The Liberty Opry & The Cops

Today…..what can I get into.  Time to check out the tow bar.  I tightened it all up before Alaska and checked it a couple of times during.  Now it’s time to go over it real good.  First I removed the Tow Defender Guard.  Great product to use for Alaska especially.  Then I removed the 12 inch extension.  I used it because the Two Defender was too close to the exhaust pipe.  Then I tightened ALL tow bar parts.  I run it a little tight.  Better tight than loose.  The whole tow bar does not budge at all.  Good thing I got some handy dandy plastic gloves to wear.  Of course, I didn’t wear any and my hands were black and under the nails too.  Damn I hate that.  Anyhow, all done. 

I got the soon to be bike trailer to get ready.  It needs the bearings packed and everything else greased.  The 12” tires are over 5  years old.   I might upgrade to 13” tires/wheels.  That’s all to be figured out later, not now.

Next I decided to clean the floor under the Harley.  It’s up on a lift so it shouldn’t be that hard to move around.  I slid it around and cleaned all the oil that I spilt over the past week.  A little oil transmission fluid and primary oil.  Oh what a mess.  I found two small parts that I didn’t recognize.   Mark & I will figure it out next week.  I got all that cleaned up and organized the parts and tools.  

That evening Carol & I went to the Liberty Opry House in Liberty… http://libertyopry.com/members/ with Mark and Dortha Hall.  It was OUTSTANDING !!!!.  If you like the old time opry this is a place to check out.  We all really enjoyed it and will return again.  The special entertainer tonight was Michael Hix .  He was top notch and funnnnnnnny.  He would be what I call a singer impersonator/comedian.  He sang Whitney Houston’s song “I Will Always Love You” and nailed it.  They're not a whole lot of female singers who can sing that song but I never heard a man even try it like she sings it.  Again, he nailed it.  The audience were up on their feet clapping before he even finished it that’s how good he did it.  He and another guy did the Blues Brothers song “Soul Man.”  Again, he was hilarious with his over the top dancing.

Here’s Michael’s wife Ginny Hix.  She could sing old country pretty good.

Here was a regular favorite “Booger Lee.”       

Mark & Dortha I think entertained themselves.     

Mark was driving and on the way back and we got stopped by the police.  I don’t even know how many decades it’s been since I was pulled over much less being a passenger.  The cop was OK.  Evidently Mark made a Chicago stop back at a stop sign.  That’s where you slow down a lot but don’t stop all the way.  The cop said he was going to give Mark a verbal warning.  I asked if he could go ahead and give him a ticket because I wanted to get a picture for my blog.  He just laughed as he departed. 

Ahhhhh, that’s all folks.

See ya……………

I Had to See The Judge !!!!

Yesterday after drinking a few beers we figured what we were gonna due today.  Well today we figured it wasn’t such a great idea to try and repair the broken part.  We must have been tired.  I ordered the $171 part from a Harley dealer and will pick it up towards the end of next week.  Now we are dead in the water concerning getting the bike together.  As a matter of fact, we have to take it apart more to get the new part in.  It’s really getting deep into it.  Oh well……

I went to Tractor Supply and just looked around.  They got a lot of neat stuff jammed into a small area.  They had my extra trailer tire/wheel I want but $120 was too much for me.  Maybe I will  check it out on line.  It’s just a little 4.80X12 tire/wheel.

Let’s see..what can I get into now……

Oh Carol and I along with Mac and Annie went to the movies last night.  It’s a local theater and it cost $10 for TWO people.  Real big container of popcorn and two very large sodas was $6.  How great is that?  The movie was The Judge.  We all thought it was Outstanding.  Good acting, script and everything.  Worth seeing especially at these prices.

See ya…

Back At It….

And for you RVers saying that I don’t put anything about RVs in my blog lately – I emptied our black water tank yesterday.  I looked at the dirty wheels and dirty RV.  That’s about it on the RV side.

