The Minor Bolt with the Major Jolt
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| Musings of a Long Distance Rider |
Riders hit the road today for one of the longest and hardest
legs of the Wyman Challenge, with plans to dine and overnight in Laramie,
WY. The scenery is among the best as
vast prairie lands are framed by majestic mountains in the distance. The railroad used by Wyman for a roadmap
winds alongside the road as you motor eastward.
One can’t help but imagine him riding, pushing and peddling his 1902 California motor-bicycle across the
terrain before it was dotted with cell phone towers, power lines and interstate
highways. Traveling eastward you battle
the brilliant morning sun until it rises above you and finally disappears over
your shoulder. All the makings of a
great day were certainly about us.
For some the day went better than others. The tortoise and the hare swapped roles today
with Joe Green riding his GSA to the rescue of Richard Worsham and his mechanically
disabled Janus Halcyon. Tim and I had
just left Richard at the Little America travel center outside Green River, WY
where I loaned him my Airhawk seat to take some of the sting out of riding a
hardtail mount, with hopes it would improve his odds of finishing. Not far down the road the Janus bike, which
had been performing admirably, worked loose a bolt holding the intake manifold and
bringing the bike to a stop. To make
matters worse the bolt managed to strip the threads that secured it to the
engine and the gasket was blown out as well.
Richard called in the news and Tim and I reversed course to
render aid. Joe Green was coming up
behind Richard and stopped to help as well just after Tim had left to secure
the necessary parts. Joe was aching a
bit from the previous day’s episode but reported that his foot was feeling
better today than last night and that upon reflection it could have been much,
much worse. Lessons learned on the dirt
trail are not soon forgotten. Several
ideas on how repair the bike were floated by the four of us and it was decided
that Joe and Richard could handle the situation so Tim and I could go ahead to
the nightly checkpoint. Temporary
repairs were made and Richard was able to get the bike to Rock Springs to
remain over night until full repairs could be attended to tomorrow. The minor bolt will cause a major jolt to
Richard’s ride as he will now likely miss all of the nightly rendezvous events
but still has every opportunity to complete the Wyman ride on his own time
schedule.
By the time Tim and I made it to Laramie we were an hour
late to dinner but the remaining riders were all in good spirits and were
sharing stories of the road with our guests for the night. Gary Huff’s wife Randy drove up from Colorado
Springs. John Cooper road his Gold Wing
up from Longmont, Colorado. Rounding out
the visitors was Matt Wise who made the trek from the DFW area, winning longest
rider honors to the RTE, for which he got nothing except our deepest
gratitude. Matt is a finisher of the Wyman
50CC Gold in 2016 so he is no stranger to the event. Joe rolled in a bit later
and relayed the Janus repair story which sounded much like any roadside repair
would sound - part genius, part bailing wire, part luck. We’re all hoping
Richard gets back on the road tomorrow.
John and Nadine Huval were all smiles at the evening gathering. If they aren’t having fun they are sure good actors. The ‘Two-Up” team reported they
really enjoyed traveling the Grand Tour route around the top of the Great Salt Lake. Riding along UT 30 through the vast open
desert was spectacular. The glimpses of the old Transcontinental RR bed that Wyman
rode along to his overnight stop in Terrace awe inspiring.
Gary Huff continues to blaze around the countryside claiming
Wyman bonuses by the basketful. And once
again
Robert Rehkopf and Doug Vance road together for the most
part and seem to be having a grand time.
Doug relayed the following account of the last part of their day:
“Robert and I waited for
a wall of water to pass in Walcott. Elk
Mountain, which is just east of there, is notorious for late spring storms as
told to us by many of the locals. The Wyman route along US-30 skirts Elk
Mountain to the north providing us mostly clear skies, an opportunity to see
quite a few pronghorns, and taking us to our remaining five Wyman historical
way points of Day Two, before arriving in Laramie for our evening rendezvous
with the other riders.”
I hope the trend of writing about misfortune comes to an end
tomorrow. Trouble always takes the
headlines. There are many good stories
along the Wyman trail, and some fine riders experiencing them. Tomorrow morning we head to the Sherman Summit
outside Laramie where a dedication of a Wyman plaque installation is to be
attended by our riders and members of the local press. I’m especially looking forward to this
gathering as the plaque being installed was donated by IBA member # 459. You can have three guesses who that might be.
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| Leg 2 Rendezvous Dinner, Laramie WY |
Tomorrow we overnight in Council Bluffs, IA. Come join us if you can.
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