Road Captain USA

So Diana’s 2008 Dyna Super Glide blew a wheel bearing a few yards from Katie and Alan’s house after we safely navigated over a dozen major bridges with sometimes no railings and crossed the mother of all bridges: the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel (23 miles long). You can see in the above picture the sealed maintenace free ball bearing is no longer sealed and the ball bearings are popping out. I rode Diana’s motorcycle slowly the rest of the way to the driveway while Diana went inside to defrost. Thank God for Alan who restocked the fridge again with ice cold Yuengling for us! We needed it! I also thank God for making sure Diana got safely across the bridges before her wheel bearings decided to all pop out the right side.

Alan served up an awesome dinner as usual! Tilapia seasoned with fresh rosemary accompanied by wild rice. We discussed some of our options on what to do about the broktified Harley-Davidson Super Glide. Diana took a hot shower and we went to sleep. I weighed our options in my mind and decided I would like to stay with Alan and Katie two extra days until Alan could trailer us the rest of the way home. We were still 4.5 hours from home.

Unfortunately Diana did not want to wait two days to take action. She had commitments back home and papers to grade. A teacher’s work is never done, not even on spring break! Alan’s schedule changed and he would not be able to trailer us on Saturday so I had to review our options again.

I called the Virginia Beach Harley Dealership and was put on hold. Then I was told the service manager would call me back. He did not. I was told that they did not have their own towing service. Although they are the closest dealership it would be back across the 23 mile bridge and tunnel with expensive tolls to go back there. The next dealership north was in our home state 130 miles away and they didn’t have any tow service available either. If either dealership had told me “no problem, we’ll pick you up and fix your motorcycle right away” I would have been all for it. My HOG and Progressive roadside assistance would take me to the closest dealership and I didn’t want to go back across the bridge and tunnel not knowing if the motorcycle would be fixed right away or in several days. To have them tow me 130 miles would be very expensive.

Diana had mentioned looking into U-Haul the night before and it started to sound like a good option. It was the only option that didn’t involve us riding home two up on my motorcycle and we currently had too much luggage on the two motorcycles to get it all home on one. It was the only option that got everything to our house including us, the two motorcycles and all our luggage. It was the only option that gave us full control, kept us on schedule and together. Our only option was a 17′ 48 hour rental for $250 that would get us all the way home and we could have the truck for two days and return it to the gas station in our neighborhood. We could get home, sleep and then drop off the broken motorcycle at the repair facility of our choice.

I called Derek at Turner Tech in Bear, DE at 302-222-7673 and told him what had happened and that we would be renting the U-Haul and dropping off Diana’s bike the following morning. Katie took us to Cape Charles to pick up the U-Haul. They rented the same truck to us that Katie and Alan used to move there three years earlier from Arizona! Crazy coincidence isn’t it!

We got the motorcycles into the truck. Alan had three monster industrial size tie downs we used to secure the motorcycles in place. I think we left at 3:00pm, stopped for dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s in Salisbury and were home by 8:00pm. We got one car from the house, drove the truck and car to my work. Unloaded my motorcycle with some help from my coworkers on the nightshift. Unloaded all luggage and gear into the car. Only left Diana’s motorcycle in the truck and locked it and left the U-Haul in the work parking lot overnight. I rode my motorcycle home and Diana drove the car. We went to bed. Home sweet home! Our cat was pissed, but she would have been more pissed if we stayed in Cape Charles for two more days!

The next day Diana drove me to the truck and I drove the truck to Turner Tech. Derek had a hard time getting the bearing out of the wheel but he did it. he put new bearings and new brake pads in but had me order a brake disk rotor, rotor bolts and a spacer. At the time of this writing we are waiting for the stupid spacer to come from Harley-Davidson. Hopefully by the time this is published we will be back to having two motorcycles in the garage.

