This morning we drove the bike down to the local dealership in the hopes that they’d have the parts and be able to fix it int he next two days, and we might be able to ride back to Vancouver as planned.
They didn’t. They couldn’t. We wouldn’t.
It was going to take 7-10 days to get the part if they ordered it tomorrow.
A deep sigh and we said, OK, and unloaded the bike to leave it for repair. Now we’d have to figure out how to get home, and then back again in a week or two. We’d leave the gear here, each take one small bag from inside a hard luggage we guessed, and pick up the rest when we came back.
Then it was back to the house to help get ready for the combined birthday party for my brother and sister-in-law. Family had come from all over the place, as far as Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and various locations in BC. There was one couple in a tent under the carport. Another in a fancy motorhome. The downstairs and upstairs guest rooms were already spoken for and, since we’d only committed to coming the week before, our options were to tent on the back lawn or sleep in the camper that lives inside the Chateau de Bateau – they used to have a big pontoon boat that my brother built an entire enclosed building for and now the camper lives inside it when not on the truck. Pretty smart actually, it stays clean and dry year-round. So the three of us, literally, bunked down in a camper that was inside a building. And Kirk and I were glad that Hans had opted to take a full day of rest and join the party later int he day rather than head out on the road again after a really, really long day yesterday.
I called down to Burnaby Kawasaki, the place I typically take my motorcycle, to see if they might have the part. I got Andi on the phone and told him my tale and before I even got to what was wrong he said “I know exactly where this is going, I had the same thing happen to me not too long ago…stator?”
Close…rectifier. Who knows, stator could be shot too.
He tapped away on his computer and said “hang on, the computer shows I have on in stock, but I want to check.” A moment later he came back on the line and said “I have one in my hot little hand…I can Fedex it to you in Cranbrook, or directly to the shop.” I asked him to put it aside and I’d get back to him.
Now…what to do….. my brother suggested we see if we could rent a van. We practically smacked ourselves in the foreheads, collectively….a U-Haul! We could load both bikes and get home in a day! Kirk started looking for a truck and, after a few false starts, we found a U-Haul. The woman suggested we come down and see if it would work, because there were no D-rings in the floor to use for tie downs, but there were rails that might work.
We went and looked at it, definitely it would work. We’d need to buy a few packs of tie-downs, but it would work. We reserved it and went back to enjoy the party later in the day, complete with some nasty competitive activities…like cutthroat giant Jenga and a bocce game that went off-road.
There was puppy love and family photos, and a group photo session that terminated with an “everyone do something silly”.
Not riding home…but also not leaving the bikes behind.
Things felt lighter, we had a plan.
