Little Projects.....Big guns.....Bad lands

Many years ago I purchased my small open motorcycle trailer from my Brother. He had built the trailer back in 1967, then it sat unused for many years. Prior to my use, I sand blasted and painted the trailer before putting it to work. 20 some odd years later, my Wife had been complaining that she was tired of towing the "mobile eye sore" around the country behind her car. She was correct, my restoration had depleted to rust and missing paint. My Winter neighbor in Yuma was hounding me to help out with a project so the little trailer became our focus for a couple of days.....

("click" on images to enlarge)

Initially we were going to spray paint the frame, but opted to "brush" paint it to allow a much heavier application. The heavy plywood decking was still in real good shape, other than a few stains and weathering. I have a couple of .50 caliber ammo cans which mount to the trailer for storage. Of course they were painted too. 

The final product looked real good and my Wife was happy, no longer embarrassed to drag the thing around. The toughest thing was finding replacement wheel seals for the bearings. They were shot and the spindles were old Studebaker units. After many miles / phone calls I finally found a shop that had boxes full of NOS seals and he had dozens of them. I bought a couple spares for the next time.

We have been in the "Badlands" of South Dakota for the past couple of months, after spending a few months in New Mexico. 

 A few weeks ago I took a little ride on my old Goldwing while here in South Dakota. I happened across a little Military Museum at a small town and decided to tour the place. While looking at their Equipment Display the owner came along and stated that it was time to give his 105 mm Self Propelled Gun a bit of exercise. I thought the display was a "static" display but I was mistaken. He opened the overhead doors, fired the thing up and backed it out the door, telling me to mount up.He explained my escape route from the gunners position in case of a fire....then away we went!

 Overhead view of the turret mechanics.

Optical equipment from the gunners position. The interior had little comfort and was all steel.

View from a "vision slot" when in the gunners seat.

He cruised a few laps around the property and ran it up to 30 - 35 mph. Has a Rolls Royce Diesel engine and Allison Automatic Transmission. Originally of British decent, he found the tank in Australia, and imported it back to the US a few years ago. Quite the ride / experience! Not often one gets a chance for something like this.

 Working 80 - 90 odd hours a week hasn't left much time for riding recently but we've been able to have an odd day off here and there. I had to deliver pay checks to some workers across the Park on a Sunday so opted to take the sidecar over. The "Loop Road" is about 35 miles long.

 We've been performing various pavement maintenance on all the Badlands National Park roadways so I've driven back and forth across the Park dozens and dozens of times....some days well over 200 miles worth.

A very beautiful place. Thousands of motorcycles passing through due to the proximity of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Seems that everyone visiting the Black Hills also comes here.

 One Saturday, I completed my work by early afternoon so we decided to ride the Hack over to Hill City to a little Mexican Food Cafe we found a year or so back while working at Mt. Rushmore. Some guy in a red dress was admiring the sidecar.....

 He had friends.......They were on some sort of Charity Run, which required their "best dress"...literally.

 We timed our ride home just right, having a nice sunset before arriving at 'home".

 Last weekend we had another "free" day so decided to make a ride over to Pierre SD, the State Capitol. Hill leading down across the Missouri river into Pierre.

Actually a pretty boring ride for 120 miles each way....lots of grain fields and corn fields. Not much else. There were a lot of "Loud Pipes Save Lives" believers on the road, heading to Sturgis.

I did fire up the old /5 BMW a few weeks ago and took a short ride around town. When I assembled the bike I replaced the seriously bent rear turn signal mounting bracket with a new one that came with the bike. I didn't notice that it was 2" longer than the old one. Once I mounted the saddle bags I realized that the fit was not good.

The side reflectors were tight against the saddle bags. Being lazy, I just never got around to resizing the brackets. Late today I got caught up on work activities and decided to give the bike a little attention.

I thought I might be able to cut the 2" required with the bracket in place with a hack saw but immediately realized that this thought was a "no go". Ended up pulling the wiring out of the bracket, removing it and easily lopped off  2" from each side with a power cut-off grinder. Fit is much better now! almost looks like a planned event.

 The clearance from boot heels to mufflers is nil on a /5 with the stock "cigar" mufflers. I had these exhaust shields on the sidecar rig but boot heel clearance on that bike is good....the right side is shielded by the sub frame and the left side a way above the muffler. So I opted to remove them from the hack and install them on the /5.

I already have some melted boot heel remnants on the left muffler, but no more.
I've been watching eBay looking for another set of  muffler shields....a pair came up the other day but they are asking $169.00...you gotta be kidding me?