Considering the “what ifs” I am very happy how this turned out. It was a fantastic vacation and in the overall scheme of things $250 for the truck rental is not bad in comparison to what tow companies charge. I’m glad we didn’t get hurt, we stayed together and had the luxury of deciding what to do at Katie and Alan’s house. It would have really sucked to have the motorcycle towed back across the bridge and tunnel to find out we had to wait a week for a stupid spacer! The cost and headaches that would have resulted in far exceed $250 for a U-Haul rental. So that’s the six part OBX story that has been three years in the making and ends with our first mechanical breakdown on the road. I think this puts us up another notch on the experienced biker scale for having survived mechanical failure on the road and handling it 100% on our own and not having to call friends to come get us.

Click here to see all the vacation pictures.

I think we’ll be returning Alan’s tie downs in person, visiting Karen and possibly saying goodbye to Virginia’s Eastern Shore one final time after Diana’s motorcycle is back on two good wheels. That place is bad luck for us, it’s like the Bermuda Triangle! Hopefully in the fall we’ll be telling you about a road trip to visit Katie and Alan at Skyline Drive aka Shanadoah National Park! Cheers!

Thanks for reading,

Jay Green

PS - it was scarey as crap trying to roll my motorcycle backwards down that skinny U-Haul ramp. I could do it on a bicycle but not an 800 lb motorcycle that is as wide as the ramp with it’s saddlebags on. I had to get 4 guys to spot me.

PSS - I knew from watching Fix My Hog DVD’s that the bolts have to be replaced when you replace a disk brake rotor and I told our mechanic that before he had a chance to tell me. From reading my service manual over the winter months I understood exactly what was broken. Good thing I learned what I did when I did. Don’t ya think?

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
7 Comments »

We got up late and ate our leftover breakfast snacks on Wednesday morning. It was time to pack up the motorcycles and say goodbye to the OBX beaches and our magnificent view of the ocean. Diana seriously wanted to stay another day. It was cold and windy and not the best day for riding. But it was time to check out and head back north. We stopped at one more lighthouse before leaving OBX. This was the Bodie Island Lighthouse. I insisted on a new route that I thought would be more scenic passing through the Great Dismal Swamp. This route took us over a lot of long bridges. Who thought there would be so many bridges?! On a windy day like this we dreaded the approach of each bridge and had to have crossed at least a dozen significantly sized bridges. Some barely had any railings at all! We were freezing and fighting the wind all day.

We stopped at a McDonald’s to warm up and eat lunch. Diana told me to check her rear tire because it made a pop sound when she made a right turn into the parking lot. It looked fine to me and I thought she must have run over a pebble in such a way that it popped out and made a noise. I checked the tire pressure after we ate and it was fine. We both switched to our winter gloves. Diana’s are battery operated and she turned them on for extra warmth. I plugged my electric jacket liner in to take advantage of the additional heat. Diana put her rain jacket on keep the wind out of her mid-weight jacket she was wearing.

As we got close to Virginia Beach again we stopped in a parking lot to take off our winter gloves and go back to our normal gloves. That way we could handle our controls better on the wild west interstate through Virginia Beach and get onto Rt 13 crossing back across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. Diana had to take off the rain jacket. The three jackets she was wearing was giving her difficulty moving her helmet from side to side. Her head could move but the helmet wouldn’t and it was causing difficulty in checking from side to side before making lane changes. So she was freezing again. Leaving the parking lot after fixing our gear Diana’s motorcycle made another pop sound but she didn’t tell me. We did battle again on the highway. We got onto the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel again. The wind was challenging across the 23 mile span and Diana felt her motorcycle do a little side to side dance across the bridge.

We got to the end of the bridge and were looking forward to another home cooked meal at Katie and Alan’s house. We got off Rt 13 and entered the Eastern Shore of Virginia’s Wildlife Refuge where Katie and Alan live. We slowed down to about 10 miles per hour and Diana was in front of me. Every once in awhile a noise caught my attention. Diana’s rear disk brake would rub against the pads and then it would stop. I couldn’t tell for sure if it was really happening. We made another turn. Diana’s bike went a little wide. As Katie and Alan’s house came into view Diana’s rear wheel gave out and started to wobble. I called up to her on the CB and told her to stop because something was definitely wrong with her motorcycle!

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
1 Comment »

Tuesday was the fun day! There was no real traveling to be done. Just a day of pure biker tourism for a couple of hard working middle aged Americans in need of an escape to a remote beach.

