So ... I found a new project. Late last week I saw a 1972 Suzuki GT380 motorcycle for sale - In "Very Good Condition" except that the engine was seized. Well now -- I certainly had to go and check out this Suzuki, after-all a 3 cylinder 2 Stroke old Japanese bike is pretty cool -- right?!
I checked it out last Friday and found that the owner's definition and my definition of "Very Good Condition" are quite different. So I didn't buy it.
Instead ... I decided my next project would be a "some assembly required" lightweight utility trailer.
Peggy and I made the trip over to Auburn last Friday to my new favorite store - Harbor Freight Tools ... where I picked up my new foldable - build-it-yourself trailer - in two boxes.
After spending multiple hours over the next several days installing lots of bolts ... here is what it looks like in ready to tow mode ...
And in folded up storage mode ...
And with motorcycle wheel chock installed in preparation for towing a bike wherever one might want to go.
So that's what has keep me out of trouble this past week. Or maybe I am in trouble for getting a bit side-tracked .... Oh well ... it seemed like the right thing to do at the time!
Now I better get back to work on getting Winne in her storage spot!
Here we are - the day after Tax Day and we are still shoveling snow. Not new snow -- I think it is the same snow we had when we left back in December! The snow banks are just about gone but we have been helping them by spreading some around the yard each day. I don't know why I'm in such a hurry, once the snow is gone it will be time to pick-up/rake-up the yard, rake the sand from the first 3 feet of yard next to the road - back into the road so hopefully the Town street sweeper will pick it up and haul it away. Recovering from a tough Maine winter is almost as hard as surviving the winter itself. Nope - that was a lie ... recovering after being gone all winter isn't all that bad!
We have been slowly getting Winne cleaned up and ready to store. It seems that chore takes longer and longer after each trip. Maybe that is because I'm getting older and older. Oh well -- what else is there to keep a retired guy busy? Plenty!!
After-all -- I have a motorcycle restoration project to complete! SO -- I have been working on getting that done as well. Actually - that project is essentially done now. I finished getting the engine back together after its rebuild and mounted the new exhaust pipe last week and then coerced Eric into helping me push/pull the completed bike up the basement stairs to the backyard. Best of all - we managed to accomplish that feat without injury to either of us!
Although I never had a doubt - the engine started right up and ran just like a new one ... well I guess it should have - it has a lot of new parts!
Here are some "done" pics ...
Now comes the obvious question ... what are you going to do with it? Well ... I'm not sure. I'll probably ride it around town a little - maybe take it to a few antique auto/cycle shows - maybe sell it - who knows? For now I'll just enjoy having it done.
Time to find a new project!
We have been home now for almost a week. The snowbanks are still slowly receding (although we are receiving a Spring Snow Shower as I write this) and the temperatures are more winter-like than spring-like ... but we remain glad to be home.
I arrived home with a head cold that Peggy picked up somewhere in Virginia and then decided to share with me. That being the case I haven't been too excited about getting Winne all spiffed up and ready for storage. I'm not sure her storage space is plowed out at the moment so I don't think there is any real hurry. We have gotten most everything unloaded and Peggy has started a thorough inside cleaning and we will try to finish up that chore this week.
I promised to share some additional trip statistics in my last post -- so here goes!
As previously stated, this was our longest trip in terms of miles at 8,870. Our previous high was 8,422 so we beat it by a considerable amount. We have now driven Winne over 125,000 miles including 10 East Coast to West Coast (and back) trips. Although Winne didn't make it into California on this trip I figure she was only a couple of miles away -- so close enough! Once again Winne performed great! I did end up replacing her tires and coach batteries -- but those were planned maintenance items. The only significant non-planned maintenance item was replacing the engine driven fan clutch while we were in Arizona (the first time). The good news was that the replacement was fairly easy to accomplish, didn't cost all that much, and solved the problem! I had no problems with elevated engine temperatures after the replacement! I'm sure there are other folks out there who have put more miles on a gas powered motorhome than we have - but there can't be that many! Who knows how many more miles we will travel in the Blue and White Winne? But I really can't complain about her performance over the first 125,000!
Our fuel costs on this trip were an unexpected joy! Over the past several years I have used an average cost of $3.50 per gallon for gasoline and a $0.50 per mile average cost of travel when budgeting our trips. Our previous 5 trips averaged right around $3.47 per gallon and a "per mile" cost of right at $0.50. This trip we averaged $2.13 per gallon and "enjoyed" a $0.31 per mile cost. Our most expensive fill-up was in Beatty, Nevada on the way home at $2.599 per gallon and the least expensive was in Orange, TX on the way west at $1.749 per gallon. I'm fairly sure we spent all the savings on BBQ, DQ, and at other associated eateries ... but it was nice to save the money somewhere!
We parked Winne overnight in 39 separate spots during our journey. The longest stay was at the Redeker Elder Care and RV Resort in Minden, NV where we struggled through with minimal RV hookups but the cost/night and the hospitality were fantastic! Of all those 39 parking spots only 10 were new to us. We have made this trip enough now that we sorta have our favorite places to stop along the way.
Our new Ford Fusion has now been driven just over 6,000 miles and has been towed behind Winne another 9,150. Once we got that charge wire connection sorted out on the trip west the towing process with the new car worked really well! I did manage to put myself in a tight spot while getting gas at the Flying J in West Memphis, AR causing us to have to unhook the car in order to back out of a turn I shouldn't have attempted to make ... but even that bad situation was semi-easy to recover from. It's not like it hasn't happened in the past - I think this may have been my third (maybe fourth) "Oops" moment. Not bad in 125,000 miles.
So the 2015 Maineiacs In Motion Winter Get-A-Way is now "in the books." Time to move on to finishing up my Yamaha project, mowing lawns, playing with grandkids, and who knows what else.
Melt Snow .... Melt!
We made it! The 2015 Maineiacs In Motion Winter Get-A-Way is complete.
We left Winchester, VA on Monday and drove about 240 miles up to Jonestown, PA ... and then drove about 340 miles on Tuesday up to Sturbridge, MA. We finished the trip on Wednesday along 200 miles of bumpy New England Interstates - arriving here in Topsham around 2 PM.
So ... after 93 days and 8,870 miles we arrived home. Peggy was pretty sure the trip was our longest evah ... and it was in terms of miles and it was close in terms of days ... but we were gone for 97 days way back in 2012 during that Winter Get-A-Way that took us to Florida for a few weeks, Alabama for a few weeks, and then Texas for a few weeks.
We arrived home to find snow still melting in the yard and about 3-4 foot snowbanks still along our driveway ... but we got Winne parked in her driveway spot and started the unloading process. The unloading process will continue for a few days and then I think I'll see if Winne's storage spot is available. If it is I'll get her back in storage for a weeks and let the snow go completely away before bringing her home to finish cleaning her up and performing some post trip maintenance.
After being home for a couple of hours we were greeted by Stacy and Taylor. It was great to see them both again! And boy is that Taylor growing up!! We are both looking forward to a fun summer with lots of visits with Taylor and her cousin Sophie -- and the rest of their families of course!
SO -- now it's time to rest ... in between all that unloading. More trip statistics to follow - stay tuned!
