09/23/07 - The Quest for Steak

I had planned a very cool ride up to Moulton to eat at the Moulton Stockyard steakhouse. I've been having some problems with my Royal star and it chose today to ruin my trip. About 5 miles past Warrior on I-65 going north I felt something hot on my leg and suddenly smoke, steam, and other stuff started pouring out of my engine. My leg was covered with a mixture of oil and water. When I stopped the sludgy mixture continued to boil out. As the bike spewed its guts out on the shoulder I thought about the car that blew up last month, the other car that was totaled, and riding lawn mower that died, a few days earlier, and now my most favorite bike on the side of the road. A long day followed while some good friends of mine went back home and retrieved a trailer. Stan, Joy, and JR all gave up the Moulton steak house to help me, we went to Outback in Gardendale afterwards but I'm stilll dissappointed I missed out on a great day riding. I guess I'll have to plan another trip but it seems it is getting harder and harder to arrange a long day in the saddle. We towed the bike to Oneonta and left it in front of the bike shop there, I left the key in there thinking pershaps some kindly Mexicans or perhaps some local teenagers would steal it and allow me to claim an insurance check, but I guess the oil covered engine scared them all off. It was still there two days later when the shop opened. Continuing with the bad luck theme the head mechanic that does that sort of work is out in Vegas at the yearly Kawasaki meeting, so I may not see the royal for a while, or ever depending on the final diagnosis.