Oh yea, fuel prices are finally coming down.  Here in Livingston diesel is under $3.40  and gas is under $3 a gallon.  Yea…. keep on coming down.

Mark was here less than an hour after sun up.  Can you figure the time out?  He gave me the tools I needed to finish and button the Harley up.  So I’m off and running – very slow…. Now where do all those buttons go?  This one problem found we found just might fix the two mechanical problems I had.  They were difficult to start when hot and of course the clutch.

Before I start putting it back together I wanted to get primary and tranny fluid.  First Wal-Mart for the cheaper prices then to Auto Zone to get what Wal-Mart didn’t carry.  There are so many choices about what fluids to use in a Harley on the internet to the point of confusing.  Oh well, I just picked one for each.  Time will tell.

Back at the barn I started piece by piece putting it all together.  Here I 'am towards the end.

Then it happened…SNAP !!!!!! I broke a long bolt that held the all clutch assembly together.  That means I really screwed it up.  I went to NAPA in town and got an Easy Out tool device.  I have no idea why they call it an Easy Out tool.  It wasn’t easy and it didn’t work.  I started taking it apart and past the point where we had taken it apart before.  Now I went as far as I could with the tools I had.  Mark came over after work.  He said, “Yep you screwed up.”  We opened a couple of beers and figured it out mentally.  Tomorrow Mark will bring over some gear pullers.  Take the last gear off that held 1 of the 4 bolts that I broke.  Then we came up with the idea of cutting rest of the bolt off and welding another one on.  No other choice at this point.  We finished our beers and called it a night.  I was so close getting it all together and now so far.

Maybe I should stick with shinning RV’s vice taking a wrench to a Harley.

See ya…………

Motorcycle & Tools

If your not into motorcycles and working on them you might as well skip the rest of today’s blog.

I started taking the Harley apart according to the multi page encyclopedia I had on it called a shop manual.  Shop manual means they skip taking apart the easy stuff by just saying take it apart.  Not how !  It also assumes you have every tool that has ever been made.  I got the tool box too bad it’s almost empty.

With that in mind, I pressed on or rather off with the main cover on the engine.  That’s the new motorcycle lift holding the bike up.  I got it yesterday.  It’s so nice.  

 

Then Mark came by after working 10 hours and still in his nice clothes.  He wanted to see how I was doing.

Next thing you know he was into it.  I  just kept tossing him some clean shop towels

He picked up some tools and was off and running and before long the clutch and a little part of the transmission was apart.  Hey, what’s a little tranny fluid on the floor.

I knew that kitty litter had a second purpose.   

These are called clutch discs.  Mark will be bringing me a tool to measure them to see if they need replacing but they might not.  It might be just a loose nut…. besides me.

 

He thinks this nut in the middle of this clutch assembly had came loose and that might be the only problem

Mark had never worked on a Harley before.  I’m glad he told me afterwards.  He will bring over a few other bigger tools tomorrow early morning before going to work.  Then I can torque this nut down.  Then I get to put everything back together after making one gasket then replacing the transmission and primary fluid.  I figure about two months or so.  Mark was here for about an hour and always had a wrench in his hand and it was turning.  He reminds me of Carol’s brothers – “get ur done!”

Who the Hell!!!!

First I drove Carol down to Humble for her gas Dr appointment.  We stopped at her favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel, and had breakfast.  The doc said all of her tests looked good but he wanted one more final test.  He wants a lookey lou internal from the bottom up.  Yep, one of those where you can’t eat and you drink a whole bunch of this yucky stuff the night before.  Then you live on the toilet.  Been there done that.  Next Tuesday is the evacuation day.

After all that it was time to go to Harbor Freight since they were only two blocks away.  I got some much needed “stuff”.  Like a bike lift jack, nice real big tool chest, a shop ground stool, torque wrench, shop light, shop towels and some other things that where needed in the eyes of the beholder.  I needed this China stuff to work on my American bike.