Diana and I have done our share of traveling with groups from our HOG chapter. When you travel with a group you have to adhere to schedules and try to keep evryone in the group happy. This was our vacation and we were finally traveling on our schedule! We like to sleep in late, warm up slowly and eat breakfast when most people are getting ready for lunch. The trip was going great in that regard and it was refreshing to vacation like that.

We woke up early to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean. We took pictures for about an hour and then went back to sleep. I woke up later and went to pick up breakfast at the general store. I had OJ and muffins in hand when Diana woke up. After breakfast we saddled up and rode down to the end of the long barrier island. Our next destination was Ocracoke Island and we had never been past this point before either by motorcycle, mini van or other vehicle. As we approached the line of traffic waiting to board the ferry we were waved ahead of everyone. We boarded the ferry with no problem. The ferry ride to Ocracoke was awesome (and free and leaves every hour)!

Ocracoke is an isolated island of undisturbed beaches. Again Rt 12 is the only way in and out of the island with one lane in each direction, no shoulder and sand dunes running right up to the edge of the road. The cars took off like a bolt when released from the ferry. We were last off and that was cool because there were no cars behind us and we could cruise down Rt 12 and really enjoy the isolated beach island. There were mammoth sand dunes on our left, sand drifting across the road and island wilderness to the right. We rode all the way as far as we could go on the island before heading to the Ocracoke Lighthouse.

Then we went to Howard’s Pub for lunch. Friends of ours from our HOG chapter told us we had to go there so we did. I am so glad we did! This place is beyond awesome. I had a blackened mahi mahi sandwich that totally rocked! Again each motorcyclist participating in this lunch had one alcoholic beverage (Yuengling) before switching to diet cola. We went up to the sky deck and took some pictures before getting back on our motorcycles. Then we visited the wild Ocracoke ponies and took pictures of the pony pen and the beach across the way.

Then we mounted our motorcycles and headed back for the ferry. Again we were waved to the front of the line and had an awesome ferry ride back across the ocean. There is nothing like the ocean air, island views and wild seabirds to create a coastal vacation experience.

Once we got back on the main island we headed up to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to take more pictures. Then we went back to our motel and were hungry again. But instead of going to dinner we took a two up sunset ride up the island to take more pictures before dinner. It was romantic to ride two up along Cape Hatteras Island at sunset. 

When we got back to the motel we walked to the Diamond Shoals Restaurant where we again ate tons of seafood. I tried the Shock Top Beer and thought it was a pretty good summer beer. After dinner we went back to the motel to enjoy the hot tub again. Then we finished off our two leftover Yuenglings. We had no problem falling asleep!

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
No Comments »

Crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel on Monday morning following Easter was quite a way to start the day. The bridge is a modern marvel of engineering. It is 23 miles long and has two tunnels where the bridge dips down underneath the bay and goes for a mile under water before you come back up on another section of bridge. It was a sunny morning with blue skies. Not as windy as the day before. My thoughts were with Vic, Karen and Joanne. Karen died in a motorcycle accident a few miles before the bridge in April of 2009. We were on that trip with our friend when she was killed. Vic was a Harley-Davidson enthusiast from Pennsylvania who died of cancer in November 2011. He loved the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel and here I was enjoying the ride for him and talking to him as I crossed the majestic span. My thoughts were also with Joanne, a member of our HOG Chapter who died in a motorcycle accident about 48 hours before this leg of our trip. While crossing the bridge and entering a tunnel a speeding tractor trailer decided to tailgate me. At one point Diana couldn’t even make me out in her rear-view mirror as I got swallowed up by the front grill of the truck. Finally we emerged from the tunnel with it’s one lane in each direction and came out onto the bridge with it’s two lanes so the truck could now pass me.

Once we crossed the span and entered into the Virginia Beach area we had to do battle on the interstates. My least favorite part of the trip. I hate highway riding, especially beltways around busy cities. Some crazy people in a green Pontiac got between me and Diana and were riding her ass and making it difficult for her to make the lane changes we needed to in order to get where we needed to be. Diana as usual held her ground and managed to not get run over or killed. But I’m still feeling the stress of watching these jerks put my wife’s life in danger as we tried to navigate our way around a strange city. Shortly after we found ourselves on the more peaceful Rt 168 leading to Rt 158 down the North Carolina shore to the outer banks. Yeah!!!

