Despite the snow, the sun kept it nice and warm and it was a very pretty and quiet ride in the desert to the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. My route was to take me through the park and back South into the Coachela Valley and Palm Springs. The road through the park is quite pretty, with wonderful desert scenery and very little traffic on this Monday in the holiday season. The rock formations were amazing as you can see.
I motored around the park for some time enjoying the sun and the quiet roads before finding the main road back to Palm Springs. Now my fellow Harley-Davidson riders will attest to the fact that Harley's have notoriously inaccurate fuel guages, which is why it's always good to count miles as well as look at the guage. Well my guage and miles were showing I still had a fair number of miles left on the tank, but I knew it was getting close when I got onto I-10 West at the south end of the park. I'd gone a few miles when the bike simply died. It didn't sputter, it didn't act like it was out of gas, and the starter motor wouldn't even engage. I coasted for a few miles downgrade until I hit a level spot and pulled off to the side and called Harley Roadside Assist. Well apparently they only covered my own bikes not rental ones -- however every Authorized Harley rental I've ever done has had HRA. Apparently the San Diego Dealer doesn't. I sat by the roadside for over almost three hours and watched the sun go down (and boy does the desert get cold when the sun goes down) when rescue finally came.
It turns out that the combination of low fuel and vapor lock caused the bike to stall. A tank of fresh gas and clearing the air in the fuel injection system got her running again. So while I spent the better part of the afternoon pissed off and mad and grumpy besides a noisy and dusty Interstate, after looking back on it, it was just a bump in the road compared to what else has happened this year, and the day out on the bike enjoying the road made up for it.
Tomorrow it's back to San Diego to turn the bike in and fly home on New Years eve and bring 2008 to a merciful close.
Tomorrow it's back to San Diego to turn the bike in and fly home on New Years eve and bring 2008 to a merciful close.
- Current Location:Casa de Madelon in Palm Springs, CA
- Current Mood:
tired
- Current Music:All Summer Long - Kid Rock
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