Now it took me about 2 hours to put some of this stuff together.  Some of it was very heavy like the tool chest combo came in at a hefty 235 lbs empty.  I got tools scattered neatly all over the barn.  Now I can centralize my efforts when I go looking for a tool.  This is only the second tool box I’ve ever owned and the first one of pretty high quality without getting into the Snap On professional stuff.  If a thief broke in he would empty my tools and take the tool chest.  I don’t buy expensive tools because I don’t use them on a continued basis.  I do like the shop stool.  It’s on rollers and I can scoot around at knee level without bending over.  Hope they don’t steel that.

Oh, so I'm getting this stuff organized when I here Carol scream of excitement inside the rig.  I figured she found new music to a line dance.  No bigee.  A few minutes later this person pops their head around the corner and says, “Hi there!”  That’s when I remarked a few cuss words of excitement.  It was Susie Orr.  She rode in with the Peters who had come early to vote in Livingston and she wanted just to stop by and say a quick Hi.  She did and left.  Denny didn’t come because he was probably napping.  That was great.  Thanks Susie.  You got us!

It was getting near dinner time.  We bought tickets for the dinner up at the Activity Center.  The dinner sucked unless you like very cold pizza.  It was damn cold.  I would have rather had a deli sandwich like from the Subway than cold pizza.  Everyone got cold pizza.  It had sat for a long time.  Bad decision there for sure.  It was Halloween costume judging time.  Very innovative costumes for sure.  After that came games which were fun and entertaining for most people.  The grand prize with the games was $100.  Carol and I had a pretty filling day and left about 8 PM.

Wednesday might be one of those wind down days.

See ya…………..

Oh No…..

Sunday, Carol & I decided to go for a motorcycle ride.  It turned out to be a 140 mile unusual ride.  Then it happened.  Never ever happened before in all our motorcycle riding days.

We started out going south on route 146 to a little town called Liberty.  There they have an opry theater.  It’s open on Saturday evenings and they have live country entertainment.  We've been a couple of times in the past.  I think we will try and go this Saturday coming.

On the way back we took another route thru some small towns and woodsy areas.  Then it started to happen.  Oh no what were we going to do.  The clutch started to go.  I had a very difficult time stopping and keeping the engine running.  It was always in gear and moving with NO in between.  Stop signs were a burger and usually had to time the stopping with the stalling.  This started real bad about 40 miles to go and just a couple of stops to make.  We had to make it do, no choice.  We get back to the park.  Now we’re on gravel which means it a sliding stop and a stall.  It’s not pretty.  Now it’s at the point I can’t even change gears but I happen to be in second gear which is OK for low speeds in gravel.  I pull into our driveway which is a bigger rock gravel driveway than the road.  I put on the brake and it stalled and we fell over.  Now with these big Harleys they don’t fall like a bicycle all the way on there sides.  Harleys, when you have “crash bars” which this one does, you just lean real heavy close to the ground.  They fall over about 3/4 of the way on there side.  When we fell I kinda did a move away and Carol rode it out.  It was in slow motion.   When the Harley stopped, there was Carol setting on the back seat holding on at a 45 degree angle.  I told her she did it perfect for this fall over.  Sometimes if you try to get off or out of the bikes way you can have the bike pin you under it.  That’s 750 lbs you don’t want any part of it holding you down.  Carol got off the bike with no problem.  It was even easier than if the bike was upright.  I opened the barn door to put the bike away.  We were about 50 feet away.  We both upped the bike and I got on it.  Now I know when I start it, it will take off and I have to give it a lot of gas because it’s in second gear.  So hear we go.  We’re off to the races to a dead end.  I go shooting towards the garage and a speed that I really didn’t like – fast.  As soon as the bike made the entrance I slammed on all brakes and closed my eyes.  Yes, my helmet was on.  The bike left a two foot skid mark on the cement floor and the bike stalled.  I myself left a one foot skid mark on the seat.  I didn’t even fall over.  Home - safe and sound.  Just no clutch.  It was all an adventure.

