Arkansas Visit #2.
Saturday 6th October 2012.
Plans for this year’s riding trip were for another visit to Arkansas.
I had missed the previous ride on which Henry, Tony and William went further north to visit the southern part of Missouri.
My only trip to Arkansas had been great riding and the stories that Tony and William brought back from that trip were very thrilling. Tales of great riding and scenery made me feel that I had truly missed a great ride.
Henry was excited to have us over in Arkansas again.
For as much riding he’s done in his locale of Arkansas, he was excited to show us more roads and places he had since discovered, that he was sure would thrill us. He knows all the back country, mountains and valleys of Arkansas like the back of his hand.
Most any weekend when I call to say hi to him, he’s out riding his favorite roads and discovering more new ones.
Henry is “good people”. He’s always been “good people” - right from the very first day we met and befriended him.
Typically our annual rides spanned 4 calendar days, starting on a Thursday and ending on a Sunday.
Our earnest preparations for this trip had begun a couple of weeks earlier.
William’s new-to-him Triumph Sprint had spent a couple of weeks at the dealership for preparation work, which unfortunately could not be undertaken because they were unable to loosen and remove his front axle to facilitate tire/wheel removal for a brake job and related issues!
So having been and still being the kid on the block who could fix anything, I suggested he bring it over to me for repairs.
Oh, that axle nut was on tight!
Whoever put it on last obviously knew nothing about anti-seize compounds or torque application in this circumstance.
So the challenge was to get this off without damaging and/or galling the threads on it.
Anyway, cut a long story short, I had to fashion/fabricate a removal tool, strong enough to insert, hold fast and turn the inset hexagonal nut/head without rounding off the internal corners on the flat edges. I had no shortage of helping hands either.
With a lot of patience, a little heat and my gentle but forceful touch, I was successful. This was not my first rodeo for a problem of this sort. If anything at all, it was common place from all my years of wrenching on equipment halfway across the world in an earlier time. Back in that era of my life, if you did not save/fix it, you might as well would have had to write off and salvage the equipment.
The service and repair work that followed was pretty much routine for me from this point onwards.
In about 3 hours I had his machine ready to roll!
Little did I know that in 6 days from this time, I would part ways with my employer! - that’s a story for another time.
But here I was at that juncture, brand new bike, only my first payment made so far and I was out of a job!
Talk about priorities needing to be instantly rearranged!
So I promptly cancelled my participation in the ride to Arkansas. I could not bring myself to go out on a fun ride when I had to worry about how I was going to prepare myself for the immediate, major challenge of continuing to provide for my family.
Feelings of depression began to set in. I was not destitute yet, but knowing how life is, it would not be long before I would get to the bottom of my financial barrel.
I needed to be proactive and hit the ground running to make sure I could generate the required funds to keep my new toy as well. No way did I want to lose it!
So to cut a long story short, it was at my wife’ insistence that I go on the ride.
“It will do you good, Babe. You’ll have the chance to get your thoughts together and put a game plan together.
The ride will give you good thinking time and reduce your stress. I think it will do you more good than to sit around the house and wallow in your depressed state”.
She made sense.
She had a point.
So we both agreed that I would make the trip, although quietly, in the back of my mind, it just didn’t sit right with me. I’d give it a shot though.