Today was all about getting my motorcycle fixed at The Motorcycle Shop after the damage the Dalton Highway did to it.
Homesick
It was another day of rain. Dreary. I started working on the video of me leaving Victoria. I am behind on providing you with videos. Too much fun riding ha ha ha. As I started to work on it, I saw the pictures of my kids. A wave of homesickness came. I am sure it was also a combination of the crappy weather and the anxiety of whether my parts would be in today. Especially the switch.
Motorcycle Blogs
Before going to The Motorcycle Shop, I headed to Starbucks to catch up on my blog reading. I love reading the blogs of other motorcycle adventurers. Some of my current favorites are:
Ridedot.com
My Ticket to Ride
SM Boilerworks
Worldwide Ride
And of course my current riding partner’s website of Living Loving Adventuring.
My switch was still working on the way to Starbucks. As I was leaving for The Motorcycle Shop, the switch stopped working again. What the heck?! It works then doesn’t work.
Up until that time I was thinking that if the parts didn’t come in I would just leave tomorrow for Tok. Now I am thinking I better stay to see if they come in on Saturday. I don’t know. I’ll wait and see.
The Motorcycle Shop
I got to The Motorcycle Shop and Chris told me FedEx had arrived but they hadn’t gone through everything yet. So here I sit as I am writing this. Waiting. Hoping.
Well …. They took my bike in. A good sign.
The Cost of Repairs
Turns out all the parts arrived via FedEx! That made me happy.
What made me sad was the bill – $1,000 US! This was to replace the ignition switch that got Dalton mud in it that they couldn’t clean out and was causing it to stick.
The signal switch that was sometimes working and sometimes not.
The windshield. Oh … I should mention that I had purchased before my trip a larger windshield to give me more protection from the elements. I loved it. Now I am back to the normal BMW winshield.
And the right and bottom farings.
What a mixture of emotions. I was excited that everything was now fixed. At the same time, between the tires I needed to ride the Dalton, and the damage to the bike caused by my fall and mud along the Dalton, my motorcycle expenses were way over what I budgeted for. Also, food, lodging and gasoline have been expensive up here.I needed to wrap my head around this to feel some sort of comfort that my finances for the trip will work out.
I do know that once I get into the lower 48 states things will be cheaper and the weather better so I can camp. If need be I can also wild camp. In Mexico things will be cheaper still. And since I will be spending 6 months in Mexico, I will be able to spend longer periods in one spot enjoying life. This will also mitigate expenses. I am pretty sure I will be able to get it back to within budget.
With that in mind, I felt some relief and was happy everything was fixed and was ready to move on. Life is an Adventure or Nothing at All 🙂
My Route for July 22, 2016
