Day Eleven by Dave Schultheis
Thursday, August 7, 2003 - The Lair in the Woods of Northeastern Ohio
I slept fine and was up with the alarm at 7:30 a.m., dressed, combed and ready to go before 8:00 a.m. I caught up with my notes and double-checked the map, then got the Road King started and warmed up. It was 72 degrees.
T.L. was taking his pickup so that we could get some things done while the bike was being serviced. We left for Cortland about 9:00 a.m. and got to Warren Harley-Davidson at 9:30 a.m. They wrote me up and said they'd get the tire changed in fairly short order.
T.L. and I tried several places: Wal-Mart, Giant Eagle, True Value, Dollar General, Big Lots, and finally Ace Hardware, where I got a roll of plastic to use for a ground cloth, or what R.E.I. calls a "footprint," for the tent. After a brief quality check at Wendy's, we got back to Warren H-D at 11:35 a.m., where it was 92 degrees.
I was "paid for" and outta there at 11:45 but, oops, there was a rattle. So I went back to Service, and one of the guys came out and made a few adjustments. Something had been done incorrectly, and he fixed it, although neither T.L. nor I was pleased that he did not use a torque wrench.
I rode around to the front of the dealership and suggested to T.L. that he take it for a spin; the first time he had ridden the Road King in three and a half years. I think he enjoyed that, and of course looked great doing it.
Then he returned home while I went out to the Pennsylvania state line for pictures. I also made a few stops for church sign pictures, the best of which was "Cigarettes Are Killers That Travel In Packs."
Meanwhile, I discovered yet another rattle coming from the front wheel, but figured we would be able to fix it in T.L.'s garage or I could take it back to the dealer the next day. I got back to the Lair at 1:20 p.m.
A little later, T.L. and Sue and I got into the pickup and headed down the road apiece to get firewood for Saturday night's campfire. We stopped to do business with an Amish family near Mesopotamia OH.
It was dad and three or four sons, all dressed in hand-made clothes, all in the same style and color (blue), and the youngest son was shoeless. They charged a very reasonable $10 a cord for the wood, and helped us load the wood into the pickup.
We continued toward Jefferson OH. While we were driving down OH Highway 307, I noticed that many of the mailboxes had 2-by-4 wooden panels to protect them from baseball bats.
We got to Buccaneer Campsites, a nice big place on OH Highway 307. They have a gravel driveway and want you to go slow, so you can see the people walking between the combination office and store, and the small lake, and the bathhouse.
Farther back on the property, the gravel road winds through the woods for part of a mile, with a few camping spots along the way, then some group areas, which is where we found campsite 300, where we met SunShine (Shirl from Pittsburgh) and her significant other, Bill, and her sons R.J. (13) and Alex (10) and her grand niece JayLyn. They were all staying at the campsite, and SunShine had brought her KZ750 (with roses!).
With their help, we unloaded the pickup and covered the wood with tarps. I had a good signal on my cellular phone, so I called Pam at Warren H-D and told her that I'd be in again, first thing in the morning, to have them fix the rattle.
Then T.L., Sue and I went into town for dinner. We stopped at the Jefferson Diner, and I had a patty melt and lemonade. Then the waittress tempted me with strawberry shortcake, and I couldn't pass it up. Like the little kid in the Ol' Folks Sausage commercial says, "It's goo-oo-ood!"
I like a little walk after dinner, so after we paid the bill, I started walking down the street to the Rite Aid (drug store), got some aloe vera lotion, and they picked up me a few minutes later.
We took the scenic route; went by promoter Don King's place in Windsor, then returned on local roads, where T.L. exposed me to the phenomenon of suddenly coming upon a very slow-moving vehicle (hint: clip clop clip clop).
I few minutes later, I got a phone call from a friend at home, then we tested Sprint PCS voice mail, and were pleased that it worked very well. Then I checked my voice mail/pager and found three new "cold" sales calls, which of course, I just ignored.
We got back to the Lair at about 9:45 p.m., I took a shower and went to bed after 11:00 p.m.
Miles for the day = 64. Miles for the trip = 3368.
Tomorrow: dealing with the (latest) rattle, out to the campground, and a bunch of net scum.