee on I10 the following morning, they turned onto the blue highway also known as US 19 and got an immediate answer to the foregoing question. Steve\u2019s snake-bitten scooter ground to metal-clunking,<\/p>\n
complete full stop halt. It would go forward no more, answering hopeful clutch and shifts with fugly screeches and scrapes. It appeared to be the big one all bikers fear for their beloved.<\/p>\n
They pushed his bike 30 yards into the divine providence-provided parking lot of a Wendy\u2019s burger joint. After some general harrumphing and \u201caw shitting,\u201d they repaired to Wendy\u2019s air-conditioned comfort. They sampled the red-<\/p>\n
haired burger purveyor\u2019s breakfast offerings while Steve made cell phone calls to towing companies and a Honda dealership that would likely be of assistance.<\/p>\n
Three hours and many cups of coffee later, the tow truck operator arrived and loaded the balky Valkyrie onto his truck\u2019s flat bed. He and Steve took off at warp speed back to the dealership at which Steve\u2019s bike had received an oil<\/p>\n
and filter change earlier in the morning. Augustus and Marlow, not wanting to spend three days in the pokey for travelling 90+ MPH in chase, proceeded at a statelier and legally defensible pace.<\/p>\n
At the dealership, they spent many hours in deep discussion. The favored topic was whether Steve should repair his 12 year old Valk or trade it in for a new or used Honda Gold Wing out of this dealer\u2019s inventory. They used<\/p>\n
Steve\u2019s iPhone to search the web for Valkyrie trade-in values and recent comparable sales prices for new and used Gold Wings. Steve\u2019s wife gave him permission over the phone to buy a replacement bike on the spot. Like nervous<\/p>\n
next of kin, they paced the showroom floor to kill time while awaiting the bike doctor\u2019s diagnosis of Steve\u2019s bike.<\/p>\n
After spending two plus hours at $130 per hour at the operating table with the Valk, the chief scooter surgeon and his greasy finger nailed interns appeared somber-faced with several parts of their patient\u2019s internal organs in hand.<\/p>\n
The drive shaft and final drive assembly teeth were completely stripped. Total bill with overnight parts shipping would be under $700. Given his near 9 year long, 80,000+ mile relationship with this machine, his wife\u2019s offer<\/p>\n
notwithstanding, Steve authorized the work.<\/p>\n
Steve had a nonnegotiable September 2nd arrival date back home in the DC area. Since he was looking at having his bike back in operating status no earlier than August 29th, he was forced to abandon the remainder of the four<\/p>\n
corners trek. Time had finally run out for Steve’s plucking the silver apples of the moon and the golden apples of the sun.<\/p>\n
Since this was their last night together on the road, they did some drinking and thinking. It was all they had. As a small \u201cwe\u2019re sorry for you, bro\u201d gesture, they sprang for a 2002 bottle of estate-bottled Napa Cabernet for Steve\u2019s<\/p>\n
personal cocktail hour lubricant that night.<\/p>\n
![\"Screen-Shot-2017-02-17-at-10.09\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-17-at-10.09.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2017 From My Isle Seat<\/p>\n
www.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is there anything a man don’t stand to lose When the devil wants to take it all away Cherish well your thoughts, keep a tight grip on your booze ‘Cause thinking and drinking are all I have today – chorus from the Grateful Dead\u2019s Mexicali Blues The road had thought differently about the bikers\u2019 plans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15425,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15420\/revisions\/15425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}