I left out around 10 on Thursday to Resaca Georgia to meet up with some folks for a ride to the ride...
Google LIED LIED LIED about how long it would take me to get there, plus it is impossible
to make the turn from Ga. 52 to Ga. 136... anywho, I kind of burned a little too much
time in Dahlonega...
I still got there a little before Punisher and DDT, so I wasn't really a half hour late
We all headed out to a cool Confederate cemetery near Resaca...
Unfortunately, I turned off the little camera when we got to the cemetery... not long after
we left, we were tooling along, and I saw an amazing thing... we were on a curvy road,
there were lots of pine needles... T-Bird was in front of me, and we came to an off-camber
right-hander with an approaching car... all of a sudden everything went into slow motion,
Terry was fish-tailing into the curve, smoke pouring out of his tires. He barely missed the
car, and when it got by he fishtailed into the opposing lane... I was sure he'd saved it,
then he went off the road on the other side, Oh No!... but he never quit riding, next thing I
knew he popped back on the road, his body draped all crazy on the bike, but still on it. Then he
turned around, looked at me with his best "I meant to do that" look, I gave him the thumbs
up and on down the road we went
Next we toured the Chickamauga battlefield... our biggest victory post-Gettysburg... there's
a story - an old Confederate soldier was sitting in the town square, speaking to a Union soldier...
"We really whipped your butts at Chickamauga!"... the Union soldier calmly told the old man,
"the war is over, we're all one people now". The old Confederate paused for a second and looked
up at the Union soldier, "yeah... they really whipped our butts at Chickamauga though..."
Terry fetched us to an cool old place for supper near Chattanooga about dark, and then
we zoomed off down the Interstate a few exits and stayed at a motel surrounded by the
ridges of Lookout Mountain.
Next day we headed out towards ground zero, Cookeville, Tn., seeing cool places
along the way...
At the bridge, I realized that none of my accessories (BigBF horn, heated clothes,
motolights) were working. We fooled with it a little at a gas stop, it appears my
un-loomed heated clothes wiring had rubbed through. The whole accessory
block fritzed out when I hooked up the jacket and gloves and pressed the "on"
button. Allan had a circuit tester, and an extra relay, but we didn't get it
going again, all the fuses were good. We wanted to just keep on riding, so on
we went...
When we got to ground zero, everybody there jumped in to help, Gordon got
everything going again...
After we got power back to the fuse box again and I hit the switch, the BigBF horns started
blowing. I mean all the time.
We tore into it again. Everyone was grilling me: why do
you have something connected to the middle pin on the horn relay? ? ? My only answer was that
I didn't know what I was doing, I assembled my fuse box and connected the accessories
by following directions. I told them I hooked up my relays just like the rattlebars diagram told me to.
D'OH... looking at the rattlebars relay diagram makes it seem obvious why the horn was on all the time!
Only thing is: it's been hooked up that way for five years...
Oh... here we go... BigBF's kit has 87a hooked up...
Anywho... Gordon yanked off the wire to 87a and all was working again (I bet only
two of the horns are actually blowing now), and I didn't care that it was hooked up differently than it
had been for the last five years. In fact, it has been a good five year run for my first wiring
project. The "clever" place I put the fuse box proved to be awkward to work with... I'm going to pull
those three circuits, redo them with looms, and put the fuse box some handier place, behind the side
panel maybe...
Next morning, we all headed out for the official ride...
Randy, there's a reason I'm not passing that car...
We're turning...
Some day, my son, all of this will be yours...
Got home safe today... learned about a really good road... 68 from Crossville Tn all the
way down to 64 near Murphy NC...
Thanks Mac, and everybody! Great ride and great time!
-Mike