Now what?  Mark Nemeth said for me not to touch the clutch housing.  He didn’t want me to start taking it apart without him being there.  He knows I can take things apart but can’t get them back together. So, I really want to tear into but will wait for Mark later this week. 

Oktoberfest or I think they are calling it Oktoberfright with a Halloween theme here at Rainbow’s End Park.  It’s been fun too……… Pretty crowded.  Last night (Monday) they catered ribs in from Florida's Restaurant.  Now that there are some good ribs.  I lean more toward their catfish myself.  It’s really outstanding.

Earlier in the day (lunch) Mark and I was giving away beer samples from a local brewery for the festive event.  We poured some in a small cup and attendees would get to sample the 6 different tastes.  Mark & I had to try them several times so we wouldn’t forget the flavors we were offering. These beers were in the 6-10.5 alcohol content.  That’s very very heavy for a beer.   Afterwards I had to take a nap!

The Harley is calling me.  Later I went out and went over a few things.  Now the running lights are working again.  The clutch – nope not even a little.  I got all the tools ready to take it apart to see exactly what kind of clutch plates it will need.   Mark says we can do this so it will happen.  It ain’t going anywhere that’s for sure.

See ya……

Cook It They Will Come

Tried smoking the corn.  It was nothing special.  

The pork butt is in the ice chest all wrapped up just absorbing the juices.  It was there for over 6 hours and came out hot.

 

Getting a little crowded…

 

Yep, that’s Bruce there to the right for those that remember him.

Mark is pouring Mac a Margareta.

 

Ahhhh, ain’t this cute……..

Annie said she didn’t have time to talk. 

Mac said he would rather eat than talk too.  Is that Annie looking at Mac’s plate.

Twins??????

Ohhhh, the little devil is coming out. 

Turn out the lights, the party is over.

OK, one time with names….Mark #2 & Dortha, Mark #1, Jim & Lisa, Cathie, Teresa #1, Bill & Sharon, Mac & Annie, Teresa #2, Bruce, Travis & Melanie, Carol & Me.  Oh yea a little 3 year old half pint.  17  1/2 people. 

No one went away hungry for sure.  We even had some smoked pulled pork left over.  All the bark went.

Ok, we need to start planning the next one.

See ya…

Butt, Butt, Butt, butt

Speaking of butt……

Today I was really sore especially my hips from moving those friggin bricks.  I’m glad we got it done in one day because I’m not moving up and down real good today, blah blah, blah.

We were busy today getting ready for our cook out for the Boot Camp Staff tomorrow evening.  We got our chairs out and made sure we had enough.  Carol did some sweeping and plant rearranging.  It’s suppose to be near 90 degrees and sunny and the humidity is going up.  We got plenty of shade.

I rubbed some butt early and it sat for about 6 hours before going into the smoker about 4 PM.  I smoked it for 6 hours with hickory.  The smoker temp is set at 230 degrees and now it’s a waiting game.  I spray the butt every 1-2 hours with apple juice.  It helps to tenderize the butt.  At 5:30 AM (Friday) the internal temp was at 165 degrees.  I will let the internal temp get up beyond 180 degrees.  That will take another 4-6 hours.  More on that tomorrow.

I ordered a K&N air filter for the Hog from Advance Auto.  It was $15 cheaper than O’Relly Auto store.  The bike has a K&N filter on it now but it looks pretty rough and it’s dated 2002.  Twelve years is long enough for any filter.  It’s supposed to be in tomorrow (Friday).

