Alaska Day 2

Day two started in Childress, Texas at 5:00 am. We loaded the bikes and headed to the local Kettle Restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast was pretty good, but a bit expensive. We were finally heading down the road at 6:00 am. The plan for the day was to stay on US 83 to McCook, NE. It was about 500 miles and we knew it will be a long hot day.

The ride did start out cool and very pleasant. While riding north John's GPS showed an alternate route of Highway 23. We decided to take this road instead of beating down 83. The road was great. It parallels 83 and is basically a country road with all the small town flavor. We stopped in Grainville, KS for lunch at some no name pizza joint. It was all right, nothing to rave about.

Now the bike. The bike ran normal temperature until it hit 90 degrees outside. The temperature gauge then all of a sudden started acting crazy like yesterday. It would be up and down, and at times runs normal. The bike never appeared to get too hot, and never boiled over any coolant.

We made it to North Platte, NE at around 4:00 pm. We found a Fred motel in town, named the Blue Spruce Inn. Room rate $52,00, my kind of place. After checking in I called the local Honda Dealer and explained the problem. The told me to have it there at opening time in the morning and they will have a look at it.

I don't have a whole lot of hope for the morning. I did a bit of Internet research and found out to check anything the part basically needs to be removed. This could take some time. I'm hoping they have a decent mechanic and he will have some experience working on Goldwings and know a few tricks.

I think the problem is going to be the gauge. If that is the case its not a trip stopper. It will just mean that I have a funky gauge the rest of the trip. To chance the sensor is a major job and could take a couple of days, so if that appears to be the problem, I will continue on with the trip and get it fixed when I get home. A bad gauge and/or sensor should not effect the running of the bike. At least I hope thats the case. If its the thermostat or water pump, it can be fixed as long as they can get the part in. It may keep me down a couple of days, but if they can overnight the parts in tomorrow, I could hopefully be in the road by Sunday morning.

John and Dick are going to continue on. Depending on what I find out, I will catch up with them or be heading home a lot earlier than I expected. I'm just hoping my trip is not ending before it even begins. I guess I will know in a few hours.

On the plus side, its raining here, so John and Dick may get a bit wet while I sit in the dry motel room waiting for the dealer to open.