Yellow Betty's Fall Circle Tour

[Roady]

The wisdom of a "Bronson."




You've a nice gift of gab my friend.

[BigDub]

Love it! What kindof fairing is this?Thanks for posting!

[Greg]

Love it! What kindof fairing is this?Thanks for posting!

It's a Vesco Rabid Transit Tourer.
Lovely,aint it........

[markwelna]

Thanks for all the positives guys! I love this site is why i take the time to post a rr. That and showing up at work and taking a few days to write one is my way of reintegrating into society. Either that or disappear never to be seen again. Ha!

Greg, consider yourself invited. As my close riding buddy said, "wide open roads and campgrounds are what my dreams are made of most nights". We're going to try our darndest to make this an annual fall occurence.

Same time, same place next year! YeAH.

[Greg]

I knew we all will have something worthy to read when you got back .You didn’t prove me wrong. A gifted individual you are with the ability to express with much clarity the ups and downs and the uncertainty associated with being on the road alone on two wheels. Next best thing reading your adventure, if I couldn’t be there doing it with you….
Thanks for the invite ..

[markwelna]

Last Day: Revisiting the Numb Thumb, Fatigue, Siding a Garage, and a Foster Dog.

The end of my thumb had been numb for some time now. I like to put my arms or hand under my pillow and i think a slept on it too long. I hope it doesn't fall off.





The last day of a tour is never easy. This one was unusually so. I'm historically optomistic when it comes to travel times by motorcycle and i've said i'll be home around noon.

When i awake the sun has yet to breech the horizon but it is time to move. I break camp quickly but am interrupted by several campers asking the usual questions and requesting that i, "keep it between the ditches". I also receive my third, literally, "good for you" from a stranger.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. I take this statment to mean, "i'd like to be doing what you're doing". Maybe when i was younger. Maybe in another life. Maybe tomorrow. I don't think i've ever said, "good for you". If i met someone bicycling the Trans Canada Highway, climbing Mount Everest, or building a rocket ship i might say "good for you".

This trip doesn't feel like much of an endeavor or accomplishment but i guess to those in the middle of the routine of everyday life it does.

I'm in a hurry to get home and i don't have much to say about the ride. In the three days prior i see maybe 10 motorcycle total. On the last day i see maybe 500. Here is one of them.



A gorgeous R90 with a Wixom set up. I go into the mcdonalds that it's parked outside to get some coffee and guess at it's owner. No one stands out. I take my coffee outside and admire the bike and he comes out. We talk. Mostly about his BMW's. He seems like a stereotypical guy who owns several BMW motorcycles. I want to own a BMW motorcycle. Either a R100RS or an R90S. The BMW's owner is not interested in what i'm doing and does not say, "good for you". Instead he tells me i look fatigued. Though i do i can't help but take this personally but i feel vindicated when who i presume to be a younger relative of one of his coffe buddies comes out, looks at his bike, and tells him the engine "looks like a vaccuum cleaner". He looks at me sheepishly and says "the R90 won Daytona.......... in 76.......right?" I nod and smile.



When i arrive home at 3 it is immediately clear to me why i wanted to be home at noon. My girlfriend and father in law are siding our garage. Yikes! As they look at me i take my helmet off and i'm smiling.

She says, "what are you smiling about?"

"I'm thinking about how ridiculous it is that you and your dad are siding the garage while i'm on a motorcycle trip".

"I think he's thinking the same thing." she replies.

Let me take off a few layers and find my hammer.

[egelasi]

I subscribed to this but it looks like it's too late...the trip ended.

Looks like you ran into the garage

Love that fairing BTW as others have said. Good pics, will read story later. Looking forward to your next adventure.

[Greg]

When I see a nice looking bike that is owned by an A hole,I say to myself the poor bike can't help it....
On a good note .Seems like your Father in law knows how to match up the corners well.I say he knows what he's doing.....

[markwelna]

Geez. Don't look at that corner Greg! That's the ONE that doesn't match up. We started with the alley side using a method of measuring overlap on each course and the exposure wasn't as uniform as we'd have liked so on all the other three sides we marked off on the trim boards. On all the other three corners the courses wrap around near perfect. Honest.

Forgot to tell you about the Foster Dog! Have to do some work first.

[Greg]

Just remember on your next project to level your starter strips from the lowest point on the structure ,that way you'll run true all the way around.

But don't worry it looks good from here. .

[markwelna]

Thanks. Hope the cement siding lasts for awhile. I don't want to do that again anytime soon!

[Greg]

I took to wearing a bandana over my nose for that same reason. Makes me look like a biker ,too..

The cement side should hold up if you used furring strips and cut concrete nails to anchored them with.
I always tell my guys to use liquid Nail cement along with the cut nails. Other times the furring strips have to be shot with .22’s. Not fun and especially if it’s not your 8-4 job.

You must have a strict boss if you were expected to hop too after a tiring trip like the one you were on. Usually takes me about a week to come around with the boss’s point of view….

[markwelna]

She's strict all right. She had a rough couple of days without me.

We bought a little 1919 bungalow not too long ago. Our boxer passed away recently and we've been fostering boxers since to find the right one. Just got a new foster shortly before i left on the trip.

The day that i left the dog broke out of her kennel, tore up every blind in the house, tried to scratch through the original oak front door, tired to chew through several sashes of our beautiful double hung windows, and finally got on top of a desk in the extra bedroom upstairs and broke through the lower sash and also through the storm window.

When the boss got home from work the neighbors were standing accross the street and pointing at our porch roof because there was a dog on it wagging her tail and wiggling her butt!

There was blood on just about every window in the house and all over the walls as well in the room she broke out of.

I also collect vintage audio equipment and one of my favorite speakers, a Kef 105/4, was in front of a window. She knocked it over and scrached the heck out of the side that ended facing up. I almost cried when I saw it.

More dogs more problems!

[Greg]

Oh wow! I know it's not funny but I can't help myself because we have gone through few dog related scenarios like that.
In spite of her shenanigans she sounds like she's a keeper. Don't know if the Girl Friend will be around long, though..
Hang in there.....

[brokentoe]

Thanks for investing so much time and creative energy in telling this story. It is very appreciated. I marveled at the picture of your fairing and all those bugs. I never would have expected so many smashed bugs this late in the season up there. Your picture of the angular rocks in the shoreline is a scene I've seen pictured elsewhere. I'd like to know where that is. A truly heroic trip to inspire the rest of us.