I got to see Jim & Lisa Kocca today along with their new motorhome.  It’s a transformer.  Nah, it just looks like that in the front.  It’s a 2013 Holiday Rambler Ambassador 40 footer.  It looks pretty nice.  Good luck with it guys.  Then Mark & Dortha Hall pulled in with their Farton (Phaeton) motorhome.  Hey, the gang’s gathering.  Damn…where’s Denny/Susie, Ed/Sandy, Sharon/Don, and a lot of others that I can’t put all their names here.  I guess that will have to wait till next year.

I’ve really neglected the Baby (RV).  It’s wheels are dull and dirty, the sides are dirty especially from the rain and splashing upward,  the compartments are a mess and need reorganizing.  The front is clean…had to get those bugs off.…..oh well…maybe next week I will work on it when I can move better.  Now where’s that Ibuprofen…….

See ya………….

Move Bricks Where?

Move these 120 bricks….

To over here…these babies are big and heavy.

And you end up with this about 4 hours and 6 Ibuprofen later….

Carol & I built this due to the poor drainage.  Rain water was moving dirt and rocks under the trailer.

The bike looks good.  Wish I could find why it won’t crank.

Mark came over.  It turned out to be a rusty connection in the steering column.  He made it look so easy finding the problem.  Now I will put it back together and start on other soon problems like a clutch, starter, rocker box gaskets and two white wall tires.  Mark said these things are what will need replacing real soon probably.  Radio works good !

I did managed to set up my little cooking area today.  I got some pork butt and baby back ribs today also.  Thursday early AM I will rub a 10 lb pork butt. It will go in the smoker 4 PM for about 18-20 hours.  Then another 4-6 hours wrapped up for tenderizing.  I’ve invited the instructors from Boot Camp over for some good fresh smoked pulled pork Friday evening.

The kitty got some time outside today while Carol & I worked on the wall.

Side window on the Jeep…..

See ya………….

Fixed & Broke Again - No, Not Me!

I got all the lights working on the Harley after finding a rotted connection (again).

I took Carol’s car to the Ford dealer again this AM for the engine light.  An hour later they said it was a fuel do dad and they would order the part.

Carol & I then went to Conroe via her car to find me a helmet.  They’re three motorcycle dealers there so the odds are good.  The first one was a Harley dealer.  I walked in and saw their helmet shelf.  It consisted of about 12 helmets total.  Not a good sign.  BUT, they had my size and I found a helmet I liked.  It wasn’t flat black but it fit perfect.  I walked around their show room with it on.  They were watching me like a hawk.  I guess not many people walk around with a new helmet on their head.  A couple of people asked if they could help me and I just said no thank you.  After about 10 minutes I walked up to the cash register and took it off and said I would take it.  No problem.  I didn’t wear it back to Livingston although Carol was driving (car).

We stopped at Applebee’s for lunch.  We had two of those $10 gift cards.  When we finished we gave the waiter the coupons who said they were expired and the date was on the gift card.  We paid cash and asked to see the manager.  The general manager came out and we told him we never got gift cards (Applebee’s) that would expire in 90 days.  He apologized and gave us two new ones no problem what so ever.  Not even a hint.  Very nice and that folks is customer service – right or wrong.  Yes, they expire in 90 days but now we know.

We got back and I put the helmet on and rolled the Harley out in the driveway to go for a ride.  The dumb thing wouldn’t crank.  It just sat there like a bump on a log like me.  I must have pulled a wire lose somewhere.  I checked it out but couldn’t find it.  Yes, the battery was good.  Another day I will check it again.  Poke me, I’m done.  I need Mark to fix it if he can.

OK, let me see if I can get this right.  Chris & Charles Yust are here, Jon & Sue Glick got here yesterday, Mark Nemeth got here Monday,  Mac McCoy (fire guy)and Annie are here (below), Jim & Lisa Kocca are here and us.  Wow,  Time to get out the Bradley smoker and smoke some pork butt.

Our cat, Rainbow, crawled into this vinyl bag.

Just another day of doing a lot of nothing really important except Carol’s medical stuff.

See ya………….