After months of discussions and planning, here it was June 30, 2007, the first day of our Nova Scotia Trip. As I left my house that morning, I kept thinking in my head, did I forget anything? Do I have everything I will need?  

The clothes had been packed on Thursday, which is never a problem...you can only pack so many clothes on a bike.  It was the incidentals that go on the bike...I had been struggling with the night before. Two of the items that I finally opted to leave on the garage floor were the small electrical air pump as well as the small gas tank. The tank had been very useful on the trip to Sturgis, but then we also had a truck and trailer to carry it.  I decided that I would just be very mindful of gas stops. 

I then started worrying about being late getting to Pita’s house...a chain reaction that would continue all morning long.   We were then late meeting Barb and Jan at the McDonalds in Boonton off I-287. So I figured I’ll make up the time by going fast up I-287 to the Sloatsburg Rest Area where we were meeting Pat and Arden, Jan T, Patty, Carol and Cookie. NOT...there were police cars everywhere causing me to slow down.  Don’t they know I am on a time schedule!!!!

My mind was somewhere else, because twice I almost got off the wrong exit.  But we made it to the rest area, by the time we all gassed up and decided who was riding in what position, it was now a half hour behind schedule...oh well, we’re on vacation...relax.

While traveling up Route 84 in Connecticut I kept feeling a shimmy in my steering, at first I thought it was the road, but when it kept getting worse, I had no choice we had to stop.  It turns out my back tire was almost flat. Great and I left my air pump home on the garage floor. Was this an omen??? Late, Flat, what else can go wrong?

 Danny had purchased these Tire Pressure Stem Caps on the internet...they change color when your pressure falls below the required amount.   That was one of the things that I did the night before, checked the pressure in my tires and then screwed on this cap on the rear tire.   The cap had exploded and the air was slowly escaping....so much for great ideas.

Cookie had some CO2 cartridges on her bike and we used all of them to get some air in the tire, well, enough air to get to the next exit and a gas station. We made it there and I pumped air in the tire and everyone got gas. Oh well, we’re on vacation...and way behind schedule I’ll have to adjust our lunch and gas stops to accommodate.

We are traveling up I-95 and I thought doing fine, until BOOM!  My rear tire blows out.  The bike’s rear end is going back and forth violently ....thank God that I had read an article some time ago on what to do....let off the throttle, just steer the bike to the side of the road...don’t press on the brakes.   Everyone behind me backed off seeing what happened and not knowing if I was going to be OK.   A car coming on to the Highway also saw what happened and he stopped the on coming traffic so that I could safely get off the road.  A bad place to stop, between an on ramp and an off ramp of the highway, but what choice did I have.   Carol parks behind me and has her flashers on...everyone else pulls ahead to a safer stopping place.

The man in the car then tells us there is a bike shop down the road and leads Pat, Arden and I in the car to the shop, unfortunately it is closed. We then start to go through the phone book looking for places, by now it is 4pm and all the places near by are closing and no one is open on Sunday. That is when I remember that I packed my HOG book, with the help of the man (never did get his name) he directs me to Sea Coast Harley Davidson in New Hampshire, they are close by, have towing, and are open on Sundays. Halleluiah!!!!

They send a flatbed truck to pick up the bike, I hop into the car with Patty and Arden and we all continue up to Portland Maine our destination for that day...now three hours late, but everyone is safe and sound. 

As soon as the dealership opened in the morning, I was on the phone with the Service Manager...I told him that we needed the bike done that day as we had reservations on the ferry to Nova Scotia the next day. Aaron said no problem, by noon he had on two new tires and at his suggestion, new rear brakes.  My rear tire was only 7 months old and had less than 3000 miles on it. I believe that when the cap blew, and the tire lost the air, I may have damaged the inner bands and weakened them. Because the imbalance in the two tires and shimming, it caused the front tire to cup, hence the need to change it.

I hopped on the back of Danny’s bike and down we went to pick up the bike, it was about an hour’s ride. Cookie’s friend Pat, who lives in Portland, was going to take the rest of them on to Bar Harbor, the destination for Sunday night, and we would meet them there.

Thanks to Sea Coast HD for some great service and for saving everyone’s vacation.  Also for the pleasant surprise when I got the bill...they had the best prices on tires I have ever seen in my 15 years of riding. 

This may never happen to you, but just in case here is some information that you should read and imbed into your memory...it saved my life, and everyone’s vacation.  http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/motorcycle/PSIMotorcycle/pages/howToHandleBlowout.htm