Day 16 - The Circus Comes To Town

The title of this post is a quote from Dan Smith, Vancouver.  This was his reaction to first seeing the parking lot set up for the first time.  Dan had joined the party as had several others.  The scene was simply chaos.  I had to brush aside many people to get to the work.

This was another wild day. Several newcomers joined the road parade making coordination difficult, especially without experienced ride leader Dave Belleville.  The day before, his BMW had cratered. Interim Captain, Jeff McCoy did a remarkable job of keeping this mob more or less together. 

I promised you a surprise about David.  Would you believe that Richard looked up sales ads for used BMW K75s?  He found one close by, determined it to be fit, and bought it!  David got a ride, picked it up and rode it to Coos Bay separate from the main group.  When the trailers arrived, he had swapped all his special parts over to the new bike.  Agent Orange is back in business!  The total cost ($2,500) was far less than the potential repair bills.  Again, this is just superb problem-solving in action.

Resourceful David Belleville aboard the new K75 

Meanwhile, Alton managed to get the truck towed back in The Dalles (easier written than the actual adventure) to a service station where it was repaired.  He hit the road in the afternoon and showed up in Coos Bay that evening.  

On the road, we had to load up Greg McBride's Shadow with a split gas tank.  All these events meant it was another long day on the road.  But, the Oregon scenery was spectacular.