Looks like a week end off this week. I hope to give a couple of the bikes some extended exercise.
Would like to ride the /5.... but a "weeping" oil pan gasket is haunting me. The previous owner installed a silicon pan gasket which seeps oil. When I pulled the oil pan last winter, I carefully cleaned / washed the gasket as recommended prior to re-installation. Even though I carefully "snugged up" the oil pan bolts, the gasket still "squished" out on one side a little bit. Not a serious leak but will likely make a mess underneath on an extended ride. I have a paper gasket so maybe I'll do a quick change tomorrow AM. (?)

Traffic is nuts out there with the Sturgis Rally going on....maybe I'll ride over there and check it out. Went there in the 90's but haven't had any urge to return during the Rally....we'll see.

The "Grindstone"

I typically do not write about my work in this Blog but for the past 3 months, work has been an overwhelming factor, allowing little time for anything else. I've been faced with 65 - 100 hour work weeks.  Been required to be on work sites 9 - 12 + hours a day, often 7 days a week, and then accomplish massive amounts of documentation (for the Federal Govt.) in the evening hours. This typically makes each work day a 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM affair. Weekends, if I'm not working in the field, are used to catch up on what paperwork is behind. At one point I was so overwhelmed that I had to develop a 3 page spreadsheet just to list the documentation items that were delinquent and the status of each item. I am working with a young Federal Govt. Engineer. All contract specifics are intimately scrutinized and expected to be carried out to the letter. In the "old days" we called many of the contract items "boiler plate" as they were in the contract but never really enforced or addressed. Not the case anymore. Plus the Govt. now requires contractor pay submittals / daily reports  via a secured Govt. web site. The focus is to eventually arrive at a "paperless" system. This goal is not realistic as all Govt. site entries must be "backed up" with documentation to accompany all specifics. At one point I was required to enter 6 - 7 different Daily Reports per day for different Project Sites while I was only physically present at one of the sites. Needless to say, I was at the mercy of other QC employees on their sites to keep the flow of information coming to me. The majority of the documentation "funneled" to me eventually. Add that the Govt. requires / expects all documentation be submitted within 24 hours, and the task is impossible. Luckily enough common sense occasionally prevails and a little more time was allowed.
The Project has been in 14 different National Parks / Monuments across all of New Mexico so not only are the work hours long, but some weeks we've had to drive 1000+ miles. Dragging all my office equipment from motel to motel and setting up every time we move, usually 2 - 3 times a week, is a task in itself.

Thankfully the Project is winding down and the 50 + work force is now down to 10 or so workers in one location at a time. Another 3 weeks and the madness will end....then we're off to a similar Federal Project in South Dakota. The "fun" never ends.....
You would think that working in the National Parks would allow some site seeing time, but after 6+ different visits to Carlsbad Caverns over the past year, we did not once have the time to tour the caverns. Chaco Canyon at sun rise was awesome though......
[click on photos to enlarge]

 These Vultures would roost each night in these trees. The same morning my Wife was at a "flagging" station right where this photo was taken. The morning was dead still and not a breath of breeze....Suddenly, the bushes in front of her started violently shaking and a tiny area of  "wind(?)" came up from the creek bottom and right into her where she was standing....the "wind" then instantly vanished after accosting her. She said it felt like an "entity" had passed over her. She was actually a little shaken by the experience....strange....

My wife recently had a medical emergency, ending up in a New Mexico hospital for a few days. Thankfully she is now doing OK, but while in the hospital we found that her insurance was not yet if effect. We'd received new insurance cards 6 weeks earlier (with no explanation) so were under the impression her insurance was in effect. Crap....

Enough whining.....life is good and we are very fortunate to be in decent health and working as so many folks are without work / health. My Wife always reminds me of the "off time" we have in the Winter to keep me going during my "low" personal  moments. Seems that work is getting tougher as we approach 60 years of age. Just don't have the physical / mental stamina we used to. But...I've "made my bed" and no one is forcing me to sleep in it...lol.

We did get a 50 mile sidecar ride in a few Sundays ago. Went across the Rio Grande a few times on our route...The river was running pretty full compared to last Fall, when it was just a trickle. I try to at least start a couple of the bikes every weekend, especially the Honda Gold Wing...it does not like sitting for very long and the engine likes to be "run up / warmed" up every 10 days or so. I've drained the carbs on my old /5 as it did not want to readily start a few weeks back. I'll get it running when I am able to get in some riding time later this Summer.

 We have a nice view from our currant RV site. Since we have to travel back and forth across the state, we have left our rig in a central location and commute "home" on weekends when we can.

Death Valley Airhead Beemers Rally - Furnace Creek - Days 3-4-5

Our riding time today was quite short....only 120 miles or so. Leaving Tecopa Hot Springs, we all went our separate ways. A couple of our friends had never been through the "Badwater" entrance into Death Valley so they went that route. We wanted to get to the camping area and get set up early so we took the shorter route in.

I always look forward to the "drop" into Death Valley from the Junction. Temperatures typically rise significantly on the way in.

We had a few clouds but temperatures were in the 80's.

