Home From Hattiesburg…
I arrived home all safe and sound Wednesday (yesterday) afternoon from my most recent outing. Fact is, it’d been my only overnight outing since before last Thanksgiving aboard our girl! Sure, I’ve been out and about, but all of that had been doctor/treatment related and had involved my landlady’s cage… Sure glad most of that is behind me for a while, BTW!
A great longcut up to Hattiesburg with Bert, then a most pleasant visit with lots of good folks, then… a ride down to the home of Valk Magic at Troutdude & Waterbug’s place in Mandeville, LA. Had our girl’s rear end serviced and a most pleasant visit with them, then… Back to Montgomery for a visit with my dentist…
Sometime along the way, I’d managed to pull the port-side saddle bag lid loose from its moorings (pulled the screws for the hinge on the lid plum out of the fiberglass). For the entire time we’ve been together, I’ve needed to give the lid a bit of a twist to get it by the passenger seat and/or baggage mounted on that seat, and that had increased when the Russel Daylong had been installed… The hinge screws finally had enough and let loose…
Big Wolf, Jerry in Tennessee, had told me he thought he could fix that, so it had been arranged that I would ride to his place from Montgomery. Well, I’d loaded the bike and was about to don my bonnet for departure when the old cell phone commenced to ding-a-ling… It was none other than Jerry…
“Don’t bother coming,” he’d lamented, “I’m in the hospital with COVID.” Seems what he’d thought had been a bout of Defib associated with all the pollen in the air had turned out to be a bit more… He’d gone to the doctor for a tune-up and confidence rebuild and wound-up being admitted to the warehouse for the seriously infirmed. I reluctantly agreed this visit was a bust… Dang!
OK, so with nothing else pulling at us, I finished the mounting sequence and pointed her front wheel towards Florida and home… our perennial default destination. An hour or so later, it was time for a coffee break, so… While standing around I had another idea… I called Troutdude and informed him of all the latest developments… and he replied that I should just come there again and he’d investigate matters… We did…
Curious morning so far, I’d reflected… I’d loaded up heading for Tennessee, only to modify that plan at the last minute to head for Florida instead… An hour or so later, that route had been adjusted to head towards Louisiana… Yes indeed! It sure is good to be me!!! I just love surprises like that; the uncertainty of it all, and the relative ease in which we can zig then zag and find adventure not even imagined, let alone anticipated… It had been a grand day for all of that, too.
Troutdude decided to send our lid to David Green in Georgia, a relative newbie to the Valk community but apparently a mechanical wizard, for repairs. Dennis just happened to also have a couple of spare lids on-hand, so… all of that was handled… From the rear, it now appears our girl is winking at us…
Sometime during my travels, and knowing of my disdain for the news media, Troutdude had sent me a cartoon that pretty much sums up my feelings… So, motel time is usually passed in ways that do not include any demoralizing periods of trying to stay current on world affairs… I’m convinced the world has not missed me during my long sabbatical, and, frankly, I’ve not missed the outrage…
I’d decided not to return home just yet, so I perused the Weather Channel app to see how things might look towards west Texas… Fuhgeddaboudit!!! Dang, things haven’t looked that foreboding or grim since Noah’s time!!! “Man, I’ll be lucky to just beat all that if I head straight for home right now!”, I’d thought to myself. I did… and here I sit… Nasty for sure where I’d been and especially where I’d wanted to go, but still rather tranquil and nice here… Oh well… I think I’ll just count my many blessings again and make do…
DDT