As we drove past the Wright Brother’s Memorial in Kitty Hawk I found myself disappointed. This touristy beach area was not much different from Ocean City, MD. My vision of the outer banks was less developed. At the end of Rt 158 we merged onto Rt 12 South, also known as Cape Hatteras National Park Road. This was more of what I had in mind and I breathed a sigh of relief and started to smile. The vacation part of the trip kicked in! We rode our motorcycles through vast areas of undeveloped shoreline with sand dunes that were as tall as the houses in my neighborhood. The barrier island is so narrow that in some places you see the Atlantic Ocean on your left and Pamilico Sound on the right. Rt 12 is the only road in and out with one lane in each direction. No shoulder, just beach sand on both sides. Giant dunes on the left and acres of wilderness land on the right. Once in awhile an impatient driver will pass using the oncoming lane. It pissed Diana off when someone almost took me out while making one of these pass moves. We would occasionally come into a small beach town with cool beach houses raised on stilts. We finally came into Cape Hatteras. It was too early to check into our room at the Lighthouse View Motel but we were plenty hungry. We rode past the motel and kept an eye out for a good place to eat hoping for a dining experience with a water view. We found it at the Sandbar & Grill in Buxton! We stripped off our chaps and riding gear and made a beeline for the rest rooms. Then we went upstairs to order beer and a heaping pile of deep fried seafood that again hit the spot perfectly after a day of riding (only one alcoholic beveridge was imbibed by each motorcycle rider before switching to diet cola with lemon). Then we poked around taking pictures before heading back to the motel to check in. Cape Hatteras is great getaway! Just a few motels, a gas station, several restaurants, several gift shops, a general store and a bait store. Definitely paradise for the avid fisherman.

Diana is the mastermind of vacation planning. She found this terrific motel on the Internet that costs less than $100 per night. She got us a third floor room facing the ocean with a magnificent view. We unpacked and walked to the general store to pick up a six pack of Yuengling, a twelve pack of bottled water and other supplies. Then we changed into our bathing suits to relax in the hot tub. Diana’s true genius came out when she suggested we bring bathrobes with us for the outdoor hot tub.  It was pretty warm when we arrived and we didn’t need the robes to get in the hot tub, but I’m sure glad we had them when we got out as the sun set and the wind picked up a little bit. They took up a lot of valuable luggage space, but they were worth it! We were in heaven! We rode to Cape Hatteras, had an awesome steaming pile of deep fried seafood as a late lunch, checked into a great hotel with an incredible view right on the beach, had several Yuengling beers and then soaked in a steaming hot tub.

We put on dry clothes about mid evening and walked across the street to the Shipwreck Grill looking for a light dinner. We had soup and salad and then returned to our room to drink more Yuengling and watch American Chopper and Outlaw Garage before turning the lights out and sleeping very soundly!

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
No Comments »

Diana and I left a little later than we planned on the first leg of our five day spring break trip to Cape Hatteras. The first leg of the trip on April 8th was to Cape Charles, VA to visit overnight with Alan who is technically my brother’s father in law. My brother’s mother in law, Katie, was visiting with my brother and his family. We also decided to take the scenic route down to Dover before jumping on the expressways in order to ease into the riding pace and also enjoy a little scenery before battling speeding tractor trailers. Once we did get on the expressways we found it to be a terribly windy day making the ride a little challenging. We originally planned to arrive at the Eastern Shore of Virginia Wildlife Refuge where Alan works at 3:00pm but due to our slow start we arrived at 5:00pm. Since we have not put in any real riding as of late we were sore by the time we arrived. My left shoulder blade was not happy and Diana’s shoulders were in the same mood.