The "Inn at Furnace Creek" boasts rooms for hundreds of dollars if you can get one....I've never tried. Even the tiny "cheap" rooms at Furnace Creek run over $200.00 per night.....crazy.

Approaching Furnace Creek.

Arriving fairly early allowed us a choice camping spot with a table. Soon other aquantances began showing up and it was like "old home" week with friends all around. The hard sided cooler from the trailer was nice to have.

"Check In" also had t-shirts and other "Airhead" goods for sale.

Someone trailered in a "rat" built BMW hard tail just for fun.
I have access to a few frames so maybe I'll slap together a "beater" one of these days. I have a spare engine, transmissions, final drives, etc.....on second thought...probably not....

This guy got tangled up with something on the road and tore off his cross over pipe and front turn signal. Lucky as it could have been much worse. He thought it was a piece of pipe or "something". His story was a bit sketchy...?...I am thinking maybe he hit a reflector along the road shoulder, but details weren't offered.

A nice old conversion "trailer queen" with a later model drive train. Hauled in via pickup / trailer. Very tastefully done, but apparantly not ridden much, unless he cleans it constantly.

A couple old vintage singles about too. Both were very nice correct restorations.

Another "conversion" bike.....

The typical morning "chair pile" which happens every year at Agua Caliente during New Years....the same "gremlins" must be about?

Pool side at the showers. Great view of the snow capped mountains in the distance. Temperature at the pool was well into the upper 80's. Had to take a quick swim.

We spent 3 nights at the Furnace Creek camp ground. Planned on traveling with some other folks over to the Panamint Valley but Darian (my Wife) had a medical issue (kidney stones) while we were there. She had a couple of very rough days and more extended camping wasn't sounding very inviting. She's a tough cookie and "soldiered through" the episode.

Death Valley - Tecopa - Day 2

Our first night out was a pleasant one with warm temperatures and zero wind. Camp "pack up" is about an hour task, so by the time we were ready to go the temps were in the 60's. We wandered into 29 Palms Ca. for a fuel fill and a quick McDonald's breakfast. Darian needed to stop at a pharmacy but after 20 - 30 minutes of searching we never could find anything resembling one. So...off we went towards Amboy.

[Click on images to enlarge]

We knew a few other rider friends were in the same area.....as we went over "Sheep Hole Pass" I looked to the right and saw a large rock formation and parking area....I told Darian, "I bet that is where our buddies camped last night", as they are "stealth" campers quite a bit of the time.

Approaching Amboy, the highway crosses through a mining area. I went to some satellite images to see the full extent of the mining in the area.

Wide open desert and part of the "29 Palms Marine Combat Training Area".

"Roys" at Amboy....Amboy is mainly a railroad town with a few sparse residences.  Gas is sometimes available....sometimes not.....

Our route took us East...then North up Kelbaker Rd. towards "Kelso"...another old railroad junction. We crossed under Interstate 40 and headed into Kelso.

A quick stop right before we crossed under I-40.The "wide open" country offers some fantastic views.

 

"Kelso" was quite a populated area during WW2. Now....not so much. The Historic Railroad

Depot had a functioning store and cafe last Winter...now closed. We took a break and visited 

with some other riders from Las Vegas.

 

We hit Baker Ca. about 2:00 pm and ran into our biker friends at a gas station... and sure enough...they had camped the night before right where I thought they had....then off to Tecopa Hot Springs....

    
The Hot Springs water table has suffered from the droughts.....one set of pools at a higher elevation was closed, but others were still in operation. Tecopa is a pretty desolate place but the view from our campsite was excellent.

Our Tecopa "no frills" campsite:

The view was worth a thousand bucks...as was the camaraderie with our friends.....
Our new large tent is great. Only 4 poles for the main tent and 2 for the rain fly. Assembly of the tent only takes a few minutes. We never did use the rain fly over the week's use. The tent has a large gear storage loft overhead which was capable of holding coats, towels, clothes or whatever. Also has wall mounted storage pockets and water bottle holders. It has two different collapsable "shelving" units which hang in the corners...one with three shelves and a fabric "mirror". My Wife loves the tent. Also room for chairs if wanted.
The tent was not exposed to any high winds over the course of our use so far. The tent has a very high profile so high winds would be an issue. The rainfly has a "kite" appearance and could be a problem if not securely tied down. I read some reviews of the tent in high winds and it faired well.....as long as it was tied down properly / securely.
The tent is quite large when stowed and likely too big to haul on the bike without the trailer. It is pretty heavy as the material used is quite thick. The poles are a very large diameter fiberglass...and long.

We were treated to a long air show with a couple of A-10 "Wart Hogs" in training going round and round over our heads for an hour or so......

Awesome aircraft....

The Hot Springs were great and we enjoyed our overnight stay...."Thanks Dave". (Buddy Dave picked up the tab for the night)