Day 13 continued:
ARGH!! The St. Pat's day parade is today (a day late) but the Bike Blessing was
yesterday! Missed it. Young lady I talked to said it sounded like thunder when all the bikes headed east on IN 56.
Got the SoIL tag on my way to Aurora, stopped at TLCs in Casey but didn't find anyone home again.
Back roads to Joliet then a couple miles of I-55 and up IL-59 and side roads to The STrayCatt Mansion. Construction thru Plainfield is finally finished. Nice ride with warm temps all day. Good to visit with family and see the kiddo.
Days 14>19: Mostly visiting and helping around the house. Also went to see FIL and out to dinner on Thursday. What else of note? Uh, Aeryn is in big-girl panties, anticipate a few accidents before it's a done deal.
Here's a couple pics of Aeryn, playing in the sand box with Grandma Catt, and eating the lunch I fixed for her yesterday.
Went to dinner at Adam 'n Christy's friends house in Plainfield on Wednesday(That's Amy, 'Becca, and Reedy with Aeryn, Adam, 'n Christy.) Met up with some Chi-land MC friends for good Thai dinner on Friday.
And...
Pulled the carbs on LipSTick after suffering a severe loss of power, noted on Thursday while out running around. Found all 4 carb diaphragms torn. Arghhhhhhh!!! I've had no trouble this trip, over 3000 miles. Then, near total loss of power. Wouldn't pull red line in first gear, tho seemed okay at gentle cruising speed. I last filled up in Casey at the BP next to the Comfort Inn but can't say if bad gas caused the problem, or if it was that particular tank. No trouble earlier, tho. And, I've filled up there several times in the past without a problem.
As luck would have it, Adam has (had!) on hand 4 good diaphragms, plus another set of nasty carbs. I was able to salvage two more from that set so still have a couple extras. Also save the diaphragms from the other two pistons which were hard frozen in their bores, not worth the extra bother. I think that set of carbs is going in the trash. I'll remove some of the other small parts first. Here's a pic looking down the bores of #1 and #3 on that set. Yuck!
Day 20:
Working on setting up rain barrels, kids wanna use rain water in the garden, and also to help as water detention to cut down on the marshy aspects at the edges of the back yard. Adam is laying base with paving stones, I'm building the platforms to get the barrels off the ground. Pics later. Also, Adam found some Thomas track and pieces at a garage sale so we'll be expanding the layout on the new train table later.
Who needs motorcycles when ya have family like this? Oh, wait, I do... to get here as often as possible.