Alan is an awesome host! He had our favorite beer, Yuengling, cold and ready for our arrival. He also had a roast with carrots, potatoes and onions cooking in the crock pot for us all day. He made gravy and served us a meal that hit the spot dead on after a day of riding. After dinner Alan showed us his project over at the Cape Charles, VA rail road yard on the western bay side shore of the Delmarva Peninsula in historic Cape Charles. The sun was setting over the Chesapeake Bay and the view was awesome, but that wasn’t what he wanted to show us. Alan has been busy saving a WWII historic battleship gun barrel. The Navy had 8 of these they were going to destroy. Alan has been working to salvage one that will be on display at the Wildlife Refuge. This gun barrel is a 16″ diameter 50 caliber Mark VII from the USS Missouri. The gun barrel is 68′ long and weighs 120 tons. It cost a boatload of money to have a barge bring it over to Cape Charles and unload it in the rail yard. Alan needs to raise $70,000 by August to transport it a few miles to the Wildlife Refuge and display it properly.

We had a great time visiting with Alan in the wildlife refuge. We woke up late. Alan left hot coffee and cinnamon toast for us to eat for breakfast before he left for work. We geared up again and were just about to leave when Alan came by to see us off. His timing was perfect.

It was about 10:00am as we rolled out of the park and directly onto the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel for the second leg of our trip.

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
No Comments »

We didn’t get much chance to shake the dust off and get our motorcycle legs back before going on a five day motorcycle trip. Diana and I took the cold winter months off from riding this past year rather than riding with our HOG Chapter at least once a month as we have done in recent years.  On St Patrick’s Day Diana got her motorcycle out for the first time this year to participate in the MAV St Patty’s Day Poker Run. My motorcycle made a visit to Turner Tech for a new rear tire and rear brake pads the following weekend. We spent the next weekend doing our own maintenace and getting the motorcycles ready for spring. Diana’s spring break was approaching fast and we had plans for a 5 day road trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina aka OBX. Spring Break came quickly and Diana and I didn’t have any other opportunities to ride and give the motorcycles a shake down to make sure our maintenance was done correctly. We took the bikes out for a short local bop around White Clay Creek the day before our big trip. I was apprehensive about this, but that is normal for me.

Three years ago from yesterday we embarked on a trip to Kill Devil Hills, NC during Outer Banks Bike Week with our HOG Chapter. We planned the trip with Karen and Ed. On the way down there was a terrible accident and Karen was killed by a driver under the influence.  We never made it to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. We have since crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel on our motorcycles and visited the accident site every April. We have also participated in Cheriton Day in honor of the fire fighters and EMT’s who came to our side that tragic day. So we have been back to the area of the accident a number of times but we never made the trip to the outer banks on our motorcycles. We decided it was time to make the trip in honor of Karen this April and to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel in honor of Vic. Vic was a Harley-Davidson enthusiast from Pennsylvania who had cancer and passed on November 25th, 2011. He loved riding across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel on his motorcycle.

Shortly after the accident my brother’s inlaws moved into the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge  just a few miles down the road from where Karen was killed. We have visited several times so our ties to the area are strong but with a dark undertone. Katie and Alan’s house inside the wildlife refuge is exactly halfway to Cape Hatteras (our destination for this journey).

As if my apprehension about the trip wasn’t bad enough and the dark ominous undertones of traveling down Rt 13 were cause for emotional disturbance we received news that a couple who belong to our HOG Chapter had a bad accident the day before our trip and we had lost another friend to the unforgiving road.

On Easter Sunday Diana and I rolled the motorcycles out for a five day road trip. I said a prayer out loud before we left thanking God for this magnificent country he blessed us with and that beckens to be explored and appreciated. I asked him to watch over us and protect us and as we try our best to cast our fears aside and venture forth to live our lives with the spirit of adventure and freedom that all motorcyclists thrive on. And with that being said we shifted into gear and hit the road to visit Alan on Virginia’s Eastern Shore at the very bottom tippity tip of the Delmarva Peninsula. Hopefully this would be fun trip to the beach, a well earned vacation and a safe adventure. The story continues in 2 days.

We miss you Karen and we still think of you often.

Karen Baine Fortner was killed 4-24-09 by a driver under the influence of drugs. Karen was an inspiration, an orignal and lots of fun to be with. She was and will always be our friend.

Tags: Trips & Places To Go by Jay Green
No Comments »